The Nemesis Chronicles is a collection of this New Pulp hero created by Gary Lovisi. It was published in 2016 by Bold Venture Press. Most of the stories appeared in the 1990s in several anthologies, including Lovisi’s own Gryphon Double series.
The Nemesis is a modern take on The Shadow and The Spider, with original elements. Most of the stories are set in the late ’90s, with the last story set in 2015 when The Nemesis comes out of retirement to close out an old case.
In addition to the stories, we get an afterward that covers the creation of these stories, and get to see covers of the various Gryphon Doubles that he appeared in, as well as a planned cover set for another issue that never happened. We also see the notes on a Spider cover that was used as the inspiration for one of them.
The Nemesis is really Harry Turner, former Special Ops soldier, now retired and living comfortably. But another former op, now a priest, tells him of a young girl in the clutches of a crime lord who will use her for whatever he wants. Harry becomes The Nemesis, wearing black clothing, including a face mask and slouch hat (more a bush hat), and carrying twin Uzis, a Bowie knife, smoke and fragmentation grenades, and more. From that first mission, he starts his career as The Nemesis.
In the following stories, he goes up against that crime lord, his lieutenant, and a corrupt cop, as well as other fiends like a dangerous vigilante calling himself The Falcon, and another baddie calling himself The Viper.
Most of the stories are short. The biggest is one titled “The Satan Plague,” which is tied to a Doc Atlas story of the same name. Both appeared in the same issue of Gryphon Double. Doc Atlas’s story is set in the ’50s, with The Nemesis dealing with the same threat in modern times, and basically wrapping up that storyline. The Nemesis also brings into the matter Vic Powers, another character of Lovisi’s. But we now know that The Nemesis is in the same “universe” as Doc Atlas, as well as some of Lovisi’s other characters. However, we are told that Doc Atlas mysteriously disappeared sometime in the past; it’s not clear when but maybe in the ’60s. His girlfriend is still alive, as well as one of his associates, “Mad Dog” Deagan.
The final story, “The Return of the Nemesis,” has a lot of nice elements. We learn that Doc Atlas’s pulp stories (written by his girlfriend) were reprinted in the ’60s and ’70s with James Bama covers, and she later created a Doc Atlas pastiche: Doc Justice (in the Doc Atlas stories she was writing the Doc Atlas pulps), and those novels have artwork by Jim Steranko. And that little girl The Nemesis rescued from the first story has grown up, become a reporter and now also writes pulp fiction paperbacks, these staring The Nemesis!
Overall, a nice collection. I wish there were more Nemesis stories. As we will be seeing more Doc Atlas stories, maybe Lovisi may be inspired to add a few more. Until then, get this one!
