Title: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910
Author: Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
Publisher: Top Shelf 2009
Genre: Graphic Novel
Pages: 80
Rating: 3 /5 stars
Reading Challenges: Graphic Novel; Support Your Local Library
How I Got It: Library Loan
The new volume detailing the exploits of Miss Wilhelmina Murray and her extraordinary colleagues, Century is a 240-page epic spanning almost a hundred years. Divided into three 80-page chapters - each a self-contained narrative to avoid frustrating cliff-hanger delays between episodes - this monumental tale takes place in three distinct eras, building to an apocalyptic conclusion occurring in our own, current, twenty-first century. Chapter one is set against the backdrop of London, 1910, twelve years after the failed Martian invasion and nine years since England put a man upon the moon. In the bowels of the British Museum, Carnacki the ghost-finder is plagued by visions of a shadowy occult order who are attempting to create something called a Moonchild, while on London's dockside the most notorious serial murderer of the previous century has returned to carry on his grisly trade. Working for Mycroft Holmes' British Intelligence alongside a rejuvenated Allan Quartermain, the reformed thief Anthony Raffles and the eternal warrior Orlando, Miss Murray is drawn into a brutal opera acted out upon the waterfront by players that include the furiously angry Pirate Jenny and the charismatic butcher known as Mac the Knife.
I admit absolute disappointment in this slim comic. I had such high hopes after my enjoyment of Volume 1 and 2 of LXG. Unfortunately, this one felt completely disjointed to me. I didn't connect to any of the characters. I had trouble to following the storyline. I found the singing to be an interesting, yet ultimately distracting, storytelling device. I don't think I will be attempting to find the other two Century volumes.
