History ComicBook / NemesisTheWarlock

** What makes Torquemada even more despicable is that for all his talk about Terran supremacy, he has no problem with using alien technologies and energies to prolong his own life. At the very end, after Termight has been freed from his rule, he concludes that humanity has failed him and prepares to blow up half the planet before stealing Nemesis' ship to find an alien empire to rule over. [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans Ultimately he just wanted power for its own sake]].

''Nemesis the Warlock'' takes place in a distant future where Earth (called now Termight) and much of the known galaxy is ruled by the authoritarian and expansionist Termight Empire, which follows the ideology of human supremacy and genetic purity to the extent of a kill-them-all policy towards alien lifeforms and [[HalfHumanHybrid offspring of humans and aliens]]. This empire is led by [[MeaningfulName Tomás de Torquemada]], whose power is backed by a cult of personality and religious following revolving around him. The Termight Empire keeps expanding in the galaxy, taking over one planet after another and massacring their alien inhabitants. Despite the might and humancentric ideology of the Empire, the life of the average citizen ("Termite") in Earth tends to be controlled, repressed and likely to end violently (literally: in one short story it is said outright that deaths from natural causes are few and far between).

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The Termight Empire is pretty much a textbook example of this. PuttingOnTheReich is averted, since the clothing and armors of Torquemada's followers are mostly based on Ku Klux Klan and medieval armors. Also, Torquemada's reincarnations apparently include UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. WordOfGod states that the Spanish Inquisition was the biggest inspiration for Torquemada and his Terminators. Torquemada himself even shares his name with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomás_de_Torquemada one of the most notorious inquisitors from the Inquisition.]]

* Robeast: The Goony Birds

* CultOfPersonality: [[EvilOverlord Tomás de Torquemada]] builds the Termight death cult entirely around his person and forces everyone to worship him as the immortal god-dictator of mankind. Sometimes this is PlayedForLaughs by combining this with TheMerch -- Terrans can buy Torquemada's memoirs, Torquemada posters, Torquemada action movies, Torquemada busts, and Torquemada pillows and pyamas!

* AnimatedAdaptation: Tony Luke animated a [[https://youtu.be/7lg1bAV-f0A pilot for a stop motion series by Renga Media but it didn't go any further.

''Nemesis the Warlock'' takes place in a distant future where Earth (called now Termight) and much of the known galaxy is ruled by the authoritarian and expansionist Termight Empire, which follows the ideology of human supremacy and genetic purity to the extent of a KillEmAll policy towards alien lifeforms and [[HalfHumanHybrid offspring of humans and aliens]]. This empire is led by [[MeaningfulName Tomás de Torquemada]], whose power is backed by a cult of personality and religious following revolving around him. The Termight Empire keeps expanding in the galaxy, taking over one planet after another and massacring their alien inhabitants. Despite the might and humancentric ideology of the Empire, the life of the average citizen ("Termite") in Earth tends to be controlled, repressed and likely to end violently (literally: in one short story it is said outright that deaths from natural causes are few and far between).

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: [[spoiler:Nemesis turns out to be this.]]

* DistantFinale: [[spoiler:Nemesis fuses both himself and Torquemada with Seth the Blitzspear to stop him from annihilating most life in the universe, which then travels through the wormhole connecting Earth to the rest of the cosmos and back again. This goes on for a billion years before the Sun completes its life cycle and swallows the planet. The 2000 AD anniversary prog in 2016 adds "Tubular Hells", a coda when Torquemada is subsequently released from his prison as the Blitzspear ascends, but Nemesis defeats him one last time, after [[{{Troll}} desecrating]][[AshesToCrashes his family's remains]], crucifies him, ties the cross to Seth's snout, and seals him off once more, this time ''for eternity''.]]

-->'''Torquemada:''' ''"Villain"''? This vile slur on my good name shall be avenged!

* AshesToCrashes: Taken up to eleven by Nemesis, who interrupts Grand Master Torquemada's holy ceremony of consecrating the imperial family's remains by eating his mother's ashes, swallowing his father's heart, and gulping down his sister's blood.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: ''Nemesis'' verges on EvilVersusEvil. BigBad Torquemada, leader of the human race (in the ''Nemesis'' universe, something like a cross between the heretic-burning medieval Catholic church turned UpToEleven and the Nazis), is a psychotic genocidal religious fascist god-dictator pledged to exterminate all non-human life--but Nemesis himself, who's ''essentially Satan'', has done things like openly lust for genocide right back at humanity and, at his worst, [[WouldHurtAChild intentionally kill a school bus full of children]]. Afterwards, he doesn't even seem to understand why it was a bad thing to do. Meanwhile, Nemesis' uncle Baal has a hobby of vivisecting humans and performing Mengele-ish experiments on them and his son Thoth hates and wants to destroy everything, including his father. Nemesis' allies the ComicBook/ABCWarriors are also extremely morally shady, given they've conducted massacres and frequently display genocidal urges towards humanity as well.

* SkunkStripe: Purity has a prominent one.

* ReleasedToElsewhere: When [[spoiler:Torquemada takes back his throne after the events of "Torquemurder", he starts forcibly "teleporting" the alien inhabitants of Earth/Termight "to their homeworlds". In reality these "teleporters" are disguised vaporisation vats. The supporters of Torquemada also use this argument during his trial in "The Final Conflict"]].

* DarkIsNotEvil: While Nemesis himself is shown often in an [[AntiHero ambiguous light]] in terms of both his morals and motives, he is more or less one of the "good guys" of the setting ([[spoiler: and ultimately shown to be JerkWithAHeartOfGold]]). His species, the Warlocks, aren't all that bad either... [[TheNecromancer mo]][[TheVamp st]][[EnfantTerrible ly]].

* FaceReveal: Nemesis himself was not shown in person until after the first couple of stories. Torquemada's original physical face behind his everpresent helmet in turn wasn't revealed until halfway into the entire run of the series, ''after'' he had been dead for a good while and brought back via time travel.

* {{Reincarnation}}: It's revealed that [[BigBad Torquemada]]'s soul was so evil, it has been reincarnated many times throughout history in various past villains. These include the original Tomas de Torquemada, Adolf Hitler, Maximilien de Robespierre, the Witchfinder General, and John Chivington.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Nemesis dies but sacrifices himself to take down Torquemada once and for all. Torquemada's empire falls apart and Purity Brown becomes the new leader of Termight, renaming it Terra once more. Ultimately Nemesis and Torquemada continue to appear as spectral entities tied to the Blitzspear, ensuring that Nemesis and his actions will never be forgotten. Eventually, Nemesis and Torquemada returned to life inside Seth, trapped in eternal combat for a billion years before Nemesis broke free and sealed Torquemada off once and for all.]]

* CultOfPersonality: [[EvilOverlord Tomas de Torquemada]] builds the Termight death cult entirely around his person and forces everyone to worship him as the immortal god-dictator of mankind. Sometimes this is PlayedForLaughs by combining this with TheMerch -- Terrans can buy Torquemada's memoirs, Torquemada posters, Torquemada action movies, Torquemada busts, and Torquemada pillows and pyamas!

* DistantFinale: [[spoiler:Nemesis traps both himself and Torquemada inside the Blitzspear to stop his nemesis from annihilating most life in the universe, which then travels through the wormhole connecting Earth to the rest of the cosmos and back again. This goes on for a billion years before Earth's star completes its life cycle and swallows the planet. The 2000 AD anniversary prog in 2016 adds a coda when Torquemada is subsequently released from his prison as the Blitzspear ascends, but Nemesis then arranges for him to be trapped again, this time ''for eternity''.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: The epilogue story sees Nemesis [[spoiler:finally get over his addiction to fighting Torquemada and free himself from the seemingly endless cycle of violence. And it only took ''a literal billion years'' to get it out of his system.]]

* GrandFinale: In the final issues Torquemada's regime is ended, Purity's new earth Government puts him on trial but he manages to escape to activate his [[DoomsdayDevice 'Final Solution']], then Nemesis [[spoiler:sacrifices himself to finally stop his archenemy once and for all.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Nemesis dies in "The Final Conflict", but he makes sure to take Torquemada with him.]]

* JustEatHim: [[spoiler:When Magna realizes that Nemesis' {{familiar}} is a witness who can reveal her role in the death of Nemesis' wife Chira, she grabs the smaller alien and swallows him whole to eliminate the threat and the evidence in one.]]

* LivingShip: The Blitzspears, the Warlocks' traditional getabouts of choice.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: Magna, a female Warlock, is motivated to betray Nemesis' allies [[spoiler:and murder Chira, Nemesis' wife,]] because she's in love with Nemesis and wants him all to herself.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: During "The Gothic Empire" story arc, [[spoiler:Torquemada is actually killed for good]]. However, [[spoiler:Nemesis' son, Thoth, brings Torquemada from the past in order to exact his revenge by trapping Torquemada in a time loop, where Torquemada gets burned to death repeatedly. Later, Nemesis releases Torquemada from the loop in an attempt to get reunited with his son. Eventually, Nemesis leaves Torquemada to be picked and executed by Terminators, who consider him a traitor for working together with Nemesis. However, Torquemada manages to persuade the Terminators back to his side, [[ColdBloodedTorture disposes of]] the current ''de facto'' ruler of the Termight Empire and returns to Earth/Termight, continuing his rule as Grand Master]]. [[OhCrap Oops]].

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: While Purity's attempt at ShamingTheMob doesn't work on the majority of the [[KnightTemplar Terminators]] assembled to watch her execution, Brother Gogol is momentarily shaken when she asks them "What are you all hiding behind your masks?"