Alan Moore (1) (1953–)

One of my projects this year is catching up on series I let fall by the wayside over the years. I read the first two parts of this collection when they were originally released, but I never got around to the conclusion of the story arc until now.

The through story has the League of Extraordinary Gentleman -- reduced to a core group of Mina Murray, Orlando, and Allan Quartermain -- facing off against a pastiche of Aleister Crowley in his century-long attempt to create the Antichrist and bring about the apocalypse. Each of the three chapters is built around a parody of a particular work. In 1910, the events of Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera play out, complete with musical numbers. In 1969, things get a little recursive as Moore turns the 1970 film Performance, which starred Mick Jagger as a rock star, into a fractured history of the Rolling Stones and the death of Brian Jones. Finally, in 2009, the Harry Potter franchise becomes ground zero for the end of time.

Of course, in a shared universe for all literature ever written, one can also find Easter eggs galore from the works of Ian Fleming, Jules Verne, W. Somerset Maugham, Shakespeare, Michael Moorcock, P. L. Travers, Arthur Conan Doyle, and many, many more. Film and television characters are also included, often just wandering through the background, but a version of Emma Peel from TV's The Avengers plays an increasingly important role in the main story. While the League started with public domain characters, Moore usually tiptoes around more modern trademarked material by clearly being satirical or staying in the vague realm of allusion. Moore's friend Iain Sinclair actually let him straight-up borrow the Andrew Norton character from his Slow Chocolate Autopsy. There are various websites that try to document the many obvious and obscure references crammed into this book, and I recommend browsing around to get a full appreciation for the sheer volume of them.

In the end, this the sort of book where the core story may not be totally satisfying, but it's ultimately secondary to all the research and analysis it inspires. Sort of like a lot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: 1. What Keeps Mankind Alive [Century: 1910] -- 2. Paint It Black [Century: 1969] -- 3. Let It Come Down [Century: 2009] -- Minions of the Moon, Chapter One: Into the Limbus -- Minions of the Moon, Chapter Two: The Distance from Tranquility -- Minions of the Moon, Chapter Three: Saviours -- Cover Gallery… (more)