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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

By: Alan Moore Kevin O'Neill
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Titan Books Ltd
ISBN: 1563898586
ISBN-13: 9781563898587
Released: 29 Nov 2002
RRP: £13.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Strange, literary and brill! - By: grr, 29 Apr 2008
Alan Moore is a creative genius. Yes, he does the superhero thing with Watchmen & his DC & Marvel forays, but this is a whole new spin on it! This graphic novel will make you want to re-read alll those classics gathering dust on your shelves, because alll of the major characters are torn from Victorian masterpieces. Allan Quartemain, Captain Nemo, The Invisible Man, Mina Murray (formerly Harker), Dr Jekyll & of course Mr Hyde are summoned to form the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. All the characters are well portrayed, especiallly Mr Hyde. But they alll have flaws & dark sides. The Invisible Man is a rapist for instance, not your jolly scientist. You have alll these classics in a James Bond-esque plot, spying for the Empire to save the world from a devious villain so foul, dear reader, I shudder at the thought of his very name! You'd be surprised at the humour too. The artwork is fantasticallly detailed & fits the story perfectly. You get a bonus Quartemain story at the end & a fab collection of cover artwork from the original comics. There is always something new to notice when you re-read it. This is unlike anything you have read & I highly recommend it! Can't wait to read Black Dossier! Utterly marvelous!
Rainbow in the Comic Book Land - By: Mr. C. M. Owen, 25 Jul 2007
This comic is a magical exploration into the world of Alan Moore. It's a masterpiece fraught with adventure & intelligence. Moore creates so many different layers in his work it's hard to fully comprehend. The illustration is also fantastic.
Britannia waives the rules with some relish! - By: H, 12 Jan 2007
If you're a fan of victorian characters such as Dr Jekyl & Capt Nemo, or you are a comics fan wanting a good read, this book is for you!

Don't be put off by the movie, the book is infinitely better.

Buy the hard-back - you'll read it often enough to warrant the extra.

Superbe. Alan Moore at his best.
I've read it more than once. - By: , 05 Sep 2005
I've read it more than once. Each time finding something new to enjoy.
First time. I loved the way a bullied Dr. Jekyll would turn into the ultra violent Mr. Hyde, in a hilariously over the top fasion.
Second time. It's a nice James Bond story & that Griffin's character is dark. Doubtlessly being invisible has drove him insane.
Third. Maybe that Chinese 'Fu Munchi' guy has every right to fight against the english empire. I mean the League arn't entirely hero's are they.
Fourth. Isn't that Oliver Twist?
Fifth. It's a great adevture story & is something going on with Quartermain & that woman from Dracula?
It goes on. By now you must have figured out this is top-notch entertainment.
Yes, It is That Good! - By: A. Ross, 22 Apr 2005
If you're a fan of Victorian genre literature & have any interest in comics, this will very probably appeal to you. I'm a very casual comics reader, never buying any but borrowing anything that's at the library except for manga or pure superhero fare. As for 19th-century genre lit, when I was a child, I read some Stoker, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, & the like. All that said, this is a highly entertaining work, probably the most purely enjoyable trade comic volume I've encountered.

The concept is pretty outstanding: Moore's taken public-domain "heroes" of the 19th-century & remixed them into a classic superhero team in the spirit of Justice League, X-Men, etc. They are tossed into a steampunk version of Victorian London to do battle with a nefarious villain from the same era of genre-lit. In this volume, the head of the British Secret Service orders his minion (Campion Bond), to assemble a team for a secret mission. He starts with Ms. Murray (the widowed wife of Mr. Harker from Dracula), who drags the gaunt former adventurer Allan Quartermain (the intrepid explorer of H. Rider Haggard's stories) from the depths of a Cairo opium den. They are spirited to safety by H.G. Wells' incomparable stern Sikh pirate, Captain Nemo, in his magnificent submarine technological wonder The Nautilus. Next stop, the backstreets of Paris, where a beast is terrorizing the prostitutes of the Rue Morgue. This ends up being the terrifying Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, whom they barely manage to subdue. The final stop is to the "Rosa Cootes' Correctional Academy for Wayward Gentlewomen", where a mysterious spirit has been "possessing" some of the boarders. This bizarre combination of boarding school & S&M academy is where we meet Hawley Griffin, aka The Invisible Man.

These initial adventures do a very good job of both establishing the marvelous setting & the individual nature of the five heroes. Each is a formerly respected, now somewhat falllen member of society. When a storyteller assembles such a team of flawed misfits, the result is usuallly either slapstick comedy or some form of redemption. In this case redemption is the order of the day, as the team is assigned to recover a stolen container of "cavorite", a mysterious compound which makes flight possible. It seems an evil Chinese East End triad leader named Fu Manchu has stolen it in order to build a superweapon. The remaining 2/3 of the book details their attempt to infiltrate his Bond-villainesque secret base & recover the material. A major plot twist halfway through reveals yet another literary criminal mastermind at work, one that many readers will have guessed at early on. Things build to a climactic & chaotic aerial battle above London's East End, with crazy fighting kites, firebombs, & plenty of wild action.

There's a lot to like in the book, notably an attention to detail that is head & shoulders above most graphic adventures. When Arabic & Chinese speaking characters are encountered, their dialogue is rendered in the actual script. The story & visuals are packed with 19th-century literary inside jokes that will reward repeated reading & the curious who seek out their meaning. (Alternatively, you can pick up Jess Nevins outstanding Unofficial Companion to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which decodes the inside jokes & tells you where everything came from.) This is not to imply that the book is stuffy or dull, because the writing is actuallly quite witty & arch -- providing you like puns, double-entendres, & other such wordplay. The artwork perfectly supports the story, as O'Neil's techno-gaslight London vibrates with energy & activity. The paneling is traditional & straightforward, as befits a retro-romp such as this, & full-page pieces teem with background activity & wit. There's a lot to look at in these pages, such as pickpockets & thieves operating in the background, or more amorous silhouettes... And when things get violent, they get very violent, as we are shown limbs getting ripped asunder, heads getting blown off, & soforth.

This is an outstanding work, although definitely not for younger children. Without being overly sensitive, one has to also keep in mind that in keeping with the setting & origin of the characters, one of the villains is a pretty vile stereotype of an evil "Oriental". Perhaps more disturbingly, the serial rape committed by the Invisible Man is treated as a subject of humor. This latter is slightly counterbalanced by having the team led by Ms. Murray, a setup which seems improbable for the setting. However, minor caveats aside, this is a splendid work of escapist adventure that is much better than the movie made from it. There is a second volume, which finds the team battling a Martian invasion.