An invasion straight from Wells’ prose? – a review of the comic book “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, vol. 2

The first book of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was phenomenal. Will the next part drawing heavily from the works of HG Wells be as good?

 

Miracles and wonders on Mars

Volume 2 of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen begins in an unusual way. The first chapter takes place on the Red Planet! This play by Alan Moore took me completely by surprise! After these events, we move to Earth, where alien ships have landed. Strange creatures with evil intentions emerged from them. The death of curious onlookers is just the beginning of the horror, as deadly tripods appear in England in the following days! And thus the second volume is devoted primarily to the work of HG Wells. After all, The War of the Worlds was used as the basis for the plot , and there are also references to The Island of Dr. Moreau later on. I was expecting a truly epic story, but ended up being a bit disappointed. While reading, I did not feel the threat of the appearance of the Martians. The beam fired from the alien cannon incinerated everyone except the main characters, just because they fell to the ground! Somehow that didn’t convince me, nor did the rash steps taken by the Invisible man. I was also a bit disappointed with Wilhelmina Murray. In the second volume, I had the feeling that she was weaker, she lacked the charisma typical of a team leader. Maybe it was partly because of the uninteresting romance plot. In the end, I was much more impressed by weaving the invasion from the War of the Worlds into the world of the long-eared ronin ( Usagi Yojimbo. Legends). Which is not to say that I didn’t have a great time reading the second volume of The League . Again, I was captivated by the numerous references to various literary works. The fight for London was also spectacular. Mr. Hyde, however, definitely reigns in this part, because he is an ambiguous, terrifying and intriguing character.

The charms of Wells tripods

Kevin O’Neill keeps the same high level as in the first volume. I was happy to hang my eye on some frames for longer. In this volume, I especially liked the appearance of the invaders, as well as the design of their tripods. Of course, and this time I have to devote a lot of space to the release. For example, biographical notes of the authors placed on the cover are funny. In addition to the over 150-page comic book, there is a New Travel Almanac at the end. And although it contains a lot of interesting information – such as those about the adventures of a certain Alice – there are too many calculations here. I didn’t manage to read the whole thing because the text just bored me completely and tired me out. At one point it was a tedious transition from one place to another. Basically, here lived a puss in boots, and there still lives a cyclops! In addition, I was unable to catch most of the references to other songs. I would prefer if there were fewer of these locations, but more text was devoted to them than a few measly sentences. It would also be interesting to include a map! In addition to the disappointing New Travel Almanac at the end of the volume, there are also covers, a humorous fairy tale with a moral, and portraits of the heroes. Interestingly, the comic also comes with a very simple board game.

Can you beat the tripods?

The second volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen did not captivate me as much as the first part , although some interesting tricks were used here. I liked even the first chapter devoted entirely to the battle that took place on Mars. The encounter between people and aliens is also presented in an interesting way. After that, the action moved quickly. There was a lot going on, it was bloody, at times terrifying, the ending fully satisfied me. Despite the slight disappointment, I appreciate The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen . A great comic, beautifully illustrated, and filled with an incredibly colorful array of characters.