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Underground > Comic Books >

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #5

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07:51 / 03.05.03

Man, those crazy kids just can't keep their hands off each other.

"In this issue, a League member dies! As Allan and Mina meet a mysterious doctor and witness his miraculous experiments, the Martian attack of London intensifies. Meanwhile, serious scores are settled once and for all. Plus, for your reading pleasure, an additional almanac feature takes you to even more fantastic places."

ComicsContinuum has the 5 page preview here.

The Natural Way

11:02 / 03.05.03

I am now happy. Yes.

14:50 / 03.05.03

Damnit. Want. Now. (will probably reply in depth when I have it).

15:45 / 03.05.03

Judging by the hint of checkered scarf, that's Rupert the Bear on the cover...

15:57 / 03.05.03

Guess it's evil Babar on the right...

17:57 / 03.05.03

More info please!

I saw the movie trailer for LoEG recently and had never heard anything of it before. My impression was, "Wow, how Invisibles-ish".

Now it seems that it's based on an Alan Moore comic...? Sweeet!

22:32 / 03.05.03

Well, its only "based" on the comic in that it has a couple of the same characters in it- and styled LXG to sound hipper, but other than that bares little relation to the comic - not sure Alan Moore will be too upset with that tho especially since as all League's characters are in the public domain some big hollywood company could have made the same film without paying a cent out in rights.

15:12 / 07.05.03

As usual, I've got my annotations to the newest issue of League up. They're at http://www.geocities.com/jessnevins/league5.html , and there's a mirror site at http://www.enjolrasworld.com/annotations.htm in the Alan Moore section.

And, as usual, contributions, corrections, and additions are welcome. There are a number of British comic characters in this issue, and though I did my best to identify them as a Murriken I'm at a disadvantage. So if I got any of them wrong, please let me know.

15:49 / 07.05.03

That looks nothing like Sean Connery - and there's no Leaguemobile in there. The comic is completely different from the film and they've just ruined it for everyone. When oh when will comic people learn?

And I told you they'd use the red weed. I'd like to see Alan Titchmarsh sort that lot out....

16:11 / 07.05.03

Just wait for the comic book adaptation of the novelization of the film. I'm sure they'll get someone to draw Quatermain to look just like Connery....

21:26 / 08.05.03

Spoilers...
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So Mr. Hyde get's Laid...

Mr. Griffin get's laid to rest... ouch.

Mina & Alan get over their issues...

and a freaky Frog in an automobile...

So when's the conclusion I wonder?

13:48 / 09.05.03

When was the last issue of this out? It's been so long that I'd pretty much forgotten the distinctly creepy, horrific undertone to the second series, which seems to me to be much more pronounced in this one than the first. I wasn't really prepared for the Mr Hyde scenes, which were utterly fascinating and utterly terrifying at the same time.

Moore seems to be able to get under my skin that way in a way that most writers don't; the "Mary Kelly" dissection scene in From Hell scared the living shit out of me (aided, no doubt, by Eddie's art, which has that strange quality of being sketchy and utterly lucid at the same time), and the Hyde scenes in this issue produced a similar reaction.

One wonders if the comic will get much overspill from the "LXG" movie, and what casual readers will make of the second series, which (judging by the trailer) seems to bear little relation to the movie in tone. To say the least...

15:21 / 09.05.03

Forget the movie. We all know it'll be so much shite.

#5 was fantastic. Great to see Griffin get his comeuppance. His blood is invisible until he dies - brilliant. The idea that the entire room (and Hyde's body) was bathed in Griffin's blood -- wonderfully horrible. WOW. The line about it looking like a daguerrotype slowly developing was amazing. Great insight into the whole Jekyll/Hyde dichotomy.

MAN, those Moreau-created beasts were CREEEEPY!!! I loved their truncated speech patterns. It seems like there are very few writers who can come up with such bizarre speech patterns and really make it work.

Can't wait to see the special Moreau-created beastie that the government of England has reserved for special "world in peril" emergencies.

And why does Nemo want to kill Hyde for killing Griffin? I'm assuming he's just shocked at the horror of Hyde's actions, but Griffin did betray the entire human race. He had it coming, as far as I'm concerned. AND, his treatment of Miss Murray was, as Hyde so aptly put it, "uncivil." Nice line that Hyde hated Griffin more for abusing Mina than for selling out humanity.

Mina says "I forbid it" and then she wants it. Ohhh yeahhh.

Just like a repressed Victorian woman.

16:51 / 09.05.03

YEah... it was truely un-nerving to see Hyde so Lucid...

He woke up just knowing that day was his day... brrrrr...

How the helldid he get Griffin's blood all over the tablecloth? Was he just drenched in invisible blood? would that have made him wet?

I figure Namor was So offended by the inhumanity of how Griffen was treated that Hyde "Deservd to Die" Namor would seemed more the type to exicute him... a good Keil Hauling (or however you spell it) would've done it. But having Griffin raped inside out was probably too much...
Still how did that table cloth get so damn bloody?

I totally dug Alan's woooeing of Minna...Just the maturity of his views on "scars" brought that charactor miles from his "junky" past. & Minna getting Jiggy in the woods... necking & all... DAYeMN!!!

That Gient walking teddy bear was truely a sight... & yes excellent speach patturns. On a whole though this chapter seemed short. I'm wondering what Moreu's secret weapon is...

KING KONG anyone?

Griffen: "that's unfair"
Hyde: "Yes, I suppose it isn't"

16:52 / 09.05.03

oppps I said namor instead of NEMO...

17:14 / 09.05.03

So is Beast 187 or whatever hir name is (don't have the issue in front of me) possibly Griffin's replacement on the team?

18:01 / 09.05.03

I doubt it... seems more like a doomsday weapon...

I figure that coachman would be Griffin's replacement. Or the Doctor himself.

18:12 / 09.05.03

Hah! I knew Toad of Toad Hall would make an appearance! And enough creepy anthropomorphism to keep Beatrix Potter's corpse spinning for a month...

18:57 / 09.05.03

Haven't got it yet, but can I hazard a guess that the Nutwood bear speaks in rhyming couplets?

19:08 / 09.05.03

Yep, I think he was drenched in invisible blood. As to whether that would make things appear wet but with clear liquid, weeeell, we're getting a little too technical, maybe.

KING KONG would be truly, truly, awesome as the mystery 'in case of world needing saving, break glass' beastie, but Moore is pretty good about keeping all the stuff timely (i.e in the late 1880s). Although maybe one could make the argument that Kong was the product of Moreau's engineering and maybe he came up with a version 1.0 and the Kong we meet in the 1930s film was 2.0.

19:11 / 09.05.03

Where is "Toad of Toad Hall" from?

Man, that simple small panel of the Toad driving the little car, pointing, was unbelievable creepy.

Actually, they don't have cars at this point in history, right? Maybe the idea is Moreau is, as usual, way ahead of his time.

19:20 / 09.05.03

Where is "Toad of Toad Hall" from?

The Wind in the Willows, a classic children's book by Kenneth Grahame. Adapted for film by the Disney people as part of the omnibus film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and basis for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland.

The book came out in 1908—but there were some early motorcars in the time-frame of LoEG.

21:16 / 09.05.03

Considering Mr toad's size...

His car might as well have been a wind-up car...

KING KONG would be truly, truly, awesome as the mystery 'in case of world needing saving, break glass' beastie, but Moore is pretty good about keeping all the stuff timely (i.e in the late 1880s). Although maybe one could make the argument that Kong was the product of Moreau's engineering and maybe he came up with a version 1.0 and the Kong we meet in the 1930s film was 2.0.

Yeah that's sort of what I was imaginging... Or after the whole mess Kong swims off (or is shipped off) to an island of his own. I'm trying to imaging what other sort of Victorian Enginered Animal could be used as a Dooms Day weapon.

Some sort of Super Bacteria?

A fleet of Giant Birds?

Any ideas?

I'm still hoping for 10 pages of a Proto-King Kong using one of those tri-pods like a baseball bat on all the others....

How about Moby Dick fitted with a cavorite(sp) harness; flying around swallowing 'em?

The Timaximus, The!

00:41 / 10.05.03

Some sort of Super Bacteria?

A fleet of Giant Birds?

Any ideas?

Dinosaurs, maybe? I recall reading that as a possibility (I assume in Jess Nevins' annotations, but I don't remember where).

08:54 / 10.05.03

Oooh, yes, the Crystal Palace monsters - that would be fun (if anatomically improbable).

10:10 / 10.05.03

I think that was one of the most disturbing but entertaining comics I have ever read! Check out Rupert and his chums for flips sake! My childhood has been ruined! I'd like to see the rendition of the frog chorus with Paul Mcartney with this particular version of Rupert. It would probably go.

BOM BOM BOM AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good to see Mr. Toad and chums as well. And was that a Hobbit hole that Moreau was living in? I'm not even going discuss the Hyde / Griffin scene other than saying you can be sure you won't be seeing that in the movie!

Our Lady of The Two Towers

13:52 / 10.05.03

Although another great issue I'm depressed by how, outside of playing spot the references, the actual story has gone so slowly. Outside of character development-things like the first scene with Quatermain fetishising Mina's scars, and Hyde talking about the differences between him and Jeckyll (and the scene between him and Griffin) very little has happened in terms of the League fighting the Martians. And I suppose Dr Moreau will turn up next issue to handily wipe them out in short order.

19:09 / 10.05.03

SPOOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIILLLLLLERRRRRS.....

Fuck. Fuck fucking fuck to fucking fuck. Fuck!Fuuuuuuuuuck...

Easily the best issue of this series yet. Rupert the bear. Mr Toad. Sodomy! Dr Moreau! The Red Weed! Mina being bea-yoo-tiful - no matter what they say! Hyde! Fucking Hyde - the Big Stupid Strong Guy talking like a genius! Sex in the woods!

And am I the only guy who reckons hybrid whatsitz-number will turn out to be a Moreau-mutated common cold? It's too obvious for his doomsday device to be a big monster.

On the other hand, Moreau isn't really a genetic engineer - he is, as we alll know, 'a skilled vivisector'.

I think Rupert the Bear versus the Martians would be enough....

Our Lady of The Two Towers

20:16 / 10.05.03

Nah, MECHA-Rupert the Bear...

22:33 / 10.05.03

Wasn't it bacteria that did in the Martians in War of the Worlds?

00:05 / 11.05.03

Derivative: yes.

08:09 / 11.05.03

Maybe the twist will be that in the end it won't even be Moreau's mutants, but a simple common cold that'll finish off the Martians, just as in the books. The League realize that they've been useless - all they've been able to do is stand around bickering while the greatest threat to human life ever nearly kills the world. You know, go for a bit of that fin-de-siecle loss of confidence thing.

...just in time for LOEG series 3, wherein Our Heroes travel up the Belgian Congo in search of the mysterious Mr Kurtz...

Our Lady of The Two Towers

08:26 / 11.05.03

Hmmm, I like velvetvandal's reason for why the League have been so unsuccessful...

10:47 / 11.05.03

Re: Mr Hyde's anal rape for Griffen - there is more going on here than hyde just wanting to get back at griffen in a brutal way for what he did to Mina-

At the dinner Hyde talks about how him and Jekyll are the same person and how one of the things that Jekyll was trying to cut himself off from what he viewed as his 'evil' side which includes having sex with other men.

Hyde is all of Jekyll's libidinous fantasies loosed on the world - his anger, his hatred and his sexuality- Hyde is not just trying to brutally humiliate Griffen he is also acting on his own homosexual desires.

01:30 / 13.05.03

I have to say, I found the appearance of Rupert the Bear and the Wind in The Willows crew to be a bit TOO large a pill to swallow. Went from "wow, what a skilful blend of all these books" to "alright, now you're just taking the piss" with a turn of the page.

I also found Hyde buggering Griffin to death extremely unpleasant - but perhaps that's the point.

I dunno, I didn't particularly like this issue, all the more disappointing because I love all the rest...

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