Nexus (comics)

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NexusNightmare in Blue - Issue #4 (October 1997).
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Nexus
Nightmare in Blue - Issue #4 (October 1997).

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.

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[edit] Horatio Hellpop

The lead character, Horatio Valdemar Hellpop, received his powers as Nexus 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 anguished dreams 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 be could defend his homeworld, the lunar refuge of Ylum (prounced "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 his escape capsule into a black hole. Surprisingly it was a wormhole which ejected them near Ylum, where Horatio soon was born. As Horatio grew up, the Merk influenced him through imaginary friends named Alph and Beta, who led him to learn of his father's crimes. Shortly thereafter they revealed the duties of Nexus; Horatio's first execution was his own father.

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 short-sighted actions had inadvertently caused the deaths of others. For the most part, however, his targets were unrepentant murderers, a number of whom had enslaved or otherwise taken advantage of their victims before causing their deaths; thus allowing Nexus to execute them with a clear conscience.

[edit] Stylistic Influence

Both Baron and Rude pay homage to Space Ghost in their work on Nexus, including use of the battle cry "This calls for hyperspeed!" Jan, Jayce, and Blip have several uncredited cameos in the background. Baron and Rude were later hired to create a Space Ghost comic.

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 However, some of his early 1980s references have become outdated, such as the menacing Sov empire.

[edit] 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 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, and force fields (which can provide invulnerability to sufficiently powerful wielders). Super strength, telekinesis, and/or various degrees of telepathy are also common. Only Nexus has demonstrated a substantially wider range of applications, including energy absorption, matter creation, transmutation, and teleportation.

[edit] The Nexus Universe

  • The Merk were a race of titan-like First Ones who established an interstellar civilization thousands or millions of years ago, and created the role of Nexus. Many (or all) Merk possessed powerful fusionkasting. Most of them have departed our galaxy to points unknown; the few who remain (including Ylum's eponymous Merk) may or may not be typical of their race.
  • Ylum is Horatio's home, a moon in a distant solar system with a burgeoning population of immigrants. It has a substantial network of underground tunnels and Merk ruins.
  • The Cohesive Web is the largest human government, some form of federation or republic with its capital on Earth. Many of the Web's agencies have used unethical means in their efforts to obtain new energy sources.
  • Thunes are an intelligent ape-like race. The Thunes were formerly enslaved by a human dictator called The Manager, who became the target of Horatio's first public execution.
  • Quatros are a brutal cyclopean race named for their four arms. They are superhumanly strong and quick. Very few Quatros are sufficiently civilized to live amongst other beings without bloodshed.
  • Heads are decapitated sentients who gained limited telekinetic powers in the process. Slavers and unscrupulous governments have created perhaps millions of Heads for use as energy generators. Individual Heads are somewhat more powerful than most humanoid races, and tens of thousands of Heads linked together (voluntarily or otherwise) can reach power levels comparable to Nexus.
  • Headworld is Ylum's formerly uninhabited twin, now home to the many Heads who have been freed by Nexus or Judah. It contains ruins almost identical to Ylum, but in a greater state of disrepair.
  • The Sov empire is an oppressive communist regime based on the Brezhnev-era Soviet Union.
  • The Gucci (etymology unknown but probably related to Gucci fashion) are a multiracial organization of assassins for hire with a strict code of conduct. Their homeworld has a space elevator and a damping field which blocks all forms of power, including fusionkasting.
  • Alvinites are followers of a popular religion with rituals similar to those of mainstream Christianity. However, Alvinite tenets are left unspecified in the story.
  • Elvonics are followers a neo-luddite religion which is not averse to stealing other people's technology for use in their holy missions. Alvin and Elvon were separate individuals who arose nearly simultaneously; each church believes that the other impugns its good name.

[edit] Supporting Characters

  • Dave is a wise elderly Thune who convinced Nexus to open Ylum as a haven for political refugees.
  • Judah Maccabee, alias The Hammer of God, is Dave's brash son, a skilled martial artist and freelance adjudicator. He receives fusionkasting from a group of Heads in exchange for his services, and has an indestructible sword which absorbs energy and amplifies his power.
  • Sundra Peale is a human spy from Mars who became Horatio's lover.
  • Ursula XX Imada is a high official in the Cohesive Web and the master spy who commanded Sundra. She is skilled in many fields of study and possesses partial mind control effective on most males. She seduced Horatio and bore twin daughters, Sheena and Scarlett, who are unskilled but powerful innate fusionkasters.
  • Clausius is a dastardly slaver who commanded hundreds of thousands of beheadings. Nexus has battled him several times, although as a non-human he is not subject to the Merk's bane.
  • Jacques Bravo, alias The Anvil, a rotund wrestler and poetaster who appears sporadically as a foil to Judah.
  • Brother Lathe is Horatio's uncle and a high-ranking priest of Elvon. Lathe has caused great trouble for Horatio, who is loath to harm his only living forebear.
  • Kreed and Sinclair are Quatro Gucci assassins. They are masters of all forms of physical combat, undefeated in battle except against powerful fusionkasters (Nexus and Judah). They moved to Ylum and pledged allegiance to Nexus.
  • Mezzrow is a young alien who came to Ylum and later started a band. He is a friend of Horatio and Sundra.
  • Plexus is an African-American anti-Nexus from Nexus: Executioner's Song #3. He was also a fusionkaster and had his own Merk sponsor. He represented mercy and rehabilitation.

[edit] Publication history

The series debuted as a three-issue black and white miniseries, followed by an eighty-issue ongoing full-color series. 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.

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 series 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, seven semi-annual miniseries were produced by Baron and Rude. These were published by First Comics and later by Dark Horse Comics. The last of these was printed in black and white as a cost-cutting measure, and the various Nexus series were eventually discontinued due to low sales. Baron and Rude have discussed plans to revive the series or release a movie, possibly in an animated form. A brief animated test clip has been shown at comics conventions. Steve Rude announced plans on his message board January 2006 to self-publish a new Nexus comic series.

Dark Horse Comics Hardcover archive editions

The Badger, another Mike Baron character who was also published by First Comics, made several guest appearances in the pages of Nexus. The series also crossed over with Badger and several other First series (American Flagg!, GrimJack, Jon Sable: Freelance, Whisper) during the First Comics miniseries Crossroads. Following the switch from First to Dark Horse, Nexus crossed over with Madman (Nexus Meets Madman) and Magnus Robot Fighter (Magnus Robot Fighter/Nexus).

[edit] Adaptation

A 2-minute promo for an animated series was made in 2004: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431939/combined

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