The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2

Again revisiting the exploits of those wild and crazy Victorian adventurers, Moore recaptures the magic that made the first volume so memorable: that combustible union of witty irony with deadly serious earnestness, added with a generous dose of first-rate storytelling and gorgeous art. Moore again taps into the essence of Victorian England, what with its priggishness and insistence on decorum even when the centre no longer holds. Moore seems to have as much fun poking fun at stodgy Victorian manners as he does implicating its moral complexities. The story involves the League's battles with an extraterrestrial invasion (anyone who has seen Spielberg's War of the Worlds should recognize an eerie similarity between the film's alien machines with the ones here). Along the way, romantic relationships, betrayal, graphic violence, human/animal hybrids, and "retired" League members keep the story moving. Although technically a sequel to the first volume of the League, this can be enjoyed as a stand-alone, as little of the first volume's storyline creeps its way in here. Moore appears particularly focussed on developing the internal dynamics and dysfunctions of the League. The team seems nowhere near as amiable and together as it was in volume I. In this way, this volume is decidedly darker in tone than its predecessor. The laugh-out-loud sequences, though still here, are not as frequent, and tend to have morbid undercurrents to them. Comparing this volume with its predecessor is akin to choosing your favourite child: you love them both the same, although perhaps for different reasons. The highlight, not just of volume II, but indeed of the entire series, has to be "The New Traveller's Almanac" instalment that concludes the text. Moore's imagination goes into Mach III. Picking from his prodigious knowledge of mythology, literature, cinema, and popular culture, Moore re-invents Earth's geography and history to create fascinatingly unique people, animals and places, (i.e. Torelore, on Italy's west coast, where men enter confinement while their pregnant women are conscripted into the Torelorean army, which resulted in the country's being overrun; "Thermometer Island, where the inhabitants have various forms of non-human genitalia, and a stupefying plethora of others."). It's to Moore's credit that he continues in this vein for dozens of pages; clearly, his creative powers are running on all cylinders. The carnival ride Moore takes us on perfectly demonstrates how easily he can handle humour, horror, and the sublime, and turn the ordinary into the bizarre.

I was quite fascinated with the first volume of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." I expected the second volume to be just as fascinating as the first. This time out Alan Moore begins the story on Mars with characters from Edgar Rice Burroughs' series of Mars books starring John Carter. The creatures leaving Mars are doing so because John Carter and the Martians of Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories were preparing to deal with them permanently. On Earth we meet with the beloved, though somewhat psychopathic, characters of the first book once again. Similar to Robert Heinlein's novel "The Puppet Masters," we see mysterious cylinders land and watch the reaction of the locals. Of course the initial reaction is one of curiosity, as no one suspects the danger presented by those within the cylinder. When the first people die we realize that, just as in the original H.G. Wells novel and in "The Puppet Masters," that these creatures are will not negotiate, preferring to extinguish us instead. The five central characters, Allan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Mina Murray, Hawley Griffin, and Edward Hyde, set out to examine the cylinders. After realizing the danger the cylinders impose, M plots a course carefully, eventually leading to the addition of a new character, Dr. Moreau, and a group of creatures endowed by Dr. Moreau with unique attributes. Eventually Dr. Moreau proves critical to the defense of London from the Martians. During the quest for solutions to the Martian menace we discover that one of the five members of the League has betrayed them. This same person attacks Mina, leaving her injured. We also watch as romance develops between Allan Quartermain and Mina Murray, the heroine of "Dracula." This particular volume features rather risqué images of the lustful couple. Later in the novel, another member of the League will revenge Mina in a most disturbing and brutal way, which may eventually hail the end of the league as we know it. I think this second volume is better than the first volume. Alan Moore was able to capitalize on the character development of the first volume, and thus was able to spend more time on developing the story. Moore also focuses more deeply on the mental problems that each of the characters has, providing the book with two levels of story. The artwork is also better than in the first book. The imagery is detailed and well matches my mental image of Victorian England. Those details relating to the Martians match my recollection of the original H.G. Wells story. The colors used are vibrant and enhance the story, much like lighting is critical in film. I have one minor complaint about the novel. I thought the ending was just a little too quick. Perhaps it was appropriate and it was in keeping with the original story. Certainly Moore was attempting to create some surprise in an ending that most of us already know, and perhaps the speedy ending was necessary to prevent people from guessing the ending.

Alan Moore has done even better than in Volume I. The story line has gotten darker as befits the collecting together of these assorted Victorian heroes and anti-heroes. This time throw in Dr. Moreau and an Orson Wellesian invasian of Martians into the pot, stir, and add the brilliance of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill and you get Volume II. The dark sides of the "Gentlemen" are emerging as we see what the Invisible Man and Mr. Hyde are capable of. Besides the wonderful righting, the illustrations both capture an imagined Victorian era and mix it with the horrors we could only imagine today. In keeping with the theme of the book, there is an imaginary travelogue at the end of the graphic novel which wonderfully captures such writings of the time. We can only hope that a Volume III is in the works.

This book, a sequel to Alan Moore's initial series recounting the rise of the League, is a feast for both the eyes and the mind. In it, Moore pits his group of famous fictional figures (some heroic, others anything but) against H. G. Wells' Martian invaders. While the second volume lacks some of the freshness and character development of the original, it is nonetheless a great read, balancing an extraordinary faithfulness to his source material (especially Wells' book) with Moore's imaginative concepts and intriguing characterizations - and with an ending that offers a brilliant twist on the original story.In offering this tale Moore is ably complimented by Kevin O'Neill, whose artwork offers a lush visualization of Moore's alternate Victorian Britain. Like the first volume, the panels are loaded with visual references to the fantastic literature of the previous centuries, suggesting that the extraordinariness of this world is not limited to the central characters. Deciphering the references - which has sparked much discussion on the Web - is part of the enjoyment of reading this book, and it left me amazed at the breadth of both Moore's and O'Neill's range of reading. It is only one of the many ways in which the reader is rewarded when delving into this fantastic work.