League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Kevin J. Anderson

...the last five years ‘The League of Extraordinary, Volume One’ by ABC Comics and written by Alan Moore and the artistic duties ably performed by Pat Mills. A tale of thrilling adventure and heroic derring do with a bit of a satirical twist. Featuring five literary icons as you have never seen them before, and after the events written by their illustrious creators.

You have:

Miss Wilhelmina Murray: Formerly known as Wilhelmina ...
...why not pick up ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume Two’ in which our heroes have to deal with ‘The War of the Worlds’. Toodle Pip all…

Extraneous Information:

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One is currently being filmed in Prague. Its most notable cast member is Sean Connery as Allan Quartermain.

The Novels the characters are from are:

Miss Wilhemina Murray nee ... more

In the Year of our Lord 1898 a heretofore-unknown threat has become apparent. This threat so far been able to defeat members of the Secret Service of the British Empire. With the recent theft of the Cavorite material, a substance that resists gravity itself, this menace has become Empire threatening. As such it has been decided by M, since ‘The Great Detective’ is no more, that I shall begin the gathering of subjects of the British Empire that have extraordinary skills or talents with which to combat this ‘Yellow Peril’.

Through contacts within society I was able to find our first operative Miss Wilhelmina Murray a recent divorcee due to a tryst with a foreign gentleman. She is tough, brash and has a very school marmish nature. However she has mettle to her that shows she has been forged in the fires of hell itself quite possibly by some event in her past. Another personage of a more villainous bent is that technologist supreme Captain Nemo. Although his reasons for aiding us are unknown. They have been dispatched to recover three other persons who will be of aid in the coming struggle to preserve the Empire.

‘From the Journals of Campion Bond’

From this humble beginning does begin one of the best comic mini series of the last five years ‘The League of Extraordinary, Volume One’ by ABC Comics and written by Alan Moore and the artistic duties ably performed by Pat Mills. A tale of thrilling adventure and heroic derring do with a bit of a satirical twist. Featuring five literary icons as you have never seen them before, and after the events written by their illustrious creators.

You have:

Miss Wilhelmina Murray: Formerly known as Wilhelmina Harker the only person to ever survive the bite of everyone’s favourite vampire. But whose life was destroyed by the disgrace of it.

Captain Nemo: A man of mystery in the truest sense. His technological skill virtually unparalleled, and once a threat to the world himself.

Allan Quartermain Once the greatest hunter of them all. Now a drunk and opium addict but still with greatness within him.

Dr Henry Jekyll & Mr Edward Hyde: The ultimate split personality disorder survived his gruesome fall. He has only stayed with the group because the British Secret Service may be able to find a cure to get rid of Jekyll or Hyde.

Harley Griffin: The ‘Original’ invisible man. Quite happy the way he is and a sociopath as well.

This as you may guess could be classified as quite an explosive combination of personages. They do not get on at all and are only working with each other because that is their ‘duty’. The world they are in is dark, dingy and fantastical. A world where the horrors of Cthulhu coexist with Sherlock Holmes and Raffles ‘The Gentlemen Thief’. At an essential level any Victorian era adventure books and movies you have ever seen or read is happening somewhere in the background of the world Messrs Moore and Mills have created.

Alan Moore’s writing captures perfectly the Victorian era in style and diction. He draws you relentlessly into a world that is familiar but also very different than you imagine. It is a world of hidden danger and unknown horrors hidden behind the façade of moral fortitude Victorian Britain is remembered for. Moore has created here a gem to be treasured.

But it would be nothing without the artwork of Pat Mills. His art truly does bring Victorian Britain alive for you. It is dark, dismal and horrific. But the fantastical truly belongs within this world that Mills has conceived from Moore’s words and ideas. His art takes the ‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One’ beyond being good into the realm of fantastic.

It is very rare to see a mini series of this standard have what could be classified as the perfect partnership. In fact in the comics business it virtually never happens. So to find something like this was for me a true delight two years ago when this came out. The love these two personages have for their subject is apparent all the way through and inspiring to all who have looked at an issue of this masterpiece.

To anyone out there who needs some adventure in their lives this comic book is the place to go. Also If you enjoy it as much as I do why not pick up ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume Two’ in which our heroes have to deal with ‘The War of the Worlds’. Toodle Pip all…

Extraneous Information:

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One is currently being filmed in Prague. Its most notable cast member is Sean Connery as Allan Quartermain.

The Novels the characters are from are:

Miss Wilhemina Murray nee Harker: Dracula by Bram Stoker

Captain Nemo: Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

Allan Quartermain: King Solomon’s Mines and Allan Quartermain by H. Rider Haggard

Dr Henry Jekyll & Mr Edward Hyde: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Harley Griffin: The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells (Griffin does not actually appear (obviously) by he is referred to)

Campion Bond: Is an invented character by Moore. However his grandson may very well have continued in the family business to a quite spectacular degree.

Other books referred to:

Actually I will let you work those out for yourself:0)

Price: £13.99 (Bookstores) £11.19 (At Amazon)

For info on Volume 2 go here:

http://www.wildstorm.com/minisites/loeg/loeg.html

 

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