A one sentence summary of Nexus does not do the character justice. Nexus is Horatio Hellpop. His powers originally were granted by the Merk, an insane alien who possessed god-like powers, but nowadays Nexus freelances. He has a cool costume--rather retro with a rad red visor. His powers mainly consist of flying/levitating, "fusion casting": energy rays shooting from his hands--which is his instrument of execution. He is telekinetic to a certain extent. Inducing mass hypnosis is another power, which come to think about it, is just as diametric as possible from Spider-Man's "spidey sense".

Nexus is based on his own moon, Ylum (pronounced "EYE-lum"). As the series has progressed, Nexus' world has become a haven, now republic, for refugees fleeing the mass murderers to whom Nexus metes out justice. So many so that certain characters now basically run the world for Nexus so he is left for (usually) more important activities.

Nexus possesses a fine, strong woman character: Sundra Peale, businesswoman and Nexus' lover. Not only does Baron comport her as a capable woman and give her meaningful dialogue, but Rude renders her as such a lovely woman, not some balloon-breasted, never-dated-in-high-school fantasy figure, that it's a breath of fresh air.

Steve Rude's artwork is a treasure. If there is ever a book on the stands that should be picked up for its artwork, then Rude's work on Nexus is the perfect candidate. A clean, spare style--Steve Rude is able to render an amazing number of emotions into characters' faces with the few details he does utilize. He also is quite the architect. The Rude cityscapes are a smorsgasbord of Flash Gordon and Madison Avenue run amok: the buildings, monuments, devices, and services perfectly complement the story. Panel layouts (low angles, high angles, panoramic, ultra-closeup, you name it) are always a refreshing variety in a Rude book. (Altho Baron could've written that the panel be drawn from that very angle. Dunno.)

Which brings up the other half of this creative team: Mike Baron, the co-creator and writer. Here it is 15 years after Nexus' creation and the two men responsible for it are still going strong on the book. Baron brings such a terrific terseness to the stories. The dialogue is quite often that one perfect phrase versus the buckets of prose usually crammed in those word balloons. As I understand it, the plots are mainly Baron's. Even tho Nexus has been published for that long, Baron able to strike that perfect balance--have new stories exist within the framework of the Nexus Universe by tying them to the canon of published stories, but also presenting them so the new reader can scoop up the ball and run with it.

Altho Nexus is not terribly "continuity dependent", I do make one exception. Anyone picking up the Nexus Universe for an excellent reading experience needs to start with Nexus: the Origin. This book was published by Dark Horse a few years ago to reintroduce the character and remains the best jump-in point. The origin of Nexus' powers and their usage is a breathtaker of an origin.

As this is being written (8/96) Dark Horse is in the midst of publishing another Nexus mini-series. It's called "Executioner's Song". The fourth issue, where Sundra supervises opening day of the Interstellar Olympics taking place on Ylum, promises to be a complete gem. Seek this mini-series out. You will not be disappointed.