Nemesis 14: B&B #180

#14

Brave and the Bold #180 (November 1981)

Synopsis: 

Nemesis is in his lab trying desperately to break the adhesive from a deadly electronic stimulator attached to his chest. As Valerie begs to be let in on whatever is going on, Nemesis lies to her, ostensibly to keep her safe if he happens to be killed on this current mission. For those readers who missed the previous installment, Nemesis remembers that Solomon laid a trap for Nemesis and then attached the device to him, blackmailing him into getting rid of the other Council members so that Solomon could become the new leader. If Nemesis refuses, or fights back in any way, Solomon will activate the device, giving Nemesis a fatal heart attack. However, Nemesis managed to jump out of a chartered plane, making Solomon think that he preferred death to working for him. 

Nemesis decides that he can't safely loosen the device, so he decides to track down the scientist inventor who must have made the device for Solomon. 

Nemesis puts the pressure on "Road Runner," a hood who owes $4K to a different criminal named Wiley Thorn. Nemesis shows up at Road Runner's apartment demanding he investigate who are the scientists who might be on Solomon's pay-roll. Nemesis impresses Road Runner, but also blackmails him with the threat of calling Thorn if he (Road Runner) doesn't help. Given no choice, Road Runner promises to see what he can find out. 

A few days later Road Runner meets up with Nemesis again and tells him what he has learned. Unfortunately, Thorn and his men have found Road Runner. Nemesis takes care of them, and also pays off the $4K Road Runner owed. 

That night, Nemesis goes to the address Road Runner had provided him and finds a huge lab at the house. He finds a copy of the electronic stimulator and begins to investigate how to break the seal on it. Unfortunately, the scientist heard Nemesis break in, and sneaks in to trigger the remote control on the device! 

Commentary: 

One of the things I really liked about this series is the pacing. It doesn't skip along and not show scenes that we would enjoy seeing. This issue is a great example: in Silver Age super-hero comics we would have skipped the first few pages of this installment and either gone directly to the rendezvous with Road Runner, OR we would have skipped ALL of this installment and started with Nemesis breaking in to the inventor's house. As I think I have mentioned before, Nemesis is almost like a police procedural in that it shows us the details behind the scenes! What would YOU do if you suddenly had a device strapped to your body? Of course you would try to take it off! Then  when that failed, of course you would try to track down the manufacturer! Brilliant in its simplicity. And dare I say that the lack of action this month really makes the last panels jump out at you? Nothing is going wrong with Nemesis until....bam! 

Writer Cary Burkett continues to write tightly-plotted, suspenseful story in 8 pages. And artist Dan Spiegle continues to bring Burkett's characters to life. My one complaint this time around might be that Spiegle's version of Road Runner tips a tad too much on the caricature scale for me. Is that just me, or do others think he's a bit too much of a stereotypically looking Black man? 

 

Nemesis Fact File:  

• The team-up in this issue is between Batman and The Spectre in "The Scepter of the Dragon God!" by Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo. Fleisher and Aparol were (in)famous for their early '70s Spectre series in Adventure Comics, so this was a mini-reunion for them.  
• There were two letters printed in The Brave & The Bold #185 mentioning this Nemesis installment. Mark Amundsen and that hero of 1980s letter columns, The Mad Maple, both praised the series. Interesting (?) trivia note: Mark also had a letter printed in B&B #182, which we mentioned two installments ago.    

This story has not yet been reprinted. Therefore, I gladly reproduce the eight-page story here in its entirety, exactly as it appeared in its comic-book form.
Please do not allow it to fall into the hand of The Council!

NEMESIS 

created by Cary Burkett and Dan Spiegle