Nexus (comics)

Nexus
175x450px Nexus - Nightmare in Blue #4 (October 1997)
Publication information
Publisher	Capital Comics First Comics Dark Horse Comics Rude Dude Productions
Format	Mini-series Ongoing series
Genre	Science-Fiction Superhero
Publication date	January 1981 - October 1982 1983 - March 1991
Number of issues	100+
Creative team
Writer(s)	Mike Baron
Penciller(s)	Steve Rude
Collected editions
Volume 1	ISBN 1-59307-398-4

Nexus is an American comic book series created by writer Mike Baron and penciler Steve Rude in 1981. The series is a combination of the superhero and science fiction genres, set 500 years in the future.

Publication history

The series debuted as a three-issue black-and-white limited series (the third of which featured a 33 RPM flexi disc with music and dialogue from the issue), followed by an ongoing full-color series which lasted 80 issues. The black-and-white issues and the first six color issues were published by Capital Comics; after Capital's demise, First Comics took over publication.

On the creation of the series, Baron noted that they had originally pitched a series called Encyclopaedias to Capital Comics, but the company rejected this, saying they were looking for a superhero title. Over a drink at a restaurant, Baron outlined his ideas for Nexus to Rude:

Nexus was entirely Baron's idea. He even came up with the lightning bolt for the costume. All that we needed then was a name... a few weeks passed. Baron calls, and, without preamble, just says "Nexus." We finally had our name."

In addition to the ongoing series, First reprinted the original miniseries as a graphic novel and later reprinted the first two years of the ongoing title in the Nexus Legends series. The ongoing series was also supplemented by The Next Nexus, a four-issue miniseries that followed Nexus #52. Following the conclusion of the ongoing series with #80 (May 1991), seven miniseries and two one-shot comics were published by Dark Horse Comics. The last of these miniseries was printed in black and white as a cost-cutting measure; low sales led to the series being discontinued. Although each miniseries had its own issue numbering, Baron and Rude added a sequential number to each, as explained in the back of the first issue of Nexus: Executioner's Song:

The current issue number was figured by continuing First Publishing's numbering, which ended at volume 2, #80. Adding Nexus: The Origin, Nexus: Alien Justice #1-3, and Nexus: The Wages of Sin #1-4 brings it up to 88 — making "Dark Side of the Moon" #89.

The sequential numbering system excluded Nexus: Liberator (which neither Rude nor Baron worked on), and crossover specials with Magnus: Robot Fighter and Madman.

Baron and Rude discussed plans to either revive the series or release a movie, possibly in animated form. (A brief animated test clip was shown at comics conventions). From July 2007 through July 2009 they published the miniseries Space Opera, which culminated in a double-size issue #101/102.

The creators' canonical publication list includes 105 issues:

• Volume 1 (Black and White) - #1 - 3
• Volume 2 - #1 - 80
• Nexus: The Origin (#81)
• Nexus: Alien Justice (#82 - #84)
• Nexus: Wages of Sin (#85 - #88)
• Nexus: Executioner's Song (#89 - #92)
• Nexus: God Con (#93 - #94)
• Nexus: Nightmare in Blue (#95 - #98)
• Nexus: Space Opera (#99 - #102)

The series returned to publication in 2012 within the pages of Dark Horse Presents.

• Dark Horse Presents #12-14, Bad Moon Rising & Infestation
• Dark Horse Presents #23-26, #29-34 Into the Past

Horatio Hellpop

The lead character, Horatio Valdemar Hellpop, received his Nexus powers from an alien entity called the Merk. As payment, the Merk required Nexus to seek out and kill a certain quantity of human mass murderers per "cycle". When the Merk selected a target, Nexus would receive strong headaches and maddeningly anguishing dreams (whose extremely intense episodes caused physical injuries to Hellpop's body that emulated the dream violence) of his target's victims until he did his duty. Horatio was reluctant to act as the Merk's tool, but continued seeking out mass murderers to maintain his power and his sanity so that he could defend his homeworld, a lunar refuge of Ylum (a shortening of the word "asylum," thus pronounced "eye-lum").

Horatio's father, Theodore, was a communist general and ruler of the planet Vradic. A religious uprising led by his brother-in-law threatened to overthrow the Sov government, which he had been ordered to uphold "at all costs." General Hellpop chose to detonate a bomb and destroy the planet, killing ten million people, then piloted an escape capsule with himself and his wife into a black hole. Surprisingly, it was a wormhole, which ejected them near Ylum, where Horatio was born.

As Horatio grew up, the Merk first influenced him through apparently imaginary friends named Alph and Beta. However, when Horatio's mother died (becoming lost in the tunnels of the planet), Horatio blamed them for her death and killed them in the first use of his power. Shortly afterward, Horatio began to dream about his father's crimes, causing himself inescapable torment. In this agony, Alph and Beta mysteriously appeared to reveal the duties of Nexus necessary to end the ordeal: the execution of his own father. With considerable personal agony (and unaware that his father was already on the verge of suicide), Horatio carried out the execution.

Left alone for two years, Horatio began to dream of the murderous oppressors of the Thunes, led by the Manager, and set out to deal with them in costume as Nexus for the first time. After the execution was carried out, Nexus agreed to take the Thune prisoners to Ylum to protect them from reprisals. Ylum thus became an asylum world, with the Thune prisoner, Dave, becoming both senior manager and Horatio's closest confidant.

Nexus would often find himself in the painful position of assassinating someone who had repented their former days of infamy, and desired only to be left alone with their guilt. Several of his targets were completely ignorant that their shortsighted actions had inadvertently caused the deaths of others. Fortunately, at least one such target was allowed to commit suicide when confronted by Nexus (death by suicide was punishment enough to the killer to end Nexus's relevant dreams). For the most part, however, his targets were unrepentant murderers, a number of whom had enslaved or otherwise exploited their victims before causing their deaths, thus allowing Nexus to execute them with a clear conscience.

Stylistic influence

Both Baron and Rude paid homage to Space Ghost in their work on Nexus, including use of the battle cry "This calls for hyperspeed!" and including Space Ghost characters Jan, Jayce, and Blip in several uncredited background cameos. Rude was later hired to create a Space Ghost comic for Comico with writer Mark Evanier.

Steve Rude cited a number of influences on his clean, distinctive style, including Space Ghost character designs and other work by Alex Toth, and commercial illustrators of the 1940s and 1950s, particularly Andrew Loomis.

Baron's Nexus stories responded to the world he was writing in, with competing merchants overwhelming media channels (and telepathy) with advertising. A great computerized library, controlled the universe's memory of history. Some of his early 1980s references have become outdated, such as the menacing Sov empire.

Fusionkasting

The superpower of the Nexus universe, fusionkasting, psionically draws energy from the cores of stars (or other large sources on rare occasions). Many innate fusionkasters (the Merk and the Heads) can bestow their potential upon other individuals. This transference is said to fade over distance, but fusionkasters have been shown to be hundreds of light years from their sources with little decline in power. However, the link apparently cannot cross into other dimensions.

Most fusionkasters possess the abilities of flight, energy-beam projection that can be directionally controlled from the hands as desired, and force field creation (which can provide invulnerability to sufficiently powerful wielders). Nexus has demonstrated the use of eyebeams on at least one occasion. Super strength, telekinesis, and various degrees of telepathy are also common. Only Nexus and Plexus have demonstrated a substantially wider range of applications, including energy absorption, matter creation, transmutation, and teleportation.

The Nexus Universe

• The Merk are a race of titan-like First Ones who established an interstellar civilization thousands or millions of years ago, and created the role of Nexus. Many (or all) Merk possessed powerful fusionkasting. Most of them have departed our galaxy to points unknown; the few who remain (including Ylum's eponymous Merk) may or may not be typical of their race.
• Drizripool is the "original" Merk, the Ylum's eponymous Merk. Left in a slumbering state in Ylum's core, he made contact with Horatio, seemingly creating Alph and Beta from his subconscious mind, to teach and guide him the ways of the Merk, and granting humanity someone able to uphold the ideals of justice common to the Merk. Aside from bestowing his powers to Horatio and, later, to other selected individuals, Drizripool is responsible for keeping Ylum orbit stable and replenishing the healing tank used by Nexus, using a special fluid, who he calls The blood of Merk. Drizripool is also partly insane, his insanity growing with the distance from the Merk continuum.
• GQ, first foreshadowed in dialogues, is the second Merk of Ylum. Originally sent to bring Drizripool back to their people because of his insanity, he elects to stay behind, allowing Ylum and the Nexus to continue their roles in the universe. Despite being saner and more levelheaded than Drizripool, GQ is less powerful than his predecessor, who he calls "gifted", being able to feed Nexus only with the 20% of the energy Drizripool was able to grant him. Also, GQ confesses to Sundra that someday he may fall prey to the same insanity affecting Drizripool.
• Kimbo is a third Merk, apparently stationed on Earth, where he recruited Plexus to his cause. While Drizripool and GQ tasked their Nexus to find and kill criminals, Kimbo believes in rehabilitation and forgiveness, asking Plexus to bring the criminals to him for rehab. Noticeably, GQ and Kimbo refuse to acknowledge each other's existence, each believing the other an Insane superego of the Merk left behind by our people.
• Ylum is Horatio's home, a moon in a distant stellar system with a burgeoning population of immigrants. It has a substantial network of underground tunnels and Merk ruins.
• The Cohesive Web is the largest human government, some form of federation or republic with its capital on Earth. Many of the Web's agencies have used unethical means in their efforts to obtain new energy sources.
• Thunes are an intelligent ape-like race. The Thunes were formerly enslaved by a human dictator called The Manager, who became the target of Horatio's first public execution.
• Quatros are a brutal cyclopean race named for their four arms. They are superhumanly strong and quick. Very few Quatros are sufficiently civilized to live amongst other beings without bloodshed. Quartos are exceptionally large in stature compared to humans.
• Heads are decapitated sentients who gained limited telekinetic powers in the process. Slavers and unscrupulous governments have created perhaps millions of Heads for use as energy generators. Individual Heads are somewhat more powerful than most humanoid races, and tens of thousands of Heads linked together (voluntarily or otherwise) can reach power levels comparable to Nexus. Many Heads have cloned hands from their tissue samples to use in their new lives, and others make use of mechanical bodies or vehicles. Nexus and Lance worked together to open Kreed's vault, an impossible act for anyone without four arms. The multi-facet skills of the Heads make them highly sought after for all types of contract work. Heads are from all races and species of humanoids and extraterrestrial lifeforms.
• Bad Brains were renegade Heads who branched off from the mainstream group led by Raul. They migrated to their own world, Brainworld, and later declared war on the Heads. The Bad Brains physical appearance was marked by the visible sight of their brains encased in a transparent canister. The Bad Brains commissioned Stan Koritvitsky and provided him fusionkasting after Drizripool cut him off, and required Stan to assassinate their enemies, some of whom were certifiably non-human. Stan continued in this capacity as Nexus, bringing a bad name to the franchise and Ylum. A little known secret was exposed in the aftermath of the battle between Horatio and Stan. The Bad Brains had gained possession of genetic material from Michana Loomis after she was obliterated by Scarlett and Sheena, and her unique brainwaves were the heart of their base to channel fusion power. In the ashes of the Bad Brains ultimate destruction, Michana Loomis was able to reconstitute her physical body.
• Headworld is Ylum's formerly uninhabited twin, now home to the many Heads who have been freed by Nexus or Judah. It contains ruins almost identical to Ylum, but in a greater state of disrepair.
• Brainworld is a currently uninhabited planet that was home to the renegade Heads, the Bad Brains. The Bad Brains met their demise when Stan and Horatio engaged in fusionkasting combat and they channeled all of their energy through Stan. When Horatio killed Stan, the overload fried the collective Bad Brain community, destroying them all and leaving their world barren.
• The Sov Empire is an oppressive communist regime based on the Brezhnev-era Soviet Union. Horatio's father, General Theodore Hellpop, was a prominent leader in the Sov Empire. The Sovs invaded Ylum after Horatio killed General Krough and Horatio has made several trips there in the disguise of a Sov officer, usually as the son of General Hellpop.
• The Gucci (etymology unknown but probably related to Gucci fashion) are a multiracial organization of assassins for hire with a strict code of conduct. Their homeworld Acacia has a space elevator and a damping field which blocks all forms of power, including fusionkasting. When Guccis return to Acacia to tell of their accomplishments, the vendettas between individuals that are settled result in a large body count. All Guccis are sworn to kill anyone who interferes with the operation of the elevator.
• Alvinites are followers of a popular religion with rituals similar to those of mainstream Christianity. However, Alvinite tenets are left unspecified in the story.
• Elvonics are followers a neo-luddite religion which is not averse to stealing other people's technology for use in their holy missions. Alvin and Elvon were separate individuals who arose nearly simultaneously; each church believes that the other impugns its good name.
• The Great Library of Alexandria is an intergalaxy library that houses scrolls, manuscripts, writings, journals and books from the most influential scholars in history from all of the known galaxies. The library is a place where the greatest minds often meet and discuss life, politics, philosophy and all other academic matters and intellectual pursuits. Nexus was the first person in the Web an offer to join the Library was extended to in the form of a "BookMobile", and shortly after, he brought Sundra and Dave along with him. The Library issues a Library Card that Nexus has used to great effect, giving him license in all manners of official law enforcement, military and government authority.

• Flatlandia is a world people are divided among the lines of haves and have nots, where class warfare factions erupted into a full scale war after Nexus assassinated the planet's Warlord. Once war broke out, Rashid, the leader of the lower class faction, tried to convince Nexus to lead the war in his place as he lay dying. Nexus refused, and left Flatlandia with Rashid's mother, younger brother Casper and his sisters, taking them to Ylum to start a new life. Casper became a promising young politician on Ylum, but his prominence drew Swerdlow's ire, and a death squad was brought in to assassinate Casper. Horatio was by Casper's side as he breathed his last breath, and the waste of Casper's potential moved him to return to Flatlandia in his post-Nexus life to alleviate the suffering from the many casualties of the war. Horatio lived a modest, humble life on Flatlandia and found peace with himself. But The Loomis Sister tracked him there, and as Drizripool's new Nexus, they were on the verge of assassinating him until Horatio's daughters, Scarlett and Sheena, intervened and engaged the Loomis sisters in fusionkasting combat and defeated them.

Supporting characters

• Dave is a wise elderly Thune who convinced Nexus to open Ylum as a haven for political refugees. Dave has been a mentor to Nexus and his son Judah (to a lesser extent), and a confidant to Tyrone in his duties as President of Ylum. Dave's years as a political prisoner on Thune and the hardships he has endured have given him an inner strength that Ylum's inner circle have come to rely on, from Horatio, Tyrone and even Kreed. Dave convinced Tyrone that Ylum's policies toward refugees needed to be altered after the Elvonics led by Nexus' uncle, Brother Lathe, raided the armory and stole powerful weapons built for Ylum's defense by the Heads in their attempt to destroy the Gravity Well.

Dave is on the Gucci's Preferred Survivor List, which means that any Gucci who dares to carry out a mission to kill him would be an outcast and targeted for death. Kreed entrusted Dave to carry out his will after his arrest for the incident on Mars for which he was sentenced to death. Dave has a library card from the Great Library of Alexandria. Dave administered the medication to Kreed and Sinclair to cure them of the Killing Disease. Dave is also a friend, confidant and mentor to Sundra and Jil.

• Judah Maccabee, alias The Hammer of God, is Dave's brash son, a skilled martial artist trained in the Zengu order and freelance adjudicator. Judah is Horatio's best friend and frequent companion on Horatio's missions. Judah was taken from Dave and his mother Elva when he was a very small boy on the eve of the imprisonment of Dave and many Thune citizens who opposed humans taking control of their government. He had previously received fusionkasting from the Heads in exchange for his services, and has an indestructible sword which absorbs energy and amplifies his power. Judah lived briefly as a Head when he went after Clausius. The Hammer suffered a rare defeat, his head was brought online on one of Clausius' ships and his headless body was returned to Ylum. Nexus and a group of elite Heads set out to find Judah, located him among tens of thousands of others and liberated an untold number of more Heads in the process.

Judah's friendship and partnership with the Heads was well established before the Clausius incident, but being converted into a Head gave him a more personal understanding into the Heads cause. Judah often ignores Dave's advice with regret after his ideas sometimes backfire. Judah was the first combatant to defeat the Gucci trained Quarto Kreed in battle, an epic bloodbath in which Judah had to resort to using weapons against the superior hand-to-hand fighter Kreed quickly proved to be. Judah took up arms to even the odds, cut off two of Kreed's hands and inflicted multiple stab wounds to him. Even though Nexus regenerated the hands for him, Kreed harbored a grudge for The Hammer over the incident for years. Judah helped Nexus to end Kreed and Sinclair's murderous rampage on Mars when they caught the Killing Disease. Judah and the Heads parted company after many years of service on good terms, but Judah has learned other ways to tap into fusion power. With or without fusionkasting, Judah is The Hammer!

• Sundra Peale was a human spy from Mars who became Horatio's lover. Their relationship has been complicated and has endured numerous hardships, including Horatio's frequent bouts of depression and Ursula's second seduction of Horatio when Ursula brought Scarlett and Sheena to Ylum to meet their father for the first time. Sundra fell in love with Horatio when Ursula first dispatched her to Ylum to gather intelligence on Nexus. Ursula confronted Sundra about her infrequent reporting on Nexus after her arrival to Ylum and demanded to know if she had fallen in with Horatio during an official visit to Ylum to discuss how Nexus' use of fusionkasting drained stars. The two women ended up in a bloody fist fight in which Ursula prevailed and had Sundra put on trial.

Sundra unsuccessfully tried to kill an increasingly irrational Stanisiaus (Stan) Korivitsky, who began choosing his own targets to eliminate as a result of Drizripool cutting him off from the fusionkasting power and his growing appetite to kill after he murdered Brother Lathe. Stan was taking out innocents along with those on the Merk's list. Ylum suffered from its association with the Nexus franchise after the Loomis Sisters tenure and Stan's recklessness. Tyrone disassociated Ylum from Stan and his tenure as Nexus at this and ignored Sundra's warnings that his actions were not enough to change public perception that Nexus was synonymous with Ylum so she sought to deal with the matter herself.

But Sundra also saved a powerless Stan's life when a mechanical replica of Cronin was dispatched by the Scorporation to kill Stan for executing it's entire Board of Directors, using her insider knowledge as a shareholder to override the android's programming. Sundra received the rare treat of fusionkasting from GQ and assisted Horatio in tracking down the last of Drizripool's appointed Nexus assassins, a group of murderers that Drizripool would have commissioned Horatio to execute before he went insane. Sundra saved Ursula's life when she stopped the Drizripool appointed Elizabeth Borden from killing Ursula at Michana Loomis' request.

Sundra has a library card from the Great Library of Alexandria and was once asked to become the institution's Head Librarian. Sundra has been present at the most pivotal times in the history of Ylum and Horatio's tenure as Nexus, marking her as an important leader, and in fact, Sundra actually won the presidency over Tyrone in an election, only to step down when she became pregnant and turned the reigns back over to Tyrone. Sundra and Horatio have a son, Harry, and they live together as a family. Sundra remains by Horatio's side through thick and thin and continues to inspire him.

• Ursula XX Imada was a high official in the Cohesive Web, a confidant to President Oglethorpe and the master spy who commanded Sundra. Ursula later became the ruler of Procyon. She is skilled in many fields of study and possesses partial mind control effective on most males. She seduced Horatio and secretly bore his twin daughters, Sheena and Scarlett, who are unskilled but powerful innate fusionkasters. Ursula has made several trips to Ylum undetected, but on one occasion, she was discovered by Sundra at the excavation site left by Drizripool. Ursula correctly deducted that Horatio's abilities could be passed on to their offspring after concluding that his power wasn't technology based.

Ursula hinged bets on the prospect of the Web's destruction at the collapse of the Gravity Well, which could have potentially given her absolute power. At stake was the lives of 400 billion sentients, information that Ursula sat on, waiting for the events at Gravity Well on unfold as she did with the destruction of Periwinkle. Ursula waited to take power as Gravity Well was on the verge of collapse, but the unthinkable happened when Nexus saved the Web. For these reasons, Horatio has contemplated executing Ursula on occasion, but ultimately decided against it because she is the mother of his twins, a move Ursula may have orchestrated to ensure her survival when she seduced him.

Ursula still has genuine feelings for Horatio, as evidenced by a return trip to Ylum with the daughters Horatio didn't even know he had and becoming intimate with him again, using the girls as pawns to toy with him, keeping them away from him, acts of a scorned woman. Horatio, however, sees Ursula as a sycophant, someone who only loves power and control. Ursula has no real way of stopping Horatio from seeing the girls when he wants to, and even she acknowledges this fact. At the God Con, a demon conjured an image of Ursula ruling the galaxy at Horatio's side with him wearing the uniform of General Hellpop with the Nexus lighting emblems.

Ursula has never stopped trying to belittle or discredit Horatio to their daughters. She even implied that Horatio killed his father General Hellpop because he molested Horatio once the story went public, to the girls' disbelief. Ursula ultimately proved Horatio to be right about her when she killed Sundra's best friend and business partner, Jil, after Sundra had saved Ursula's life on at least two occasions. Jil's murder at Ursula's hands revealed nothing new about Ursula, but it was a revelation that Sundra always knew would come down to between herself and Ursula. Ursula felt that she lost some power over Horatio when Sundra bore Horatio's son, Harry, and she went to the extreme act of kidnapping their baby and killing anyone who tried to stop her. Sundra and Ursula engaged in a fight in which Sundra brought Ursula to the brink of death.Even this desperate act by Ursula wasn't enough to push Horatio over the edge and assassinate her, but Sundra made the proclamation that she knows she will ultimately have to kill Ursula to end her threat over hers and Horatio's lives once and for all.

• Sheena and Scarlett are Nexus' identical twin daughters and powerful fusionkasters in their own right. Ursula begrudgingly tasked Judah The Hammer in training the twins in using their abilities on the advice of the Hammer's friend LaDonna, but was convinced by Big Nurse that his intentions were for the overall good of the girls. Judah's services were later dismissed by Ursula during a disagreement between the two when she realized the full extent of the friendship between Horatio and Judah. Scarlett and Sheena have proven to be very loyal to their father despite Ursula's objections, and disobeyed her orders not to leave Procyon when the Loomis sisters were on the verge of executing Horatio. They defeated the Loomis sisters on Flatlandia in a duel of fusionkasting powers. The girls have grown into opinionated and independent young women. Sheena shares a telepathic bond with Horatio, and the girls continue to follow every news lead of their father and to see him when the opportunity presents itself.

• Clausius is a dastardly slaver who commanded hundreds of thousands of beheadings for the unscrupulous purpose of generating fusion. Nexus has battled him several times, although as a non-human he is not subject to the Merk's bane. The Heads beheaded Clausius and made him into one of them. While in captivity, Clausius slowly mastered control of his telepathic and telekinetic abilities, waiting for the opportunity to gain control over enough Heads to make his escape. Clausius finally escaped with the help of Comrade Konstantin, who used a post-hypnotic suggestion Clausius had in place as a fail safe to regain control of the Heads.

• Jacques Bravo, alias The Anvil, a rotund wrestler and poetaster who appears sporadically as a foil to Judah.

• Christian is a lion humanoid mercenary/soldier-of-fortune who is good friends with Judah. "Chris" as Judah calls him, frequently collaborates on missions with The Hammer and they have been known to throw back a few brews and seek out the companionship of lovely ladies after their adventures. The two work hard and play harder.

• Brother Lathe was Horatio's uncle and a high-ranking priest of Elvon. Before Horatio was born, Lathe was a constant thorn in the side of General Theodore Hellpop while he was in command of Vradic, with his group of Elvonics. On one occasion when General Hellpop had Lathe locked up, Lathe's sister, Marlis, appealed to General Hellpop to release him. General Hellpop and Marlis later fell in love and were married in an Elvonic church in a ceremony Lathe presided over, very much against the wishes of the Sov Empire. Lathe has also caused great trouble for Horatio, who is loathe to harm his only living relative. During a visit to Ylum, Lathe was arrested after he attempted to breach Kreed's armory, bribe law enforcement officers and recruit refugees into his group of Elvonics. After promising Horatio he would abide by the local laws, Lathe and his followers stole a powerful Head commissioned spacecraft, the Devilfish, from Ylum while Horatio was visiting the Great Library of Alexandria with Dave. He proceeded to the Gravity Well where the Space Station Stacy, named after General Loomis' oldest daughter, was positioned to siphon energy for the Web. Nexus stopped Brother Lathe from destroying the station. Horatio could never bring himself to harm Lathe, his only living relative besides his daughters, but Stan Korivitsky, a Drizripool appointed Nexus after the Loomis sisters, beheaded Brother Lather during an encounter against the Elvonics. Lathe's murder of Stan's lover, Sister Sonia, was the act that pushed Stan over the edge and fueled his love for killing.

• Eugene Tilson was a charlatan masquerading as the god Elvon. He became an Elvonic while in prison and decided to manipulate the faithful by becoming the physical embodiment of Elvon in order to unite all of the Elvonic factions. He led the Elvonics to Procyon after they were deported from Ylum, but did not try the ruse with Ursula. He told her who he was forthright. The incident in which Stan Korivitsky killed Brother Lathe and 42 Elvonics festered among the faithful, and Tilson ultimately decided to attack Ylum in retaliation. This brazen act brought Tilson into direct conflict with Drizripool The Merk himself, and the Merk destroyed Tilson for daring to threaten the existence of the Merk's home. Tilson's death left Ursula with absolute power over the Elvonic masses.

• Kreed was a Quatro Gucci assassin who pledged alliance to Nexus after aimlessly wondering and killing without purpose, believing Horatio's cause to be just and noble. Standing over eight feet tall, Kreed was an extremely skilled fighter who even Judah The Hammer acknowledged couldn't be beaten in conventional hand-to-hand combat with his four arms. Kreed brought an extensive arsenal of weapons with him to Ylum that he maintained in an existing armory that he improved with security devices and booby traps. This armory also housed Horatio's tank and living quarters.

Kreed only allowed select members of Horatio's inner circle access to the vault and guarded the entrance against anyone who had intention of invading Horatio's privacy. Nexus provided Kreed and Sinclair a list of murderers selected by Drizripool to assassinate against the advice of Judah. The two Quatros went on a killing frenzy on Mars, contracting the killing disease and taking out thousands of innocent targets along with the condemned on Nexus' list. Their murderous rampage made them the most wanted bounty in the Web. Kreed felt great shame at his and Sinclair's actions, which included eating some of the victims, and received extensive counseling from Dave afterward. He later surrendered to Mars authorities after a confrontation with two Gucci assassins he killed made him realize that Nexus would never be accepted by the Web as long as he was free.

Martian authorities scheduled Kreed's execution and only allowed VIPs like Sundra, Dave and Mezz and his band mates to see him. Vooper served as Kreed's attorney. After Nexus saved the Web from sinking into the Gravity Well artificial black hole and hundreds of billions of lives in the process, he was able to use the goodwill from his heroic actions to negoiate Kreed's release. But Kreed committed ritual suicide before Nexus could stop him. At the reading of Kreed's will, his armory and weapons stockpile was given to Ylum and later used by Tyrone for its defense. While Kreed's death helped to put the Mars incident behind Nexus and Ylum, it also led to Horatio temporarily abandoning his duties as Nexus.

• Sinclair is a Quatro Gucci assassin who pledged allegiance to Nexus after meeting Kreed. Like Kreed, Sinclair is a master of all forms of combat and was undefeated in battle until he and Kreed were stopped by Nexus and Judah on their murderous rampage on Mars upon contracting the killing disease. Sinclair first met Kreed during Tedesko's invasion of Ylum when Kreed, Claude and Ned boarded Steve Le Berg's ship. Sinclair's size is very close to that of Kreed, over eight tall in height, but he is heavier, and without the muscle definition of Kreed. After receiving counseling from Dave, Sinclair disappeared. Martian officials sought his whereabouts with the same sense of urgency as they sought to bring Kreed to justice.

Sinclair resurfaced after Kreed's death when he decapitated a clone that Nexus made from Kreed's detached arm left in the armory after Kreed's encounter with the Gucci assassions Roberta and Duncan. The Kreed clone was on the verge of ending an energy depleted Horatio's life when Sinclair intervened and saved Horatio. Sinclair also reset the security features to the vault that was disabled by some of the Heads when Tyrone raided the vault in Ylum's most desperate hour of need. Sinclair easily defeated the Nexus appointed Stanisiaus Korivitsky, who tried to execute Sinclair's employer, Christopher Swabado, without fusionkasting power that Drizripool stripped him of, but nevertheless, as a trained Gucci assassin, he attempted to carry out the execution. Sinclair later did not interfere with Horatio's execution of Swabado, as he remembered his pledge to Horatio.

• Robar was a dread-locked Quatro Gucci who was appointed as one of Drizripool's successors when he withdrew the power from Horatio and appointed a group of new Nexus'. Robar violated the Quatro code of killing his own kind when he assassinated Quatro politician Pez Bandol and his bodyguard. The Quirmbach Nexus was manipulated by Ursula into using her telepathy to control Robar when he attempted to take out another Quarto politician. Robar unwillingly used the fusionkasting power on himself, and was obliterated to pieces in a widely broadcast public spectacle.

• Mezzrow is a young Giz who came to Ylum as a refugee and later started a band of inter-galaxy renown. Mezz, as he is called, is a friend of Horatio, Sundra and Dave. Mezz was inquisitive as a youngster and often got in trouble by being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Mezz once witnessed an illegal transaction involving a Web official that put his life in jeopardy, but Jil came to his aid and soundly whipped the official. Jil later became one of Mezz's biggest fans. Mezz and his band mates were allowed to visit Kreed on Death Row because of their celebrity status. Mezz and his band toured the Web in the midst of the imminent destruction of Gravity Well and the universe. Their efforts quelled the fears of many, an extraordinary display of bravery in the face of chaos.

• Jaxon is an adolescent Quarto who is a member of Mezzrow's band. He was a young refugee like Mezz and Tony. He was also a frequent companion of Kreed and Sinclair, often playing with as a Quartos three piece ensemble, which once prompted Swerdlow to attempt to have them arrested. Jaxon was able to approach Kreed and deactivate his force field so Dave could administer the antidote for the killing disease during the Mars incident.

• Tony is a young man of African descent who is a member is Mezz's band. He was a young refugee like Mezz and Jaxon. Tony has gathered vital intelligence for Horatio, Sundra and Tyrone from time to time by blending into crowds and spotting potential threats.

• Mary is a young woman from the Sov Empire who came to Ylum as a refugee and sought out Nexus to rescue her uncle, a famous poet and progressive who was jailed for being outspoken. Marked by the refugee gangs as fresh off the boat, Tony and Jaxon saved Mary from being taken advantage of, and Kreed saved her when the gang members retaliated by trying to rape and possibly kill her. Kreed then took Mary to meet Nexus, and Horatio made the trip to the Sov Empire to free her uncle, who decided to remain a political prisoner. Mary was given full citizenship on Ylum and later became a member of Mezz's band.

• Leopold Bold is Mary's uncle. He is a political prisoner in the Sov Empire for promoting faith and his strong belief in God. Nexus went into a Sov prison to free Leopold, but Leopold chose to remain in bondage. Nexus strong-armed the Sov prison officials to allow Leopold to write in peace unless they want to face his wrath.

• Fuezro , a "cool dude", was among the earliest of Ylum's refugees. He works in an official capacity for Horatio, Sundra, Dave and Tyrone, a jack-of-all trades. Fuezro is known for being cool under pressure and for his levelheadedness.

• Selby is a Head who serves as Judah's navigator aboard the Hammer's ship, the Hammerhead. Selby is ingenious at his job and indispensable to Judah, who tolerates Selby's eccentricities. Selby often takes delight in tormenting Judah with the prospect of leaving and taking his services elsewhere. Unlike most Heads, Selby's decapitation was the result of a horrible accident, which may contribute to his off-balance behavior.

• Ned is a Head who has proven to be a more than capable warrior. He has accompanied Kreed and Sinclair on missions.

• Otto is a warrior Head who is a genius at strategy. He is one of the Heads most capable leaders.

• Father Mark is a Head who was formerly a Sov Priest. The Sov Empire put him online among the Heads they used as generators. Father Mark chose to remain a Head after Nexus found him among thousands of others. Father Mark saw that he could be of service to others facing an uncertain future as Heads, and decided to continue to serve in his capacity as a priest for all of them.

• Plexus is an anti-Nexus of African origin (Zimbabwe) from Nexus: Executioner's Song #3. He is also a fusionkaster and has his own Merk sponsor, Kimbo. He represents mercy and rehabilitation. Plexus engaged Nexus in a fusionkasting duel that tapped energy from every available power source in their vicinity. The Heads, led by Raul, collectively delivered an overpowering telepathic message to the two men to stop their battle and provide aid to all who were put in harm's way because of the massive blackouts they caused. Nexus appealed to GQ and Kimbo for each sponsor to remove the power from himself and Plexus so they could resolve their differences. Nexus then quickly killed the object of his and Plexus' battle, mass murderer, Robert Barbera, to Plexus' outrage. CQ and Kimbo then engaged in their own duel and abandoned Nexus and Plexus, leaving them to make their way back home using conventional means of transportation. Plexus discovered that many people opposed his views on rehabilitating murderers and found them beyond saving, preferring Nexus' means of dealing with them.

• Clonezone is a comedian Lizigator who claims to have killed with a joke. He is a friend of Horatio and Judah who frequently has served as comic foil throughout the Nexus series. Clonezone is a braggart, obnoxious, boisterous, irrepressible and has been accused of not being funny.

• Vosker is a Lizigator who is a high ranking entertainment executive and media personality. He makes frequent deals with Vooper and Honest Crocus. Vosker scored the deal with Vooper for the exclusive rights to market Kreed's life story with all of the merchandising licenses to sell videos, toys and other paraphernalia. Vosker appears less frequently than Clonezone, and he appears to be of a higher class than his Lizigator brethren, and never used as comic relief.

• Tyrone is the President of Ylum. An early member of Horatio's refugees, Tyrone's diplomatic skills have has taken him to the highest elected office of Ylum. Tyrone has a penchant for ruthlessly violent methods despite Horatio's disapproval. But Tyrone has been able to persuade Horatio time and time again that the use of deadly force is sometimes necessary to put down those would harm the innocent without provocation. Tyrone has also convinced Horatio that he can't be everywhere and that Ylum needs a true operating government to maintain the peace with law and order. Tyrone led the raid of Kreed's armory and using his arsenal in the defense of Ylum when it was under attack. Dave serves as an advisor, confidant, chess rival and political sparring partner of Tyrone. The two often have philosophical differences about how to best serve the Ylum community and bicker over the most trivial matters sometimes, but they are very good friends.

• Raul is the Head Head, so to speak. He is the leader of the Heads who originally was among the first group of refugees on Ylum. As refugees, Raul and Tyrone often conspired to take revenge on their enemies, and made frequent raids of weapons vaults on Ylum. This was before Kreed came to Ylum with his own personal cache of weapons, took command of the Weapons vaults and set up extensive security features to keep others out. The Heads all later migrated to Ylum's twin, which became Headworld, after Nexus and Judah liberated hundreds of thousands of heads in the servitude of Clausius. Raul secretly allowed the Loomis sisters access to the chambers and tank identical to Nexus' on Headworld in their efforts to contact Drizripool under the condition that they would not take action against Horatio during their visit.

• Trigard was the President of Mars during the events of Gravity Well and the Kreed/Sinclair Massacre. Trigard was essentially a good man like General Loomis, but a bit more vulnerable to corruption. Trigard was not privy to the details of the means Rotridge and Senator Po used to bring Kreed to justice. Nexus asked Trigard to spare Kreed from execution after he saved Gravity Well and the orbiting station Stacy. Kreed committed ritual suicide in spite of Trigard giving him his freedom to bring an end to the hostilities between Ylum and Mars. The aftermath of Kreed's death was a time of uncertainty on Mars and Trigard found himself scrambling to survive day to day. Trigard planned to escape, but was delayed by his wife's refusal to leave Mars without getting her furs from the dry cleaning service first. Trigard himself hoarded money and other valuable possessions from Mars treasury aboard his ship, but he and his wife were executed along with Rotridge by the Loomis sisters before they could escape.

• Oglethorpe was the President of the Web. He resided at the Presidential Palace in Atlanta, the Capital of the Web. Oglethorpe's attempt to meet the energy needs of the Web resulted in his manipulating black holes. The results were catastrophic, and the black holes sucked in the planet Periwinkle, killing all 500,000 inhabitants. These actions put Oglethorpe on Nexus's list and Horatio made the trip to the Web in spectacular fashion, flying his ship seemingly ablaze through the entire Web Fleet, while he covertly made his way to Earth disguised as a barge ship. Oglethorpe's panic heightened as Nexus drew closer and closer, until Nexus was in the same room as Oglethorpe. Nexus then simply killed Oglethorpe with a blaster instead of his fusionkasting power, recognizing that the assassin Twilly was waiting for him to use his power so he could use the feedback to kill Nexus too.

• Zeiffer Meird was a Giz warlord of the same race as Mezz. Nexus dreamed of executing the Zeiffer, but chose not to carry out the sentence. Meird politically staged the death of his wife at the hands of Nexus, when in reality, she died as part of a suicide pact between herself and the Zeiffer. Nexus arrived before the Zeiffer could poison himself and allowed the Zeiffer to live with the guilt of his wife's death. It was a mistake on the part of Nexus to allow Meird to live, because the Zeiffer invaded Ylum after Horatio gave up the uniform in an effort to assassinate Sundra as revenge of his wife. Zeiffer Meird also orchestrated the prison break of Swerdlow, who sought power for himself, namely Tryone's job as President. Zeiffer Meird commissioned a Gucci assassin, Zwiffel, to carry out the execution of Sundra. Judah The Hammer penetrated Zeiffer Meird's defenses, made Meird reveal the hide out of Zwiffel, and killed Meird while he disabled the force field that protected Zwiffel in order to prevent him from killing Sundra.

• Comrade Konstantin is a Sov commander and member of the Central Committee who has the appearance of a young boy, but in reality, he is a mass murderer who is responsible for the be-headings of untold numbers of sentients for the purpose of making them into Heads. He and Clausius escaped Headworld and a certain fate after Konstantin used a post-hypnotic suggestion Clausius had in place to free himself from the Heads for the time when they would seek justice against him. Konstantin may possess empathetic abilities; he was able to detect Nexus' presence even though Horatio was disguised as a Sov officer.

• Colonel Yabokov is a Sov officer who serves as Konstantin's protector. He is half-man, half-machine (cyborg), with powerful, spring loaded hydraulic legs and a cannon for his right hand. Yabokov's upper torso is built like a bull gorilla. His height is comparable to that of Kreed's.

• Commander Dimitri Tedesko led the invasion of Ylum by the Sov Fleet for Nexus killing General Krough. He made a deal with the pirate Steve Le Berg, who provided deficiencies in Ylum's orbital defenses to Tedesko. Tedesko brought along Fusion Soldiers to engage in fusionkasting combat with Nexus while the Sov Fleet attacked Ylum. Horatio was stripped of his power while all of this was happening and had to resort to opening Kreed's vault to provide defense for Ylum with the assistance of Lance while Kreed and Claude were in orbit trying to avoid being detected by the Sov Fleet. Le Berg quickly realized that he was in over his head dealing with Tedesko, who had no intention of keeping his word to share power with Le Berg. Tedesko used Le Berg and all of his cruel, crude methods to achieve his ends and planned to give Le Berg nothing in return.

Once Horatio caught up on his allotted executions and his power was restored, he was able to bring the situation under control and Tedesko lost most of his fleet and his advantage over Le Berg. Sinclair made an alliance with Kreed during the invasion and Le Berg betrayed the Quatros plan to destroy the Sov Flagship. Once Le Berg revealed to Tedesko that Kreed and Sinclair were aboard, the two men quietly abandoned ship, leaving Tedesko's crew to a certain death. After Nexus defeated Tedesko's fleet, Tedesko remained in orbit on Ylum, awaiting his presumed fate at the hands of Nexus. This "honorable act" infuriated Le Berg, who was desperate to survive. Le Berg and Tedesko got into a fist fight, both expecting Nexus to execute them afterward. Nexus refused to kill Tedesko and hauled Le Berg out into space, leaving Tedesko to ponder his fate. Tedesko took a blaster and committed suicide rather than return to the Sov Empire in disgrace.

• Claude is Vice-President of Ylum. Like Tyrone, he was one of the first refugees. Claude is detailed oriented almost to the point of being neurotic, but his intentions are good. Claude believes in non-violent means, in stark contrast to Tyrone's willingness to use violence to achieve certain goals. Kreed had to save Claude from being killed once because of his pacifist ways. Claude is a valuable asset to Tyrone but often believes that Tyrone doesn't take him seriously. Claude was instrumental in negotiating peace talks with the Heads through Lance. Claude also assisted Horatio during his sabbatical on Flatlandia by working in Horatio's clinic to help the sick, in the tradition of his diplomatic and pacifist means of serving the poor and disadvantaged.

• Lance is a high ranking Head official who was instrumental in brokering important diplomatic ties with Ylum. He and Ylum's Vice President Claude were able to get important work done despite the public posturing of Tyrone and Raul, who couldn't agree to meet each other as the Leader of their respective planets. When Ylum was under attack by the Sov Fleet and its numerous Fusion Soldiers designed to combat Nexus, Drizripool stripped Horatio of his power during the attack for falling behind on his executions, leaving Ylum potentially defenseless. Horatio was unable to convince Drizripool that the Sovs posed a threat to his existence and told Horatio he would have to fend for himself without the power. Lance and Horatio opened Kreed's vault, bypassing all the booby traps Kreed put in place. Lance and Claude later brokered an important deal that utilized the Heads services as terraformers and technology and weapons experts to enhance Ylum's Defense systems already implemented by Kreed, Clyde and Mario.

• Mario was appointed Ylum's Provost Marshal by Clyde. He was among the earliest refugees on Ylum. An expert pilot and a member of Horatio's inner circle, Mario's appearance is that of an anthropomorphic rabbit. Mario was instrumental in developing a Defense system for Ylum.

• Clyde was a General and trusted ally of Kreed who occasionally carried out the security detail for Kreed's armory. Kreed and Clyde formulated a defense apparatus for Ylum that would defend the planet in Nexus' absence. Their goal was to ultimately protect Ylum without the assistance of Nexus. Swerdlow's manipulations allowed the Gucci assassins Roberta and Duncan access to the armory so they could set a trap for Kreed. The two Guccis killed Clyde while he was guarding the vault.

• Swerdlow was Secretary of State on Ylum. Swerdlow was suspicious of Nexus and outright distrusting of Kreed, Judah and even Dave, to Tyrone's disapproval. The President often checked Swerdlow for his ingratitude, hostility and insults towards Ylum's greatest heroes and most beloved citizens. Swerdow was not included in Horatio's inner circle and denied access to Kreed's vault, Horatio's quarters and any knowledge of Nexus' activities, which infuriated him. Swerdlow used any information he could gather to interfere with Nexus' agenda and once alerted Ursula of Nexus making a trip to Procyon to see his daughters.

Swerdlow's secret deal with Mars officials to take Kreed dead or alive set the events in motion that enabled the Gucci assassins Roberta and Duncan to make their way into Kreed's armory and attack him. Swerdlow did have some redeeming qualities in his job as Secretary of State; he once arrested Horatio's Uncle, Brother Lathe, during a visit to Ylum for numerous offenses, much to Horatio's embarrassment after Dave and Tyrone explained the nature of Lathe's activities. But it wasn't beneath Swerdlow to have potential political opponents and those he disliked killed, evidenced by the Gucci's killing Clyde when they raided Kreed's armory and the assassination of the young, ambitious refugee from Flatlandia, Casper Wineburger.

Swerdlow was later arrested for numerous counts of treason and placed into prison. Zeiffer Meird later arranged Swerdlow's prison break, which revealed Swerdlow's desire to assassinate Tyrone and rule Ylum. Swerdlow disappeared after Zeiffer Meird's attempted assassination of Sundra, an event in which the Zeiffer was killed by Judah, but not before the Gucci assassin commissioned by the Zeiffer, Zwiffer, informed Swerdlow that the Guccis were all aware of his feud with Kreed and his efforts to have Kreed killed or brought before Mars officials. Swerdlow is in hiding, fearing the repercussions of his actions and that Nexus or the Guccis will ultimately assassinate him for his treasonous actions.

• Casper Wineburger was a young refugee who Nexus rescued along with his mother and sisters from Flatlandia after he executed that planet's Warlord. Soon after his arrival to Ylum, Casper became an ambitious and highly influential young politician who had aspirations to ascend to Ylum's highest elected office. He served as Tyrone's campaign manager. Swerdlow viewed Casper as a threat and had him assassinated in the catacombs of Ylum by a death squad from Flatlandia. Casper's death inspired Horatio to return to Flatlandia for a time to make restitution for the chaos created because he took out the Warlord.

• Rashid was Casper's older brother and the leader of the revolution against the upper class oppression of Flatlandia's poor. Rashid was among the thousands of witnesses as Nexus dropped the Warlord from a high rise building and was inspired the he could convince Nexus to support his cause. Nexus was drawn into the war because the upper class attacked the poor, blaming the Warlord's execution on them. Rashid remained behind on Flatlandia to lead the insurrection against the upper class when Nexus took his mother, Casper and sisters aboard his ship. Rashid was mortally wounded and with his dying breath, he tried to convince Nexus to lead the revolution in his place. Flatlandia erupted into a full-scale war as a result, and Nexus left the events to unfold without his assistance. After he gave up the Nexus mantle, Horatio returned to Flatlandia and opened a clinic to provide relief to the untold numbers of those suffering in the aftermath of the war.

• Sister Sonia, an Elvonic Priestess who became Stan Koritvitsky's lover during his tenure as Nexus, exposed Brother Lathe's propensity for using technology, which went against Elvonic principles. When she presented this knowledge to "Elvon", he accused her of being a nonbeliever and ordered Brother Lathe to assassinate her as repentance for his use of "evil technology". Lathe beheaded Sonia without question in order to be back in "Elvon's" good graces. The murder of Sonia pushed Stan to the brink of insanity, and he likewise did the same to Lathe, who was ordered to kill Stan as his next act of redemption. Although he was an accomplished Gucci assassin and held the mantle as Nexus, Sonia's death triggered Stan's thirst for killing as he took his revenge on Lathe and he soon began killing the innocent along with the guilty.

• Rotridge was a high ranking Mars official who dispatched the Gucci assassins Roberta and Duncan to bring Kreed in dead or alive. After Kreed surrendered to Mars, Rotridge continued to search for Sinclair using everything at his disposal, including bribing Vooper into getting Kreed to reveal anything he knew about Sinclair. Rotridge was killed along the President of Mars and his wife by Stacy and Michana Loomis.

• Senator Po is a high ranking Mars official who made the secret deal with Swerdlow to bring Kreed and Sinclair in dead or alive for the murders of the innocents they killed on Mars. He was Rotridge's superior.

• Duke is an informant for Ylum's politicians, literally "a little birdie told me" in his role to gather information incognito. Duke has no particular loyalty to anyone, and those who get information from him often find themselves on the receiving end of his eavesdropping on their conversations. Horatio's inner circle have learned to keep quiet when Duke is hovering about. Swerdlow once repaid Duke's tattling about Nexus' unannounced trip to Procyon to see his daughters by moving Duke's family to the front of the list of refugees looking to immigrate to Ylum. Duke's stool pigeon ways continue to earn him brownie points among the powerful, but he has no real friends.

• Honest Crocus is a small, flying robot merchant. Nexus first encountered Crocus in the bowl-shaped world where he met the Badger. Later Crocus moved to Ylum and became a prominent resident and merchant, much to the annoyance of Vooper, who was the pre-eminent merchant on Ylum before Honest Crocus. Crocus' penchant for haggling and making deals have gotten him into much trouble, and he has crossed boundaries even the Heads wouldn't dare to try, such as planting spy equipment among the Elvonics. It was Crocus' surveillance cameras that recorded Brother Lathe beheading Sister Sonia before "Elvon" and the Elvonic Priesthood. Crocus will often offer to include a free dinette set with trades. Crocus sometimes allows Vooper to trump him in his activities on Ylum, and has been smart enough not to cross Nexus in his business dealings, an act that is lost on Vooper. Crocus' motivation may be that Nexus will finally have enough of Vooper and that he or Tyrone will eventually deport Vooper, leaving Ylum to Crocus to manage all licensed merchandising for Nexus.

• Vooper is a rival merchant and competitor of Honest Crocus. Before Honest Crocus, Vooper had few rivals on Ylum who could compete with him. Vooper wears a hat similar to The Cat In The Hat of Dr. Seuss fame and was later drawn to resemble Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot. Vooper acknowledges his limits and doesn't bother to hide his nature. He is a salesman, a peddler of goods, nothing more or less. Kreed petitioned Vooper to sell his story to the highest bidder by contacting him in a way that mystified Martian authorities. Vooper once scooped Honest Crocus when Crocus obtained a secret list of Nexus' scheduled assassination during Stan Korivitsky's watch on the job and placed bets in Vooper's casinos. When an depowered Stan had to alter his plans and executed his targets from the original order, Crocus lost an incredible amount of capital, much to Vooper's delight. Some of Vooper's unscrupulous activities and his ambition to make profit have angered Horatio, which has led to some personal animosity towards Vooper. The verbal exchanges between Vooper and Honest Crocus serve as comic foil in the Nexus series.

• General Loomis was the Chief Architect of the Gravity Well and the orbiting city station Stacy (named after his eldest daughter), which was his base of operation. The General was unaware the deaths caused by the unstable nature of the project to spawn an artificial Black Hole and showed great remorse over the collateral damage of his actions when confronted by Nexus. Horatio actually shook hands with General Loomis and carried out his execution in a painless, humane manner. General Loomis' death became one of Horatio's deepest regrets, not only because the general was a good, honorable and decent man, but because of the profound negative effective it had on his three daughters, bringing an abrupt end to their innocence and turning them into sociopathic murderers in the cases of Stacy and Michana. The general's death led his daughters to seek revenge against Horatio by seeking out Drizripool to designate them as Horatio's successors after he abandoned his duties.

• Stacy, Lonnie and Michana Loomis are the three daughters of General Loomis who sought revenge against Nexus after he executed their father. Their first face-to-face confrontation with Horatio reduced him to tears soon after Lonnie spit in his face when he apologized about their father's assassination. The sisters made plans for their revenge. Along the way, Michana telepathically contacted Mezz at a concert and sneaked into his dressing him to meet him. Michana wanted to find out why Mezz was so loyal to Nexus.

The Loomis sisters specifically sought out the Merk (Drizripool) to be Horatio's successors in order to exact revenge against Horatio despite knowing that Drizripool directed Horatio to kill General Loomis in the first place. To that end, they secretly journeyed to Headworld and met with Raul, who allowed them access to the tank identical to Nexus among the ruins of the Merk. Raul got them to vow not to attack Horatio as long as they were on Headworld. They succeeded in their efforts to contact Drizripool through Project Boom Search and he designated them as Horatio's successors. After carrying out a series of executions for Drizripool, he allowed them to dream of executing Horatio for all the executions he carried out on Drizripool's behalf. Lonnie, the middle daughter, abandoned the cause, realizing Drizripool's insanity.

Undeterred by their sister's defection, Stacy and Michana made their way to Flatlandia and tracked Horatio to his clinic, mocking him for doing humanitarian work, as if he could cleanse his soul for all the executions he had carried out as Nexus. Horatio managed to get in his own dig, reminding the Loomis sisters that Drizripool commissioned him to kill their father, and that they should be able to understand the hypocrisy of what they were about to do. Horatio's twin daughters, Scarlett and Sheena, arrived before the Loomis sisters could execute Horatio and defeated them in fusionkasting combat, apparently killing Stacy and dissipating Michana to atoms. Sheena and Scarlett taunted Michana by taking her favorite doll, Otis, from her during the battle. The Bad Brains secretly obtained Michana's remaining genetic material and were able to use her brainwaves as a beacon to channel fusion power.

Lonnie became a tutor to Scarlett and Sheena on Procyon. Ursula later accused Lonnie of being a spy, tortured her and blocked the twins from seeing Lonnie. Lonnie was able to escape Ursula's clutches because of Michana and made her way to Ylum to warn Horatio of Ursula's plans of using Elvonic women as her pawns. After all of the Bad Brains were destroyed, Michana's will to survive allowed her to reconstitute her physical body and soon after, she became a pawn of Ursula, who came to her disguised as her mother. Ursula kept these activities a secret from her daughters Scarlett and Sheena, who had engaged Michana and her sister Stacy in battle. Michana successfully carried out a series of executions for Ursula utilizing Mind Missiles and Smart Bullets, but Ursula severely reprimanded and berated her for failing to take out one particular target.

Michana left Ursula's charge and later sought revenge against Ursula by seeking out the Drizripool commissioned Elizabeth Borden to kill Ursula. A GQ commissioned Sundra saved Ursula's life when Borden was about to carry out the sentence. After leaving Ursala, Michana committed a series of offenses and became a juvenile delinquent. Michana and a gang she became associated with made a trip to Marlis, a memorial moon where Nexus' parents are buried, vandalized their graves and stole their bodies. This act drew Horatio's undivided attention and he went after Michana. Horatio tried to reason with Michana that although he understood her anger towards him, she was responsible for the actions she was taking and that blaming him wasn't an excuse to keep acting in such a destructive manner. Horatio persuaded Michana in returning his parents remains and put her in contact with Lonnie, who had long made her peace with Horatio. Lonnie took custody of Michana and the two sisters live together now, putting the past behind them. Michana proclaims herself to be Mezz's biggest fan, even replacing her beloved doll Otis with a Mezz doll.

• Cal Ford is a former Martian soldier who was on President Trigard's personal security detail. He reported directly to Rotridge, who micro-managed Ford, specifically after Kreed's death and the negative fall out it had on Mars. Cal first met Lonnie Loomis when she visited Mars, but was quickly discouraged from seeing her by Stacy and Michana. When Lonnie left her sisters after she realized they were insane, she met up with Cal again, and the two soon began a relationship. Cal was with Lonnie when she made peace with Horatio. Although they are no longer together, Cal and Lonnie remain good friends.

• Stanisiaus (Stan) Korivitsky was designated by Drizripool as Nexus after the Loomis sisters. Stan proved very adept in his duties and with his Gucci training, he could carry out many of his missions without fusionkasting abilities, which he often he had to because of Drizripool's erratic state of mind. Stan executed Horatio's uncle, Brother Lathe, after an encounter with the Elvonics in which Lathe beheaded Stan's lover, Sister Sonia. This incident that unbalanced Stan and gave him an unquenchable appetite for killing, and he beheaded Lathe and killed 42 Elvonics in return. Stan's actions triggered the Elvonic uprising against Ylum. One noted failure of Stan were the three unsuccessful execution attempts against Christopher Swabado, who had retained the services of the Quatro Gucci Sinclair and with Stan's final attempt, Horatio Hellpop, the fully restored to power original Nexus himself. Drizripool's crushing demands and the extent of protection those on the list employed to keep Stan from carrying out his mandate compelled him to contact Drizripool through Project Boom Search as the Loomis Sister did before him to ask for his powers back. When Drizripool refused to answer, a group of rogue Heads, the Bad Brains, responded to Stan and made an offer to sponsor him. After going through a prolonged period without fusionkasting power, Stan immediately agreed and he worked out terms with the Bad Brains. Stan truly enjoyed killing and would often murder the loved ones of his new sponsors' targets as well, which put him on Drizripool's radar as a mass murderer and led to Horatio assuming his role as Nexus again. Stan and Horatio then met in a fusionkasting duel in which Horatio killed Stan.

• Jil was a feline humanoid who was Sundra's business partner and best friend. Jil was openly bi-sexual and it has been strongly implied that she and Sundra had a sexual encounter on at least one occasion. Jil was also an experienced attorney who represented Sundra in a trial that Ursula staged to accuse Sundra of treason. Jil commandeered Horatio's ship when he was in a dream state in his tank to make the journey where the trial was held. Horatio was left with no choice but to accept a ride with Ursula on her ship to the trial, upon which Ursula seduced Horatio along the way. Jil was a trusted confidant of Horatio, Dave and Judah and was included in Nexus' inner circle. Jil was later killed by Ursula when she was babysitting Horatio and Sundra's son, Harry.

• Master Tengu is Judah The Hammer's sensei. Judah began his training with Tengu as a wayward adolescent. Master Tengu is a Thune of the Zengu order, which is similar to the Guccis. The Guccis would consider the Zengu training methods to be unorthodox, but the finished product that The Hammer turned out to become has proven that Master Tengu is the equal or better than any Gucci master. Many years after Judah's tutelage under Master Tengu, his old master asked him to bring back his prodigal son to him. Judah discovered that Tengu's son was beyond redemption. Judah spared Master Tengu the real details of how his son died, allowing him to believe that he died heroically.

• Gladys is Judah's girlfriend. Gladys is a Thune like Judah and Dave. She is his steady, knows that he has many lovers and female acquaintances, but is always there for him.
• Zzasha is a Gucci assassin who is also a lover of Judah's. They have had many adventures together.
• Lola is a Gucci assassin who Nexus first met when he accompanied Kreed and Sinclair to Acadia at the time Guccis return to their home world to speak of their accomplishments. Nexus saved her life as she was embroiled in a vendetta against other Guccis whose path she crossed before arriving to Acadia, and they picked up their fight there. Lola later took sides with the Thune Gucci whose entire family was accidentally killed by Kreed, and they attacked Kreed, Sinclair and Nexus during the operation of the Space Elevator, an act that would condemn anyone to death on Acadia. Afterward, Lola lost her desire to continue her life as a Gucci assassin, which resonated with Kreed, as he remembered losing his own desire to follow the Gucci path. Lola later migrated to Ylum, where she became a full citizen. Lola and Judah The Hammer became acquainted and she is one of many of his lovers.

• LaDonna is the Gucci trained head of Ursula's security and responsible for training Scarlett and Sheena in using their abilities LaDonna is also a good friend of Judah, and she was able to persuade Ursula to allow The Hammer to train them for a time.

• Roberta was a Gucci assassin who Nexus first caught sight of during a trip to the Gucci homeworld Acacia with Kreed and Sinclair during the time when Guccis return to tell of their accomplishments. Roberta bragged about penetrating Ylum and killing designated targets, angering Horatio. But Roberta's confession was her right and no one could take action against her on the Gucci homeworld. Roberta was later contracted along with Duncan to bring in Kreed and Sinclair for the incident on Mars. Roberta wanted to kill Kreed while Duncan wanted to bring him in alive. Before Kreed ended her life, Roberta warned Kreed that Nexus would never be accepted in the Web as long as Kreed lived, which prompted Kreed to surrender to Mars authorities.

• Duncan was a Thune Gucci assassin who once encountered Judah at a bridge crossing and after the two sized each other up, Duncan attacked The Hammer. While the two Thunes battled, Judah advised Duncan to go to Ylum to seek out a new life. Like Kreed, Duncan lost his way and killed aimlessly, abandoning the Gucci cause. Duncan was later contracted along with Roberta to bring in Kreed after the Mars incident. Duncan passed up an opportunity to kill Kreed and seriously wounded him during the encounter, drawing blood and nearly severing one of Kreed's arms. Kreed cut his arm the rest of the way off and decapitated Duncan during the two Gucci assassins dogged pursuit of him.

• Giacomo was a Thune Gucci assassin who held a grudge against Kreed for accidentally killing his entire family. Giacomo's size was exceptionally large and comparable to Kreed. When the Guccis all met on Acadia to tell of their exploits, Giacomo and a group of Guccis who swore allegiance to him pursued a vendetta against Kreed and attacked him, Nexus and Sinclair. Giacomo picked his spots and inflicted his hatred on Kreed throughout the period they spent on Acadia. Giacomo violated the Gucci code of revealing his grudge against Kreed to the group and told everyone present what ultimate intentions toward Kreed were. When the gathering concluded, Nexus, Kreed and Sinclair were riding the Space Elevator into orbit, when Giacomo and his group, including Lola, attacked Kreed on the elevator. Kreed threw Giacomo from the shaft Giacomo blasted open several kilometers above Acadia, but Giacomo deloyed a parachute and landed without harm. Because Giacomo violated the sacred pledge and interfered with the operation of the elevator, the Guccis killed Giacomo for his transgression.

• Zwiffel was a Gucci assassin who specialized in using the Mind Missile as a means of execution. Zwiffel was not physically imposing as is the case with most Guccis, but he was an effective assassin nevertheless. Zeiffer Meird commissioned Zwiffel to kill Sundra as revenge for Nexus walking away from Meird and his wife's suicide pact and allowing Meird to live. Zwiffer informed Swerdlow that all Guccis knew of his vendetta against Kreed, a revelation to Swerdlow, who had not considered that his hostility towards Kreed would come with consequences. Because he was a weakling, Zwiffel required a barrier of protection so he utilize his Mind Missile without interruption. He was placed in room behind a force field. When Judah pinpointed his whereabouts, he made the Zeiffer reveal Zwiffel's exact location, killed the Zeiffer, penetrated the force field and killed Zwiffel. Judah couldn't help but to remark how the Guccis produced assassins the caliber of Kreed to what Zwiffel now represented as a Gucci.

• Twilly was an assassin whose specialty was similar to that of Zwiffel, the use of a Smart Bullet, weapon controlled telepathically. Twilly befriended Kreed under the pretense that he wanted to understand Nexus' great cause while in reality, he was commissioned by Oglethorpe to kill Nexus at the moment when Nexus used his fusionkasting abilities. Twilly accompanied Nexus and Kreed on their journey to the Sov Empire as Nexus carried out his plan to assassinate Oglethorpe. Nexus, suspicious of Twilly's motives, would not use his power despite Twilly's constant bickering, which angered Kreed. When Nexus finally did assassinate Oglethorpe, he used a blaster, to the great disappointment of Twilly. Nexus revealed that Twilly was too anxious for him to use the power and Kreed used Twilly's own Smart Bullet to kill him.

• Big Nurse is the caretaker of Sheena and Scarlett. Big Nurse is Ursula's most trusted aide and plans Ursula's itineraries. She watches over the twins very carefully, and knows where they are at all times, to their dismay. Big Nurse anticipates Ursula's plans and makes her preparations before receiving orders, implying that she may possess telepathic abilities. Sheena and Scarlett suspect that Big Nurse has spied on them using surveillance equipment in order to keep tabs on them.

• Steve Le Berg , the son of infamous pirate Sutta Le Berg who Nexus executed, was a pirate who, like his father, also took advantage of the impossible numbers of refugees who were on ships orbiting Ylum hoping to gain citizenship there. Nexus put Le Berg out of business after realizing the plight of those seeking to live in peace on Ylum. Le Berg retained the services of the Gucci Quatro Sinclair as his personal bodyguard. Le Berg later made a deal with Commander Tedesko of the Sov Fleet to invade Ylum, an For A Few Dollars More scenario in which both Le Berg and Tedesko had their own reasons for attacking Nexus and Ylum.

Sinclair made an alliance with Kreed during the invasion and Le Berg betrayed the Quatros plan to destroy the Sov Flagship. Once Le Berg revealed to Tedesko that Kreed and Sinclair were aboard his vessel, the two men abandoned ship. Le Berg and Tedesko engaged in a fist fight before Nexus after Tedesko double crossed Le Berg, and afterward, Nexus dragged Le Berg into the void of space, refusing to execute Tedesko. Nexus released Le Berg from his personal force field and Le Berg suffocated to death in space.

• Christopher Swabado was a brazen criminal posing as a legitimate businessman who managed to avoid three execution attempts by Stan Korivitsky during his tenure as Nexus. The first time, Stan was powerless and Sinclair, who was hired by Swabado, easily dispatched Stan. The second time, Stan, after an agreement with the Bad Brains restored him with power, tossed Sinclair off of Swabado's skyscraper first and Swabado afterward. Sinclair landed first and managed to catch Swabado, saving his life. The third and final time Stan tried to kill Swabado, he enlisted the aid of the original Nexus, fully powered with his fusionkasting ability again after coming to terms with Drizripool. Horatio and Stan engaged in fusionkasting combat in which Horatio killed Stan. Swabado finally met his demise when Horatio was given the dream to execute him. Sinclair stepped aside and allowed Horatio to carry out the execution.

• Crispin is a jeweler who came up on Stan Korivitsky's list of murderers during his tenure as Nexus. Stan was without power during the time he was to carry out the sentence and Crispin employed the help of the demon Xatupult to stop Stan. Xatupult did prevent Stan from killing Crispin, and Crispin knew that Xatupult would likely demand a price he couldn't pay, so he protected himself and his wife in a Mystic Gyrogram just in case Xatupult wanted something more. Crispin quickly found that the Gyrogram couldn't provide adequate protection from Xatupult and Xatupult took Crispin's wife and son's souls for his price, leaving Crispin a broken man.

• Smalto The Pirate was a killer on Stan's list. He was also a pedophile who played the odds. He accurately figured that Stan would try to assassinate Crispin before moving on to him, and planned to resume his activities when it as reported that Xatupult killed Stan. Stan altered his plans after failing to take out Crispin and killed Smalto and his entire crew.

• Dr. Xyp was a doctor Horatio once turned to when his dreams overwhelmed him with guilt. Horatio seriously considered allowing Dr. Xyp to perform a controversial brain surgical procedure along the line of a lobotomy to help him forget the dreams and sleep without torment to the strong objections of Sundra and Dave. Dr. Xyp prescribed medications for Horatio that made him an addict, alienated him from everyone who loved him and led to him putting on a considerable amount of weight. Only the intervention of Drizripool in the manifestation of Alph and Beta broke Horatio from his addiction. Unknown to Horatio, Dr. Xyp was also a mass murderer who infamously experimented on children. Dr. Xyp later worked at Horatio's clinic on Flatlandia. Horatio never dreamed about Dr. Xyp's crimes, possibly because he was only part human, but Drizripool allowed the Loomis sisters to dream of the doctor's activities and commissioned them to carry out his execution. Michana channeled the fusion energy through her doll, Otis, to deliver the death blow to Dr. Xyp.

• Naomi Schumpeter was an eccentric doctor from Flatlandia who worked at Horatio's clinic. She was lauded as a miracle worker. She liked bombastic, hardcore music and considered Mezz's sound to be too mild. Naomi was killed by the Loomis sisters when they came to Flatlandia to kill Horatio. She was blasted to atoms when she tried to stop them.

• Nipsey Conniption was a journalist who came to Ylum disguised as a refugee to try to find out who would be next on Nexus's list to be assassinated. She exposed a list of targets, causing a media sensation and much trouble for Horatio, who had her deported. Humiliated and disgraced, Nipsey was secretly brought back to Ylum by unidentified "Old Blood" Ylum investors who gave her Horatio's diaries, which she took public and exposed the story of General Theodore Hellpop being Horatio's first target. Nipsey was given further access to Horatio's chambers and his tank, and she planned to expose everything about Nexus to exact revenge for him destroying her career. But when Nipsey immersed herself in Horatio's tank, she died.

• General Theodore Hellpop was Nexus' father. General Hellpop was ordered by his superiors to destroy Vradic with nuclear weapons, which he begrudgingly carried out. General Hellpop was Horatio's first victim after Horatio dreamed of the millions killed as a result of his father's actions. Horatio's physical appearance is virtually identical to that of General Hellpop, which, along with his library card from the Great Library of Alexandria, has allowed him access to the Sov Empire from time to time in the disguise of a military officer, usually as General Hellpop's son. General Hellpop is often referenced throughout the series because of Horatio's love for him and the effect his destruction of Vradic had in the Web.

Collected editions

Dark Horse Comics hardcover archive editions include:

• Nexus Archives, v1 (ISBN 1-59307-398-4, reprinted Nexus #1-3, v2 #1-4)
• Nexus Archives, v2 (ISBN 1-59307-455-7, reprinted Nexus v2 #5-11)
• Nexus Archives, v3 (ISBN 1-59307-495-6, reprinted Nexus v2 #12-18)
• Nexus Archives, v4 (ISBN 1-59307-583-9, reprinted Nexus v2 #19-25)
• Nexus Archives, v5 (ISBN 1-59307-584-7, reprinted Nexus v2 #26-32)
• Nexus Archives, v6 (ISBN 1-59307-791-2, reprinted Nexus v2 #33-39)
• Nexus Archives, v7 (ISBN 1-59307-877-3, reprinted Nexus v2 #40-46)
• Nexus Archives, v8 (ISBN 1-59582-236-4, reprinted Nexus v2 #47-52, Next Nexus #1)
• Nexus Archives, v9 (ISBN 1-59582-313-1, reprinted Nexus v2 #53-57, Next Nexus #2-4)
• Nexus Archives, v10 (ISBN 1-59582-438-3, reprinted Nexus v2 #58-65)
• Nexus Archives, v11 (ISBN 1-59582-496-0, reprinted Nexus v2 #66-73)
• Nexus Archives, v12 (ISBN 1-59582-636-X, reprinted Nexus v2 #74-80)

Rude Dude Productions

• Nexus: Space Opera (ISBN 0-9792311-3-2, reprinted Nexus #99-102)
• Nexus: As It Happened, v1 (ISBN 0-9792311-5-9, reprinted Nexus #1-3, v2 #1-4)

Dark Horse Comics Softcover omnibus editions

• Nexus Omnibus, v1 (ISBN 1-61655-034-1, reprinted Nexus v1 #1-3, Nexus v2 #1-11)
• Nexus Omnibus, v2 (ISBN 1-61655-035-X, reprinted Nexus v2 #12–25)
• Nexus Omnibus, v3 (ISBN 1-61655-036-8, reprinted Nexus v2 #26–39)
• Nexus Omnibus, v4 (ISBN 1-61655-037-6, reprinted Nexus v2 #40-52, Next Nexus #1)
• Nexus Omnibus, v5 (ISBN 1-61655-038-4, reprinted Nexus v2 #53-65, Next Nexus #2-4)
• Nexus Omnibus, v6 (ISBN 1-61655-473-8, reprinted Nexus v2 #66-80, The Nexus Files)

Awards

The series won a total of six Eisner Awards. In 1988, the series won an award for Best Artist/Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team. 1993's Nexus: Origin won awards for Best Single Issue/Single Story, Best Writer/Artist, and Best Artist/Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team. In 1997, Nexus: Executioner's Song won Best Artist/Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team. In 2008, Todd Klein won Best Letterer/Lettering for his work on Nexus.

Crossovers

The Nexus series produced several crossover issues, featuring characters from several other First series, including American Flagg!, Grimjack, Jon Sable: Freelance, Badger, Whisper and Dreadstar. An example of Nexus crossover issues is the series Crossroads, published in 1988. Following the switch in publishers from First to Dark Horse, Nexus crossed over with Madman (Nexus Meets Madman) and Magnus Robot Fighter (Magnus Robot Fighter/Nexus).

Adaptations

A 2-minute promo for an animated series was made in 2004.

References

• Nexus at the Comic Book DB

External links

• Steve Rude's website