Nexus Omnibus Volume Seven!

There are eight volumes in Dark Horse's Nexus Omnibuse series, but I acted too slowly to get the eighth and now I'll have to do without. (I almost all of those contents in the original so it's not that big a problem, save to the completist mind.) This seventh volume picks up the misadventures of Nexus and Sundra and the gang after the demise of the regular series from First Comics. The best news is that Steve Rude is back in a big way, partnering again with Mike Baron. These two are the fathers of Nexus, in form and content and the series works best when they both are in attendance. 

The first installment here is a retelling of the origin story. The tale has been told a few times over the decade since Nexus was created, but this one is the most complete and lavish. It also spends a good deal of time focusing on Horatio Hellpop's father, the man who saw that it was his duty to murder millions and the first man to fall to the justice of Nexus. Sundra looks ravishing when Rude draws her. 

This is followed by Nexus the Liberator, a four-part tale by Stefan Petrucha and John Calimee, the first time that Nexus had been produced without either Baron or Rude in attendance. It's still  pretty decent, a story about a world overcome by religious zealotry and ruled by cruel men who proved remarkably hard to kill. It falls into the category of an untold tale since the timing puts it very early in the career of Hellpop's Nexus. This series is outside of the overall numbering of the Nexus series as calculated by Baron and Rude since neither of them contributed to it. 

Then we are treated to Nexus - Alien Justice, perhaps the most beautiful Nexus issues ever created. Three long stories in which the mad Merk sends Horatio packing and signs up new Nexi. First he tries out aliens such as the Giz, the Quatros, the Thunes and the Demons. That doesn't work at all and so he finds four human psychopaths to give unlimited power to. Only their own deficiencies make them less of a menace than they might have been. It's up to Horatio and Sundra to put down these threats and they are given power by another of the Merk's race to do so. But before that there was a tragic story of Nexus and Dave returning to Thuneworld and finding grinding heartache on this dark Seuss-like world. It's easily one of the best Nexus stories ever told, and a game-changer for Dave. 

Then things get a bit wonky as the rest of the volume is filled with non-Nexus features or better sidebar Nexus features. First we are treated to Hammer of God - Pentatholon which stars Judah Macabee. This story by Baron and artist Neil Vokes is a light-hearted romp as our hero tries to win and still maintain his dignity. It doesn't go well. 

Mezz Galactic Tour 2494 was written by Baron and drawn by Mike Vosburg. It's well crafted, but a bit difficult to decode at times. I always like the look of Vosburg's work, especially when he draws women. This is a strange light-hearted entry, but again no Nexus really. 

Hammer of God - Butch has Judah Macabee attempt to join the Gucci Assassin's Guild with the sole mission of finding his long-lost cousin Butch. He succeeds eventually in this three-part tale by Baron and artist Shea Anton Pensa. Pensa is a typical artist of his time, good but it seems a little too standard action comic for my tastes. 

The volume closes out with a offbeat pieced by Baron and Vokes, published by both Dark Horse and First featuring Clonezone.The Clonezone Special is in black and white and brings back the crocodilian commedian who had been the back up in Nexus for many issues. This time he's running a telethon and for anyone familiar with Clonezone's antics, you already know things do not go smoothly at all. This was actually pretty funny as Clonezone is good in small doses. 

I wish this volume had included more pure Nexus material, but I see the logic of including this stuff from the Nexus universe. As I said there is an eighth volume, but I don't have it. so we wrap up my month-long look at Nexus here. Stay out of trouble you all, you never know when the universe might decide to wreak some justice. 

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Nexus Omnibus Volume Six!

While his name is still on the cover alongside Mike Baron's, there is only one painted cover in this volume by Steve Rude. (See above.) The absence of Rude really knocks down the quality of the Nexus stories collected here. There are some fine comic book artists, working diligently, but none of them touch Rude. It's hard to say, but it's just plain true. 

And in fact it's rather a misnomer to call this a Nexus collection since most of the stories deal with Stan Korivitsky, the fifth Nexus. Stan has not been able to call upon the power of the Merk almost from the beginning of his tenure as Nexus, and so he's had to rely on his training as a Gucci assassin. As a consequence there's a grittiness to nature of the stories as the killings of mass murderers is not accomplished with a magic bolt but with more traditional weapons and acts of violence. He eventually finds another source for classic Nexus-like powers when he partners with a group of former slave heads called the "Bad Brains". Ultimately Stan loses his mind and begins to kill more wantonly with no regard for innocent bystanders. It requires that Horatio Hellpop resume his identity as Nexus and make some bargain with the unsettled Merk to end this new threat. For his part Horatio spent much of the time in these stories trying to find himself in an agrarian society which was suffering under a brutal dictatorship. 

Baron writes all of the Nexus main stories in this volume, but the back-up feature starring Judah the Hammer is written by a cavalcade of comics scribes including Roger Salick and Peter David among others. I'm not going to try and attach names to certain stories but some of the artists included in this volume on both the main and back up features are Mark Heike, John Snyder, Kent Burles, Tom Baxa, and Hugh Haynes who becomes the mainstay on the regular feature in the last half of this tome. He's a talented artist, but not close to Rude in his ability to capture drama. Les Dorschied produces some handsome painted covers for the series. 

This is the last volume of regular Nexus stories and ends with the final First Comics publication of the character. There is hardly a neat ending, but we'll have to wait until next time to see how all of that comes out as Nexus leaves First and finds some refuge at Dark Horse Comics, the very folks who published these wonderful reprint tomes. 

We'll wrap this up tomorrow. Below are the covers for the comics included here. 

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Nexus Omnibus Volume Five!

The fifth omnibus edition of the long-lasting Nexus series is brimming with change. We finally see the the finale when the Loomis sisters try to get their long-sought revenge. And we Horatio Hellpop walk away from his role as Nexus as the Merk sends out the word he's looking for a successor. Steve Rude will walk away from the series for a time and the artistic results are often less than ideal. But Mike Baron is still there, allowing the series to hold an amazing continuity from its earliest days. 

One of the things which has happened naturally over the course of time the books have been dropping onto the comics racks is that Ylum has gone from a largely deserted planet filled with secrets, to one rippling with all sorts of aliens who bring their own secrets. The planet has become a haven for those downtrodden and dispossessed by dictators and feckless governments. In addition, it has also become a haven for entrepreneurs, many of them filled with avarice and ambition. As the stories have continued to roll out Ylum has slowly but steadily become in many ways the center of the action and not an unknown outlier. Tyrone, a character from the first days has been the leader and seeing him forced to deal with social ills and political ills is actually quite interesting. He's a flawed character trying to do his best. And that is the case with a lot of the characters in these stories. 

We see the Loomis sisters fall apart as the second oldest breaks from her sisters, weary of the mission to take vengeance for their father's death. The youngest sister has been driven mad by the quest and oldest is the most keen to seek Horatio Hellpop's death. Ultimately, they will fail, but in ways that makes you feel sorry for their lives given over to such pointless pursuits. The stories here bounce back and forth between the mini-series Next Nexus drawn by Rude and the regular series drawn by Paul Smith. 

Ultimately the Merk selects a college professor named Stanley Korivitsky to be his new Nexus. Stan unlike Horatio chooses to become an executioner of murderers, and he does so from a philosophical position which say it's the right thing to do. He goes about his tasks without glee but a keen sense of satisfaction, at least that is until the Merk cuts off his powers. Still committed to the cause this new Nexus uses his training as a Gucci killer to get the jobs done. 

The Judah the Hammer back up series continues with many diverse hands on the artwork. Even a number of writers take a crack at this more light-hearted action-filled romp. Some of the talent involved are Baron, Roger Salick, Steve Epting, Phil Hester among many others. The back-up goes away during the extended battle with the Loomis girls. 

Nexus loses Steve Rude and despite the reasonably high quality of the replacements, the series takes a nose-dive. That alas will only get worse as the series wraps up its long First Comics run. 

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Nexus Omnibus Volume Four!

With the fourth omnibus volume from Dark Horse, Nexus enters a mature phase of the series. Mike Baron has been the writer since day one, and Steve Rude has been the regular artist requiring only a few fill-ins here and there. But that will change as Rude's art is seen less and less. In the back of the book the Judah the Hammer series is written by Roger Salick with a range of artists stepping to draw these much lighter misadventures. The talent on this light-hearted romp of a back-up includes the likes of Angel Medina, Jim Balent, Mike Harris, Mike Docherty among others. 

The first few stories we encounter in this volume show Nexus encountering different kinds of murderers and using a variety of methods to fulfill his obligation to kill them for the Merk. One entertaining story had Nexus using a series of disguises to trick four killers into offing one another. He seemed almost as if killing was becoming boring to him, and he needed to find novel ways to pursue his mission. The main thrust of this collection though is the journey Nexus makes with allies Judah the Hammer and surprisingly the Badger back to the Bowl-Shaped universe inside the black hole. He does this to acquire power and or expertise to stop a black hole from forming right next to Earth due to careless technology. This odyssey takes up six issues and leads into the fiftieth issue of the series, a remarkable accomplishment for a comic from the 80's independent era. The trio battle a most powerful villain named Sklar. 

Another major plot in these issues is the saga of Kreed, the four-armed Quatro master warrior who in a fit of madness killed thousands of Martians. Nexus is a close friend of Kreed's and protected him from prosecution at the time along with his Quatro ally Sinclair. But Kreed increasingly feels the need to atone for his behavior despite not being in his right mind. He gives himself over to the Mars authorities with tragic results. Nexus has a difficult time accepting this and even tries futilely to revive his friend. His despair causes him to resign as Nexus, and he leaves Ylum. 

This plugs directly into a a third simmering plotline about the three Loomis sisters. These young women (one is still a little girl actually) seek vengeance against Nexus for killing their father, a decent man but the man responsible for countless deaths as part of his work with the very device that nearly destroys much of the solar system with a black hole. These girls relentlessly seek a way to fulfill their plans and when Nexus resigns, they are picked up as the "Next Nexus". Steve Rude will draw this four issue limited series which will run concurrently with the regular ongoing Nexus book. The results of this will be played out in the next volume. 

Paul Smith is increasingly used as Steve Rude's replacement, and Smith's smooth slick artwork is a nifty match for the series, allowing little cause for concern for the reader in that regard. But that will change. Things are indeed about to change in significant ways in the series. More on that tomorrow. 

Here are the issues in this volume. 

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