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vitaminbillwebb's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
jhook's review against another edition
4.0
This is re-read number....I don't know. As with The Black Dossier, it works much better with an annotation source, as the boys dig REALLY deep. I really liked the 1969 section again, especially when I realized who Mina's "compatriot" is toward the end. 2009 is fun and sad, but I do wish Allan had more of a storyline.
Onto Tempest!
Onto Tempest!
dantastic's review against another edition
5.0
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen spend a century trying to prevent the birth of the anti-Christ and the apocalypse.
That whacky warlock Alan Moore crafted one hell of a tale here with Kevin O'Neil. Starting in 1910 and ending in 2009, Century tells of the League's efforts to stop Oliver Haddo's plot to conceive an anti-Christ over the course of a hundred years. Quartermane and Mina are still young due to having drunk from a pool in Africa. Orlando is pushing 3000 year old and switches genders a few times in this.
Alan Moore puts some heavy lifting on the reader in this. I was fortunate enough to know Oliver Haddo from The Magician, and Jeremiah Cornellius from the works of Michael Moorcock but some of the references went over my head. I expect I'll ferret out what's what on the next go-round.
I don't want to spoil anything but the 2009 section is easily my favorite, partly due to the balls to the wall nature of it and partly due to who the anti-Christ turns out to be. I'm not sure what the hell the fourth volume is going to entail but I'm along for the duration. Five out of five stars.
That whacky warlock Alan Moore crafted one hell of a tale here with Kevin O'Neil. Starting in 1910 and ending in 2009, Century tells of the League's efforts to stop Oliver Haddo's plot to conceive an anti-Christ over the course of a hundred years. Quartermane and Mina are still young due to having drunk from a pool in Africa. Orlando is pushing 3000 year old and switches genders a few times in this.
Alan Moore puts some heavy lifting on the reader in this. I was fortunate enough to know Oliver Haddo from The Magician, and Jeremiah Cornellius from the works of Michael Moorcock but some of the references went over my head. I expect I'll ferret out what's what on the next go-round.
I don't want to spoil anything but the 2009 section is easily my favorite, partly due to the balls to the wall nature of it and partly due to who the anti-Christ turns out to be. I'm not sure what the hell the fourth volume is going to entail but I'm along for the duration. Five out of five stars.
adamskiboy528491's review against another edition
5.0
"How did culture fall apart in barely a hundred years?" - Mina Murray
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume III: Century by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill is the first Volume published by Moore and O'Neill for Top Shelf. This changed the format from monthly releases to a trilogy of extended issues published annually. It set up an elaborate end of the world arc spanning the 20th and early 21st centuries. Recurring motifs include Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera and Iain Sinclair's Andrew Norton, a time traveller who can visit any part of London's history but only in London. Songs from Brecht and Weill lead to on-panel musical numbers. The supplementary story Minions of the Moons is set in the '60s while in space.
1910 - Chapter 1 ("What Keeps Mankind Alive?") takes place in 1910, where the League investigates a doomsday cult led by magician Oliver Haddo while simultaneously dealing with a madman killing prostitutes on the waterfront. Meanwhile, Janni Dakkar, daughter of Captain Nemo, sets out to pursue a life away from her father's shadow.
1969 - Chapter 2 ("Paint it Black") goes to the '60s and features characters from popular music, TV and cinema of the era, as the League pursue Haddo's current scheme and pick up trails from the earlier era. Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll clash against London gangsters and the Occult.
2009 - Chapter 3 (“Let It Come Down”) goes to 2009 and the 21st Century. Millennial culture looks very strange to our heroes who have seen it all; the Antichrist promised by Haddo is all set to make his mark on the world stage.
This Volume introduces some more new characters. The most interesting is the essence of Orlando, who eventually deconstructs the idea that living forever is excellent. He/she embraces immortality and accepts everything about it…including the occasional bouts of crazy bloodlust that result from the apathy living forever brings. To enjoy immortality, Orlando has to overlook all the violence he/she causes because of it. It's implied that Orlando also suffers from this to some degree since 5000 years of war and bloodshed occasionally drive him/her into a killing frenzy. This Volume also cleverly uses a cameo appearance/deus ex machina I've EVER seen in a piece of fiction! It's so bizarre, but somehow, I'm incredibly alright with it!
At this point, Alan Moore has firmly grounded himself against critics by saying there is a firm difference between his "stealing" of literary characters to put into a new story versus adapting an already existing story into a new medium. Though some argue that while this logic holds up with Moore on sequels to the original work without the original author's intent or involvement, adaptations in other mediums are themselves derivative and stealing from the original rather than continuations.
Moore's distinction of new media being evil has had a profound impact on the world-building of the series. It is easily notable how in later volumes, there is less focus on the modern literary output and lines of dialogue come off that works like Harry Potter are poorly defined and stealing from older, better literature. Moore perceives older literature as more challenging and having a higher purpose, and Moore, in interviews, has maintained he sees modern culture as a decline into shallow escapism. From a Watsonian perspective, what happened to almost every central literary character since the middle of the twentieth century? Indeed, it is worth noting that in the older volumes, Moore dove deep into many literary sources in building the world of the League, from the major players to the background characters. But by the time, between 1969 and 2009, the number of literary sources took a severe nosedive. Indeed references are made to generally obscure cult films like Performance and Get Carter (which initially had some novelisations) and the cultural symbol of the turn of the millennium that Moore focuses on, the Harry Potter franchise. As a result, it can be jarring, regardless of how many of us feel about the individual characters, that many popular literary characters aren't referenced at all.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume III: Century by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill is the first Volume published by Moore and O'Neill for Top Shelf. This changed the format from monthly releases to a trilogy of extended issues published annually. It set up an elaborate end of the world arc spanning the 20th and early 21st centuries. Recurring motifs include Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera and Iain Sinclair's Andrew Norton, a time traveller who can visit any part of London's history but only in London. Songs from Brecht and Weill lead to on-panel musical numbers. The supplementary story Minions of the Moons is set in the '60s while in space.
1910 - Chapter 1 ("What Keeps Mankind Alive?") takes place in 1910, where the League investigates a doomsday cult led by magician Oliver Haddo while simultaneously dealing with a madman killing prostitutes on the waterfront. Meanwhile, Janni Dakkar, daughter of Captain Nemo, sets out to pursue a life away from her father's shadow.
1969 - Chapter 2 ("Paint it Black") goes to the '60s and features characters from popular music, TV and cinema of the era, as the League pursue Haddo's current scheme and pick up trails from the earlier era. Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll clash against London gangsters and the Occult.
2009 - Chapter 3 (“Let It Come Down”) goes to 2009 and the 21st Century. Millennial culture looks very strange to our heroes who have seen it all; the Antichrist promised by Haddo is all set to make his mark on the world stage.
This Volume introduces some more new characters. The most interesting is the essence of Orlando, who eventually deconstructs the idea that living forever is excellent. He/she embraces immortality and accepts everything about it…including the occasional bouts of crazy bloodlust that result from the apathy living forever brings. To enjoy immortality, Orlando has to overlook all the violence he/she causes because of it. It's implied that Orlando also suffers from this to some degree since 5000 years of war and bloodshed occasionally drive him/her into a killing frenzy. This Volume also cleverly uses a cameo appearance/deus ex machina I've EVER seen in a piece of fiction! It's so bizarre, but somehow, I'm incredibly alright with it!
At this point, Alan Moore has firmly grounded himself against critics by saying there is a firm difference between his "stealing" of literary characters to put into a new story versus adapting an already existing story into a new medium. Though some argue that while this logic holds up with Moore on sequels to the original work without the original author's intent or involvement, adaptations in other mediums are themselves derivative and stealing from the original rather than continuations.
Moore's distinction of new media being evil has had a profound impact on the world-building of the series. It is easily notable how in later volumes, there is less focus on the modern literary output and lines of dialogue come off that works like Harry Potter are poorly defined and stealing from older, better literature. Moore perceives older literature as more challenging and having a higher purpose, and Moore, in interviews, has maintained he sees modern culture as a decline into shallow escapism. From a Watsonian perspective, what happened to almost every central literary character since the middle of the twentieth century? Indeed, it is worth noting that in the older volumes, Moore dove deep into many literary sources in building the world of the League, from the major players to the background characters. But by the time, between 1969 and 2009, the number of literary sources took a severe nosedive. Indeed references are made to generally obscure cult films like Performance and Get Carter (which initially had some novelisations) and the cultural symbol of the turn of the millennium that Moore focuses on, the Harry Potter franchise. As a result, it can be jarring, regardless of how many of us feel about the individual characters, that many popular literary characters aren't referenced at all.
latterature's review against another edition
4.0
More to discover and enjoy on each occasion, but the baffling climax of the third act still stops it from reaching the status of its predecessors.
neon_capricorn's review against another edition
2.0
It took me a while to read this one. I really liked the first two volumes of LXG, but this one was a bit much, and it had a bunch of things in it that I had no reference for. I’m glad I read this collection, but in my heart, LXG stopped at at volume 2.
sfletcher26's review against another edition
4.0
I have no words to adequately describe this book. Its equal parts genius, madness, reverence, rip off, and parody. It is pure Moore.
juliawo's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
jammasterjamie's review against another edition
5.0
The twisted genius that is Alan Moore is once again on full display - I get the feeling that he just enjoys writing League stories a little too much, and that is great news for us fans.