The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

1898

One would think that this blog is subversively dedicated to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and in some ways I guess that's true. My posts, anyway, and my hand in creating and naming the blog.

I'm actually quite tempted to skip reviewing this comic book series altogether. Enough has been said about it in plenty of other blogs. Heck, Alan Moore probably would rather not discuss it himself. And nothing will ever, ever, ever wash away the vomit-burp taste of that movie adaptation. I could talk about how the League influenced my desire to read everything ever written in chronological order, but you can read that here.

I could use the crossover forum to talk about how I have always been a fan of friend crossover in real life. That is to say, I enjoy introducing people to each other. This helps explain why I was an early adopter of online social networking. I think I read an article on Friendster and was instantly fascinated. But in the real world I have long seen a parallel between my groups of friends and crossovers. Hear me out.

I have moved around a lot. Although in some ways I have suffered a lack of deep roots I have more than made up for it by meeting so many wonderful people all over the country and world. In some cases we have formed informal clubs or gangs, a trend I am usually spearheading. These groups are sometimes named and identified, other times we just know who we are in a more subversive and subconscious sort of way. I can trace it as far back as a Monty Python inspired middle school club called the Confused Morons. In it's current incarnation it would be PFAC, a 'Guy's Night Out' sort of group that exists in several different incarnations, or perhaps chapters would be a good way of putting it. This blog is one such sub-set. At times I realize that I have been a fringe member of other cliques, gangs, or general groups of friends.

What I really get a kick out of, though, is the rare occasions that I have been able to get a friend from one era of my life to come and "party" with another group of friends. Everyone loves to introduce old friends to new ones, stop looking at me so weird. It's just that I tend to see it more in the light of Wolverine dropping by the Justice League HQ to hang out with Batman.



And yes, I realize that this blog actually will not encourage anyone to hang out with me.

Back to the Extraordinary League of Gentlemen!!! Fans of comic books have grown quite bored with promotionalized crossovers like Marvel vs. DC, it's been quite overdone.

Alan Moore put a huge spin on things, though, when he used Victorian characters from unliscensed literature and dropped them in a steampunk world. He dusted off dudes that both we and our parents grew up with as the standard in fantasy and science-fiction, honored their true roots and origins at the same time as he revamped them to be much cooler.



Not everyone is as enraptured by crossover fiction and old English writing, but I find the depth of detail of each subsequent volume to be mind-blowing. By volume three I cease toting it's merits and simply advise lazy readers to stick the the NY Times list. Understanding the background, hints, easter eggs, characters and storylines of the ongoing series is so overwhelming that only those willing to treat the series as a homework assignment in the history of fantasy and fiction are prepared to enjoy it. Writers of comics that require annotations are to be honored... because that's AWESOME.

Unfortunately, the 1988 version of the League as assembled by "Doc" Brown is a fake.


Next Up: Memoirs of a Revolutionist.