Story: Zach Snyder
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Federico Bertoni
Colorist: Fares Maese
Letterer: Andworld Design
Cover Artists: Kael Ngu, Danny Earls, Reza Afshar, Alice Meichi Li & Chris Christodoulou
Publisher: Titan Comics
Price: $4.99
Release Date: July 16, 2025
Nemesis may be an assassin. But everyone comes from somewhere, and we all change as we grow. Long ago, Nemesis lived a different life. She gazed upon the world in wonder, questioned what she saw and thought, and told her parents she loved them. What tragedy befell the little girl with a heart of gold? Let’s grab our swords, leap into Rebel Moon: Nemesis #1, and see!
Story
Nemesis grew up in a fishing village. Her parents named her Tatan and called her sister Gahbi. As much as Tatan enjoyed life with her parents, fate drew her away from them. Her new masters instructed the little girl in their ways. Every day was a punishment and a trial of endurance. Her new masters beat the exuberance for life out of young Tatan. Surrounded by others, she was alone.
In Rebel Moon: Nemesis #1, Tatan feared she held the power to destroy. The little girl misunderstood her father, who was tired of Tatan's constant chatter. But, without knowing it, her father also spoke the truth. Tatan and her sister received a special honor. They had the chance to become more than a fisherman's daughter or wife. Despite the pitfalls of her new community, Tatan survived her teaching and training. The resilience she learned in her adolescence would help her survive the tragedy to come.
Zach Snyder and Gail Simone's story is about how our youth shapes us. But it also reminds us how one society influences another. Society on Byeol, the planet of Tatan's birth, was founded by a repentant warrior. Tatan's teachers instructed her in their ways. But they also repressed her individuality. In so doing, they prepared her for later life. Not as someone who would repent for dispatching her opponents. But as an unstoppable killing machine, utterly dedicated to her cause.
Art
Federico Bertoni’s artwork has a fractal appearance, portraying characters as edgy, sharp, and unforgiving as the worlds they fight over. Locals in ethnic attire huddle in an alley. Soldiers intrude wearing armor, uniforms, and the accolades of conquest. A glimpse into the distant past reveals a battle in a fishing village. Swords and axes clash beneath a stormy sky in Rebel Moon: Nemesis #1. Energy crackles in the air, while a warrior’s glowing sword illuminates the tattoos carved into his subdued opponent’s chest and shoulder.
While golden candlelight and glowing red blades light Nemesis' dark path, Fares Maese fills Tatan's youth with blues and greens. The girl rides in a brown boat with a basket of gray fish near her parents' brown and gray house on the water. When her father brings her to her new home, he presses a brown book, a black pen, and a bottle of ink into her hands. Then Tatan trades her pink kimono for a beige, black, and white uniform in Rebel Moon: Nemesis #1. Tatan’s hair, skin, and attire blend with everyone else in her new world.
Andworld Design fills white dialogue balloons with uppercase black letters and brown boxes with white uppercase narration. Larger white letters on transparent brown-gray banners located us in time and space, while looming white numbers follow Nemesis' countdown to solace. Sound effects accompany Nemesis' attacks and Imperial cruelty. Hand-printed white letters hover over black symbols above a skull in a brown book. Thanks to Titan Comics for providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
A mission fueled by lofty ideals can become a machine that crushes those it intends to help. Nemesis has seen everything she valued destroyed by the emissaries of civilization. So in Rebel Moon: Nemesis #1, she’s making things right by exterminating wrongs.
Rating 9.6/10
To look inside see my preview of Rebel Moon: Nemesis #1.
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