Red-Haired Ash Reads

This tells the story of the creation of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It starts with Mina Murray (nee Harker) gathering the members for the league. Those members are Alan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll/ Mr. Hyde, and the Invisible Man. 

This was a very interesting and good start to a series. I enjoyed it, even if I was surprised by some of the characters’ actions. This graphic novel definitely challenges the conception of heroes and heroism with this team. Quartermain is an opium addict, Jekyll/Hyde is possibly Jack the Ripper and frequently kills people, the Invisible Man is a serial rapist, and Mina Murray is considered a disgraced woman according to the conventions of the time. These are not good people and they are frequently disgusted by each others actions, but they still work together. 

This is just a very interesting team who are trying to fight evil but are also pretty terrible people themselves. Like I said, I enjoyed this and its antihero group. My only real complaint is that there is Arabic and Chinese text that is not translated in this volume. Some sections have a brief dialog of explanation of what is said, but other times nothing. It would be nice if everything was translated. 

Overall, this was a very interesting group and I would like to read the next volume. 

Trigger warnings: attempted rape, rape and impregnation of women by one of the members, drug addiction, violence, gore, death

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