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THIS FORTNIGHT
GRAPHIC NOVEL
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN VOLUME II
Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill (Titan) 9909
Martian heat rays frying innocent women and children? Grandad-aged Allan Quartermain giving young Miss Mina Murray a good rogering up against an old oak? Mr Hyde buggering the Invisible Man? As with the first, the second volume of writer Alan Moore and artist Kevin O’Neill's satire on Victorian fantasy fiction just isn’t cricket - and it’s all the better for it. Moore’s astute, literate, but utterly tongue-in-cheek send up of the milieu is remarkably inspired, even by the high standards the comics genius set for himself with The Watchmen, V for Vendetta et al. Let’s not even get started on what Moore here does with the formerly cute Rupert the Bear. This right handsome hardback collects the six- part second volume of the adventures of the Victorian ‘superhero team’. In volume one, the key characters - the doddery but nonetheless horny Quartermain; Miss Murray, a former
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91 Need for Speed
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91 The Edge of the World
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93 Marti Pellow, Alan Clark
acquaintance of a certain Eastern European nobleman of ill-repute; the now absent Dr Jekyll and very much present Mr Hyde; the transparent Hawley Griffin and the dark-skinned Indian Captain Nemo - were sent by Her Majesty’s Military Intelligence agent Campion Bond to do battle. First they were up against Fu Manchu in Whitechapel and then against James Moriarty in Whitehall. But volume two expands the late 19th century tableaux for a full-blown invasion of Earth by the tripod-riding monsters from Mars. The grandeur of that narrative proves a little too cumbersome for Moore to deal with adequately in this relatively slim volume, but the writer more than makes up for this minor flaw by the expanded interplay characters. Thus, Quartermain and Murray fall in lust, while (beautiful irony, here) the brutish Hyde falls in love with the lady. Griffin’s invisibility experiments finally send him completely doolally, which results in him betraying Earth to the Martians, assaulting Hyde’s love and subsequently receiving the aforementioned and
0.... Excellent 00.. Recommended .0. Good
.0 Flawed
O Poor
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94 J0 Gordon, Lost
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96 Fressh
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1 00 Euro stars
AN ASTUTE, LITERATE, BUT UTTERLY
TONGUE-IN- CHEEK SEND UP OF THE MILIEU
arse-splitting buggering (before dinner).
Narrative encumber is made tolerable by the plethora of literary references, some obvious, others obscure, that the pages are peppered with. These distractions from the narrative may be mere icing on the cake, but there’s a good deal of fun (and some educational value, too) to be had in noticing a crafty pussy (whose master’s name might well be Dick), or a curious rabbit with waistcoat and fob-watch (being eaten by foxes, mind).
And Moore, who can best be credited with bringing politics into mainstream comics, can’t resist doing likewise here. You may recall from HG Wells’ novel, The War of the Wodds, that while on the verge of victory, the seemingly invincible Martian invaders succumb to the common cold. Moore changes Wells’ ending and, in doing so, makes a beautifully barbed comment on the modern day Western world’s obsession with weapons of mass destruction and the US and UK’s efforts to return to the days of empire building. (Miles Fielder)
8—22 Jan 2004 THE LIST 87