Wildcats: Nemesis #9 Review

I've been giving writer Robbie Morrison a hard time for his character Nemesis, but, to be honest, I still stick by it, even as this series draws to a close. It was just a very poor job by Morrison in creating an extremely egregious example of a Mary Sue character.

Let's review...

1. One of the book's star, Majestic, loves her.

2. She kicks everyone's ass at one point or another

3. She is held in esteem by other notable characters such as Zealot and Grifter

4. The established characters all need her help to save the day

5. She does, in fact, save the day.

It's just one of those things where you just think to yourself, "Really, Mr. Morrison? Really? You really don't see something odd about all this? Nothing? Seriously? This all looks about right to you? Really?"

As bad as I think this series has been overall, I must give Morrison some credit, occasionally, the flashback sequences (as we see Nemesis' history, and all the famous people through Earth's history that she has interacted with) have been pretty good. This issue is not an exception, as the flashback sequence (which are drawn by Horacio Domingues) is pretty decent.

It is set back on the world the Wildcats are from, and Majestic is forced to procreate with Zealot, because it is so difficult to produce offspring on Khera that only the strongest specimens are allowed to procreate, and it has been determine that Majestic and Zealot are the best bet, so the question is - does he stick with Nemesis or follow the rules of his planet, which involve ignoring his love for Nemesis (by the by, they use their alien names on Khera, I can't recall the spelling of them all, though, so I'm just going by their current codenames). It's an interesting, if not exactly complicated, story idea. And Domingues' art gets the job done.

This, however, is totally destroyed by the main story, set in the present, which is indechiperable for most of the issue, save for Nemesis' final showdown with the big bad guy (especially the part with the little kid). However, while it is dechiperable, it is almost TOO much so, as artist Talent Caldwell REALLY lets Morrison down here, as he fails to do much of a job giving this dramatic scene much weight.

For instance, there is a clever enough scene where the bad guy gets sucked through a hole in the wall of a spaceship. I think you have an idea of what that would look like. Talent Caldwell, though, seems unable to depict it.

Most of the final scenes are just too much posing, and not enough actual STORYTELLING. I will give Caldwell this much, the very last page of the comic is drawn fairly nicely.

Otherwise, his parts of the book are just a mess, luckily that most of it is given pretty heavy coloring, disguising the art a bit in spots.

It's a good thing we have the OTHER Morrison taking over Wildcats, and hopefully this is the last we see of Nemesis, who very well may have been a decent character, if this Morrison had not just decided to write her as such a blatant Mary Sue.

Not recommended (this shy of "Recommended that you not read it").

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