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La lega degli straordinari gentlemen: Century

(The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #4-6)

Alan Moore (Goodreads Author) (Writer),

Kevin O'Neill (Illustrator),

Michele Foschini (Translator)

3.50 · Rating details · 920 ratings · 103 reviews

The new volume detailing the exploits of Miss Wilhelmina Murray and her extraordinary colleagues, Century is a 240-page epic spanning almost a hundred years. Divided into three 80-page chapters — each a self-contained narrative to avoid frustrating cliff-hanger delays between episodes — this monumental tale takes place in three distinct eras, building to an apocalyptic con ...more

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Hardcover, 256 pages

Published June 4th 2013 by Bao publishing (first published 2012)

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Oct 13, 2014 ΕιζΝιnΕ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites-sequential-art, favorites-sf-fantasy-horror-crime, pb-image-idw-top-shelf-oni, ficgenre-science-fic-spec-fic, pb-dc-vertigo-abc-ws-graph-des, favorites-artbooks-and-comics, ficgenre-superhero-comics

Another Experiment in Reader Tolerance from the Mad/Maddening Genius of Comics
3.25 Stars out of 5

Yeah, I miss this League.

The Third Volume of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is closer to The Black Dossier than Volumes 1 and 2, which means it's a polarizing work that is going to frustrate most people, and please a dwindling number of hardcore Moore fans. Each of the three chapters, 1910, 1969, and 2009, introduce period specific references that become increasingly arcane, as if 'Century Another Experiment in Reader Tolerance from the Mad/Maddening Genius of Comics
3.25 Stars out of 5

Yeah, I miss this League.

The Third Volume of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is closer to The Black Dossier than Volumes 1 and 2, which means it's a polarizing work that is going to frustrate most people, and please a dwindling number of hardcore Moore fans. Each of the three chapters, 1910, 1969, and 2009, introduce period specific references that become increasingly arcane, as if 'Century' was conceived as a hyper-contextual scavenger hunt, sending readers scurrying across Wikipedia pages to collect all the obscure literary clues and occult Easter eggs.

There's little chance of picking up every detail Moore and O'Neill leave taped under table-tops and stuffed inside tree-hollows, but following the trail beyond the book can lead in fascinating directions. It can also really piss people off, and there's no question that Volume III lacks not just the accessibility, but the quick pace and pure entertainment of previous instalments. It's a complex work... and for some, another infuriating experiment in reader tolerance from Moore, whose latest hobby seems to be alienating comic fans. I liked it, in some ways... but it's simply nowhere near as fun, clever or memorable as the first two volumes. Anytime a book makes me nostalgic for it's earlier instalments, while I'm reading it... well, that's a bad fucking sign. It's disjointed and off-putting, and Moore knows that increasing referential density doesn't make up for a less entertaining story, but he obviously doesn't give a shit. I'll suggest that readers who disliked The Black Dossier will probably hate Volume 3.
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As for the plot... ugh. Their last mission was in a Cold War Britain of the late 1950's, where Mina Murray and the rejuvenated Allan Quatermain risked their apparently endless lives to steal the ultra-classified documents detailing the secret history of the League. As enemies of the (literally) Orwellian state, they were pursued by fictional weapons of statecraft that included a humorously inept young spy named 'Jimmy' Bond. 'The Black Dossier' ended with a visually stunning, very confusing trip to 'The Blazing World', rendered in 3-D by O'Neill and Ray Zone.

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Volume three takes us back almost 50 years, introducing a League that has replaced it's dead and retired veterans with the immortal hermaphrodite Orlando, the occultist Thomas Carnacki, and 'gentleman thief' A.J. Raffles. It also introduces the teenaged daughter of Captain Nemo, Janni, who abandons her ailing father and her birthright of piracy and slaughter, seeking a new life for herself in England. The League, meanwhile, finds itself up against an enemy who has grand ambitions that involve shaping the future of humanity to fit his own desires. With a stratagem that transcends death and time, Mina Murray is the only person capable of following and defeating Oliver Haddo (a character taken from 'The Magician' by W. Somerset Maugham, based on the infamous 'Great Beast' and co-founder of The Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley; Crowley later assumed the sobriquet himself to critique the novel). Her increasingly odd and unreliable contacts make the whole thing seem pretty fucking 'unlikely', but that's a close relative of 'extraordinary', I suppose. Her one 'informant', for example, is a time traveller whose tether has been cut, leaving him to occupy a single place in London as time flips forward and back, like a TV skipping through channels every few seconds, making him like the human equivalent of the real estate in Richard McGuire's 'Here'. His insane, hypercryptic jabbering is one of her not-so-impressive 'weapons' in a struggle that spans the course of the 20th Century. It's that kind of a 'battle' -- it almost feels like a prequel to The Invisibles*(See P.S.): the hand of glory, the reanimated and mechanized head of John the Baptist, the Royal 'Moon-child' that was the slobbering, tentacle-faced offspring of Princess Di and a Lovecraftian monster -- weirdest fucker wins.
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For completists: the book is well-designed, with thick, semi-gloss paper of the highest quality and sturdy, cloth-bound covers -- Top Shelf didn't cut corners by using the cheap, acidic paper and stamped particle-board that DC do quite regularly (my copy of The Black Dossier hardcover has already yellowed, while older books printed on better stock remain arctic white. Even the 'glossy' paper DC uses is still thin, pulpy, acidic trash that puts an expiry date on purchases. They do use premium paper on Absolute editions and the more expensive hardcovers, however. So even if you don't love the course Moore has been charting the last few years, at the very least you end up with a well-produced book. It includes all the prose stories and ads that came with the softcovers, and features painted endpapers by O'Neill. The format is the standard 7 x 10 inches (roughly) of The Black Dossier and the Nemo books, one size down from the LOEG: Volume 1 and 2 Omnibus hardcover.

See, I don't even know what to say about this... climax, I suppose?
description

P.S.: *Oh, both Moore and Morrison would hate that... they only despise each other because they're so alike. Moore lets his hair and beard grow out, goes for the ultra-hirsute 'mad-hermit' look, while Morrison keeps his head and face gleaming like plastic, going for the 'alien-prophet' look. I think they love each other.

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Aug 19, 2014 Dennis rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: gender, queer, comics, fantasy

What the fuck did I just read?

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Mar 28, 2015 Andrew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Okay time to try and capture my thoughts and put them to type - DEEP BREATH - here we go (and for anyone who has read this book you know what I mean)

This is the third omnibus edition of the adventures of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - even though there is also the Black Dossier and technically the Nemo trilogy can also be considered part of of the story as well. Anyway this book - well as the cover says it follows the League as it tries to decipher and then stop the plans of a madman w Okay time to try and capture my thoughts and put them to type - DEEP BREATH - here we go (and for anyone who has read this book you know what I mean)

This is the third omnibus edition of the adventures of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - even though there is also the Black Dossier and technically the Nemo trilogy can also be considered part of of the story as well. Anyway this book - well as the cover says it follows the League as it tries to decipher and then stop the plans of a madman which unfold over the space of 100 years. As usual I wont give anything away from the story but to say that you get the same artwork you would come to expect from the two previous editions. Not surprising I know considering it is the same man Alan Moore behind the controls for the series - although I am sure anyone who has followed a long running series before has seen style and artistry change along the way - which makes for a reassuring constant.
A constant I feel is all the more important considering that even though the style and artistry do not change the changes brought about by the shift in storyline from one "age" to another is disconcerting in its own right, although this is obviously intentional since it is an integral part of the plot.
I must at this point draw attention to the cameos and Britannia references dotted through all the storylines (but more obvious in the later ages). the whole ideal of the League was a rather side ways poke at the British Empire and those that defend the faith as it were. Here you see Britannia almost as a physical entity and one that reflects the fortune of her country (or is it the other way around).
So for someone who grew up in the country and who has pretty much seen the way certain images and characters have become firmly embedded in my perception I love how they have been transplanted in to these stories making them something totally new and yet disturbingly different from Parker to Rupert Bear to Doctor Who. I get a distinct feeling I will need to read this book again just to see how many more I can spot and recognise. ...more

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Apr 09, 2015 Dave Schaafsma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-history, gn-superhero-scifi-fantasy

I read the first two volumes and The Black Dossier over a long period of time and so I get lost occasionally as I read this, but I had read all of these three chapters separately and liked them pretty well, but in this big beautiful volume you get a view of the twentieth century from three different year perspectives and it is really impressive and makes more sense together. I still don't love LoEG but this is my favorite trip through a part of the landscape, in part because it tried to do this ...more

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Feb 15, 2015 Gavin added it · review of another edition

Shelves: started-and-put-down

I realized this is just the collection of LXG 1910, 1969 and 2009.
I've already suffered thru the first 2, and I briefly glanced at the third part...no thanks.
Horror week be damned. ...more

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Mar 05, 2020 Andrew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: comics

I held off on reading this for a long time, largely because of its reputation as "difficult" Moore, overly cynical and dense with obscure allusions. While it's true that the number of Easter eggs and in-jokes is even higher here than in past volumes of "League," you don't really have to get them all to appreciate the story, as each of the three chapters is based on one primary text. "1910" is a riff on "Threepenny Opera" (which takes place in the 1800's and wasn't written until 1929, but whateve I held off on reading this for a long time, largely because of its reputation as "difficult" Moore, overly cynical and dense with obscure allusions. While it's true that the number of Easter eggs and in-jokes is even higher here than in past volumes of "League," you don't really have to get them all to appreciate the story, as each of the three chapters is based on one primary text. "1910" is a riff on "Threepenny Opera" (which takes place in the 1800's and wasn't written until 1929, but whatever), "1969" is based on the Mick Jagger-starring movie "Performance" and the real-life history of The Rolling Stones, and "2009" is Moore's acidic take on "Harry Potter." The villain throughout is Oliver Haddo, a fictional analog of Aleister Crowley from W. Somerset Maugham's "The Magician."

"1910" establishes both the stakes (the end of the world, of course) and the themes of the book. The League is ineffective and out of place in modernity, and as the old Victorian order slips away, nobody knows who's in charge. The sequence in which Janni Dakkar (aka Pirate Jenny) exacts her brutal revenge on the London docks is probably the best-executed in the book.

"1969" revels in the sleezy underbelly of Swinging London. The new generation feels empowered by drugs and sexual freedom, but gangsters, cultists, and spies are really running the show from behind closed doors. Here, Haddo is seen practicing Serial Possession, which Moore would later return to in his terrifying "Providence" series.

"2009" is where the charges of cynicism come in. Moore has a smart idea here about how our heavily-commodified society makes culture feel like irrelevant product, but his singular focus on "Harry Potter" hampers that point. I'm sympathetic to Moore's critiques of the series, but he greatly overstates his case by making Harry Potter the literal Antichrist, effectively blaming a mediocre children's series for the apocalypse. That said, there's some lovely character interactions here, and it's interesting to watch Moore wrestle with his ambivalence towards genre, modernity and nostalgia. Even at his most frustrating, Moore gives you more to think about than basically anybody else in comics.
...more

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Oct 15, 2016 Eric Mesa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novels-and-trades

I try to go into these books without any foreknowledge about the particular volume. It’s all too easy when researching to end up coming up against the opinions of others and I’d rather form my own opinions before potentially incorporating the views of others as I write these posts. In the case of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 3: Century, this was not a good idea at all. I’d previously read volumes 1 and 2 and they seemed to follow one another in terms of narrative. In this case, o I try to go into these books without any foreknowledge about the particular volume. It’s all too easy when researching to end up coming up against the opinions of others and I’d rather form my own opinions before potentially incorporating the views of others as I write these posts. In the case of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 3: Century, this was not a good idea at all. I’d previously read volumes 1 and 2 and they seemed to follow one another in terms of narrative. In this case, on the other hand, you’re best off consulting a reading order. I spent a large chunk of the narrative profoundly confused about what was going on because between each of the three vignettes it was assumed the reader had read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier and the Captain Nemo trilogy. Additionally, when collected, all the text story portions are placed serially at the end, but they take place within the timeline of the comic portion. Luckily, while it made for a poor reading experience not to know this, Comic POW! is not a review site, and the missing information did not prevent me from noting the themes present in the narrative.

While the first volume contained characters everyone could pretty quickly recognize, volume two began the process of getting a bit more esoteric. At the time of the release of volume 2, John Carter of Mars was not quite as well known in the public as The Invisible Man or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In volume three Alan Moore takes this to 11 and includes the following characters which you may or may not be familiar with: Orlando (from a Virginia Wolf book as well as a BUNCH of other characters all mixed into a blender a la Jack in Fablesbeing every time someone was named Jack in a fable), Prospero, Thomas Carnacki, A.J. Raffles, an Aleister Crowley analog, Andrew Norton, Vince Daken, Jack Carter, Kosmo Gallion, Jerry Cornelius, Voldemort, Harry Potter, Colonel Cuckoo, Rosa Coote, O from The Story of O, Golliwogs, and even more. I consider myself to be well-read – I’ve read most of the classics and have literally read nearly 1000 books or more. I didn’t know MANY of these characters. Or, in some cases, like Voldemort, it was easy to miss the clues at first if you didn’t pay attention to all the small details. In both Top 10 and this series, Moore rewards the reader who has lots of background information in their heads. It provides a depth to the characters that he doesn’t have to waste pages establishing. Of course, this depends on the reader knowing the references, but it can be seen as rewarding a reread.

The Leage of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 3 – Sexual Assault

One theme that’s constant in Alan Moore’s work is that of sexual assault. I’ve been thinking about this topic for years, ever since I first was introduced to the idea of Women in Fridges and then learned about the attendant tropes like the raping of female characters. Of course, inLeague of Extraordinary Gentlemen Mr Moore is an equal opportunity rapist as volume two has Mr Hyde rape The Invisible Man as a punishment for his treachery. But, getting back to the tropes, the problem is not the existence of sexual assault in comics, books, TV shows, and movies. It’s something that happens. I know someone who’s been raped and, statistically, you, dear reader, do as well – even if you don’t realize it. It’s a threat in times of war, when people have their faculties compromised, or in societies where the rapist rarely endures punishment (or in which the woman’s punishment is worse despite being the victim). The problem with the trope comes when every single writer uses it as a way to inflict trauma on (mostly) women characters. It becomes lazy. And, in the case of Mr Moore it gets disturbing when it’s present in every book. This book contains the following sexual assaults: Janni Dakker is raped when she works in a hotel, Oliver Haddo rapes the wife of someone whose body he’s inhabited, and Mina is felt up by Voldemort when she’s on drugs. What’s more problematic than the rapes themselves is the message they seem to be sending. Janni Dakker’s rape is essentially punishment for not inheriting her father’s position at the helm of the submarine. The rape is the precipitating event to her reclaiming her inheritance and it’s pretty well telegraphed that she wouldn’t have been raped if she’d just submitted to her father’s wishes.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 3 – Janni and Capt Nemo FightThe Leage of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 3 – Immortals

On a less controversial note, Mina and Allan Quartermain are used to explore the effects of immortality. It’s pretty clear once anyone does any thinking beyond the cursory, that immortality is often more of a curse than a blessing. Even Buffy reflects in season 6 that life has more meaning because it’s fleeting. Each of the two immortals deals with the condition differently. Quartermain falls into a deep depression that leads to drug addiction. It’s a way to dull the continuous life and disappointment. Even in extreme futuristic science fiction in which people can live forever often has people take time unconscious or “dead” as a way of dealing with the infinite tedium. Drugs, of course, offer a similar break for a never-ending life. Mina, on the other hand, becomes obsessed with not ending up an old person in a young person’s body. This leads her to act more and more recklessly, culminating in her drug use in the 1960s that leaves her vulnerable to both Voldemort’s molestation and Oliver Haddo’s spirit attacking her in the astral plane.

The Leage of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 3 – Immortals the next dayThe Leage of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 3 – Orlando Changes

Recently as the trans community has become the new front in the LGBTQ fight for rights, many of the trans struggles and issues are becoming more well known. Growing up I always thought it was just that some people enjoyed wearing the clothing of others. And while that’s certainly one part of the spectrum of trans, I have recently learned about how some people who are trans are disgusted by the body they inhabit. I’ve also been more directly exposed to the stories of people who have changed their bodies to conform with the gender they align with.Of course, if people elect to go the most extreme route (adding or removing organs), it can be very difficult to reverse. Orlando is a very interesting character in this respect in that the character goes from male to female every few years. We don’t get as much time to explore this as we might if it were a slightly different story that gave the characters more time to breathe, but from what we do see – it appears that Orlando seems to relish each transformation as a chance to live life in the shoes of the gender he currently inhabits. I don’t have first-hand experience in gender fluidity, but from what I’ve heard on programs like This American Life, it does seem to ring true that when people are able to transition (or in some cases just dress in the clothing of the other), it releases inhibitions that allow them to act differently. There’s also the case for different neuro-chemical balances affecting people differently. The same subject of that This American Life story related how he/she viewed things differently and reacted to the world differently under the effects of different hormones. He also ends up being a lot more fluid in his sexuality. Having been both a man and a woman appears to have given him an attraction for both sexes and he doesn’t limit himself to only pursuing the sex opposite the one he currently inhabits. While it’s certainly unfortunate that Orlando doesn’t have control over his changes (in the text portion of the book he has to flee from his fellow soldiers during ancient times once he starts becoming a she), I feel that can certainly help people empathize with the lack of control trans people feel. I also feel that Orlando (who inherits this sex change property from a Virginia Woolf story) may end up being a foreshadowing of a tolerant future in which people are free to fluidly change their gender expressions daily if they so wished. And, with possible future tech the ability to be able to change back and forth without lasting physical effects. Many science fiction stories and short stories have mined similar territory.

Mr Moore has a vaunted position in comics for a reason – although he has an unfortunate tendency to include sexual assault in his stories, he also has a way of throwing lots of complex ideas out without turning the story into A Very Special Issue. One is often left with quite a lot to think about after the excitement of the story has abated. This volume was no exception.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 3: Written by Alan Moore with art by Kevin O’Neill. Lettering by Todd Klein ...more

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Dec 25, 2019 Aaron rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: abc

There's really a lot to like in this book, lurking underneath Moore's labyrinthine use of literary references and homage. The fact that I'm starting a review with "there's really a lot to like," though, doesn't bode well for the book's overall quality. Unfortunately, this book just has too much going on for its own good. Moore is so eager to string together seemingly every fictional universe ever created, literary or otherwise, that he frequently sacrifices plot and character in favor of world-b There's really a lot to like in this book, lurking underneath Moore's labyrinthine use of literary references and homage. The fact that I'm starting a review with "there's really a lot to like," though, doesn't bode well for the book's overall quality. Unfortunately, this book just has too much going on for its own good. Moore is so eager to string together seemingly every fictional universe ever created, literary or otherwise, that he frequently sacrifices plot and character in favor of world-building. And if you build a world and don't have anybody to care about inside of it, the question starts to become-- who cares?

But, again, there is a lot to like here. This, the third volume of Moore's League saga (4th if you count the standalone Black Dossier) tells an interconnected series of stories that pan out over the course of 100 years. Each of the three chapters of the book is set in a different year (1910, 1969 and 2009), and utilizes the major fictional tropes of that era to inform its world and side characters. It's dazzling in a way, reading such an epic story that manages to incorporate familiar characters from penny dreadfuls, James Bond, Harry Potter, Lovecraft, The Rutles, superheroes, Mary Poppins, and about 12 million other worlds. This world is shown to even be populated by characters from 30 Rock, The Thick of It and The West Wing for crying out loud. It's impressive that Moore makes them all fit, too, by having them stand in for real-life equivalents.

Unfortunately, the thing that really worked about the first two volumes of League, though, is missing. And that's character. Moore did such an incredible job making you love and/or hate all those throwback characters. He spent time with them, built them out, gave them goals and ambitions and fears. He also gave them agency and made them the drivers of their own stories. In this volume, the remaining League is made up of people who just seem to kind of go with the flow, who by the end of the story have affected genuinely zero change on any of the events surrounding them. They aren't heroes anymore. They're honestly just washed-up losers who watch a lot of cool things happen and then get saved by the world's weirdest deus ex machina in the end.

Now, there is a brief attempt to humanize a few of them here and there. In the 1969 chapter, Mina struggles with her newfound immortality in a very interesting way. There's a subplot about her trying to maintain some level of youth and modernity in the face of never growing old (she's nearly 100 at that point), and it feels like a great metaphor for aging in general. However, it's never fully explored, and the way that story ends doesn't give any level of closure or final critique on her desire.

Then, there's Allan, who starts to fall back into the same drug haze he was in when Mina first discovered him way back in League volume one. There's a deeply human story to be told about relapse and addiction there, about how the fact that he can live forever means he only sees more hardship, and therefore can never break himself out of his cycle. But, Moore doesn't deal with it. He just kind of makes Allan a junkie again because it sounds like a story to tell, but doesn't actually tell the story. It's very disappointing (and even more so because of the way that story ultimately ends).

So, I don't know. I still enjoy Moore's world-building and plan on reading the final volume of this when it comes out in January. Kevin O'Neill's art is fantastic, and the way he brings to life the various eras presented here is a testament to his talent. But I just feel like Moore has gone too far into the rabbit hole of trying to make every book he's ever read exist in one reality, and has sacrificed genuine, human storytelling in the process. Oh well. We can't all stay great forever. ...more

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Jan 28, 2017 Celtic rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, humble-bundle

There's a lot here to like for fans of the previous books but this is rather uneven in comparison. It feels like the enthusiasm for taking the story forward through time eroded as the author/artist got further away from the original Victorian setting, only then realizing that's what they most enjoyed. While there's some fun to be had in the different settings, the jump cuts forward in time don't do the coherence of the story any favours and for me the gain is less than what's been lost. Still wo ...more

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May 19, 2020 Florian Langa rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Alan Moore is hit or miss for me. I like V for Vendetta, I don't like Watchmen. I like the first 2 volumes of LXG, I don't really like this one. It was ok-ish, but tries too much and falls flat story wise. It's ridden with obscure references that require a catalog of footnotes to understand, but in the end do not amount to any revelation or extra meaningful layers. ...more

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May 29, 2018 Jason Panella rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Absolutely bonkers. There's a bunch to like here, but it feels so rushed and over-saturated that I'm sure I won't remember it fully in a few weeks. ...more

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Jul 08, 2014 ferrigno rated it really liked it

Memorable. For the first time we are witnessing the transformation of Orlando: nothing monstrous, no special effect. The gimmick adopted by Moore is simple and ingenious.
Then the reader finds out what happened to Mina & Allan; the three of them get together and go hunting for antichrists, but the atmosphere is not that of the beginning: our heroes are more like the three musketeers in "Twenty Years After". The antichrist is located in a college of wizards, where you get by taking a train from a ...more

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Nov 17, 2019 Freder rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Sweeping, brave, complex, flawed, moving and deep. Must, I repeat, *MUST* be read in conjunction with THE BLACK DOSSIER and NEMO -- and even then you had better be properly up on your pop culture references. I can well understand why the Millennial crowd may not like this -- because most if not all of the references and characters date from well before their time and will fly a million miles over their poor, pathetic, empty heads. This is not a story for the inexperienced reader, and even the li ...more

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Dec 06, 2015 Loki rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novels, rereading

So this afternoon, I read the three Nemo books and all of League of Extra-Ordinary Gentlemen: Century, carefully placing them in chronological order (as best I could - the text pieces I read out of sequence). While both the threads in these plots start in Century: 1910, after that, they can be read more or less independently - but reading them together gives a much richer experience. I really enjoyed all of these, and I look forward to Moore and O'Neill's next exploration of this universe. ...more

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Aug 23, 2014 Derek Royal rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It's been a few years since I read the first two volumes of LoEG and the Black Dossier, so it took me a little while to get up to speed. But the League books are such that you don't have to have read the earlier volumes to enjoy the current. Although it does certainly help to have done so. Maybe I'll go back and reread the earlier LoEG books. And of course, now I need to get to the Nemo books I've been meaning to read. ...more

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Nov 13, 2015 Albert Yates rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novel, idw-comics, humble-bundle

What a long drawn out story.

I'm normally a fan of Alan Moore but this book did me in. I don't know that I can pick up anything else without having a stiff drink on hand to try and lighten the mood.

I really want to like it, because the characters were mildly interesting. unlike the first few League stories I had no idea who any of these characters were supposed to represent.

I already miss Hyde. ...more

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Jun 13, 2017 Alex rated it it was ok

Shelves: american-indies

Century is the weakest link in the LoEG saga. Moore experimented a little too much with his characters and if you add the abscence of the core league group, it just wasn't enough. Big minus were the portraits of all three of the main characters, where Mina and Alain were shadows of their former selves both in spirit and decision making, while Orlando was more like a snobbish boy that the grand adventurer we saw in the Black Dossier. ...more

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Jul 29, 2014 Tone rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: metafiction, comics, fantasy, magick

Loved the first two volumes. This one just feels forced. The story is taking second place to the references. "Oh look another panel of background characters who i have no idea who they are." ...more

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Oct 01, 2014 Hasse rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, comics

No, sorry, but not my cup of tea.

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Jun 03, 2019 Sunflowers and sundaze rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is the first graphic novel I've ever read and I was HOOKED I'm not sure if I'm supposed to read them in a certain order but I'm definitely fascinated and now looking for the other century's ! ...more

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Dec 03, 2019 Fizzgig76 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novels-and-trade-paperbacks

Reprints The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century—1910, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century—1969, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century—2009 (May 2009-June 2012). Oliver Haddo has plans for the world. His cult is planning to issue in the birth of the Moonchild who could spell doom for the planet and the galaxy. The only thing that could stop his occult plans is the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Mina Harker, Orlando, and Alan Quatermain have dedicated their live Reprints The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century—1910, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century—1969, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century—2009 (May 2009-June 2012). Oliver Haddo has plans for the world. His cult is planning to issue in the birth of the Moonchild who could spell doom for the planet and the galaxy. The only thing that could stop his occult plans is the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Mina Harker, Orlando, and Alan Quatermain have dedicated their lives to fighting evil and will battle Haddo and his cult through the decades. The Moonchild is coming and the League and the world may never be the same!

Written by Alan Moore, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen—Volume III: Century is a post-modern superhero comic book collection. Following the standalone collection The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier, the series changed hands from Wildstorm to Top Shelf Productions and Knockabout Comics due to Moore’s disagreements with DC Comics. The series received mixed to positive reviews.

I loved the first two League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series. The clever use of classic characters interacting with other classic characters was a lot of fun. For some reason, I had a lot of problems getting through The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century…though I still liked it.

The basic story is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at its core. The characters are jumping through time and dealing with eternal life in their own way. The characters are constant but the times change. The 1969 issue in that sense is the most interesting because you have Orlando existing has he/she has always existed, Quatermain longing for the past, and Mina trying to “stay young” but keeping up with the times. It creates a friction that shatters the League and leads to a big finale in 2009.

What is different at this point in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is that it is harder to keep up with. It always feels like you are missing thing in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen due to the levels and layers of references made by O’Neill and Moore, but at least with the classic period of the book, I felt I had more reference points. The 1969 and 2009 volumes had a lot of popular culture references that could easily be missed (and the only real way to see them all is to go websites that break them down panel by panel).

The League feels like it is virtually at an end here. The 2009 was released in 2012 and was “up-to-date” with culture and references with Harry Potter, etc. The only way to go is back at this point. The characters have led rich lives and there are adventures that haven’t been told…I hope Moore and O’Neill keep telling them. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen—Volume III: Century was followed by The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Nemo Trilogy. ...more

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Sep 21, 2017 Jason Adams rated it liked it · review of another edition

I wonder sometimes if I have somehow cursed the authors that I read, as none of them appear to be able to write a solid ending to their stories. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen hooked readers with their arcane cameos and subversive subject matter. The most recent collection attempts to do the same thing while bringing the story to the latter part of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, I found the formula a bit creaky when applied to none public domain characters and the subversive formul ...more

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Apr 17, 2020 Sean Kottke rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novel, 2020

Overall, fantastic, with slightly (only slightly) diminishing returns across the three episodes. The first installment, 1910, presents a brilliant reworking of The Threepenny Opera woven into the fabric of a straightforward League adventure that builds beautifully on prior volumes. The second installment, 1969, is a less straightforward League adventure chock full of throwaway references that are fun to catch (even as countless pass by unnoticed), with era-appropriate psychedelic imagery through ...more

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Mar 08, 2019 Tom rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novels-comics, e-books, 2019

A very entertaining read with some great art work, but if you skipped volume II like I did (not available on Hoopla apparently even though vols. I & III are -- go figure) don't expect to understand what's going on with the plot. Still does what the franchise does best in pulling in characters from anywhere and everywhere in the literary world and making allusions to characters and story lines in other media (Dr. Who, Torchwood, etc.) And the artwork contributes as well with lots of fun cameo app ...more

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Oct 09, 2017 Andrew rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is a pretty ambitious work, chock full of oddball references and weird ideas. If you actually get most of the references, it's probably pretty cool. For most people, though, I think it's going to be seem just pointlessly obscure. This book felt like more of a slog than the previous LOEG books. There is some wild stuff in here, so you can definitely enjoy it, to some extent, even if you aren't really getting the subtext.

The underlying theme is pretty bleak, if I'm understanding it correctly ...more

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Nov 12, 2017 Andy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novel

Volume three of the continuing saga of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen finds a new group lead by Mina. The mysterious Haddo is involved in an Occult group and when someone disappears, the league investigate. Split throughout the twentieth century the story weaves it's way and the league investigate, with on going confusion, and sometimes craziness. This is a parody of sorts, so Moore has fun name dropping various characters from literatures bygones. In part it is fun, but it does become a ...more

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Jun 21, 2018 John rated it really liked it

Rereading to prepare for LOEG IV: Tempest in July, Moore's final comic work. This is reviewing the entire run...

LOEG: Sets up the universe
LOEG II: is the most fun
LOEG Black Dossier is the most indulgent and "clever". It's not as fun, but "educational"
LOEG III: Century is more of a rant about culture's decline
NEMO Trilogy: Brings back the action that was sorely missed from Black Dossier and Vol. III.

This series is basically an intellectual "Family Guy" filled with arcane, eclectic and esoteric r ...more

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Dec 11, 2020 Chris rated it did not like it

This series has jumped the shark into family guy territory. There are TOO many references now including books and (movies-maybe just books that were turned into movies?). I checked the wiki and there are 100+ entries for volume 3. What is the point of Nemo's heir in the beginning. What is up with the magic 3d glasses dude? Why is Harry Potter in this at all? Mina has more of a personality but has gone from a stern British woman to a sex hippie who just wants to be "young". The team actually does ...more

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Sep 30, 2020 Jb rated it really liked it

This book was solid, maybe not as exciting as the first two volumes of LXG, but more satisfying than Black Dossier. The storyline took several large jumps forward through the 20th century (hence the name), and a lot of the focus was on the squabbles between the main characters and how they were eventually able to pull themselves together. The secondary characters and literary references were more modern, which was interesting, and the grand finale of the book was actually very satisfying. Overal ...more

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Apr 11, 2018 Bigo May rated it it was ok · review of another edition

A very strange reading of LoEG, with a very unexpected plot. I liked the idea of passing through three periods of time over a frame of 100 years and see the portrayal of changes in society and culture. It gives a reflection over the speed of changes in humanity over the last century. I did not enjoy much the art style of Kevin O’Neill, though, it is very obscene at times and too bulky/exaggerated in my opinion.

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About Alan Moore

Alan Moore

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Alan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.

As a comics writer, Moor ...more

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