The Much Awaited Return Of Nexus!

Originally, I envisioned myself lending a good deal of blog coverage to comic books as well as more conventional novels–and not using terms like “graphic novel” or, even worse, “sequential art” either. I’m talking about comic books. I ended up avoiding it because the bulk of comics I read are really out of dedication to the characters I’ve loved forever and ever, (cough, x-books) and I keep reading them even as they go up and down in quality. (I’m actually fairly happy with the core X-Men titles at the moment, but that’s another story.)

However, I just recently picked up the first new issue of Nexus to come out in ten years, and this really is a series that deserves to have more readers. Since it is no longer coming out through a well-known publisher, and is being put out by one of its creators, this is now doubly so.

The current four issue mini-series is called Space Opera, and there really couldn’t be a better term for the series as a whole. The original premise was that Nexus–the super-powered Horatio Hellpop–lived alone on a mostly dead world, while a nearly omniscient alien tortured him with dreams of serial killers until he found himself forced to go out, hunt them down, and kill them. (This was never handled as morally black and white, by the way.) The series is being reprinted in nice, big, hardcover archive editions that are right near the top of my “to buy when I’m rich as hell” list.

Now, by this point the series has changed a whole lot. The planet Ylum, (Eye-Lum) on which Nexus lives, possesses a large population and some very complex politics, and I don’t believe that our hero is forced to murder people anymore (not entirely sure though). One problem that I had with the comic was that it didn’t quite help the newer reader to get caught up as much as it could have. It’s been quite a few years since I read any of the (relatively) recent Nexus issues, so I really don’t remember where the series is right now… except for the one big development, which is that our hero is having a child.

While the first part is a little confusing, I get the feeling that things will clear up in the next issue or two, and it’s still immensely enjoyable. The issue is played largely for laughs, with looming religious unrest between two factions shown as very serious and kind of ridiculous at the same time; Mike Baron is very good at making all of his characters waver enough between right and wrong that it’s hard to pick out his exact politics. (I was actually quite shocked years ago when I was told what his political views actually were… not that it should matter anyway.) Overall it’s an exciting return to the series that will definitely sit better with longtime fans, but is far from the worst place for a new reader to start.

Oh, and Steve Rude’s 1950’s-influenced art is fucking gorgeous.

My biggest disappointment really was just that Judah didn’t show up in this issue anywhere. For those who don’t know, Judah has essentially been Nexus’ stalwart companion throughout the run of the series. Put simply, he’s a bad-ass, ape-like Thune with a sword and a mohawk who converted to Judaism.

Incredible. Hopefully he’ll make an appearance before Space Opera ends.