FF epic 164-176 loving this time period and it’s killing me because my library does not have 177-188 😬. I have most of these issues and I bought some awesome fireproof water proof “boxes” so I am reading the trades

Finished re-reading the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century – 1969 last night...




This is likely my favourite of the three parts of Century, mostly because I'm a fan and armchair student of all things '60s pop culture, especially the music. As a result, I pick up on lots of the little references and Easter eggs here – even some of the really obscure ones!

The story is set 59 years after the events of the last chapter of the LoEG, with the League having been whittled down to just three immortals: the star duo of Allan Quatermain and Mina Murray, along with the hanger-on Orlando (author Alan Moore has thankfully dispensed with the boring Carnacki and Raffles from the last instalment). The main thrust of the narrative sees our adventurers in London at the burnt-out, fag-end of the swinging 60s, in a race against time to prevent the spirit of Occult villain Oliver Haddo from possessing the body of a charismatic rock singer and coming a step closer to his goal of birthing a new Antichrist.

Just like in Century – 1910 and the Black Dossier, Century – 1969 can't actually name names when it comes to the various pop culture characters that it liberally utilises, since the1960s is too recent for them to have passed into the Public Domain or – in the case of real people – for them to have died. So, again Moore subtly changes names to create his parallels, though its usually obvious who these characters are meant to be.

So, for example, instead of The Beatles we get The Rutles (who are from Eric Idle and Neil Innes' 1978 Beatles parody film All You Need is Cash); the psychedelic UFO club on Tottenham Court Road becomes the Flying Cylinder; and Mick Jagger becomes Terner Purple (Jagger played a reclusive rock star named Turner Purple in the 1970 film Performance). It's obvious, therefore, why the Rolling Stones become the Purple Orchestra.

The Stones' ill-fated guitarist Brian Jones features in the book too, though he is named Basil Thomas here (Basil Tomas being an effeminate English prep school boy from a series of 1950s books by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle). Thomas is drowned by Haddo's followers in a swimming pool, mirroring Jones's own accidental death (or possibly murder) in the swimming pool of his country home in 1969.

Interestingly, Michael Caine's character Jack Carter from the 1971 gangster film Get Carter also appears, but instead of changing his name, Moore just never fully states what the character is called. I also really dug seeing the Victorian adventurer Adam Adamant at a swingin' London discotheque getting blown out by several young "dolly birds" (to use the vernacular of the times) who instead are more attracted to Orlando and Quatermain.

Century – 1969 climaxes with the Purple Orchestra giving a free concert in honour of poor Basil Thomas at Hyde Park (mirroring the Stones' famous 1969 concert in the park). As the band plays on and Terner upsets the crowd with a boring, overblown tribute to Thomas, the disembodied spirit of Oliver Haddo – now separated for his body, after having been shot in the head by Carter – attempts to possess Mina's body, while she's tripping on Moore's LSD substitute, tadukic acid diethylamide. This mind bending narcotic is synthesized from the taduki drug, which was first mentioned in the LoEG, Volume 1 in the "Allan and the Sundered Veil" prose story.

While she is under the influence of the taduki and in a vulnerable state, Mina is sexually assaulted by a guy in the Hyde Park crowd, who goes by the name of Tom. This is, in fact, another clever appearance of a fictional character by Moore; Tom says his middle name is a "marvel" and that his surname is a "conundrum". Eagle-eyed fans of the Harry Potter franchise will recognise this as Tom Marvolo Riddle, a.k.a. Lord Voldemort. Tom becomes the new host for Haddo's disembodied spirit at the story's end.

Regrading Mina's sexual assault, I was very critical of Moore having used Janni Dakkar's gratuitous rape in Century – 1910 as a way to give the character the motivation to claim her birthright as captain of the Nautilus. It's tempting to see Mina being molested in full public view at a rock concert for no particular plot-driven reason in much the same way. However, I think that Moore is actually making a point here about the darker side of the "free-love era". The unprecedented levels of promiscuity that the availability of the birth control pill made possible in the Swingin' Sixties might have been a glorious all-you-can-eat sexual buffet for young men, but it was occasionally something much less savoury for the young women involved. This is something that feminist author Germaine Greer was publicly calling out as early as the mid-70s in her books, and I believe that this is what Moore is eluding to or satirising in this, frankly, uncalled for molestation scene.

Another interesting comment on the '60s counter-culture that Moore works into the book is the anxiety about growing old within a movement that is unhealthily preoccupied with youth. We see this in Mina's inability to deal with her immortality and her desire to never seem old-fashioned, as she perpetually chases the youth Zeitgeist, while simultaneously worrying about being old. It's something that those envelope-pushing bastions of Haight-Ashbury acid rock the Jefferson Airplane examined in their 1968 song "Lather": just how do you grow up in a culture that constantly tells you, "don't trust anyone over 30"?

This fear of growing old and falling behind the times results in Mina becoming estranged from her lover, Quatermain. The sense of despair and defeat is palpable by the end of the book, as Mina ends up being more or less driven insane by her taduki hallucinations. In a flash-forward scene set in the late '70s, which serves as an epilogue to Century – 1969, we see a despondent Quatermain failing to cope with having lost his lover, his mission, his sobriety, and his link to the utopian Blazing World.

Despite its downbeat ending, I really enjoyed revisiting this chapter of the series. Moore does a marvellous job of capturing both the breathless rush of possibilities that the 1960s represented to the youth of the day and examining the darker undercurrents of the decade. Though not as full of action and intrigue as the earlier volumes of the series, Century – 1969 is nonetheless another enjoyable mash-up of literary and pop culture characters, with liberal dollops of parody, pastiche and social critique.

I have a real big soft spot for the first Secret Wars, for all its dumb super heroic faults, but yeah...SW II really sucked. It's just sooo boring!

I don't know what point Alpha Flight was in at that point, but it was a fantastic comic with Byrne at the helm. It fell off a cliff as soon as he left.

Secret Wars II came out right when I was getting into comics, although I was a bit more of a DC kid at the time. I remember seeing all the house ads and I've read a bunch of crossovers over the years, but this was actually the first time I ever read a full issue of SWII. I had read a few pages of an issue of SWII that were excerpted in a Power Man and Iron First Epic Collection a couple months ago.

I first read the original Secret Wars when the TPB came out in the late 90s or early 2000s. I agree that it's very good at the big fun dumb super hero fights. Mike Zeck's pencils really help with all the action. But Secret Wars II #1 seems like Shooter thinks he's making a big point with Thundersword (what a stupid name & character) when it's just a muddled mess. The art team of Milgrom/Leialoha also can't provide the spectacle that Zeck/Beatty did. Also, reading it on the context of the New Mutants crossover how awkward it gets plugging the character appearances into ongoing storylines. I'm not sure the creative team got all the info on new characters, because Doug Ramsey shows up for a few panels but looks like Roberto DaCosta.

Incredible Hulk and Alpha Flight were swapping creative teams, with Byrne headed to the Hulk and Mantlo/Mignola coming over to Alpha Flight, so I guess the idea was crossing over would be a good way to boost both books. If I recall correctly, after Alpha Flight's fight with Omega Flight wraps up, Alpha Flight is looking for a new body for Walter Langkowski. They figure it's better ethically to pick some creature with minimal intelligence to hijack. Sensors indicate a body in an alternate dimension and that's how the Hulk is retrieved from the Crossroads where Doctor Strange banished him in #300. I'm not 100% sure if I read Alpha Flight #29 where Mantlo wraps it up; I think I did when I was doing a Hulk binge, but it just wasn't particularly memorable.

Reading the Moon Knight Epic Collection that I got yesterday. Read Werewolf By Night #32 and #33 and Marvel Spotlight #28

The Werewolf By Night issues were fun, even if Moon Knight is kind of the bad guy through most of it

The Spotlight issue(s) are, of course, where Moon Knight gets to shine. Something that felt weird was how self aware the book feels, with Mark commenting on how many times he's had to change identities and the bad guy of the month taking out a lackey for not submitting to his request to call him by his new name, The Conquer Lord. There's also the interesting tidbit/rumor of Mark getting bit by Russel when they fought last and partially getting the strength and stamina of a werewolf