He’s over 100 years old. He’s smarter than most people combined. He’s not the safest person to be around. He’s a real doctor. He is Doctor Nemesis. So how does a man who is roughly 110 years old go about still fighting monsters and Nazis? He didn’t need to be stuck in an iceberg, I’ll tell you that right now. To understand the rest? Let’s find out!
James Bradley was born in San Francisco, December 1st, 1906 to Dr. Nicola Bradley and his bodyguard/wife Catherine Price. Sadly, his parents would die the day he was born, leaving him to be raised by his grandparents. Born with an “evolved intellect” James took to the sciences like a duck to water, he was soon a doctor and skilled in a variety of scientific fields.
The creation of the original Human Torch android would be one of James’ first forays into the world of superheroes. He’d eventually leave his partnership and build an android of his own that would become the hero Volton. Deciding to join masked adventurers, James would become the vigilante Doctor Nemesis.
World War 2 was just beginning and James was against the U.S. getting involved and desperate for funding. The Nazi party would offer him help in both regards. He’d take on the name Doctor Death and plan with others to cause devastation in the US to stop America from entering the war. Defeated and left for dead, James would realize who he was really working for and spend his life dedicated to hunting Nazis and stopping their plans such as enhanced dolphins.
Still fighting against any who would try and continue the Nazi ideal, James would meet Hank McCoy and Warren Worthington of the X-Men to be asked to join them in their new San Francisco headqusrters. They requested he help them find a cure to what had transformed millions of mutants back into humans. This would take them back to the time and place of his own birth and he’d meet his parents and help his mother deliver himself.
Joining X-Club, the science and engineering team of the X-Men, James’ expertise in Nazi hunting would come into effect as he helped his team stop a Nazi plot. When the X-Men battled each other James would gain control of their base for a brief time to protect it and it’s inhabitants. He would try to join the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning but when he asked if it was okay to shoot students with hypodermic needles, he was not asked to join the teaching staff.
James would join Cable’s team, X-Force and had his own lab to experiment, much to the chagrin of many. He would also be tasked with finding a way to amplify Magneto’s power in the end of days when the 616 universe was about to collide with the 1610 universe.
There you have it folks. Doctor Nemesis is a delightfully strange hero who is very much an ends justify the means type. He is often so caught up in his own head, his arrogance gets the best of him. He may be one of the smartest people in the world but he isn’t the most level-headed. Hope he shows up more in the future, but who knows! See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Lightning Comics #6
Invaders #1, Vol. 2
X-Club
X-Force Vol. 4
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
