The ABC warriors saga started with a series called Robo-busters ( which originated in the short lived 'Starlord' that merged with 2000AD in Prog 86, Progs 86-101,103-115 ) involving two robots Hammerstein, an old war droid and Ro-Jaws, an sewer droid. The series ended with Hammerstein joining the ABC warriors ( Prog 119-139 ). The none of these "robots with attitudes" were heard from again, until they returned in Nemesis: Gothic Empire (prog 387-406), Ro-Jaws was time assigned as a valet to the warlock, Nemesis. And Hammerstein was still working for the humans, but now he was battle-weary, he started to question why were they killing the Goths and wanted end it all. At this point he was sent on suicide mission, where Nemesis foiled his mission and started to re-form the ABC warriors after some time travelling with Nemesis, they were sent to stop the monad from the destroying earth in ABC warriors story 'Black Hole' (Prog 555-581) and by the end of this mission they had become a target for an earlier incarnation of the human empire (still in the far future, where Earth was called Termight, but before Tomas de Torquemada brought about the down-fall of science.)

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Character Profile - Joe Pineapples
First appeared: Prog 119
Occupation: Sniper Droid
location: Earth and outer space
Time Period: Future
Abilities: Brilliant Marksman
Status: Active
History appeared in the very first episode of A.B.C. Warriors way back in Prog. 119. Created to fight in wars instead of humans, the robots were equipped to face any kind of conflict - atomic, bacterial or chemical. The opening episode describes Joe as a taciturn killer who lets his "Balls" Bazooka do his talking for him. This weapon fired implosion shells which draw the target into balls of debris - a particularly nasty way to die. Over time Joe has evolved into the Cool Assassin, a sniper who can hit targets on the other side of the galaxy. Recent shock revelations have shown Pineapples has a feminine side - he likes to dress in lacy lingerie!

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Character Profile - Deadlock
First appeared: Prog 123
Occupation: Disciple of Khaos
location: Around
Time Period: Future
Abilities: Wielder of Khaos Magic
Status: Active
History As Grand Wizard of the Knights Martial, Deadlock was given special authority to try and execute Volgan war criminals! His special mystical powers made him a must for Hammerstein's Mek-Nificent Seven. But because he is a follower of Khaos, his aims are not always those of order, or the ABC warriors!

Character Profile - Hammerstein
First appeared: Starlord 1
Occupation: War droid
location: Space/Mars
Time Period: Future
Abilities: Strength, firepower
Status: Active
History A prototype Mark 3 war droid. Hammerstein was the first ever robot ever used in combat making him the original ABC warrior! He fought the Volgans, led a mission to clean up Mars and was finally sold off to the Ro-busters disaster squad before joining Deadlock's new ABC warriors.

Drawn by Simon Bisley
Monad thinking... also from the final Black Hole episode. 1155x450x2 130 KB
image2 Here is another ABC warriors webpage with character profiles on all warriors, and artwork from the 'Black Hole Mission'

Character Profile - Ro-Jaws
First appeared: Starlord 1
Occupation: Sewer droid
location: unknown
Abilities: 'Eats' raw garbage
Status: Active, but no longer one of ABC warriors.
History Garbage droid FRED-2L (Ro-Jaws to his mates) suffered from faulty language and obedience circuits from the day he was built. They earned him a spell in prison before he joined the Ro-Busters disaster squad and met Hammerstein. A 'tolerated' member of the ABC warriors upto the HellBringer mission.

Drawn by Kevin Walker
Khaos Moon Rave Prog 781, 1500x2091
ABC warrior cover Prog 781
image1

INDEX

Title Solo series in Red	Creators Writer: Pat Mills (unless noted) Artist(s)	Originally Printing	Best of 2000AD monthly	Other reprints/Notes
Cyboons/Red Death	Mike McMahon	2000AD #119-133	13	Best of 2000AD special edition 1999
Golgotha/George	Mike McMahon	2000AD 134-139	14
Red planet Blues	Writer: Alan Moore Pens: Steve Dillon Colours: John Higgins	2000AD Annual 1985		Best of 2000AD special edition #2

The warriors co-star in Nemesis Books 4, 5 & 6 leading to Black Hole Misson..

No title but is known as Black Hole	Simon Bisley/SMS	2000AD #555-581	103-105	Titan Graphic novel ('91) image1,image2,image3,Death
Deadlock and Nemesis	Pat Mills/Tony Skinner and Carl Critchlow	2000AD #700, #723-729		Tony Skinner starting co-writing
Khronicles of Khaos	Pat Mills/Tony Skinner and Kevin Walker	2000AD #750-757, 780-783, 787-790		Image, 1500x2091, Graphic Novel
Blackblood "Dishounourable Discharge"	Pat Mills/Tony Skinner and Kevin Walker	2000AD Winter special 4		Image, 1200x1649
Hellbringer	Pat Mills/Tony Skinner and Kevin Walker	2000AD #901-911,964-971		Graphic Novel with Khronicles
Joe Pineapples: His Greatest Hits	Tom Carney	1996 Sci-Fi Special (May 1996)
RoadKill	Kevin Walker	Prog 2000AD special		Back on Mars
Deadlock	Henry Flint	2000AD #1212-1222
The Third Element	Henry Flint	2000AD #1234-#1236		Start of a new story arc, Image
The Clone Cowboys	L. McCormack-Sharpe	2000AD #1237-1239		Back on Mars
The Tripods	Mike McMahon	2000AD #1240-1245		Return of the original ABC warriors artist after 20 years
Assault on the red house	Henry flint	2000AD #1246-1248		.
The Shadow warriors	Carlos Ezquerra	2000AD #1336-		.

ABC Warriors: Text Story - "The retreat from Volgow"; 2000ad Annual 1981

Nemesis

NEMESIS THE WARLOCK is neither good nor bad, but somewhere in between. Unlike Spitting Image's Paddy Ashdown puppet, however, he does not rally to the cause of a party seeking to hold the 'balance of power'. Instead he seeks to tip the Universal balance firmly in favour of his school of magic, Khaos, against the forces of Order. In fact, it would probably be more accurate to say that Nemesis is not even between good and evil, but somewhere outside.
As self-proclaimed leader of the Cabal, an interplanetary alien alliance, Nemesis is regarded throughout the Universe as a saviour and the greatest opponent of human atrocities waged against the so-called deviants. Indeed, Nemesis enjoys his status as 'arch-deviant' an revels in his role as scourge ( Termight's supreme bigot an ruler, Torquemada. The human' hatred of all things different an his proclamation of absolute discipline makes him the embodiment of Order. In the bizarre and terrifying transport system of a future Earth gone mad, nothing would give Torquemada more pleasure than getting the Terror Tubes to run on time. He is therefore a natural nemesis for the Warlock and this may well have more to do with their enmity than alien's desire to save the universe from the ultimate fascist

Nemesis has certainly fought many heroic battles against Torquemada's Terminators, both on Termight and on alien worlds way off in space, travelling around in his alien craft, the Blitzspear. As the Terminators have spread their leader's doctrine of "Be pure, be vigilant, behave!" across the Universe and set about cleansing it of all alien lifeforms in the process, the Warlock has saved countless lives and has even spared whole planets from their terrible evil. After his first major battle to the death with Torquemada, that had resulted in the apparent demise of the human's spirit form (his corporeal form had already been destroyed in a Travel Wire accident), Nemesis actually advocated peace with Termight. His alien alliance was sceptical, despite the new attitudes that were developing among the humans, at least freed of their Grandmaster's influence. Perhaps Nemesis believed the 'game' to be over with his enemy dead and sought to rest for a while, but the respite was short-lived. Torquemada's spirit, weakened but not extinguished, rose up again in time to wreck any overtures of peace and to reinspire the interplanetary inquisition.

The war with Termight rejoined, Nemesis was concerned for the well-being of his family and returned to his home planet, Gandarva, in the mysterious Nether Worlds. He was there in time to celebrate the hatching of his son, Thoth, but he soon set forth once more to battle the Terminators. Somehow his wife, Chira, sensed she would never see him again and she was right, thanks to her betrayal by Magna, another female Warlock and Chira's jealous rival for the affections of Nemesis. Magna did a deal with Torquemada and set up the assassination of the Warlock's wife and child, though the homunculus Thoth escaped and used his highly developed mind-powers to force his would-be assassin to 'adopt' him and raise him as his own on Termight. This, of course, was unknown to Nemesis, and when he learned of the death of his family, he vowed to destroy Termight and eradicate the human race from the Universe. Possibly for the first time, Nemesis had allowed his mask to slip. An acute sense of loss had lowered his guard and his apparent wish to rescue humans and aliens alike from the worse excesses of Torquemada was submerged by his disdain for the 'insects' of Termight and his appetite for revenge. Purity Brown, a human and faithful lieutenant to Nemesis, was shocked by this new side of Nemesis, but he managed to convince her that he had spoken in anger and his heroic status was restored.

The Warlock was able to mete out personal revenge on Torquemada himself soon enough anyway. The spirit form of the Grandmaster had joined his Terminators in their attack on the Gothic Empire, a group of planets populated by chameleon-like creatures who had copied their civilisation from Victorian England and actually believed they were human themselves. Naturally, Torquemada disagreed and set out to cleanse them all, but not before allying himself with a group of Young Goths who were able to furnish his spirit with a new (and permanent) body. Although his new body was made with alien flesh, the Grandmaster of Termight decided this was a price worth paying, with all the 'good' work he could accomplish by having it. Following a showdown with Nemesis, however, this new body began to mutate and Torquemada's own deviancy was evident to all. Delighted by the irony, the Warlock was able to allow the Terminators themselves to carry out his vengeance by killing him. Some ten years passed after the death of Torquemada before he was resurrected in extraordinary circumstances by a being who hated him more than anyone - the now-mature homunculus, Thoth. Termight had made peace with the aliens during these years and, surely in the true spirit of Khaos, Nemesis had married the betrayer of his family, Magna. Thoth, sharing his father's predilection for playing with the lives of humans and other creatures, first summoned the Tyrannosaur, Satanus, to be his pet and then plucked Torquemada out of time and set him free on Termight. The confused Grandmaster could hardly believe how lax things had become and was surprised to find that he was branded a blasphemer when he claimed to be Torquemada himself, back from the dead. He was tied up and burnt for heresy by his own former Terminators and then he returned to life once more. Thoth had put him in a time loop, So that he could enjoy Torquemada's death over and over again. The young Warlock and his 'pet', Satanus, then headed off into the Time Wastes, a nightmarish from region left over from the old Age of Science, when humans had experimented with some very dangerous natural forces. Thoth had decided to disrupt the balance between the artificial black and white holes on either side of Termight and thereby destroy a sizeable chunk of the Universe.

Although Nemesis could barely contain his admiration for his son's plan, he nonetheless set out to thwart it. The cause of the battle, the Grandmaster was Khaos would surely have been served if Thoth had succeeded, but perhaps the rather perverse act of freeing Torquemada from the time loop and then teaming up with him, enabled Nemesis to justify his heroics in attempting to save Termight from destruction. Nemesis set the robotic ABC Warriors the task of repairing the Time Wastes, while he and his arch-enemy pursued Thoth to the end of the world. Too late to intercept the fledgling Warlock, they were forced to battle the Monad, a creature of pure evil created during a previous visit to the era by Torquemada. In the aftermath of the battle, the Grandmaster was able to escape and return to Termight in triumph, claiming to be a God, having cheated death on so many occasions, Torquemada was restored to power by his most loyal Terminators, but his body soon began to exhibit signs of degeneration, due to an assault on his Ka by Thoth, who was travelling through time and killing all his earlier incarnations.
Through the Time Wastes, Nemesis was still following his son and, having missed the demise of such masters of mass murder and persecution as John M. Chivington of the US Cavalry and notorious Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins he arrived In the era of the Spanish inquisition before Thoth came to kill the original Torquemada. The Warlock's main goal was to make peace with his son, who hated him for abandoning him and his mother so many years before, so he wove a spell of containment to prevent any use of magic by Thoth before Nemesis had time to tell him how much he cared. The father and son made their peace, only for the Grandmaster of Termight to arrive and, taking advantage of the Warlocks' temporary inability to use their magic, he was able to murder Thoth for real this time. Consumed with grief, but determined not to let his son down again, Nemesis unleashed the 'power of the flies' on Torquemada and then joined Thoth so that they could spend the dying Warlock's last moments together. Enduring almost unendurable pain, Torquemada escaped once more into the Time Wastes, his mind perhaps that little bit more unhinged by his latest encounter with the 'Lord of the Flies'.
The death of Thoth left Nemesis unable to maintain his heroic image in the eyes of Purity Brown. In his anger, the alien's true feeling for humans was revealed. Purity and her race meant no more to him than a colony of insects, they merely provided him with an amusing diversion in his service of Khaos.
Torquemada, by killing Thoth, had proved to be the insect that bit back. Brown herself had been quite blatantly used by the Warlock when he met the young rebel on Termight, so much so that he had wiped the memory of her first task for him from her mind. Having woven a spell on Torquemada, Nemesis arranged for Purity to become his mistress, so that she could report back on his plans to the alien resistance. Understandably, she was horrified to learn of this forgotten episode and, while the Warlock removed her memory of it again, he could not completely dispel the human's suspicion of his motives in times to come.

Purity Brown finally turned against Nemesis when they tracked down a particularly unstable Torquemada to an 'alternative' 20th century Earth, but though she appeared to side with the deranged Grandmaster in the common sense of 'humanity' against the 'deviance' of the Warlock, she in fact bore no allegiance to either. Following this confrontation, Torquemada escaped once more and returned to Termight, while Nemesis was reunited with the ABC Warriors, who had been successful under their new leader, Deadlock, in repairing the damage to the Time Wastes done by Thoth. The Warriors were visiting Gandarva, the home world of Nemesis, to where the Warlock had returned to lick his wounds, and they found that he had abandoned any pretence of heroism. In Publicly burning fresh humans on the grave of his first wife, Chira, Nemesis had apparently decided that his 'good-guy' image was no longer worth cultivating. Deadlock, however, has a score to settle with his fellow follower of Khaos, as the repair of the time wastes had the result of restoring Order in the Universe. By leading the Warriors In their mission, Deadlock was guilty of betraying Khaos, as was Nemesis for Sending them on the mission in the first place. The two magicians fought quite literally to the death and were then reborn to free them of their guilt.

Thus was the balance of Khaos restored and two of its greatest exponents were joined together to make a fearsome team. Strangely enough, Nemesis and Deadlock are in fact the same entity and yet they are also quite separate. That is the nature of Khaos - nothing is truly as it seems. Perhaps the human. torturing, callous and brooding Nemesis is no more his real self than the hero of the spaceways known to millions of aliens across the universe. Perhaps his magic dictates that all his good work must in some way be balanced by as many dark deeds. Perhaps the insanity exhibited by his great uncle Baalis just as strong within Nemesis himself. One thing is certain for human, alien and robot alike, as deadlock warns, "You'll learn to deal with Khaos, or Khaos will deal with you..."

The above series history was written by Mike Butcher and originally appeared in 2000AD winter special 1992

From Purity's Story Prog 558

Character Profile - Purity Brown

First appeared: Prog 227
Occupation: Resistance fighter
location: Termight
Time Period: Future
Abilities: Skilled Fighter
Status: Active
History Growing up on Termight, Purity Brown bore witness to the many atrocities perpetrated against aliens by the aliens by the unspeakably evil Torquemada. Determined to fight back on their behalf she did everything she could to thwart the Grandmaster's genocidal plans. By the time she was seventeen, Purity had earned such a reputation as a resistance fighter that she attracted the attention of both Torquemada (who sentenced her to a chain-gang) and Nemesis (who decided to recruit her). Joining the alien's resistance organisation Credo, she was blindly loyal to Nemesis and fought proudly at his side for several years. Mow recently, however, purity Brown has had reason to doubt the mysterious alien's true intentions and motivations. As shown above.

Some of Torquemada's slogans => Be Pure..! Be Vigilant...! BEHAVE ! - - Sleep is no refuse for impure thoughts - - No alien is so cute it can't be cleansed - - Never forget, Never forget Never for fun

Nemesis was originally going to drawn entirely by co-creator Kevin O'Neill but after the success of Book I, extra series Book IV were added for a expansive series before the planned re-introduction of the ABC warriors.
Kevin O'Neill was the artist on Books I, III, IV before

Nemesis was created by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill and it was branded 'comic rock'.

Nemesis Images drawn by Kevin O'Neill Ego-trip, Book I, prog 227, Torquemada family photo, Torquemada the God

Prog Check ( in 2000AD, reprints in Best of 2000AD Monthly )
Terror Tube (#167, reprinted #3 & Best of 2000AD spec. edition 1999, art by Kevin O'Neill ), Killer Watts (178-179, reprints same as Terror Tube ), Nemesis ( 2000AD Sci-Fi special 1981, reprinted #100 ), Book 1: The World of Termight (#222-244, reprinted #5-8 ), Book 2: The Alien Alliance (#246-257, reprinted #43, art by Jesus Redondo ), Secret life of the Blitzspear ( 2000AD annual 1983, reprinted 2000AD Special Edition #1 ), Book 3: World of Nemesis (335-349, reprinted #44), A day in the death of Torquemada ( 2000AD annual 1894, reprinted 2000AD special 2000AD edition #2 ) Book 4: The Gothic Empire (#387-406, reprinted #38-39 Art by Kevin O'Neill/Byran Talbot ), Ego-Trip (430, reprinted 2000AD Sci-Fi special 1990 Art by Kevin O'Neill ), Book 5: The Vengeance of Thoth (#435-445, reprinted #48, art by Byran Talbot ) Book 6: Torquemurder (#482-489,500, reprinted #56 Winner of the Eagle Award ), Torquemada the God ( 520-524, art by Kevin O'Neill, reprinted #100 ), Nemesis Photo Story ( 2000AD Sci-Fi special 1987, photos by Tony Luke ), Nemesis the Warlock (534, Photos by Tony Luke ), Torquemada's second Honeymoon ( 2000AD annual 1988, art by Kevin O'Neill ), Book 7: The Two Torquemadas (546-557, reprinted #108, art by John Hicklenton ), ABC Warriors (555-581), Book 8: Purity's Story (558-566, art by David Roach. Reprinted #116 ), Book 9: Deathbringer (586-608, art by John Hicklenton ), Warlocks and Wizards [ with Deadlock ](#700, art by Carl Critchlow ), The Enigmas Variations [with Deadlock] ( #723-729 art by Carl Critchlow ), Bride of the Warlock ( 2000AD Winter Special 1992, art by Chris Weston ), Shape of things to come ( #824, art by Paul Staples ), The Tomb of Torquemada ( A 2000AD poster prog staring Nemesis with Massive Poster [1994], art by Kevin O'Neill ), Nemesis: Hammer of Warlocks prologue Book X ( #901-904 , art by Paul Staples ),
Book X: The Final Conflict (2000AD prog #1165-1173, Art by Henry Flint) and the every last nemesis concluded Book X was drawn by Kevin O'Neill in the "Prog 2000" special.

[See Deadlock's solo series for more on Termight]
The Nemesis the Warlock Page

Finn

Finn...By day he is Paul, a Plymouth cab-driver and army deserter...At night a witch who fights the alien entities he calls The Newts and their human allies The Shining Ones.led by Lord Micheal.

The Newts have secretly enslaved mankind, dividing us from our animal nature... bring them into contact with Finn's coven and their High Priestess. Amanda

Finn's Past is shrouded in mystery. We know he was a solider in Northern Ireland... and then a green terrorist, specialising in acts of ecotage. The police closed in on him and he was forced to join sinister FreeAid, an organisation working in the Third World. There he met Eve, and together they sabotaged Freeaid before returning to Britain and going their separate ways.

Finn is written by Pat Mills and Tony Skinner

A promotional image for a possible Finn Film by Mark Harrison => "IMAGE", 104kB 708x550 JPG

Book One #770-779, art by Jim Elston/Kevin Wicks
Book Two #807-816, (Oct. to Dec. 1992) art by Jim Elston

Finn The Origin #924-927, art by Liam Sharp
Book III: Interventions, #928-937 and #940-949. (Feb. to July 1995). Story by Mills & Skinner, art by Paul Staples
Book IV: Season of the Witch, #991-999. (May to July 1996) Story by Mills & Skinner, art by Paul Staples

Flesh ( 1-19 )(1977), Flesh Book II ( 86-99 ,Story by Roy Preston, Geoffrey Miller, art by Massimo) Flesh: the legend of Shamana By Pat Mills/Tony Skinner and Carl Critchlow( 800-808, 817-825 ), Flesh:Chronocide, 7 episodes, progs 973-979 (Jan. to Feb. 1996). Story by Dan Abnett, Steve White, art by Gary Erskine, Simon Jacob

Shako! 16 episodes, progs 20-35 (July to Oct. 1977). Story by John Wagner, Pat Mills
Visible Man ( Prog 47-52 ) - Ok.
RO-BUSTERS Death on the Orient Express, progs 86-87, art by Dave Gibbons, Hammerstein's War Memoirs, progs 88-92, art by Dave Gibbons, Kevin O'Neill, Mike Dorey, Ro-Jaws's Memoirs, progs 93-97, art by Mike Dorey, The Terra-Meks, progs 98-101 . art by Dave Gibbons, The Fall and Rise of Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein, progs 103-115 Story by Pat Mills, art by Kevin O'Neill, Mike Dorey, Mike McMahon

METALZOIC progs 483-492 (Aug. to Oct. 1986). Story by Pat Mills, art by Kevin O'Neill. This is a reprint of the DC graphic novel, which was in color.
ABC warriors index at top of page.

Dinosty, Dinosaur Royalty... Hmmm. 10 episodes, progs 873-882 (Feb. to Apr. 1994). Story by Pat Mills, art by Clint Langley.

Vector 13 - Case Ten: Video Nasty, prog 997 (June 1996). Story by Pat Mills, art by John Ridgway.

ABC warriors first appeared in 1979, the occassional series since in 1987, 1991-1992, 1996, 2000-2001.

Slaine first appeared in 1983. Hit a low in the mid-ninties, there were signs of the stories improving with the story arc after Prog 1100 no Slaine since 2000.

Nemesis started in 1980 went fine until 1988, book IX ended and we got a decade of stories promising of final reckoning until Book X came at the end of 1999. THE END.

Finn, created in CRISIS in 1989, reappeared in 2000AD in 1992, has not appeared since 1996. I only liked the first 2 books and the finn origin story.

Wakefield L Carter wrote:

> Mills has begun writing scripts for Nemesis the Warlock: Book X - The
> Final Conflict. This will be the tenth and final book of the Nemesis
> saga and will wrap up all existing plot lines and story elements
> including whatever happened to Termight, Purity Brown and Torquemada.
>
> The series will run in the final ten issues of 2000 AD, with Parts 1-9
> drawn by Henry Flint. Then O'Neill and Mills will reunite on the series
> they co-created to present the final confrontation between Nemesis and
> Torquemada in the Terror Tube.

Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill join Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons and John
Tomlinson on the list of creators announced for Prog 2000.