A Century of LEG

I like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen... because it's a great set of comics by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. The latest set is Century, covering, well, a century of time (looking in at the beginning, middle and end), with an overarcing arc of the plans of Oliver Haddo.

In general... well... there are a lot of references in there, which is why I generally get the Jess Nevins books. I do get a fair few, but can tell there are lots I'm not getting... and generally I'm not in love with Alan Moore that I know others are, so a lot of this then comes across as indulgent and showy. It puts me off a bit. And then there's Kevin O'Neill's fascination with drawing women's breasts.

1910: Eh, my least favourite. The whole song motif is a good example of going over my head, as I haven't ever encountered the Threepenny Opera, which makes a lot of this vague at best. The obvious story isn't that interesting, the biggest point being the new Nemo, but... it's a lead in for the rest of the books, and doesn't feel like a full story in itself.

1969: There's far more Haddo plot here than in the other issues, and the main characters are very much is solid form with no huge character movement for them. Kevin O'Neill gets to go weird here, and does so well. I was surprised by the Tom reference, and this also saw a Doctor Who reference (with another one next issue).

2009: Getting down and wrapping things up, with a lot of 'where are they now?' taking up a lot of page count... and that pretty much becomes the point of the issue. The actual Haddo story is very secondary (and no, I don't know who that woman is) and you wonder why Alan Moore bothers with an actual story when he can just have characters without an excuse for them to be around.

And of course there's the text story in the back, which is largely straight-forward, but brings up various plot points from previous volumes, which is nice.

(For a more in-depth and interesting look at 1910 go there, and he'll get around the to the other two.)

Ultimately, nice to see, but I feel like I need someone to explain it to me to fully understand what I read.

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