In the first volume The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, it is the late 1800s in England, and a group of characters from literature are pulled together to form something of a Victorian supergroup. Instructed by the mysterious Mr. M through his lackey Campion Bond, Mina Murray hunts out the various figures – each with their own issues, drug addiction, piracy, violent pasts, psychopathy, and personality disorders – in order to fight the criminal underworld in an alternate version of Victorian London. Mina, along with Allan Quatermain, Captain Nemo, Henry Jekyll (and his ape-like alter ego, Edward Hyde) and Hawley Griffin (The Invisible Man), face off against the criminal mastermind, The Doctor.
The style of the artwork is suitably dark, the palette dominated by browns, greens, deep blues. The moral ambiguity of their boss, and even of those among their ranks, suits the tumultuous and uncertain times the story is set in. The Invisible Man in particular is thoroughly despicable, but I really wanted to see more of his misdeeds. Mina Murray – whose marriage to one Jonathan Harker has recently ended badly – is a great character as their tough, unofficial leader. I just wish that her vulnerabilities weren’t so often linked with rape, which of course her male cohorts rescue her from.
Oh, how typical! Are you men, or little boys? You play your little games with your elephant guns and your submersible boats, but one raised voice and you hide like little children!
It constantly felt like just as the characters’ stories were on the verge of becoming more complicated, they had to move on to their next mission. Although these missions are daring, adventurous and you’re never quite sure how they’re going to end or what they’re going to discover, stronger characterization of these admittedly already iconic characters would have given The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen another level of engagement. In a fictional world where history and technology are being played with for dramatic effect, how much of our previous knowledge about these characters are we supposed to bring to the story? Is the impact of the story lessened when we’re not well acquainted with their previous incarnations?
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen works as a thoroughly engaging story but without the same strong, multifaceted characters it noticeably lacks the emotional and philosophical king hit of Alan Moore’s Watchmen. (I think that may be the graphic novel equivalent of comparing every single film to Citizen Kane.) That said, I’m still going to be tracking down the second volume of the series.
2000, Alan Moore, book review, graphic novel, July 2010, Kevin O'Neill, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Volume One
Hi! I found your blog via the Australian Book Bloggers Directory! I love meeting fellow book bloggers, even more so, Australian book bloggers! Nice to meet you!
Rachel
And the plot thickens…
Hello Rachel. Ah, I’m so in love with the Australian Book Blogger Directory, I’ve met many fantastic bloggers already. Lovely to meet you too!