While Nergal shows up in a lot of stuff, none of it is very memorable, and he hardly has a fixed image in the popular psyche. In fact, that's a problem "demons" typically have. I don't see how Baal or Baphomet or even Lucifer are that much better. Yet the story treats it as something absolutely obvious.
The problem wasn't Nergal as such, though. It's the obese, jovial, diseased chaos god Nurgle, one of the chaos gods in Games Workshop's Warhammer and 40K settings, who sort-of borrows the name.
Given the presence GW has in UK geek and gamer circles (and as a chain of high street shops), it probably lands differently with that audience.
The problem wasn't Nergal as such, though. It's the obese, jovial, diseased chaos god Nurgle, one of the chaos gods in Games Workshop's Warhammer and 40K settings, who sort-of borrows the name.
Given the presence GW has in UK geek and gamer circles (and as a chain of high street shops), it probably lands differently with that audience.