Batman's Movie Success Led Mark Millar to Create Nemesis

Mark Miller reveals the huge success of Batman films, especially those starring the Joker, inspired him to create his evil take on a masked vigilante.


Mark Millar's dark vigilante Nemesis has much in common with Batman and the Joker. In a recent interview, Millar acknowledged that films starring both DC characters inspired his bloodthirsty creation.


"I noticed a few years back that Batman movies with the Joker make a lot more money than those without," Millar told SFX Magazine. "There's something about those chaotic characters that people prefer. Supervillains are such an untapped thing, as we've had all these millions of superhero projects out there for the last 22 years in the cinema. But you don't really get so much in terms of villains, which is odd in a way because the cornerstones of cinema are gangster and crime movies."


Millar explored this untapped market with Nemesis, a four-issue series released in 2009 under Icon Comics. The series emerged only one year after The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's critically-acclaimed take on the relationship between the Caped Crusader and the Clown Prince of Crime. Nemesis was initially advertised as a tale delving into what might happen if Batman demonstrated the psychotic nature of the Joker, and its titular character was a brutal supervillain who delighted in waging war on Washington, D.C.


Nemesis' Impending Comeback


Nemesis will soon return in Nemesis Reloaded, a sequel published by Image Comics under Millar's creator-owned Millarworld label. The sequel sees the return of Nemesis and teases his violence against the people of D.C. In an interview with CBR, Millar explained that Nemesis Reloaded would serve as a relaunch of the character, intended to appeal to readers who hadn't necessarily consumed the first series.


"This is a soft reboot like those Superman and Batman relaunches DC did every fifteen years," Millar said. "We don't reference the old series at all. As much as I love it, I just thought of a better way of doing this, and it really takes the idea to the max this time. In terms of what to expect, Nemesis has always been me turned up to eleven. The idea is really simple. It's, 'What if that genius, billionaire playboy who lives in the big mansion outside of town is actually a city's worst nightmare? How would the cops deal with this highly-trained monster and all his high-tech gadgets?'"


Nemesis Reloaded is written by Millar and illustrated by Jorge Jiménez, who ironically serves as the current penciler on Batman and recently announced that he would be drawing both books simultaneously. The first issue of the five-issue series hits comic book store shelves on Jan. 11.

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