A briefcase full of secrets – a review of the comic book “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Black Files”

Old friends, new adventure

In Black Files, two former members of the League steal secret documents. After capturing them, they hastily flee London. And they rightly cover their tracks, because three dangerous people were sent after them, including an agent equipped with various spy gadgets. The plot of Black Files didn’t particularly captivate me. It could be summarized in a few sentences. There’s not much going on here. However, the strength of this position is not supported by the comic frames, but by the title files! Together with the protagonists, we get acquainted with numerous documents (some are presented in the form of pictures, others consist of the text itself, and what is most interesting – there is even a Shakespeare drama!). Thanks to the aforementioned acts, it suddenly turns out that the universe of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemenis incredibly rich and diverse. So many references to various songs! Even Orwell’s 1984 Big Brother makes an appearance . We also get to know other groups composed of outstanding personalities. One document is devoted entirely to Orlando, who, as a descendant of Tiresias, acquired the peculiarity of changing his sex from time to time. He also gained immortality! Three thousand years of his life is a piece of extremely colorful, fascinating story. Equally interesting and much spicier are the adventures of Fanny Hill! I also liked the postcards sent by members of the League. So, while the adventures of the heroes of Black Files somehow did not particularly appeal to me, reading the documents gave me a lot of fun. Only gibberish Crazy endless eternityI didn’t like it.

Looking through rose-colored glasses

Kevin O’Neill demonstrated the 3D effect in this comic. Thanks to the included glasses, you can see a vivid, incredibly colorful and crazy Flame World. Not only that, thanks to this gadget you can see two different universes contained in one portal! An interesting idea, although it is a pity that so much text was placed on these frames (dialogues cannot be read in 3D glasses). I have no major complaints to release. There are no extras at the end because, after all, we have documents taken from black files woven into the main story instead. I also liked the list of authors in the form of a London Underground map! Alana Moore and the other creators have a lot of great ideas!

Is it worth getting to know the files of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ?

Thanks to Black Nudes , I found out that the world created by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill is much bigger and more colorful than I thought. I also learned that it is filled with extraordinary heroes, as fascinating as Captain Nemo or Mr. Hyde. I liked that instead of throwing the characters back into a crazy adventure, Alan Moore decided to deepen the presented world. And he did it in such an unusual, yet brilliantly simple way.