The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1
by Alan Moore
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alan MooreEdition: Paperback
Published: 1999
ISBN: 1563898586
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: America's Best Comics
Book Reviews of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1
Book Review: Satisfying Romp For The Justice League of Britannia
Summary: 4 Stars
Great literary characters have a tendency to outlive their mortal creators, by finding second and third lives in cultures far removed from those which created them. Here, in the first volume of a collection of graphic novels, a quintet of Victorian-era protagonists are enjoyably thrust into the late-20th-century medium of the comic book.
It is 1898. Mina Murray, heroine of "Dracula" with her maiden name reassumed, is charged to assemble a team of social miscreants whose skills are badly needed by the British Empire, confronting a mysterious menace from within. Captain Nemo (Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea") brings his submarine "Nautilus", while Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Henry Jekyll contributes his unrestrained alter-ego Mr. Hyde. H.G. Wells' "Invisible Man" is somewhere on hand, too, and then there's Allan Quatermain, legendary African explorer from the H. Rider Haggard stories.
One of the most notable aspects of this book, a collection of six sequentially-issued comic books published in 2000, is its treatment of Quatermain, least notable of the main characters, as its central figure. Aged, strung out from drugs, somewhat blinkered in his attitudes, he represents the guiding spirit of the era in all its good and bad ways and something of a pin cushion for writer Alan Moore's modernist barbs. At the same time, underneath the action and bloodshed, it is Quatermain's redemption as a full-blooded hero that propels this story out from the chapbook and comics milieu it cheerfully inhabits.
Between the chapter sections lie warnings of what lies ahead: "Mothers of sensitive or neurasthenic children may wish to examine the contents before passing it on to their little one, removing those pages which they consider to be unsuitable." Moore is described in a brief bio, written in the same tone, as the author of such prior works as "A Child's Garden of Venereal Horrors" and "Cocaine and Rowing: The Sure Way to Health."
There is some truth to the warning regarding sensitive offspring. Though it plays with the idea of being a Boy's Own Adventure, it in fact is a graphic novel in more ways than one. The first two chapters alone contain three rape attempts, and the one that may have been successful (as well as statutory) is played for a devilish laugh. People don't just die in "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", they are ripped limb from limb, or have their brains bashed out.
Icky, yes, but Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill earn your indulgence for the intelligent way such R-rated liberties expand and intensify an immersive storyline. More problematic for me was the central conflict, which seems to serve no purpose except to facilitate some corker artwork of London's East End under airship attack.
Still, it is a visual treat, here, there, and everywhere, using the England of 100 years before as a kind of launching pad for trippy phantasmagorias. Moore plays with the conventions of the Victorian era, but he also respects them in a curious way. His combination of historical attentiveness, wit, and (especially in the chapbook supplement "Allan and the Sundered Evil") facility with period language makes for a splendid tale well told. Wells and Stevenson would be impressed.
Summary of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1
Proving that mainstream comics could be infused with past literary/cultural ideals and still be bestsellers, the America's Best Comics imprint took the dilapidated superhero genre and created three vastly entertaining hybrids with Tom Strong, Promethea and Top Ten. Now, a stunning coup de grace is delivered with this masterful pairing of Victorian adventure fiction's greatest characters and the old war-horse of the super-group. With the stunning The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, it would be no exaggeration to say that Alan Moore has produced a near-perfect piece of adventure fiction that is clever, literate, rich with excitement and hard to put down.It's 1898 and at the behest of M, the mysterious head of the secret Service, Campion Bond is dispatched to procure the services of Miss Mina Murray (nee Harker), adventurer Allan Quartermain, "Science-Pirate" Captain Nemo, Henry Jekyll (and his monstrous alter ego) and Hawley Griffin (a.k.a. the Invisible Man). Together, they must combat an insidious threat that will decide supremacy of the London skies, but their success may unleash a far greater threat. With no shortage of action, Moore and O' Neill sustain a high level of suspense, intrigue, mystery and terrific wit that all contribute to an indispensable read. O'Neill's art, so memorable in Marshal Law, produces a London filled with vivid, magnificent architecture and a malevolent atmosphere ripe with thrills and danger. An unmitigated triumph--pure and simple. --Danny Graydon
Proving that mainstream comics could be infused with past literary/cultural ideals and still be bestsellers, the America's Best Comics imprint took the dilapidated superhero genre and created three vastly entertaining hybrids with Tom Strong, Promethea and Top Ten. Now, a stunning coup de grace is delivered with this masterful pairing of Victorian adventure fiction's greatest characters and the old war-horse of the super-group. With the stunning The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, it would be no exaggeration to say that Alan Moore has produced a near-perfect piece of adventure fiction that is clever, literate, rich with excitement and hard to put down.It's 1898 and at the behest of M, the mysterious head of the secret Service, Campion Bond is dispatched to procure the services of Miss Mina Murray (nee Harker), adventurer Allan Quartermain, "Science-Pirate" Captain Nemo, Henry Jekyll (and his monstrous alter ego) and Hawley Griffin (a.k.a. the Invisible Man). Together, they must combat an insidious threat that will decide supremacy of the London skies, but their success may unleash a far greater threat. With no shortage of action, Moore and O' Neill sustain a high level of suspense, intrigue, mystery and terrific wit that all contribute to an indispensable read. O'Neill's art, so memorable in Marshal Law, produces a London filled with vivid, magnificent architecture and a malevolent atmosphere ripe with thrills and danger. An unmitigated triumph--pure and simple. --Danny Graydon
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