The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century
Encyclopedia
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century is the third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
, written by Alan Moore
and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill
. Co-published by Top Shelf Productions
and Knockabout Comics
in the US and UK respectively, Century will be published in three distinct 72-page squarebound comics. Part 1 was released on May 13, 2009. Part 2 was released on July 20, 2011.
, Allan
and Orlando feature prominently, alongside W. Somerset Maugham
's Aleister Crowley
-analogue Oliver Haddo
and Iain Sinclair
's London-bound time travel
ler Andrew Norton, from Slow Chocolate Autopsy
.
Moore has stated that the move from DC Comics
/WildStorm
/America's Best Comics has been liberating, and that the work on Century is "as if we feel freed from the conventions of boys' adventure comics," allowing for a work that is "a lot more atmospheric," building slowly to "a tremendously bloody climax."
, Captain Nemo
is on his deathbed in Lincoln Island
. He asks his estranged daughter, Janni Dakkar, to resume his name and calling after his death. Janni refuses and leaves her father's side. Spying a passing ship, she swims towards it and stows away upon it. The ship takes her to London where she takes up employment at a wharf side hotel under the name Jenny Diver. Arriving on the same ship as Janni is Jack MacHeath a.k.a. Jack the Ripper
, who is a direct descendant of the 18th-century highwayman MacHeath a.k.a. Mack the Knife
, and immediately takes to murdering prostitutes again, one of whom looks suspiciously like Louise Brooks
.
Meanwhile, the occult detective and second League member Thomas Carnacki
has visions of bloodshed on the waterfront and of a secret cabal of magicians convening to plot the creation of a Moonchild destined to bring forth the end of the world. Mina believes these visions may be connected with the upcoming coronation of King George V
. Intelligence chief Mycroft Holmes
advises them to investigate both, and suggests that the bloodshed on the waterfront is the work of MacHeath, whom he believes to be Jack the Ripper
.
While investigating one of the men Carnacki saw in his vision, Orlando, Quatermain and Carnacki stumble upon the circle of magicians, who claim that what Carnacki saw either is wrong, or has not happened yet. Carnacki inadvertently gives the magicians a crucial piece of information that they need to create the Moonchild. At the same time, Mina and Raffles
consult Andrew Norton
, a time traveler bound by the confines of the city of London, who speaks in riddles that hint at the Harry Potter
series, war in Iraq and the July 7 bombings, but otherwise offers little help. He vanishes to another time, promising that he will meet Mina again in 1969.
Janni is raped by the drunken patrons of her hotel, and is later aided to her room by Suki Tawdry. She fires a flare to summon the Nautilus
(which Suki, as narrator, has been referring to obliquely as The Black Raider) docked nearby.
The following day MacHeath is about to be hanged without trial as Mycroft is worried that a trial might bring to light the involvement of the 14th Earl of Gurney
in the original Ripper murders. MacHeath sings his last plea from the gallows while the Nautilus, now painted black as per Nemo's orders, and with his skull nailed to forecastle, emerges and destroys every building on the waterfront, save for Janni's hotel. The crew of the Nautilus descends upon the waterfront to loot, murder and rape while Janni, now the captain of the Nautilus, orders that the hotel patrons be killed slowly. This, and Suki's reference to the Nautilus as The Black Raider recall the song Pirate Jenny
.
At the last moment, a message arrives from the Earl of Gurney confessing to all the Ripper crimes. MacHeath is released and the League head to the waterfront to try and push the pirates back. While the men fight Mina comes face to face with Janni who recognises her. Janni says her father had nothing but bad things to say about Mina, which renders her worthy of respect to Janni. She bids Mina farewell, inviting Mina to join her should Mina ever decide to forsake government work. When Mina asks her name, Janni says she is "no one"
.
The issues ends with Mina expressing frustration with the League, while MacHeath and Suki sing and dance to a modified version of "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" (like the rest of the songs in the issue, the basis for this song is taken from Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera
).
to investigate the murder of Basil Fotherington-Thomas
by the cult of Oliver Haddo and to reunite with Norton (from Slow Chocolate Autopsy
). Mina is coming to grips with the problems of immortality, and Allan and Orlando have begun a sexual relationship. They quickly discover that Haddo’s spirit has transferred to Kosmo Gallion (from The Avengers
episode “Warlock”), and he intends to transfer yet again to the body of Terner (from Performance
). The League's encounter with the mysterious Andrew Norton has numerous cryptic warnings that are difficult to discern. He also says that by the time they reunite in 2009 it will be too late.
Meanwhile Jack Carter
is hired by mob leader Vince Dakin
to discover who murdered Basil as well. Carter's interrogations lead him to the cult of Gallion.
Terner holds a concert at Hyde Park in honor of Basil. Mina, Orlando and Allan attempt to stop the ritual of the transfer from occurring but Mina realizes the actual ritual is occurring at Gallion's shop. Mina drops Tadukic Acid Diethylamide 26, and meets Haddo on the astral plane. Haddo overpowers Mina, though he reveals that his possession of Terner will not effect his planned birth of the antichrist. Carter meanwhile kills Gallion. With his plan gone awry, he is forced to enter the body of Tom Riddle (of the Harry Potter
series). When Mina comes down from her trip, she is driven mad by bats that remind her of Dracula
, and is taken away in an ambulance. Riddle meanwhile leaves through King's Cross through Platform 9 3/4 to Hogwarts.
Eight years later, in 1977, Allan and Orlando have still not reunited with Mina, who was their only link to the Blazing World. In a club where the band Zuki and the Tawdries play the song "Immoral Earnings (In The U.K)
" Orlando and Allan sulk. Now female and sporting a mohawk Orlando grows tired of Allan who has succumbed to his previous addictions to drugs (even attempting to pawn Excalibur) and leaves Allan, planning to join the Army once she is a man again.
Thematically, Moore has stated that the third section "is actually for me more difficult than the other two, because I know quite a bit about Victorian
culture or Edwardian culture or even the culture of the 1950s
and 1960s
, but I know absolutely nothing about contemporary culture." Nonetheless, by judicious use of allusions and allowing, according to O'Neill, "a quite famous character [to] walk through the background without being named," the duo intend to hint at more modern fictional characters and elements of popular culture
, just as they alluded to Victorian and 1950s fictions. In particular, Moore intends to include Iain Sinclair
's semi-autobiographical
Slow Chocolate Autopsy
character Andrew Norton, the Prisoner of London in all three issues, giving him "a slightly larger role in the third part" intersecting with the League near King's Cross Station
.
The modern-day set third issue will therefore see Orlando, now enlisted in the British Army
, involved in the war in Q'umar (The West Wing' s Iran/Iraq analogue) where Corporal Cuckoo from Gerald Kersh
's short story: "Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?" will make an appearance. Moore has said that the war scenes will demonstrate "what kind of creature Orlando is after these thousands of years." In England, the birth of the 'moonchild'/antichrist foretold/foreshadowed/encouraged during the first two issues will apparently feature prominently, intending to commence "[h]is promised aeon of unending terror... starting with North London." Meanwhile, in Kashmir
a Sikh
terrorist who claims to be Nemo's great-grandchild is equipped "with a now-nuclear-armed submarine [and waging] a holy war
against Islam
."
Moore has already expressed his intention to include references to, among others, a number of TV programmes— many of which he is only peripherally aware of—including The West Wing, 24
, Armando Iannucci
's Time Trumpet
Nathan Barley
and the British Comic Magazine Viz
. He has also expressed his intention to include background details such as a film starring Vince Chase
(from Entourage
), and a reference to a band called DriveSHAFT (as featured on Lost
). Also appearing in this issue will be Prime Minister Tom Davis and ("his political fixer") Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It
, Moore says "I actually had to compose a stream of Malcolm Tucker swearing, which is a lot harder than it looks. In counterpoint, one of the characters in the foreground is talking in Shakespearean iambic couplets."
Chapter 3 was set to be released April/May 2011 but is now simply listed as a future release.
" science fiction-type story, that ties together a range of lunar stories, written 'John Thomas' (a pseudonym of John Sladek, and slang term for the penis) for Lewd Worlds Of Science Fiction (Brian Aldiss
' one-time pun name for New Worlds magazine
) edited by James Colvin (another real-life former pseudonym, here that of Moore's friend —and New Worlds editor— Michael Moorcock
). The story is presented as if written in 1969
Part One begins with an unnamed patient at an unidentified point in time, it then elaborates on some details of how Orlando became immortal and references 2001: A Space Odyssey. Following this there is a section that continues directly from the main story. The next section features the start of The Story of O
revealing the identity of O. The next section provides details of a superhero team that Mina was part of in 1964, whose members include Golden Age British hero Captain Universe, who has recently defeated Fletcher Hanks'
Stardust the Super Wizard
. The final section concerns Mina's journey to the Moon with the Golliwog, under instructions from Prospero in the Blazing World, who fears that the Lunar War will force mankind's lunar residents to relocate to an area which the Blazing World "powers that be" do not wish them to reach - yet.
Parts Two and Three will reference a range of lunar stories: Lucian
's True History
and Baron Münchhausen
; Francis Godwin
's The Man in the Moone, Dan Dare
, Otis Adelbert Kline
's Maza of the Moon, Planet Comics
' Mysta Of The Moon, George Griffith
's A Honeymoon in Space, Marvel's
Uatu the Watcher, the Great Moon Hoax
and The Clangers
; the works of Jules Verne
and Georges Méliès
. The story features combat between the "Amazon Women on the Moon
", the Selenites, the insectoid residents of the Moon from H. G. Wells
' The First Men in the Moon
. He also wishes to make a few references to The Wire
and Homicide: Life on the Street
, since both shows are set in Baltimore, where Verne's astronauts hail from.
Two characters introduced in the very first Issue shall make reapparences: Dr. Selwyn Cavor
and Professor Moriarty
shall according to Moore become quite important to the plot.
Reception to Century has been mixed to positive, critics such as Chris Sims criticize the growing amount of indiscernible references as a hindrance to the plot elements.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, publication of which began in 1999. The series spans two six-issue limited series and a graphic novel from the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm/DC, and a third miniseries...
, written by Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
. Co-published by Top Shelf Productions
Top Shelf Productions
Top Shelf Productions is an American publishing company founded in 1997, owned and operated by Chris Staros and Brett Warnock and a small staff. The company is based in Marietta, Georgia, Portland, Oregon, and New York City, New York....
and Knockabout Comics
Knockabout Comics
Knockabout Comics is a UK publisher and distributor of underground and alternative comic books.-History:It was formed by Tony Bennett and Carol Bennett in the 1980s to distribute Gilbert Shelton's Freak Brothers titles as well as British work from creators such as Hunt Emerson and Bryan...
in the US and UK respectively, Century will be published in three distinct 72-page squarebound comics. Part 1 was released on May 13, 2009. Part 2 was released on July 20, 2011.
Structure
The third volume will be a 216-page epic spanning almost a hundred years and entitled 'Century'. Divided into three 72-page chapters, each a self-contained narrative to avoid frustrating cliff-hanger delays between episodes, it will take place in three distinct eras, building to an apocalyptic conclusion occurring in the present, twenty-first, century. Characters and themes will thread through all three episodes, which will particularly see the characters of MinaMina Harker
Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker is a fictional character in Bram Stoker's 1897 horror novel Dracula.- In the novel :She begins the story as Miss Mina Murray, a young school mistress who is engaged to Jonathan Harker, and best friends with Lucy Westenra...
, Allan
Allan Quatermain
Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and its various prequels and sequels. Allan Quatermain was also the title of a book in this sequence.- History :...
and Orlando feature prominently, alongside W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
's Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
-analogue Oliver Haddo
The Magician (Maugham novel)
The Magician is a novel by British author W. Somerset Maugham, originally published in 1908. In this tale, the magician Oliver Haddo, a caricature of Aleister Crowley, attempts to create life...
and Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair FRSL is a British writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, most recently within the influences of psychogeography.-Life and work:...
's London-bound time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
ler Andrew Norton, from Slow Chocolate Autopsy
Slow Chocolate Autopsy
Slow Chocolate Autopsy: Incidents from the Notorious Career of Norton, Prisoner of London is a 1997 novel by Iain Sinclair and illustrated by David McKean...
.
Moore has stated that the move from DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
/WildStorm
WildStorm
WildStorm Productions, or simply WildStorm, published American comic books. Originally an independent company established by Jim Lee and further expanded upon in subsequent years by other creators, WildStorm became a publishing imprint of DC Comics in 1999...
/America's Best Comics has been liberating, and that the work on Century is "as if we feel freed from the conventions of boys' adventure comics," allowing for a work that is "a lot more atmospheric," building slowly to "a tremendously bloody climax."
Chapter 1. What Keeps Mankind Alive
In 1910, twelve years after the failed Martian invasionThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II is a comic book limited series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, published under the America's Best Comics imprint of DC Comics...
, Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo, also known as Prince Dakkar, is a fictional character featured in Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island ....
is on his deathbed in Lincoln Island
The Mysterious Island
The Mysterious Island is a novel by Jules Verne, published in 1874. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a sequel to Verne's famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways, though thematically it is...
. He asks his estranged daughter, Janni Dakkar, to resume his name and calling after his death. Janni refuses and leaves her father's side. Spying a passing ship, she swims towards it and stows away upon it. The ship takes her to London where she takes up employment at a wharf side hotel under the name Jenny Diver. Arriving on the same ship as Janni is Jack MacHeath a.k.a. Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
, who is a direct descendant of the 18th-century highwayman MacHeath a.k.a. Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...
, and immediately takes to murdering prostitutes again, one of whom looks suspiciously like Louise Brooks
Pandora's Box (film)
Pandora's Box is a 1929 German silent melodrama film based on Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora . Directed by Austrian filmmaker Georg Wilhelm Pabst, the film stars Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, and Francis Lederer...
.
Meanwhile, the occult detective and second League member Thomas Carnacki
Carnacki
Thomas Carnacki is a fictional supernatural detective created by English fantasy writer William Hope Hodgson. Carnacki was the protagonist of a series of six short stories published between 1910 and 1912 in The Idler magazine and The New Magazine....
has visions of bloodshed on the waterfront and of a secret cabal of magicians convening to plot the creation of a Moonchild destined to bring forth the end of the world. Mina believes these visions may be connected with the upcoming coronation of King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
. Intelligence chief Mycroft Holmes
Mycroft Holmes
Mycroft Holmes is a fictional character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. He is the elder brother of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.- Profile :...
advises them to investigate both, and suggests that the bloodshed on the waterfront is the work of MacHeath, whom he believes to be Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
.
While investigating one of the men Carnacki saw in his vision, Orlando, Quatermain and Carnacki stumble upon the circle of magicians, who claim that what Carnacki saw either is wrong, or has not happened yet. Carnacki inadvertently gives the magicians a crucial piece of information that they need to create the Moonchild. At the same time, Mina and Raffles
A. J. Raffles
Arthur J. Raffles is a character created in the 1890s by E. W. Hornung, a brother-in-law to Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is, in many ways, a deliberate inversion of Holmes — he is a "gentleman thief," living in the Albany, a prestigious address in London, playing...
consult Andrew Norton
Slow Chocolate Autopsy
Slow Chocolate Autopsy: Incidents from the Notorious Career of Norton, Prisoner of London is a 1997 novel by Iain Sinclair and illustrated by David McKean...
, a time traveler bound by the confines of the city of London, who speaks in riddles that hint at the Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
series, war in Iraq and the July 7 bombings, but otherwise offers little help. He vanishes to another time, promising that he will meet Mina again in 1969.
Janni is raped by the drunken patrons of her hotel, and is later aided to her room by Suki Tawdry. She fires a flare to summon the Nautilus
Nautilus (Verne)
The Nautilus is the fictional submarine featured in Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island . Verne named the Nautilus after Robert Fulton's real-life submarine Nautilus...
(which Suki, as narrator, has been referring to obliquely as The Black Raider) docked nearby.
The following day MacHeath is about to be hanged without trial as Mycroft is worried that a trial might bring to light the involvement of the 14th Earl of Gurney
The Ruling Class
The Ruling Class is a 1972 British black comedy film. It is an adaptation of Peter Barnes' satirical stage play which tells the story of a paranoid schizophrenic British nobleman who inherits a peerage. The film costars Alastair Sim, William Mervyn, Coral Browne, Harry Andrews, Carolyn Seymour,...
in the original Ripper murders. MacHeath sings his last plea from the gallows while the Nautilus, now painted black as per Nemo's orders, and with his skull nailed to forecastle, emerges and destroys every building on the waterfront, save for Janni's hotel. The crew of the Nautilus descends upon the waterfront to loot, murder and rape while Janni, now the captain of the Nautilus, orders that the hotel patrons be killed slowly. This, and Suki's reference to the Nautilus as The Black Raider recall the song Pirate Jenny
Pirate Jenny
"Pirate Jenny" is a well-known song from The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. The English lyrics are by Marc Blitzstein...
.
At the last moment, a message arrives from the Earl of Gurney confessing to all the Ripper crimes. MacHeath is released and the League head to the waterfront to try and push the pirates back. While the men fight Mina comes face to face with Janni who recognises her. Janni says her father had nothing but bad things to say about Mina, which renders her worthy of respect to Janni. She bids Mina farewell, inviting Mina to join her should Mina ever decide to forsake government work. When Mina asks her name, Janni says she is "no one"
Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo, also known as Prince Dakkar, is a fictional character featured in Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island ....
.
The issues ends with Mina expressing frustration with the League, while MacHeath and Suki sing and dance to a modified version of "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" (like the rest of the songs in the issue, the basis for this song is taken from Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
).
Chapter 2. Paint It Black
In 1969, almost sixty years after "What Keeps Mankind Alive", and about 11 years after the events of The Black Dossier, Mina, Allan, and Orlando return to Britain from Lincoln Island after being contacted by the Blazing WorldThe Blazing World
The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle....
to investigate the murder of Basil Fotherington-Thomas
Fotherington-Thomas
Basil Fotherington-Thomas is a classic fictional character in a series of books by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle starring the archetypal English prep school boy of the 1950s - Nigel Molesworth - who is the supposed author....
by the cult of Oliver Haddo and to reunite with Norton (from Slow Chocolate Autopsy
Slow Chocolate Autopsy
Slow Chocolate Autopsy: Incidents from the Notorious Career of Norton, Prisoner of London is a 1997 novel by Iain Sinclair and illustrated by David McKean...
). Mina is coming to grips with the problems of immortality, and Allan and Orlando have begun a sexual relationship. They quickly discover that Haddo’s spirit has transferred to Kosmo Gallion (from The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
episode “Warlock”), and he intends to transfer yet again to the body of Terner (from Performance
Performance (film)
Performance is a 1968 British crime drama film; the film was produced in 1968 but not released until 1970. Directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, Performance stars James Fox and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones in his film acting debut.-Plot:...
). The League's encounter with the mysterious Andrew Norton has numerous cryptic warnings that are difficult to discern. He also says that by the time they reunite in 2009 it will be too late.
Meanwhile Jack Carter
Get Carter
Get Carter is a 1971 British crime film directed by Mike Hodges and starring Michael Caine as Jack Carter, a gangster who sets out to avenge the death of his brother in a series of unrelenting and brutal killings played out against the grim background of derelict urban housing in the city of...
is hired by mob leader Vince Dakin
Villain (1971 film)
Villain is a 1971 gangster film directed by Michael Tuchner and starring Richard Burton, Ian McShane, T. P. McKenna and Donald Sinden.-Plot:...
to discover who murdered Basil as well. Carter's interrogations lead him to the cult of Gallion.
Terner holds a concert at Hyde Park in honor of Basil. Mina, Orlando and Allan attempt to stop the ritual of the transfer from occurring but Mina realizes the actual ritual is occurring at Gallion's shop. Mina drops Tadukic Acid Diethylamide 26, and meets Haddo on the astral plane. Haddo overpowers Mina, though he reveals that his possession of Terner will not effect his planned birth of the antichrist. Carter meanwhile kills Gallion. With his plan gone awry, he is forced to enter the body of Tom Riddle (of the Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
series). When Mina comes down from her trip, she is driven mad by bats that remind her of Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
, and is taken away in an ambulance. Riddle meanwhile leaves through King's Cross through Platform 9 3/4 to Hogwarts.
Eight years later, in 1977, Allan and Orlando have still not reunited with Mina, who was their only link to the Blazing World. In a club where the band Zuki and the Tawdries play the song "Immoral Earnings (In The U.K)
Anarchy in the U.K.
"Anarchy in the U.K." was covered by American thrash metal band Megadeth for their third album So Far, So Good... So What!, released in 1988.Notoriously, the song has incorrect lyrics...
" Orlando and Allan sulk. Now female and sporting a mohawk Orlando grows tired of Allan who has succumbed to his previous addictions to drugs (even attempting to pawn Excalibur) and leaves Allan, planning to join the Army once she is a man again.
Chapter 3. Let It Come Down
The third chapter brings events to "a head spectacularly and horribly in 2009" in present-day London. Moore has mentioned that "the basic institution of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen will be completely unrecognizable," being reduced in scope to a single person. Summarising in microcosm his approach to the whole third volume, Moore notes thatThematically, Moore has stated that the third section "is actually for me more difficult than the other two, because I know quite a bit about Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
culture or Edwardian culture or even the culture of the 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
and 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
, but I know absolutely nothing about contemporary culture." Nonetheless, by judicious use of allusions and allowing, according to O'Neill, "a quite famous character [to] walk through the background without being named," the duo intend to hint at more modern fictional characters and elements of popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, just as they alluded to Victorian and 1950s fictions. In particular, Moore intends to include Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair FRSL is a British writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, most recently within the influences of psychogeography.-Life and work:...
's semi-autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
Slow Chocolate Autopsy
Slow Chocolate Autopsy
Slow Chocolate Autopsy: Incidents from the Notorious Career of Norton, Prisoner of London is a 1997 novel by Iain Sinclair and illustrated by David McKean...
character Andrew Norton, the Prisoner of London in all three issues, giving him "a slightly larger role in the third part" intersecting with the League near King's Cross Station
King's Cross station
King's Cross station may refer to::* London King's Cross railway station in London, England** King's Cross St. Pancras tube station for London Underground lines.** King's Cross Thameslink, a disused railway station in London, England...
.
The modern-day set third issue will therefore see Orlando, now enlisted in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, involved in the war in Q'umar (The West Wing
Gerald Kersh
Gerald Kersh was a British writer. Born in 1911, he began to write at the age of 8. After leaving school he worked as, amongst other things, a cinema manager, bodyguard, debt collector, fish & chip cook, travelling salesman, French teacher and all-in-wrestler whilst attempting to 'make it' as a...
's short story: "Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?" will make an appearance. Moore has said that the war scenes will demonstrate "what kind of creature Orlando is after these thousands of years." In England, the birth of the 'moonchild'/antichrist foretold/foreshadowed/encouraged during the first two issues will apparently feature prominently, intending to commence "[h]is promised aeon of unending terror... starting with North London." Meanwhile, in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
a Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
terrorist who claims to be Nemo's great-grandchild is equipped "with a now-nuclear-armed submarine [and waging] a holy war
Religious war
A religious war; Latin: bellum sacrum; is a war caused by, or justified by, religious differences. It can involve one state with an established religion against another state with a different religion or a different sect within the same religion, or a religiously motivated group attempting to...
against Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
."
Moore has already expressed his intention to include references to, among others, a number of TV programmes— many of which he is only peripherally aware of—including The West Wing, 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
, Armando Iannucci
Armando Iannucci
Armando Giovanni Iannucci is a Scottish comedian, satirist, writer, director, performer and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, he studied at Oxford University and left graduate work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy....
's Time Trumpet
Time Trumpet
Time Trumpet is a six-episode satirical television comedy series which aired on BBC Two in 2006. The series was written by Armando Iannucci, Roger Drew and Will Smith in a similar manner to Iannucci's earlier one-off programmes 2004: The Stupid Version and Clinton: His Struggle with...
Nathan Barley
Nathan Barley
Nathan Barley is a Channel 4 sitcom written by Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris, starring Nicholas Burns, Julian Barratt and Claire Keelan. The series of six weekly episodes began broadcasting on 11 February 2005 on Channel 4...
and the British Comic Magazine Viz
Viz (comic)
Viz is a popular British comic magazine which has been running since 1979.The comic's style parodies British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano and The Dandy, but with incongruous language, crude toilet humour, black comedy, surreal humour and either sexual or violent storylines...
. He has also expressed his intention to include background details such as a film starring Vince Chase
Vincent Chase
Vincent "Vince" Chase is a fictional character on the comedy-drama television series Entourage. He is played by Adrian Grenier.-Personal life:...
(from Entourage
Entourage (TV series)
Entourage is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on HBO on July 18, 2004 and concluded on September 11, 2011, after eight seasons...
), and a reference to a band called DriveSHAFT (as featured on Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
). Also appearing in this issue will be Prime Minister Tom Davis and ("his political fixer") Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It
The Thick of It
The Thick of It is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of modern British government. It was first broadcast on BBC Four in 2005, and has so far completed fourteen half-hour episodes and two special hour-long episodes to coincide with Christmas and Gordon Brown's...
, Moore says "I actually had to compose a stream of Malcolm Tucker swearing, which is a lot harder than it looks. In counterpoint, one of the characters in the foreground is talking in Shakespearean iambic couplets."
Chapter 3 was set to be released April/May 2011 but is now simply listed as a future release.
Minions of the Moon
Accompanying each of the three issues is an episode of a text-story entitled Minions of the Moon written in the style of a 1960s "new waveNew Wave (science fiction)
New Wave is a term applied to science fiction produced in the 1960s and 1970s and characterized by a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, a "literary" or artistic sensibility, and a focus on "soft" as opposed to hard science. The term "New Wave" is borrowed from the French...
" science fiction-type story, that ties together a range of lunar stories, written 'John Thomas' (a pseudonym of John Sladek, and slang term for the penis) for Lewd Worlds Of Science Fiction (Brian Aldiss
Brian Aldiss
Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE is an English author of both general fiction and science fiction. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss. Greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells, Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society...
' one-time pun name for New Worlds magazine
New Worlds (magazine)
New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine which was first published professionally in 1946. For 25 years it was widely considered the leading science fiction magazine in Britain, publishing 201 issues up to 1971...
) edited by James Colvin (another real-life former pseudonym, here that of Moore's friend —and New Worlds editor— Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
). The story is presented as if written in 1969
Part One begins with an unnamed patient at an unidentified point in time, it then elaborates on some details of how Orlando became immortal and references 2001: A Space Odyssey. Following this there is a section that continues directly from the main story. The next section features the start of The Story of O
Story of O
Story of O is an erotic novel published in 1954 about love, dominance and submission by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage.Desclos did not reveal herself as the author for forty years after the initial publication...
revealing the identity of O. The next section provides details of a superhero team that Mina was part of in 1964, whose members include Golden Age British hero Captain Universe, who has recently defeated Fletcher Hanks'
Fletcher Hanks
Fletcher Hanks, Sr. was a cartoonist from the Golden Age of Comic Books, who wrote and drew stories detailing the adventures of all-powerful, supernatural heroes and their elaborate punishments of transgressors...
Stardust the Super Wizard
Stardust the Super Wizard
Stardust the Super Wizard is a fictional character, a comic book superhero from the Golden Age of Comics. Created by writer-artist Fletcher Hanks, he first appeared in Fox Comics' Fantastic Comics #1 .-Publication history:...
. The final section concerns Mina's journey to the Moon with the Golliwog, under instructions from Prospero in the Blazing World, who fears that the Lunar War will force mankind's lunar residents to relocate to an area which the Blazing World "powers that be" do not wish them to reach - yet.
Parts Two and Three will reference a range of lunar stories: Lucian
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....
's True History
True History
True History or True Story is a travel tale by the Greek-speaking Syrian author Lucian of Samosata, the earliest known fiction about travelling to outer space, alien life-forms and interplanetary warfare. Written in the 2nd century, the novel has been referred to as "the first known text that...
and Baron Münchhausen
Baron Munchhausen
Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen , usually known as Baron Münchhausen in English, was a German nobleman born in Bodenwerder and a famous recounter of tall tales....
; Francis Godwin
Francis Godwin
Francis Godwin was an English divine, Bishop of Llandaff and of Hereford.-Life:He was the son of Thomas Godwin, Bishop of Bath and Wells, born at Hannington, Northamptonshire...
's The Man in the Moone, Dan Dare
Dan Dare
Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories, that is, the Venus and Red Moon stories, and a complete storyline for Operation Saturn...
, Otis Adelbert Kline
Otis Adelbert Kline
Otis Adelbert Kline born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, was an adventure novelist and literary agent during the pulp era. Much of his work first appeared in the magazine Weird Tales. Kline was an amateur orientalist and a student of Arabic, like his friend and sometime collaborator, E...
's Maza of the Moon, Planet Comics
Planet Comics
Planet Comics was a science fiction comic book title produced by Fiction House and ran for 73 issues from January 1940 to Winter 1953. Like many of Fiction House's early comics titles, Planet Comics was a spinoff of a pulp magazine, in this case Planet Stories, which featured space operatic tales...
' Mysta Of The Moon, George Griffith
George Griffith
George Griffith , full name George Chetwyn Griffith-Jones, was a prolific British science fiction writer and noted explorer who wrote during the late Victorian and Edwardian age. Many of his visionary tales appeared in magazines such as Pearson's Magazine and Pearson's Weekly before being published...
's A Honeymoon in Space, Marvel's
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
Uatu the Watcher, the Great Moon Hoax
Great Moon Hoax
"The Great Moon Hoax" refers to a series of six articles that were published in the New York Sun beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and even civilization on the Moon...
and The Clangers
Clangers
Clangers is a popular British stop-motion animated children's television series of short stories about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and in, a small blue planet . They speak in whistles, and eat green soup supplied by the Soup Dragon...
; the works of Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
and Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was very innovative in the use of special effects...
. The story features combat between the "Amazon Women on the Moon
Amazon Women on the Moon
Amazon Women on the Moon is a 1987 American satirical comedy film that parodies the experience of watching low-budget movies on late-night television...
", the Selenites, the insectoid residents of the Moon from H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
' The First Men in the Moon
The First Men in the Moon
The First Men in the Moon is a 1901 scientific romance novel by the English author H. G. Wells. The novel tells the story of a journey to the moon undertaken by the two protagonists, the impoverished businessman Mr Bedford and the brilliant but eccentric scientist Dr. Cavor...
. He also wishes to make a few references to The Wire
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
and Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
, since both shows are set in Baltimore, where Verne's astronauts hail from.
Two characters introduced in the very first Issue shall make reapparences: Dr. Selwyn Cavor
The First Men in the Moon
The First Men in the Moon is a 1901 scientific romance novel by the English author H. G. Wells. The novel tells the story of a journey to the moon undertaken by the two protagonists, the impoverished businessman Mr Bedford and the brilliant but eccentric scientist Dr. Cavor...
and Professor Moriarty
Professor Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and the archenemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was...
shall according to Moore become quite important to the plot.
Release and Reception
Each volumes of the graphic novel were scheduled to be released April/May for three successive years from 2009-11. April 2009 1910 was released. 1969 was released July 2011. 2009 is scheduled as a future release.Reception to Century has been mixed to positive, critics such as Chris Sims criticize the growing amount of indiscernible references as a hindrance to the plot elements.
External links
- Century 1910 Annotations, Notes and annotations collected by Jess NevinsJess NevinsJohn J. Nevins, MA/MS, is an American author and librarian, born 30 July 1966 and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the author of the World Fantasy Award-nominated Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana , and other works on Victoriana and pulp fiction...
- Preparing for Volume III: Century, The League of Leagues website
- The DC Comics Message Board for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen