the league of extraordinary gentlemen omnibus

All done in ways to deal with the complexity of the main characters, the historical times, and the interactions of the two.

I bring that latter one up because it happens in the book. If you were really vested in the LoXG comic, then the movie makes you feel like you’ve been mugged or even sexually assaulted. From what I’ve gathered from the vocal minority of the internet, most fans’ angst is over how the movie does not reflect the comic. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the movie, is actually pretty high on my list of watchables, so this was my window to either experience or exorcise this hatred that many people have for the film. Let me deal with my own conflicting emotions first. What stands out to me the most in this book is the contrast between it, other tangential media artifacts and how the book deals with them differently, and how my own concept of what this book is was so wrong. It is highly enjoyable, but it’s a lot to get through. If you are going to put in for this, set aside some time and prepare to work. Not all of that is made up of the printed versions of the comics there is a lot of sidebar material, including renditions of some old Allan Quartermain serials (nice!). Allan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Mina Murray, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and the Invisible Man are all brought together for two capers, consisting of six issues a piece in this colossal tome of a book that took me a bit longer to read than I had anticipated. These characters that had been written about in the same age, of course, had never been placed in the same setting together. The important thing is that the backdrop provided Moore the opportunity to do a mash-up or crossover issue as a miniseries featuring these literary icons. You know, the kind the Great Empire had never seen, blah blah blah. In case your memory escapes you, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen concept is that near the turn of the century, a group of heroes from Victorian-era British literature were gathered by British Intelligence (MI-5) and deployed to combat a particularly nasty threat. In fact, in many ways, moreso, becaue the setup and plot are something that had not really been done before. Generated from the creative minds of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, the LoXG takes a decidedly different tack than Kingdom Come did, but it is as equally worthwhile a creative venture. Make no mistake, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Omnibus comes damned close. In case the word was not out, the single arc or trade that I hold in the highest regard is Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: the Omnibus Edition

The league of extraordinary gentlemen omnibus