LEG 2009

In Alan Moore's and Kevin O'Neill's The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Century: 2009 (Marietta and London, 2012), Orlando, who started her fighting career in Troy, meets another "...combat veteran..." (p. 3) or immortal soldier, Colonel Cuckoo, who started later, in the Napoleonic Wars. I did not recognize Cuckoo but he can be identified by googling.

Emma Peel, now Head of the Secret Service, is addressed both as "Mother" and as "Em," which is neat. I think that the James Bond replacements resemble post-Connery actors?

I also think that Norton refers to the film travesty of From Hell. Thus, Alan Moore can incorporate even some really bad stuff into the LEG Universe.

When the Anti-Christ says that he is in a book of the Bible, the unnamed but recognizable Mary Poppins replies that she is on every page. Who is on every page of the Bible? Even God is not. Unless she is Imagination, as in Promethea? (She does mention imagination.)

There is a lot more than this in any volume of LEG but these are the points that have caught my attention on this rereading.

Current Alan Moore-Related Comics

Fashion Beast is not a comic written by Alan Moore. It is a comic written by Alan Johnston based on a film script written by Alan Moore. It does not read like an Alan Moore comic although, when the character Celestine identifies glamour with magic, we hear the voice of the Magician.

I think that there are too many silent panels. I am sure that, if Alan Moore had written the original script for a comic or had even just adapted his own film script as a comic, then it would have been different. Also, the range of things that Alan Moore can write or write about is immense - in different works, superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, advertising, political propaganda, comedy, horror, contemporary fiction, pornography; in this case, fashion. Thus, while loyal readers support whatever he does, they are not always equally interested in the subject matter.

On a first reading, Nemo: Heart Of Ice, a spin-off from The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, has not done a lot for me yet. The main obvious sources are Verne, Haggard and Lovecraft and there is a reference to Charlie Chaplin's parody of Hitler, Hynkel, who, we already know, exists instead of Hitler in the Extraordinary Gentlemen version of history. Why is Ayesha not veiled? We can learn about other characters, Reade, the Steam Man etc by googling. A glance at google informs me that Frank Reade's Steam Man was based on an earlier fictitious steam-powered robot which explains why Reade Jr here acknowledges that his father had adapted the original design.

The main Extraordinary Gentlemen series seems to be building towards a climax involving obscure superheroes and 2001 monoliths so I will continue to read it with interest.