Nathan Never #1
Nathan Never #1 — titled 'Agente Speciale Alfa' and cover-dated June 1991 — holds a singular place in Italian comics history as the debut issue of Sergio Bonelli Editore's first ever science-fiction series, cracking open a genre the publisher had never formally attempted across its decades of westerns, adventure, and horror titles. The series introduced what would become a defining innovation for Bonelli: genuine, consequential narrative continuity, where events in one issue permanently reshape the characters and world in subsequent ones — a structural commitment that was virtually unprecedented in the publisher's output. Issue #1 plants the full cast of Agenzia Alfa, establishes the semi-dystopian East City setting, and frames its central mystery around Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, rooting this new Italian hero firmly in the tradition of international literary science fiction. The series it launched ran past four hundred issues and opened the door for every later Bonelli sci-fi title, from Asteroide Argo to Orfani.
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The series was conceived by Michele Medda, Antonio Serra, and Bepi Vigna — three Sardinian writers who had been contributing scripts to Bonelli titles including Martin Mystère and Dylan Dog since 1985, and who were informally known in Italian comics circles as 'la banda dei sardi.' The trio had been developing the sci-fi project for several years before formally pitching it; Bonelli approved the project on 11 November 1989, and the first regular issue reached newsstands in June 1991. One pre-launch detail shaped the series' identity before it even began: the protagonist was originally named Nathan Nemo, but Martin Mystère creator Alfredo Castelli raised a superstitious objection — the name echoed a defunct publisher — and suggested 'Never' instead, a change Bonelli accepted; 'Nemo' survived as Nathan's Agenzia Alfa call sign. Two competing visual designs for the character were commissioned from Dante Bastianoni and Claudio Castellini; Castellini's version was chosen, and he went on to draw both the interior story for issue #1 and all covers through issue #59 before eventually crossing over to work for Marvel and DC Comics in the United States.
Trivia · 10 facts
- Published June 1991 by Sergio Bonelli Editore; titled 'Agente Speciale Alfa'; story by Antonio Serra, art and cover by Claudio Castellini; series conceived by Michele Medda, Antonio Serra, and Bepi Vigna.
- First appearances of Nathan Never, Sigmund Baginov, Edward Reiser, Helen Sheldon, Legs Weaver, Aristotele Skotos, Kal Skotos, and android C-09 (Aaron Stack) — the core cast and primary antagonist family of the ongoing series.
- The issue was Sergio Bonelli Editore's debut science-fiction series after decades of publishing exclusively in western, adventure, horror, and mystery genres — a major expansion of the publisher's genre portfolio.
- The plot directly engages Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics: a stolen program capable of freeing androids from those laws is the MacGuffin, and android C-09 is a key witness and co-protagonist — establishing the series' literary sci-fi DNA from its first page.
- The issue was very nearly not the launch issue: according to contemporary Italian fan sources, the originally planned debut issue was 'Il Monolito Nero' (written by all three creators), and 'Agente Speciale Alfa' was inserted first only after Castellini completed his pages in time.
- A limited-edition preview — 'Nathan Never: il Numero Zero' (14 pages, published by Alessandro Distribuzioni) — had appeared in April 1991, roughly two months before issue #1; that preview story was later reprinted as a supplement bundled with issue #7 of the regular series in December 1991.
- Each issue included two recurring in-universe features debuted here: a fictional newspaper article from 'City News' (used in #1 to introduce Agenzia Alfa and Edward Reiser) and a technical-data sheet profiling equipment from the story world.
- The first Martin Mystère / Nathan Never crossover did not occur until 1996 (special: 'Prigioniero del futuro'); appearances of Tex Willer, Zagor, Dylan Dog, and Martin Mystère indexed in some databases against this issue reflect the broader shared Bonelli universe, not confirmed in-story appearances in issue #1 itself.
- The RCS/Gazzetta dello Sport published a 50-volume reprint series (2017–2018) collecting the first 100 issues in the original black-and-white format, each volume including editorial notes by Antonio Serra on the series' creation.
- In 1992, a licensed Nathan Never video game was released for the Commodore Amiga by Genias, packaged with an original unpublished story ('Guerra alla Yakuza') by Vigna, Medda, Genovesi, and De Angelis — one of the earliest Italian comic-to-game adaptations.
Cast · 19 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Nathan dovrà proteggere e collaborare con C-09, un testimone robot che ha assistito alla morte di un uomo. Nella sua memoria è custodito un segreto che fa gola ad Aristotele Skotos, capo di una potentissima organizzazione criminale.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).