Nexus (comics)

Nexus

Nexus - Nightmare in Blue #4 (October 1997)
Publication information
Publisher Capital Comics
First Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Rude Dude Productions
Format Mini-series
Ongoing series
Genre Science-Fiction
Superhero
Publication date January 1981 - October 1982
1983 - March 1991
Number of issues 100+
Creative team
Writer(s) Mike Baron
Penciller(s) Steve Rude
Collected editions
Volume 1 ISBN 1-59307-398-4

Nexus is an American comic book series created by writer Mike Baron and penciler Steve Rude in 1981. The series is a combination of the superhero and science fiction genres, set 500 years in the future.

Publication history

The series debuted as a three-issue black-and-white limited series (the third of which featured a 33 RPM flexi disc with music and dialogue from the issue), followed by an ongoing full-color series which lasted 80 issues. The black-and-white issues and the first six color issues were published by Capital Comics; after Capital's demise, First Comics took over publication.

On the creation of the series, Baron noted that they had originally pitched a series called Encyclopaedias to Capital Comics, but the company rejected this, saying they were looking for a superhero title. Over a drink at a restaurant, Baron outlined his ideas for Nexus to Rude:[1]

Nexus was entirely Baron's idea. He even came up with the lightning bolt for the costume. All that we needed then was a name... a few weeks passed. Baron calls, and, without preamble, just says "Nexus." We finally had our name."[1]

In addition to the ongoing series, First reprinted the original miniseries as a graphic novel and later reprinted the first two years of the ongoing title in the Nexus Legends series. The ongoing series was also supplemented by The Next Nexus, a four-issue miniseries that followed Nexus #52. Following the conclusion of the ongoing series with #80 (May 1991), seven miniseries and two one-shot comics were published by Dark Horse Comics. The last of these miniseries was printed in black and white as a cost-cutting measure; low sales led to the series being discontinued. Although each miniseries had its own issue numbering, Baron and Rude added a sequential number to each, as explained in the back of the first issue of Nexus: Executioner's Song:

The current issue number was figured by continuing First Publishing's numbering, which ended at volume 2, #80. Adding Nexus: The Origin, Nexus: Alien Justice #1-3, and Nexus: The Wages of Sin #1-4 brings it up to 88 — making "Dark Side of the Moon" #89.

The sequential numbering system excluded Nexus: Liberator (which neither Rude nor Baron worked on), and crossover specials with Magnus: Robot Fighter and Madman.

Baron and Rude discussed plans to either revive the series or release a movie, possibly in animated form. (A brief animated test clip was shown at comics conventions).[2] From July 2007 through July 2009 they published the miniseries Space Opera, which culminated in a double-size issue #101/102.

The creators' canonical publication list includes 105 issues:

The series returned to publication in 2012 within the pages of Dark Horse Presents.[3]

Horatio Hellpop

The lead character, Horatio Valdemar Hellpop, received his Nexus powers from an alien entity called the Merk. As payment, the Merk required Nexus to seek out and kill a certain quantity of human mass murderers per "cycle". When the Merk selected a target, Nexus would receive strong headaches and maddeningly anguishing dreams (whose extremely intense episodes caused physical injuries to Hellpop's body that emulated the dream violence) of his target's victims until he did his duty. Horatio was reluctant to act as the Merk's tool, but continued seeking out mass murderers to maintain his power and his sanity so that he could defend his homeworld, a lunar refuge of Ylum (a shortening of the word "asylum", thus pronounced "eye-lum").

Horatio's father, Theodore, was a communist general and ruler of the planet Vradic. A religious uprising led by his brother-in-law threatened to overthrow the Sov government, which he had been ordered to uphold "at all costs". General Hellpop chose to detonate a bomb and destroy the planet, killing ten million people, then piloted an escape capsule with himself and his wife into a black hole. Surprisingly, it was a wormhole, which ejected them near Ylum, where Horatio was born.

As Horatio grew up, the Merk first influenced him through apparently imaginary friends named Alph and Beta. However, when Horatio's mother died (becoming lost in the tunnels of the planet), Horatio blamed them for her death and killed them in the first use of his power. Shortly afterward, Horatio began to dream about his father's crimes, causing himself inescapable torment. In this agony, Alph and Beta mysteriously appeared to reveal the duties of Nexus necessary to end the ordeal: the execution of his own father. With considerable personal agony (and unaware that his father was already on the verge of suicide), Horatio carried out the execution.

Left alone for two years, Horatio began to dream of the murderous oppressors of the Thunes, led by the Manager, and set out to deal with them in costume as Nexus for the first time. After the execution was carried out, Nexus agreed to take the Thune prisoners to Ylum to protect them from reprisals. Ylum thus became an asylum world, with the Thune prisoner, Dave, becoming both senior manager and Horatio's closest confidant.

Nexus would often find himself in the painful position of assassinating someone who had repented their former days of infamy, and desired only to be left alone with their guilt. Several of his targets were completely ignorant that their shortsighted actions had inadvertently caused the deaths of others. Fortunately, at least one such target was allowed to commit suicide when confronted by Nexus (death by suicide was punishment enough to the killer to end Nexus's relevant dreams). For the most part, however, his targets were unrepentant murderers, a number of whom had enslaved or otherwise exploited their victims before causing their deaths, thus allowing Nexus to execute them with a clear conscience.

Stylistic influence

Both Baron and Rude paid homage to Space Ghost in their work on Nexus, including use of the battle cry "This calls for hyperspeed!" and including Space Ghost characters Jan, Jayce, and Blip in several uncredited background cameos. Rude was later hired to create a Space Ghost comic for Comico with writer Mark Evanier.

Steve Rude cited a number of influences on his clean, distinctive style, including Space Ghost character designs and other work by Alex Toth, and commercial illustrators of the 1940s and 1950s, particularly Andrew Loomis.

Baron's Nexus stories responded to the world he was writing in, with competing merchants overwhelming media channels (and telepathy) with advertising. A great computerized library, controlled the universe's memory of history. Some of his early 1980s references have become outdated, such as the menacing Sov empire.

Fusionkasting

The superpower of the Nexus universe, fusionkasting, psionically draws energy from the cores of stars (or other large sources on rare occasions). Many innate fusionkasters (the Merk and the Heads) can bestow their potential upon other individuals. This transference is said to fade over distance, but fusionkasters have been shown to be hundreds of light years from their sources with little decline in power. However, the link apparently cannot cross into other dimensions.

Most fusionkasters possess the abilities of flight, energy-beam projection that can be directionally controlled from the hands as desired, and force field creation (which can provide invulnerability to sufficiently powerful wielders). Nexus has demonstrated the use of eyebeams on at least one occasion. Super strength, telekinesis, and various degrees of telepathy are also common. Only Nexus and Plexus have demonstrated a substantially wider range of applications, including energy absorption, matter creation, transmutation, and teleportation.

The Nexus Universe

Supporting characters

Dave is on the Gucci's Preferred Survivor List, which means that any Gucci who dares to carry out a mission to kill him would be an outcast and targeted for death. Kreed entrusted Dave to carry out his will after his arrest for the incident on Mars for which he was sentenced to death. Dave has a library card from the Great Library of Alexandria. Dave administered the medication to Kreed and Sinclair to cure them of the Killing Disease. Dave is also a friend, confidant and mentor to Sundra and Jil.

Judah's friendship and partnership with the Heads was well established before the Clausius incident, but being converted into a Head gave him a more personal understanding into the Heads cause. Judah often ignores Dave's advice with regret after his ideas sometimes backfire. Judah was the first combatant to defeat the Gucci trained Quarto Kreed in battle, an epic bloodbath in which Judah had to resort to using weapons against the superior hand-to-hand fighter Kreed quickly proved to be. Judah took up arms to even the odds, cut off two of Kreed's hands and inflicted multiple stab wounds to him. Even though Nexus regenerated the hands for him, Kreed harbored a grudge for The Hammer over the incident for years. Judah helped Nexus to end Kreed and Sinclair's murderous rampage on Mars when they caught the Killing Disease. Judah and the Heads parted company after many years of service on good terms, but Judah has learned other ways to tap into fusion power. With or without fusionkasting, Judah is The Hammer!

Sundra unsuccessfully tried to kill an increasingly irrational Stanisiaus (Stan) Korivitsky, who began choosing his own targets to eliminate as a result of Drizripool cutting him off from the fusionkasting power and his growing appetite to kill after he murdered Brother Lathe. Stan was taking out innocents along with those on the Merk's list. Ylum suffered from its association with the Nexus franchise after the Loomis Sisters tenure and Stan's recklessness. Tyrone disassociated Ylum from Stan and his tenure as Nexus at this and ignored Sundra's warnings that his actions were not enough to change public perception that Nexus was synonymous with Ylum so she sought to deal with the matter herself.

But Sundra also saved a powerless Stan's life when a mechanical replica of Cronin was dispatched by the Scorporation to kill Stan for executing its entire board of directors, using her insider knowledge as a shareholder to override the android's programming. Sundra received the rare treat of fusionkasting from GQ and assisted Horatio in tracking down the last of Drizripool's appointed Nexus assassins, a group of murderers that Drizripool would have commissioned Horatio to execute before he went insane. Sundra saved Ursula's life when she stopped the Drizripool appointed Elizabeth Borden from killing Ursula at Michana Loomis' request.

Sundra has a library card from the Great Library of Alexandria and was once asked to become the institution's Head Librarian. Sundra has been present at the most pivotal times in the history of Ylum and Horatio's tenure as Nexus, marking her as an important leader, and in fact, Sundra actually won the presidency over Tyrone in an election, only to step down when she became pregnant and turned the reigns back over to Tyrone. Sundra and Horatio have a son, Harry, and they live together as a family. Sundra remains by Horatio's side through thick and thin and continues to inspire him.

Ursula hinged bets on the prospect of the Web's destruction at the collapse of the Gravity Well, which could have potentially given her absolute power. At stake was the lives of 400 billion sentients, information that Ursula sat on, waiting for the events at Gravity Well on unfold as she did with the destruction of Periwinkle. Ursula waited to take power as Gravity Well was on the verge of collapse, but the unthinkable happened when Nexus saved the Web. For these reasons, Horatio has contemplated executing Ursula on occasion, but ultimately decided against it because she is the mother of his twins, a move Ursula may have orchestrated to ensure her survival when she seduced him.

Ursula still has genuine feelings for Horatio, as evidenced by a return trip to Ylum with the daughters Horatio didn't even know he had and becoming intimate with him again, using the girls as pawns to toy with him, keeping them away from him, acts of a scorned woman. Horatio, however, sees Ursula as a sycophant, someone who only loves power and control. Ursula has no real way of stopping Horatio from seeing the girls when he wants to, and even she acknowledges this fact. At the God Con, a demon conjured an image of Ursula ruling the galaxy at Horatio's side with him wearing the uniform of General Hellpop with the Nexus lighting emblems.

Ursula has never stopped trying to belittle or discredit Horatio to their daughters. She even implied that Horatio killed his father General Hellpop because he molested Horatio once the story went public, to the girls' disbelief. Ursula ultimately proved Horatio to be right about her when she killed Sundra's best friend and business partner, Jil, after Sundra had saved Ursula's life on at least two occasions. Jil's murder at Ursula's hands revealed nothing new about Ursula, but it was a revelation that Sundra always knew would come down to between herself and Ursula. Ursula felt that she lost some power over Horatio when Sundra bore Horatio's son, Harry, and she went to the extreme act of kidnapping their baby and killing anyone who tried to stop her. Sundra and Ursula engaged in a fight in which Sundra brought Ursula to the brink of death.Even this desperate act by Ursula wasn't enough to push Horatio over the edge and assassinate her, but Sundra made the proclamation that she knows she will ultimately have to kill Ursula to end her threat over hers and Horatio's lives once and for all.

Kreed only allowed select members of Horatio's inner circle access to the vault and guarded the entrance against anyone who had intention of invading Horatio's privacy. Nexus provided Kreed and Sinclair a list of murderers selected by Drizripool to assassinate against the advice of Judah. The two Quatros went on a killing frenzy on Mars, contracting the killing disease and taking out thousands of innocent targets along with the condemned on Nexus' list. Their murderous rampage made them the most wanted bounty in the Web. Kreed felt great shame at his and Sinclair's actions, which included eating some of the victims, and received extensive counseling from Dave afterward. He later surrendered to Mars authorities after a confrontation with two Gucci assassins he killed made him realize that Nexus would never be accepted by the Web as long as he was free.

Martian authorities scheduled Kreed's execution and only allowed VIPs like Sundra, Dave and Mezz and his band mates to see him. Vooper served as Kreed's attorney. After Nexus saved the Web from sinking into the Gravity Well artificial black hole and hundreds of billions of lives in the process, he was able to use the goodwill from his heroic actions to negoiate Kreed's release. But Kreed committed ritual suicide before Nexus could stop him. At the reading of Kreed's will, his armory and weapons stockpile was given to Ylum and later used by Tyrone for its defense. While Kreed's death helped to put the Mars incident behind Nexus and Ylum, it also led to Horatio temporarily abandoning his duties as Nexus.

Sinclair resurfaced after Kreed's death when he decapitated a clone that Nexus made from Kreed's detached arm left in the armory after Kreed's encounter with the Gucci assassions Roberta and Duncan. The Kreed clone was on the verge of ending an energy depleted Horatio's life when Sinclair intervened and saved Horatio. Sinclair also reset the security features to the vault that was disabled by some of the Heads when Tyrone raided the vault in Ylum's most desperate hour of need. Sinclair easily defeated the Nexus appointed Stanisiaus Korivitsky, who tried to execute Sinclair's employer, Christopher Swabado, without fusionkasting power that Drizripool stripped him of, but nevertheless, as a trained Gucci assassin, he attempted to carry out the execution. Sinclair later did not interfere with Horatio's execution of Swabado, as he remembered his pledge to Horatio.

Once Horatio caught up on his allotted executions and his power was restored, he was able to bring the situation under control and Tedesko lost most of his fleet and his advantage over Le Berg. Sinclair made an alliance with Kreed during the invasion and Le Berg betrayed the Quatros plan to destroy the Sov Flagship. Once Le Berg revealed to Tedesko that Kreed and Sinclair were aboard, the two men quietly abandoned ship, leaving Tedesko's crew to a certain death. After Nexus defeated Tedesko's fleet, Tedesko remained in orbit on Ylum, awaiting his presumed fate at the hands of Nexus. This "honorable act" infuriated Le Berg, who was desperate to survive. Le Berg and Tedesko got into a fist fight, both expecting Nexus to execute them afterward. Nexus refused to kill Tedesko and hauled Le Berg out into space, leaving Tedesko to ponder his fate. Tedesko took a blaster and committed suicide rather than return to the Sov Empire in disgrace.

Swerdlow's secret deal with Mars officials to take Kreed dead or alive set the events in motion that enabled the Gucci assassins Roberta and Duncan to make their way into Kreed's armory and attack him. Swerdlow did have some redeeming qualities in his job as Secretary of State; he once arrested Horatio's Uncle, Brother Lathe, during a visit to Ylum for numerous offenses, much to Horatio's embarrassment after Dave and Tyrone explained the nature of Lathe's activities. But it wasn't beneath Swerdlow to have potential political opponents and those he disliked killed, evidenced by the Gucci's killing Clyde when they raided Kreed's armory and the assassination of the young, ambitious refugee from Flatlandia, Casper Wineburger.

Swerdlow was later arrested for numerous counts of treason and placed into prison. Zeiffer Meird later arranged Swerdlow's prison break, which revealed Swerdlow's desire to assassinate Tyrone and rule Ylum. Swerdlow disappeared after Zeiffer Meird's attempted assassination of Sundra, an event in which the Zeiffer was killed by Judah, but not before the Gucci assassin commissioned by the Zeiffer, Zwiffer, informed Swerdlow that the Guccis were all aware of his feud with Kreed and his efforts to have Kreed killed or brought before Mars officials. Swerdlow is in hiding, fearing the repercussions of his actions and that Nexus or the Guccis will ultimately assassinate him for his treasonous actions.

The Loomis sisters specifically sought out the Merk (Drizripool) to be Horatio's successors in order to exact revenge against Horatio despite knowing that Drizripool directed Horatio to kill General Loomis in the first place. To that end, they secretly journeyed to Headworld and met with Raul, who allowed them access to the tank identical to Nexus among the ruins of the Merk. Raul got them to vow not to attack Horatio as long as they were on Headworld. They succeeded in their efforts to contact Drizripool through Project Boom Search and he designated them as Horatio's successors. After carrying out a series of executions for Drizripool, he allowed them to dream of executing Horatio for all the executions he carried out on Drizripool's behalf. Lonnie, the middle daughter, abandoned the cause, realizing Drizripool's insanity.

Undeterred by their sister's defection, Stacy and Michana made their way to Flatlandia and tracked Horatio to his clinic, mocking him for doing humanitarian work, as if he could cleanse his soul for all the executions he had carried out as Nexus. Horatio managed to get in his own dig, reminding the Loomis sisters that Drizripool commissioned him to kill their father, and that they should be able to understand the hypocrisy of what they were about to do. Horatio's twin daughters, Scarlett and Sheena, arrived before the Loomis sisters could execute Horatio and defeated them in fusionkasting combat, apparently killing Stacy and dissipating Michana to atoms. Sheena and Scarlett taunted Michana by taking her favorite doll, Otis, from her during the battle. The Bad Brains secretly obtained Michana's remaining genetic material and were able to use her brainwaves as a beacon to channel fusion power.

Lonnie became a tutor to Scarlett and Sheena on Procyon. Ursula later accused Lonnie of being a spy, tortured her and blocked the twins from seeing Lonnie. Lonnie was able to escape Ursula's clutches because of Michana and made her way to Ylum to warn Horatio of Ursula's plans of using Elvonic women as her pawns. After all of the Bad Brains were destroyed, Michana's will to survive allowed her to reconstitute her physical body and soon after, she became a pawn of Ursula, who came to her disguised as her mother. Ursula kept these activities a secret from her daughters Scarlett and Sheena, who had engaged Michana and her sister Stacy in battle. Michana successfully carried out a series of executions for Ursula utilizing Mind Missiles and Smart Bullets, but Ursula severely reprimanded and berated her for failing to take out one particular target.

Michana left Ursula's charge and later sought revenge against Ursula by seeking out the Drizripool commissioned Elizabeth Borden to kill Ursula. A GQ commissioned Sundra saved Ursula's life when Borden was about to carry out the sentence. After leaving Ursala, Michana committed a series of offenses and became a juvenile delinquent. Michana and a gang she became associated with made a trip to Marlis, a memorial moon where Nexus' parents are buried, vandalized their graves and stole their bodies. This act drew Horatio's undivided attention and he went after Michana. Horatio tried to reason with Michana that although he understood her anger towards him, she was responsible for the actions she was taking and that blaming him wasn't an excuse to keep acting in such a destructive manner. Horatio persuaded Michana in returning his parents remains and put her in contact with Lonnie, who had long made her peace with Horatio. Lonnie took custody of Michana and the two sisters live together now, putting the past behind them. Michana proclaims herself to be Mezz's biggest fan, even replacing her beloved doll Otis with a Mezz doll.

Sinclair made an alliance with Kreed during the invasion and Le Berg betrayed the Quatros plan to destroy the Sov Flagship. Once Le Berg revealed to Tedesko that Kreed and Sinclair were aboard his vessel, the two men abandoned ship. Le Berg and Tedesko engaged in a fist fight before Nexus after Tedesko double crossed Le Berg, and afterward, Nexus dragged Le Berg into the void of space, refusing to execute Tedesko. Nexus released Le Berg from his personal force field and Le Berg suffocated to death in space.

Collected editions

Dark Horse Comics hardcover archive editions include:

Rude Dude Productions:

Dark Horse Comics Softcover omnibus editions:

Awards

The series won a total of six Eisner Awards. In 1988, the series won an award for Best Artist/Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team. 1993's Nexus: Origin won awards for Best Single Issue/Single Story, Best Writer/Artist, and Best Artist/Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team. In 1997, Nexus: Executioner's Song won Best Artist/Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team. In 2008, Todd Klein won Best Letterer/Lettering for his work on Nexus.

Crossovers

The Nexus series produced several crossover issues, featuring characters from several other First series, including American Flagg!, Grimjack, Jon Sable: Freelance, Badger, Whisper and Dreadstar. An example of Nexus crossover issues is the series Crossroads, published in 1988. Following the switch in publishers from First to Dark Horse, Nexus crossed over with Madman (Nexus Meets Madman) and Magnus Robot Fighter (Magnus Robot Fighter/Nexus).

Adaptations

A 2-minute promo for an animated series was made in 2004.[4]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Baker, Bill (w). The History of Nexus 100 (January 2008), Rude Dude Productions
  2. ↑ Steve Rude Executes Animated Nexus
  3. ↑ BARON AND RUDE RETURN TO "NEXUS" IN "DARK HORSE PRESENTS"
  4. ↑ Nexus: The Animated Series Promo (Video 2004) - IMDb

References

  • Nexus at the Comic Book DB

External links

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