If you've ever read about Alan Moores highly detailed scripts, you'll know why. I understand it's like reading a novel.

I would suggest that if you re-read them that you have Jess Nevins' annotations handy.  Even if you don't want them for all the minutiae (which I love), it's nice to have the translations when someone speaks a language other than English.  

I read New Mutants Special Edition #1, X-Men Annual #9, Uncanny X-Men #200, and New Mutants #35. The special and annual are part of the Asgardian Wars story and hold a special place in my heart. When I got into collecting X-Men, it was a storyline I heard a lot about. Unfortunately, by this time (maybe 1991 give or take a couple years) those back issues were so expensive for my budget as a kid. I asked for them for Christmas and my mom got them. What a thrill! Although I was an X-Men fan, I read almost no New Mutants at that point, so this was my first major exposure to the characters.

I find a lot of annuals tend to drag, but the special 64 pages and the annual is 48 pages (both without ads) and they flow so well. Art Adams is brilliant, whether its action, emotive faces, beautiful women, amazing landscapes, horrific monsters, etc. His art is so intricate. On the re-reading, I saw things I didn’t even remember noticing. Like a panel where Warlock screams, but the word balloon points to his finger which has another face, and there’s also an exclamation mark in his mouth (of his regular face).

The story starts with the New Mutants and Storm vacationing in Greece in the aftermath of the Karma arc. Loki has the Enchantress kidnap the team as part of revenge for events of the X-Men/Alpha Flight mini-series. Magik’s attempt to teleport the team to safety scatters them across Asgard. So for a lot of the special we get individual members on their own and then reuniting into larger groups. It’s handled so much better than JLA or JSA stories with the divided team structure that I’ve read. Where those stories are monotonous, this New Mutants story gives different characters distinct arcs. It’s a turning point in several ways: Mirage gets her winged horse Brightwind and Valkyrie premonitions; the Warlock/Cypher duo really kicks into gear after developing a bit in prior stories; Karma gets back to being an active member; Magik displays more signs of malignant influence of her power; etc. Although Storm is with the New Mutants, Claremont avoids his worst instincts by letting the focus stay on the kids rather than lavishing a lot of pages on his favorite.

And there’s time for Storm in the X-Men Annual, although the New Mutants still get attention. I love the title page with the dramatis personae introduced: X-Men on top of the page and New Mutants on the bottom. After the team had been reduced to 4 members way back when Karma went missing, it’s now a crowded assemblage of 9 New Mutants. After going on adventures for a year in civvies, Rachel Summers adopts the name Phoenix and a phoenix-inspired costume. It’s awkward for Madelyn and Scott, who have recently returned to the fold after being away since their honeymoon. Scott is the only member Rachel hasn’t told about her full background, but I think he can read between the lines. Art Adams shows himself as adept at drawing the X-Men as he is with the kids.

Uncanny X-Men #200 is in the New Mutants chronology, but the New Mutants part is basically just the scene where both teams teleport back to Earth from Asgard. Rachel is back to wearing civvies, presumably because coordination of the stories got messy. Apparently, #200 was published before the Annual that led to it. This story is the trial of Magneto. Meanwhile, Fenris is trying to frame the X-Men as terrorists by staging attacks in their name. I’m not a big fan of the trial, as Claremont seems to bend over backward to excuse Magneto’s past conduct. The ruling that Magneto isn’t responsible for any crimes before Alpha reduced him to infancy is bizarre. Given that Magneto was restored to adulthood with his previous memories and psyche intact, I don’t see the basis for treating him as a different person. It would be like finding that a person can’t be guilty of crimes committed before a limb was amputated. I know JRjr’s stint isn’t the most favored X-Men among folks here, but I feel like he does some nice work. There’s one panel where the X-Men are assembled around a map on a table trying to figure out where the next terrorist attack will come. Cyke has his hands on the map and Rogue’s left forearm is perched on Cyke’s right shoulder as she learns casually. With images, Romita gives you a good feel for the characters’ personalities. Oh, wait there is one last New Mutants aspect to the story. Xavier is dying of a heart ailment, so L’ilandra and the Starjammers beam him up for treatment. But they must flee to deep space as they are renegades after Deathbird’s coup. But before Xavier is rescued, he makes Magneto promise to take over the school. Hmm. Seems like a bad choice; not sure yet whether Claremont was planning to make this work.

Which brings us to New Mutants #35. Although I’ve previously read the earlier issue, I’m not sure I’ve ever read this one before. Just a few issue after his departure, Bill Sienkiewicz is back to ink Mary Wilshire’s pencils. It’s an unusual clash of style. Magneto introduces himself (though some of the team met him in SWII #1), but the Mutants are divided on whether to trust him. He promptly kicks their butts in a Danger Room exercise. We already get a bad decision from Magneto as headmaster, who excludes Cypher from the exercise reasoning that his mental powers don’t fit this physical test. Doug quite rightly points out that it’s precisely because of his lack of physical powers that he should learn to get by in a fight. But it’s as if Doug will die horrifically someday, right Mags? Also, doesn’t Mirage really have a mental power.

I remember reading a 90s X-Men comic where Harry’s Hideaway was presented as an old school haunt of the team. I said, “Never heard of it.” Now reading New Mutants, I see that in #35 Harry’s has shown up for at least the second time. It’s a bar/restaurant and we’ve gotten conflicting information on whether kids are allowed. They are in this ish, which makes sense because you can just card them if they order a drink. Dani decides to walk home, but a trio of entitled frat borders who crossed the border from Connecticut try to rape her. Luckily, she now has a flying horse to save her (and also kick the frat boys Jeep). Magneto tracks the would-be rapist back to their frat house, while surreptitiously followed by the New Mutants. Mags scares the crap out of the bros and smashes part of their house, earning the respect of the Mutants for having Dani’s back.

I also read Justice League of America #118-119, by Maggin and Dillin. It’s a two-parter with Earth invaded by the alien Adaptoids. One scene in which it’s show that some words from a JLA radio message are obscured from static suggests that the Adaptoids may be good-intentioned but have misunderstood a garbled message. Unfortunately, that’s not followed up on, and they come across as straight-up villains the rest of the time. The equalizing virus that’s been a factor in the preceding issues comes into play in the annoying Calvinball, faux science style of these stories, but at least it works itself out into an excuse to bring Hawkgirl back to Earth. Alternating between 80s New Mutants and 70s JLA makes it so clear to me how much I prefer the New Mutants stories. I’m not shy about pointing Claremont’s faults when they bug me, but I feel like it’s on a higher level overall. The main thing I’m looking forward to in this JLA Omnibus are the Steve Englehart stories toward the end of the book, so hopefully they meet my expectations. I have a ways to go.

Finished up re-reading the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century – 2009.




The third and final part of Alan Moore's Century trilogy is particularly interesting, insofar as this is the closest to our modern times that Moore has thus far taken the League (the book was published in 2012, only three years after it's set). As such, it exchanges the nostalgic Victoriana and Edwardiana of earlier volumes (Century – 1969 and the Black Dossier being mid-century exceptions) for an examination of our recent cultural landscape.

Orlando is still living in London and, upon learning that occultist Oliver Haddo's Antichrist has been born and is now a young adult, tracks Mina Murrey down and busts her out of an insane asylum, where she has been institutionalised for the past 40 years. Allan Quatermain is also found by the pair, though he has fallen on hard times and is now a homeless heroin addict (though he does get his shot at redemption). With the team back together once more, they set about tracking the Antichrist down and eliminating him.

At the end of the last book, we saw Haddo's spirit inhabit the body of a young Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter books. In attempting to track the Antichrist down, the team have to travel through a magic portal located in a wall at King's Cross station, after which they journey by magical steam train to a school of wizarding where they learn that the Antichrist is a former pupil with a hidden scar on his forehead and a mentor named Riddle. Ring any bells? Although the names Potter, Hogwarts and Dumbledore are not mentioned anywhere in the book, it's pretty obvious to anybody that the Antichrist is none other than Harry Potter!

Hogwarts is now in ruins and we learn via a series of flashbacks that Harry has murdered his classmates and burned down the school in a fit of psychotic, adolescent rage. Later, at the story's climax, we see a version of Potter who is completely befuddled by the anti-psychotic drugs he has to take and raging at the education system that has let him down, while sounding suspiciously like comedian Harry Enfield's sulky and overly-entitled teenage layabout Kevin.

Moore's utter disdain for modern culture is pretty obvious throughout this book, but his dislike of the Harry Potter franchise is especially glaring. As a result, there are quite a few pointed jabs at J. K. Rowling, to the point where it all begins to feel a little bit mean-spirited. I mean, I'm certainly no fan of Rowling's writing and I found the Harry Potter books to be pretty dire, sub-standard children's literature (much like Moore did, I suspect). But clearly her work resonates with millions of readers of all ages worldwide and brings tremendous escapist joy to a lot of people – especially children – , so what's the harm? Moore is, of course, a much better and much more intellectual writer than Rowling, but with this as an absolute and unassailable fact (at least in my mind), I feel as if he really doesn't need to resort to taking cheap shots at her. Even making Potter himself the Antichrist feels like a swipe at Rowling. Frankly, it all smacks a little bit of jealousy IMHO.

Something else that didn't quite sit right with me was the issue of Mina's mental illness and the fact that after Orlando breaks her out of the asylum it just seems to evaporate. She gets home, has a shower, stops taking her medication and, hey presto, her psychosis is never mentioned again. That's not how mental health problems work. At all. Moore's handling of Mina's lightening fast rehabilitation from quasi-catatonic mess to her resuming her old role as the quick-thinking, daring heroine of the League in just a matter of days might be the most unrealistic thing in the entire series – and that's really saying something!

Overall though, I did enjoy Century – 2009, though not quite as much as the previous book. It's a gripping, thought-provoking and entertaining comic, as you'd expect from Moore. Its recurring theme of the decline of Western culture and art is, on the one hand, kinda fascinating, with its examination of the state of "England's mythic dreamtime", which is found to be rotting, vacuous and propped up by nostalgia. But on the other hand, it does also feel rather like a grumpy, cynical old codger moaning about how everything was better in his day.

Still, the characterisation in the script and in Kevin O'Neill's artwork is as excellent as ever and it's a lot of fun watching Orlando get the team back together, with a little help from The Avengers' Emma Night (a.k.a. Emma Peel), who we previously met in the Black Dossier. There's also a particularly joyous tribute to P. L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins, at the story's climax.

All things considered, this was probably my second favourite part of Century, with 1969 being the best and 1910 being the least satisfying.