Just Finished Reading LXG

I just finished reading the first volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore. My belief is that it is a singularly remarkable piece of comic-book fiction. Not that I should have expected anything less from the writer of the seminal Watchmen book (the only "comic book" to land on the recent TIME magazine All-Time 100 Novels list), the hauntingly dystopian V for Vendetta, and the landmark Batman graphic novel, The Killing Joke.

The book is a peculiar - but entirely cogent - Victorian-era pastiche of prominent characters from classic British novels by such luminaries as H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Bram Stoker, to name a few. At the forefront of the story are Mina Harker of Dracula, Allan Quatermain of King Solomon's Mines, the titular juxtaposition of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Griffin of The Invisible Man, and Captain Nemo of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The dynamic of this team is something to behold... As if that were not enough, peppered across the entirety of the graphic novel are references and homages to Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allan Poe, Fu Manchu, Around the World in Eighty Days, Moby-Dick, Oliver Twist, and War of the Worlds. In any less capable hands, the endeavor would result in complete and utter disaster, but Moore balances the whole with even pacing and a wisdom in focus. (Of course, one could argue that no other popular fictionist, with the exception of Philip José Farmer, would even have dared dream of such grandiose literary blasphemy.) The curious amalgamation here offers a very dark and unflinchingly cynical view of humanity and heroism, and yet never calms its lust for spirited adventure and awe-inspiring visuals.

Seeing as how I had long "outgrown" comic books, I had never heard of League until previews for the screen adapatation were making the rounds a few years ago. I never did watch the film, but judging by reviews and word of mouth, to say that it underwhelmed is an understatement. After reading a brief comparison between the book and film, I can see why the adaptation failed to properly capture what was so brilliantly laid out on paper. Put bluntly, the filmmakers seemed to have ripped each and every member of the League of the exact qualities integral to the essence of their respective characterizations. I guess it bears repeating the oft-used cliché: the book was better. In any event, I would give my strongest recommendation of the book to any lover of British literature and high adventure.