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League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2

Creative Team: Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill
Publisher: DC

Reviewed by Rob Manuel

I'm not saying Alan Moore is God.  I mean, this is the guy who penned From Hell, a deep and psychological look at one of history's most notorious killers, Jack the Ripper.  This is the man who turned Swamp Thing, a B-Movie reject, into something worthwhile. Let's pretend for a moment that you forget the rest of Moore's works such as Top 10, Promethia, Tom Strong, Batman: The Killing Joke, V for Vendetta, and Supreme just to name a couple off the top of my head... Alan Moore will always be known for writing Watchmen, one of the most pivotal stories in comics today. Argue all you want, but look back at comics before and after the release of Watchmen. Moore introduced the concept of the fallible hero, the hero with average problems in not-so average situations.

I'm not saying Alan Moore is God...but he sure is awfully close. In volume one of League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, he created a team of heroes whom no one had seen before. In his second volume, he'll tear them down.

The story doesn't begin here. It begins elsewhere, in space, as a large black rock comes hurdling to Earth.  The large chunk of rock lands in the countryside of England where the League as well as a hundred or so other people goes to investigate.  The rock opens to reveal aliens inside, round bodies with long thin legs.  A group, looking for peace, meets with the new aliens.  Nothing happens at first, until the fire.  People fall to the ground engulfed in flames. This isn't peace. This is war.

Allan Quartermain, the weathered adventurer, along with Miss Murray, the widow with a mysterious past, must go in search of a secret weapon developed by the insane Dr. Moreau.  Nemo, Mr. Hyde, and the invisible Mr. Griffin are left behind to fight the ever-growing number of alien invaders.  As love blooms between Quartermain and Miss Murray, a dark secret from her past comes to light. Mr.Hyde finds his own answers as he learns that Griffin has turned traitor by giving away London's defense plans to the alien horde.  Up against an unstoppable foe, can the League protect London when they can hardly keep their own members together?

Who else but Alan Moore can bring together characters from a tenth grade English Class and make them kick ass?  Alan brought together some of the most unique characters from classical literature and created a crime-fighting team out of them.  The second volume is quite a change of pace from the first volume which focused on characters rather than action. I suspect that few fans could imagine Moore nearly destroying the team that he so carefully crafted in the first volume.  While some may feel that Moore has strayed from his original design, I feel that Moore has this planned all along. It's the sprinkling of dark humor throughout the pages that says it all; teams were made to be broken.

In all my Alan Moore fanboy-ness, I don't want to overlook O'Neill's contribution to this tale.  While Moore's story makes League original, it is O'Neill's "turn of the century" style which gives the story character.  O'Neil delicately balances style with detail.  The drawings remind me of old pictures found in dusty volumes of forgotten classics, but the rich detail brings the scenery and characters alive.  The cooperation between the two artists makes this a near-perfect story.

After reading the second volume, I am curious to see where the third volume will go.  Knowing Moore and O'Neill, I'm sure it's a story that I'll want to read.

Rating: (3 1/2 out of 4 stars)