It all starts on Mars in 1898. The Lieutenant Gullivar Jones (Lieut Gulliver Jones.) Joins forces with John Carter (John carter - conquerors March) to get rid of a little accommodative race. No luck representatives have already decided to abandon the red planet to conquer our good old earth.
On Earth, the first "Mars" landed in the English countryside, creating a huge crater. MI5 goes quickly on site in the person of Campion Bond immediately require the intervention of the League of extraordinary Gentlemen (Laeg), namely Mina Murray, Allan Quatermain, Captain Nemo, Mister Hyde and Hawley Griffin. The intentions of the invaders quickly become obvious and the resistance is organized: Nemo, Hyde and Griffin defending London while Murray and Quatermain go in the English countryside seeking an effective weapon against the aliens.
From the start of this second volume, the surprise happened: the reader knows that he will find the 5 fictional characters mentioned above. It also expects to cross other romantic heroes of that time. And it is clear that these variations on known characters have already acquired their own lives. The original novels the characters are already forgotten and these heroes have already become creatures of Alan Moore. It continues on the logic of the first volume and the hollow personality. It goes beyond the stereotypes attached to these creatures to explore the identity of Mina Murray (even if the name of her previous lover is never written). Similarly motivations of 4 males heroes are thorough, which brings out even more acute that these 4 individuals with different histories, each their views on life and the like and each their goals. Alan Moore continues to subvert the kind of narrative (adventure novel from the early nineteenth century) to venture into the field of literature. Thus, Mina Murray exceeds the archetypal stage to develop a unique personality with its positive aspects and its darker sides. Similarly neuroses male characters come to light, even psychotic deviance of some. Griffin and Nemo have less space in the pages of this book, but the 3 others took the opportunity to fully develop.
Visual side, Kevin O'Neill has also reached a plateau. He becomes the willing accomplice of Alan Moore. In fact he did not have much choice: the first page of the detailed script Moore requires the designer to take the layout of the first page of each episode of Watchmen (page divided into 9 boxes starting with a focus on a detail, followed by traveling back developed the 8 following). The suite is beautiful. O'Neill uses boxes of the width of the page for all the action scenes in the country, referring to the staging of Sergio Leone. The morphology of the Martian showcases their alien and repugnant character very convincingly (yuck!). Human bodies are always defined by angular features that require the reader to look at individuals with a concentrated look, irreconcilable with a pressed indifference. This aesthetic may require an adjustment period to the extent that it does not flatter the eye. But once you get used to it, we can not do without. The monsters on Mars are unforgettable. The scenes of sex (and non-consented consented) have an impact all the greater that the drawings do not allow to rinse the eye. Bestiality Hyde attacks the retina of the reader. The determination of what little woman Mina Murray takes the reader into a full empathy respect.
At the end of book is 46 pages of text (in small print, with few illustrations) entitled "The New Traveller's Almanac." I must make a confession: I have not been able to finish reading. Alan Moore was a text in the form of fragmented narratives relating the peregrinations of Mina Murray and one or two others around the globe. At each stop is the strange encounters or wonderful or sites with supernatural properties. The most persevering reader will learn where junior Allan Quatermain fate and where Orlando appears for the first time (his face is integrated in the cover of this volume). For me, the constant allusions to works that are totally unknown to me prevented me from finding any pleasure whatsoever in this tedious reading; I gave up halfway through.
Despite this indigestible part, this second volume continues to take the reader into uncharted regions on the borders of the academic literature on a journey of a thousand flavors. Following the adventures of Laeg takes the form of a very inventive patchwork of references in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier.
