The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1 by Alan Moore

Instead, we get a fun variation of the classic spy mission opener: Mina Murray (nee Harker, nee Murray) is ordered on a mission by Campion Bond (grandfather of 007) to collect members for MI5's 'Menagerie.' From this moment to the last, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol.1 is a cracking tale of intrigue and action, full of famous literary characters who most readers are familiar with and probably even love. Nor does it open with a girl about to be raped in a post-apocalyptic Neo-Fascist London like V for Vendetta. It doesn't smack you in the head with a puddle of blood and a happy face pin like Watchmen. It's easy to see The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol.1 as a fluffy action confection. I mean, other than the wall of words at the end, I genuinely thought I would hate it and I didn't. It was too long and I don't like Lovecraft's stuff enough to read Alan Moore get verbose with his version of it.

It fucks him up and he wakes up when Mina shakes him out of his stupor in a drug den at the beginning of this volume. If I'm not mistaken, it's about Quartermain doing a drug that opens his mind to impossible things, such as Lovecraftian elder gods. I ended up trying for almost 2 weeks to read it and finally ended up skimming and then reading the last page. I wanted to be done and move on, and I couldn't because I was afraid this thing was going to somehow be important to the next volume. The short prose story at the end was a real annoyance, though. And they are all being recruited (mostly) against their will to work for the British government as (basically) an anti-terrorist unit that protects Brittain against large threats. You have a bunch of reimagined literary characters who are all (mostly) the worst version of themselves that Moore could imagine. Was it just morbid fascination as to what these awful characters would do next or was it because the plot was actually great?

I don't know if it was good, but it held my interest.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1 by Alan Moore