DC Comics' NEMESIS!

NEMESIS! 

The first time I came upon this word was in the pages of A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie. In the course of the story Miss Marple, Christie's famous elderly spinster detective, considers herself an embodiment of Nemesis, the Greek Goddess of retribution. She acts to prevent a murder, and refers to herself as "Nemesis."

Not really an austere beginning for an action hero, right?

In 1980 writer Cary Burkett and artist Dan Spiegle populated the eight extra pages at the back of The Brave and The Bold with another character code-named NEMESIS. And this young man had almost nothing in common with Miss Jane Marple!

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, NEMESIS when capitalized is the Greek Goddess of retributive justice. When not capitalized the word refers to "one that inflicts retribution or vengeance; a formidable and usually victorious rival or opponent."

DC Comics in the summer of 1980 decided to raise their prices from 40c to 50c, and along with this price increase they decided to add eight pages to every title. Although some titles, such as Justice League of America, expanded to fill all of these pages, some titles, such as Action Comics and Brave and the Bold, added "back-up features."

It was into this world that NEMESIS made his debut.  He made his debut with little fanfare, not even making the cover of his first appearance, in Brave and the Bold #166. This might have been because cover artist Jim Aparo had no reference material to draw the brand new character; regardless, he appeared on the next issue's cover and would pop up from time to time in the "EXTRA!" spotlight when space permitted.

Nemesis ended up appearing in 27 issues of Brave and the Bold, teaming up with Batman twice! This was an honor that many other, more established super-stars (such as Hawkwoman, Martian Manhunter, or Captain Marvel), were not given!

For the past few months I had been thinking about what I could review now that I have completed my review of all of  the Bronze Age (pre-Crisis) appearances of Man-Bat. When I was recently going through my older comic-book collection and I came across the full run of NEMESIS in Brave and the Bold, I decided immediately that here was the man I needed!

So for the next 27 months strap in and hold onto your hats as we check in on each and every B&B appearance of Tom Tresser, aka NEMESIS. And you may have noticed that I whited out the last part of his Who's Who profile on Nemesis. Let's find out what happens to him together, shall we?

By the way, while doing research on this character I came across the interesting fact that creator Cary Burkett named Nemesis after a real man! The "real" Tom Tresser was an actor and is now working and living in Chicago. Here's an article about the "real" Tom Tresser from 2015. He is also the author of a book about life in Chicago called Chicago Is Not Broke. No word on whether he has or had a brother named Craig.

NEMESIS 

created by Cary Burkett & Dan Spiegle