empressbrooke
Written on Aug 1, 2009
I adored the first two volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. They were my first introduction to Alan Moore during the very early days of my comic fandom, and I was delighted with how they were darkly funny and smart and full of literary references.
The Black Dossier, however, tries too hard too be all of those things and while I often don't agree when people accuse someone of being "self-indulgent," I think it applies here. The barest, barest bones of a story exist in order to display every literary reference Moore can throw at it, and there were dense pages of prose (the Black Dossier of the title) that seemed like a wasted telling-instead-of-showing overview of the League's history. The final portion of the book was what pushed me from 3 stars to 2, when I was distracted by the 3D gimmick and the bizarrely racist character and the near-manic sing-songy conversation about the Blazing World in which they found themselves. It felt like one of those old Looney Tunes cartoons where everyone is screaming and flying around.
After turning the final page, all I could wonder was, "Just what the hell was the point of all that?"