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League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910

Posted on April 27, 2009

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century #1
From: Top Shelf
Writer: Alan Moore
Art: Kevin O’Neill

What if, underneath it all, Alan Moore’s just trying to tell us that he really likes jazz? That’s one of the questions that occurred to me during the reading of Century: 1910, the latest installment of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This notion presents itself as the story is suffused with characters from The Threepenny Opera (itself written to be performed by a jazz combo), which in its tunes contains lyrical allusions to favorite themes of Moore (like a black pirate ship, among others). Then again, and possibly more frightening, maybe this book is what it looks like when Alan Moore is just having . . . a good time?

When we last saw this League, it was in the pages of the Black Dossier. I enjoyed that book, but at the time that I reviewed it, I wondered if the presentation had more to do with Moore and O’Neill pleasing themselves (what with the Fanny/Tijuana Bible insert and the 3D section) over the delivery of a story. This time out, they eschew those extras and drive forward with the first of three new 72-page installments in the Century “arc”. Granted, there is one funny recurring gimmick (befitting the influences of Threepenny and The Beggar’s Opera, characters are wont to burst into song), but it’s not as obtrusive as the previous inserts or that volume’s apparent preoccupation with depicting lots of sex (must have been Lost Girls hangover).

Once again, we have Mina Murray in the thick of the action, as is the de-aged Allan Quartermaine. Their compatriots this time include Orlando (who put in face time in Black Dossier), A.J. Raffles (E.W. Hornung’s “gentleman thief”), and Thomas Carnacki (William Hope Hodgson’s detective of the supernatural). It’s an interesting mix, one that lends itself a touch more to detection that the bombast of Nemo and Hyde. Then again, Nemo does appear, as does his daughter (in a significantly larger role).

This afternoon, I was chatting with a friend about her tattoo appointment. She’s planning on getting the Nautilus as drawn by Kevin O’Neill across her ribs (yay for comic book tattoos). I realized that I have yet to write my own review of the latest League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel, Century 1910. You already have Troy’s, but I have some other comments.

This League is a tease more than a complete story–it introduces new characters, heroes (Orlando, Raffles, and Carnacki, as well as “Jenny Diver,” the daughter of Captain Nemo) and villains, and builds to a surprising climax, but it leaves you panting for the next volume, rather the way the first one did.

The character of Janni/Jenny is really the backbone of the story, though she has little to say. Her story relies instead on O’Neill’s storytelling skills, and they’re certainly up to the challenge. Janni flees her father but cannot escape his legacy. The story is familiar, except normally it’s a son trying to avoid having to live up to his father, rather than a daughter fed up at her father’s wishes for a male successor. Janni’s final turn comes not really as a surprise, but still a thrill. For her, embracing her father’s legacy is less a surrender than a realization that she can do that on her own terms.

Orlando, Raffles and Carnacki may not be as flashy as Hyde and the Invisible Man, but they provide different opportunites for Alan Moore. This is less a book about monsters, as the first two were, and more a book about literature. As Troy notes, it reaches out into music and magic as well. But it was always telling that the main character, the one responsible for pulling together the original League, was a human woman who survived the attack of a monster rather than the monster himself.

Categories: Movies

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