League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969 [Paperback]

An interesting review from Mr Veidt & I understand what he means, but the 1960s is to a large extent considered to be the decade when Victorian morality eventually snapped - everything Mina was familiar with (which must have determined her character) was breaking down. I thought that was mirrored as she struggled to remain modern with her language, she was, for the first time, unsure of herself and maybe the scene of abuse in the park was meant as a visual of the excesses of the 1960s abusing the remnants of Victorian morality?

The psychic battle did visually seem a bit cartoonish (who knows what psychic battles look like though?) but could perhaps be seen as tapping the battle for minds in 1960s, stereotypically done through the use of hallucinogenic drugs & related imagery. But then the theme of O.H. possessing different bodies gives the suggestion of how some ideas survive being passed from one generation to another (not literal possession but possession by an idea?). The punk song at the end I suppose could have a few interpretations, one of which could be liberation, in Victorian times they were not much more than property working for the glory of the Empire?

I don't think this is the best of the series, which is a pretty high standard to be measured against, but it's still head and shoulders above what most comic books offer. Whatever Mr Moore does, he offers you the opportunity to think.

"Since 1980 Alan Moore has been subverting and expanding the traditional role of comics." (from the Guardian newspaper)... well, let's be thankful he's done that, eh?

It's not even literature any more really, is it? More like Where's Wally in a knocking shop with the reader playing the game of "spot the obscure character in the background and feel clever." Is that Flook I see? Barry Mackenzie? Scorpio Murtlock? It's hinted that the next book will take place in 2009, by which time presumably the Moon will have been blasted out of orbit in 1999, Enoch Soames will have appeared in the British Museum in 1997, and possibly Kevin O'Neill will draw someone flogging a dead horse in the background.

Okay, so there are some good things about this book. The "Get Carter" dialogue is spot on, so is the alternative universe "Sympathy for the Devil." But you have to get past a lot of, frankly, porn, to read them, & in the end I'm not sure it's worth it.

It's been well over a year since The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910 appeared, so it's been a fair old wait for part 2 (1969), which has finally appeared in shops as a disappointingly slim volume both in terms of content and narrative.

So we have the remaining three members of the League - Allan, Mina and Orlando - wandering round swinging sixties London making what seems to be a fairly vague and disinterested attempt to prevent series villain Oliver Haddo creating the AntiChrist. Given that our lead characters don't appear to be overly fussed whether or not they succeed there's not much dramatic tension to the story, and what there is comes from Jack Carter (of Get Carter fame) pursuing Haddo for his own reasons. Most of the story seems to happen solely so Kev O'Neill can cram characters from 60's British pop-culture into every frame. Another reviewer describes this as being like Where's Wally in a Nudist camp and I can't describe it better than that. Yes, Alan, we know you've immersed yourself in the period to get every possible reference you can into the fifty pages, but a little more time telling an actual story would have been appreciated for my seven pound fifty, if it's all the same to you. What story there is appears to have been `inspired' by Nick Roeg's film Performance in the same way that Gus van Sant's Psycho was `inspired' by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

It seems to be that artists with a devoted and loyal fanbase enter a phase where they feel they can do pretty much anything and get away with it and Century: 1969 is Alan Moore hitting that point. I'd compare it to Robbie Williams producing Rudebox, but a better comparison is Guns 'N' Roses producing Chinese Democracy: a heck of a long wait for a dense, richly layered, and utterly self-indulgent piece of work of the sort which was interesting and exciting in about 1998 but which now just feels uninspired and samey.

At the start of every League book there's a picture of Moore drawn by Kev O'Neill in the style of the era of that book. To remain true to this theme I can only expect that the portrait of the author at the start of Century: 2009 will show him wearing a KFC bucket on his head.