Week 4 has the full range of ties. From probably one of the most one sided match-ups we will see this round... and when I say probably, I mean definitely. To a couple of absolute stinkers. There is as you might imagine plenty in between as well.
Outside the realm of mismatches now... or are we. Indigo Prime is an astonishingly popular, brilliant strip. It unsurprisingly took down Interceptor with no problem last time. But can it really stand against the might of Nemesis? Great as Indigo Prime is, who would dare vote against the Warlock? This one will certainly prove a tougher test than the previous which saw possibly the biggest mis-match yet as Nemesis blasted Bison... it surprisingly wasn't a shutout! This time...
Nemesis the Warlock - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=NEMESIS)
Vs
Indigo Prime - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&Comic=2000AD&choice=INDIGO)
Just reply in this thread naming your favourite thrill of these two series at the beginning of your post (or use Bold tags so I can spot it easily) and say what you like about these wonderful stories after that.
Match ends early on the morning of Saturday 4th June and the winner gets a place in Round 4 (of 9!!!).
What on Earth is ALL of this? (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=48011.0)
For those that need 'um and can be bothered to follow 'um there's some simple rules (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=48011.msg1070150#msg1070150)
Any questions, just ask as ever - and have FUN
Going to have to be Indigo Prime for me - Killing Time is one of my favourite stories ever. Nemesis has some awesome stuff, not least that line-up of artists, but I'm too big a fan of the Smithiverse not to vote for it here.
Nemesis (despite how swoony and excellent IP's return was)
Nemesis. A defining thrill.
Both looked great, both had a touch of genius. Nemesis edges it in most catagories.
Indigo Prime
because Grobbendonk, who spoke Gibberish, a Fringe World dialect.
Nemesis, always - if it hadn't been running in the prog in the first month I started buying I don't know whether I'd still be reading to this day (not to disparage the other thrills at the time).
Nemesis.
When, in the dying moments of the universe, when the heat death has come to us all and the final word upon 2000AD has been written, in the final book about the comic ever published,"Nemesis" will be in the second sentence.
SBT
Nemesis the Warlock
Agree that Killing Time is one of 2000AD's all-time best ever stories, and that the Bagwell/Carter years of IP were pretty damn excellent.
But they're not Nemesis books 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. (And Books 2, 8, 9 and 10 are comfortably better than early IP)
What a tie!
Even though Smith is comfortably my favourite script-droid, I'm going to have to go with Nemesis.
Books 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9 and everything great about Mills with very, very little of the grate, and have some of the most astounding comic art ever.
Definitely Nemesis for me. One of the most classic thrills of all time. It's just iconic and the art by O'Neill and Talbot is just so brilliant.
I love John Smith's stuff and Killing Time and all the IP comeback stuff including Dead Eyes is great. Nemesis though... even if it hadn't been the first 2000AD story I ever read (in Best of 2000AD Monthly #8, COMPLETELY blowing my tiny mind), it still remains an absolute favourite for me.
Nemesis.
Urgh. This one's nasty. Nemesis the Warlock was one of the most exciting comics I'd seen when I first laid eyes on it. And its alien nature was amazing. I bloody loved those early books, right up until the goop at the end of the world. But at some point, Nemesis went off the boil. Hicklenton's art was solid but the scripting started to slip. The one-shot with Candida was lovely, but Mills's increasing shift towards being preachy overpowered everything else. The last book was a damp squib, with an OK ending that was then wiped away presumably because it was deeply cruel on one of the protagonists.
Indigo Prime started out as, frankly, incomprehensible nonsense, but then we got Killing Time—one of the finest runs in the Prog's history. Dead Eyes was clever, and then the 'reboot' strips were coming along famously. Ken-W did a solid job in taking over, but something was lost, like when a beloved and inventive TV show gets a new showrunner. That's no slight on Kek-W: it's just that Indigo Prime was such a singular vision that it hasn't really survived the transfer intact (unlike, say, Devlin Waugh under Kot).
Fractionally, it's going to be Nemesis for me, even if I wish it had ended much, much earlier.
Nemesis
Nemesis the Warlock
Indigo Prime
Never 'got' IP but Nemesis was the dog's bollocks.
Nemesis The Warlock.
Now, and for every vote it enters.
Nemesis the Warlock
It's a tough match-up, as I'm not sure what could defeat Nemesis - it's an entirely new mythology in comic form. Take almost any page of O'Neill Nemesis and it defeats any page of [insert competitor thrill here].
So, it's not that Indigo Prime is bad (although it has been difficult to follow at times, like much of Smith's work) at all, but it's Nemesis the fucking Warlock, dude!
(https://2000ad.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/ntw.jpg?w=584)
Nemesis. All time great.
Although I've read little of either of these titles, Nemesis the Warlock. Neither series has grabbed me, but O'Neill Nemesis art cannot be denied here.
Well damn Indigo Prime is putting up a fight, I mean a thrill of that quality was always going to, but to show up against Nemesis and stand your ground is quite something. Whether it will be enough is open to debate... well until tomorrow morning when we'll know for sure!
Gah some truly horrible decisions this week. Indigo Prime takes a little while to get going but Killing Time and Anthropocalypse are both absolute classics. Problem is it's up against Nemesis one of the defining anti-heros of 2000ad. Think this one has to go to the warlock, Nemesis.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 03 June, 2022, 07:14:25 AM
Well damn Indigo Prime is putting up a fight, I mean a thrill of that quality was always going to, but to show up against Nemesis and stand your ground is quite something. Whether it will be enough is open to debate... well until tomorrow morning when we'll know for sure!
I've done my own count, and it's not that close. At all. Yes there is a lot of love for Indigo Prime and it got a couple of early votes, but the score is very one sided. It's one of those where a number of people like it, but not more than the other option.
They're both great, but it's got to be Nemesis for me. Stand-out moments are the bleak setting of the end of the world and the ultimate fate of mankind, Torquemada's greatest crime, and the episode about one of his earlier incarnations, the real life Colonel Chivington and his massacre at Sand Creek. All of which happens in Book VI, one of the best thrills ever published, with fabulous art by Bryan Talbot.
Yes those scenes at the end of the world are just so amazing. After books 1 and 3, I never thought anyone could match O'Neill's art on the strip, but Talbot managed it and made it his own thing. And I love the Diceman episode. It's just so gothic.
VOTING CLOSED
Its great that Indigo Prime didn't just curl uo here and fought to get some votes, but as Magnetica points out it wasn't even close. That Nemesis can so easily put down a thrill as strong as Indigo Prime sends a warning shot across the bows of the other favourites, none of which have been tested to this extent yet. Nemesis is in this to win it. I should also note how sad it is we're losing so many great John Smith thrills so early. He's not out yet, but a couple of his tentpole works have gone already. All that said
Nemesis the Warlock
will be Lord of the Votes in Round 4.
Yes, I didn't say enough about IP in my vote - if it had been going up against practically anything else then I might have voted for it - I'd at least have had to think hard. But Nemesis.
Feck, missed the boat here - not to worry though, I still would have voted Nemesis. I love John Smith's work and think Killing Time is one of the best things Tharg has ever published, but Nemesis was 2000ad at its best.
Personally I loved the Hicklenton ones too - I was too young to really get the Mills preaching, but I was arguably also too young for decomposed relatives being dug up for their grandchildren to denounce, and young men's faces being ripped apart by an alien hand opening inside their mouths. (Things did go downhill after our John left though.)
After The Gothic Empire I felt that Hicklenton's work on The Two Torquemadas was definitely a resurgent high for the series. It's mind-blowing stuff.