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Summary
Summary
Features the Victorian era adventures of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, comprised of Captain Nemo, Allan Quartermain, the Invisible Man, Wilhelmina Mina Murray, Detective Thomas Sawyer, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Moore continues his trip through pulp genres with this second volume of The League. This collection includes plenty of faux-Victorian backup material, including the comic book series' original covers, and a lengthy prose short story by Moore. Although the film version was a bust, the source material remains an enjoyable, beautifully executed adventure series. Set in an alternate, technologically advanced 1898 London, the story finds legendary literary heroes Allan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Hawley Griffin (the Invisible Man), Edward Hyde and Mina Murray fighting battles that the British Empire can't handle without them. Here, the eclectic team is defending Earth from a Martian invasion, partially set in motion by another pulp hero, Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars. Moore spares no opportunity to play up the team's origins. Edward Hyde, the monstrous side of Dr. Jekyll, is a nasty brute, while Nemo is an imperious egomaniac, and the once-dashing Allan Quartermain is in the twilight of his powers, yet manages to romance Mina Murray, of Dracula notoriety. Moore remains faithful to the stories' structures (e.g., the Martian invasion is a pulpy romp, complete with burning farm houses, silly-looking creatures and plenty of political intrigue). O'Neill, his artistic collaborator, continues his fine run on the series. His drawings are influenced by 19th-century woodcuts but remain loose and lively. His exquisite renderings of machines and urban landscape remain a reason to look at this series-rarely has an adventure comic been so much fun to observe. (Dec. 2003) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Guardian Review
Moore and O'Neill's outlandish series began in 1999 with the Nautilus surfacing off Cairo, and has spent the ensuing years weaving characters from literature and pop culture into a tapestry of intergalactic warfare, bookish in-jokes and grotesque violence. Now their steampunk epic reaches its conclusion in the internet age, with its heroes divided: Allan Quatermain is a homeless heroin addict, Mina Murray is locked in a correctional facility and Orlando has been driven to massacre innocents. But the apocalypse is coming and the league reforms to save the world from a boy-wizard antichrist. Moore isn't just concerned with physical enemies - this episode is also an elegy for "England's mythic dreamtime", which is battered, empty and propped up by nostalgia ("this whole environment seems artificial," says Murray, "as if it's been created out of reassuring imagery from the 1940s"). Century: 2009's neat references are splendid fun, and this is a clever, passionate - and pleasingly open-ended - finale to a fine series. - James Smart Moore and O'Neill's outlandish series began in 1999 with the Nautilus surfacing off Cairo, and has spent the ensuing years weaving characters from literature and pop culture into a tapestry of intergalactic warfare, bookish in-jokes and grotesque violence. - James Smart.
Booklist Review
Of the half-dozen series acclaimed writer Moore created when he returned to mainstream comics in the late 1990s, the most impressive is the high-concept League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which posits that the fictional nineteenth-century figures Allan Quartermain (of Rider Haggard's She), Captain Nemo, Dr.ekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man, and Mina Harker (heroine of Dracula) banded together as a sort of Victorian superhero team. In the second collection of their exploits, they defend England from an invasion of Martians a la Wells' War of the Worlds. As befits a rousing adventure of their era, a traitor rears his ugly head, and a sinister figure reveals unexpected sentimentality; less traditional are some highly anachronistic violence and sex. This is Moore doing what he does best, freshly and imaginatively revitalizing moribund genres. He is aided in this case by O'Neill's angular, thin-line art, which evokes period book illustrations without copying them. Forget last summer's execrable League movie; in this case, the film wasn't just inferior to the book--it was an insult to it. --Gordon Flagg Copyright 2004 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In the waning days of the Victorian era, a cast of five agents is instructed to save England. Each agent had been a respected member of society, but for various reasons (divorce, drug addiction) they have all dropped out of public favor. Whom they work for is uncertain; the group's leader, Miss Murray, believes that it is the famed detective Sherlock Holmes, back from the dead. Against an atmosphere that is both exciting and repressive, Moore and O'Neill have superimposed a drama that is inventive and suspenseful. The script is full of wit and literary references at one point a seaman instructs his captain ("Nemo") to "Call me Ishmael" and the illustrations charm. Highly recommended for public libraries. Stephen Weiner, Maynard P.L., MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
