The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book
series—which crams together all of writer Alan Moore’s favorite
fictional characters into a single crime-fighting team—has always
straddled the line between Super Friends and Super Friends as
Written by Anal-Retentive English Lit Professors. At their best,
the League books work as fantastic adventures, full of sly
references to just about every book ever. But occasionally, Moore and
artist Kevin O’Neill’s in-jokes have a trying tendency to take center
stage. Century: 1910—the latest League book, which
comes out on Wednesday from local publisher Top Shelf—feels
overwhelmed by such references, largely because the book’s brief
narrative is only partially complete: 1910 is merely the first
of three planned Century volumes.
Here, League standbys Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain are
joined by thief A.J. Raffles, the gender-swapping Orlando, and
supernatural sleuth Thomas Carnacki, and together, they… well, they
don’t do much, other than have worrisome premonitions. (The most
engaging of 1910‘s plotlines is actually about Janni, the
teenage daughter of Captain Nemo, whose attempt to fend for herself in
1910 London echoes the lyrics of “Pirate Jenny.”)
When Century is finished, I have little doubt it’ll stack up
well enough next to other League tales. But for now, this
78-page volume feels like little more than a grab bag of literary
references and foreshadowings.
