A reasonably fun mashup of War of the Worlds and the League folk that survived the first book. ( )

I really was not expecting much after volume 1, but I already had it at home so I wondered if it might improve.

I was wrong. There are brief neat moments. My favorite takes place when Nemo comments that he is prepared to destroy a bridge full of civilians to trap the aliens and protect the greater good, and Hyde taunts him into saying that it's no great strategic loss if he must do so, anyway. Nemo says, "Besides, they're only-" and Hyde says, "Human?" And Nemo finishes, "English". Nemo is the subject of various racist slurs throughout both novels and this was a good moment of him responding back to that without a damn. Yeah, they hate him. He hates them right back, although he still willingly protects them at various points because he's a better person in many ways. I also liked that there were moments of teamwork and at least Nemo, Allan and Hyde care about Mina's well-being by this novel.

Mina loses what little control she had over the group in the novel. Sure, she can still lead Allan around, especially since he's head over heels for her, and she still fascinates Hyde, but no one else respects her and she serves more as a spectator and messenger than anything else here. Her 'romance' with Allan was one of the dumbest I've seen in a while. The only redeeming quality was how Allan reassured her over her scars. Her parting with Hyde is creepy, at best. "May I touch your breast?" Well at least it's a straightforward last request.

There's a bad place reserved in the afterlife for rapists and attempted rapists. There's a worse place for people who think rape is a proper form of revenge, especially for rape. I don't know if Moore wants us to sympathize with the Invisible Man (and I don't) or cheer Hyde's butt-raping and otherwise torturing him to death in revenge for Mina, or just feel conflicted on who should receive worse punishment. But like Nemo said, Hyde teaches terror. He's there for nothing else.

Nemo was again the most interesting character, even more so than Mina. I wish we had more of his story.

The art is still pretty awful. Mina is treated like crap. Tons and tons of men doing stuff and the one woman is a weak little flower. There's animal cruelty and aliens invade London and somehow Moore made me not even care. I don't question what makes a hero after reading this. I question what Moore wanted: did someone want him to make a heroic group of these people and Moore then went about demonstrating just how STUPID an idea that is or did he want to see if he could sell this group of unlikeable people as heroes, like Stan Lee did with Tony Stark? Whatever the case, again: if you romanticize Victorian lit, read this and bring yourself back to reality. If you don't, watch the film. It's still shockingly better. ( )

Just like its predecessor, volume 2 has an interesting premise that's executed quite well. This time around, the characters interact far more easily and they are explored more thoroughly in terms of their personalities and motivations.

I especially loved the way Hyde was used to do a certain *something* that I was absolutely rooting for. All the other characters were written well, too, though I felt Nemo was brushed aside for the others this time.

All in all, it's a great book with a good story, brilliant art, and a lot of supplementary material. It was a good - if not great - read! ( )

invasion from Mars

See my blog post on it:

http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2005/11/booknote-league-of-extraordinary.html

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Reread it on 3/14/09. Still very good overall. ( )