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Popstjernen Basil Thomas dør i sit svømmebasin. Kvalt af tre sorte kutteklædte personer, mens en vantro Wolfe Lovejoy ser på. Senere diskuterer Wolfe, Vince Dakin og Jackie C. diskuterer det. Den sorte magiker. Oliver Haddo. Alan Quatermain, Mina Murray. Den sorte sommer.
En mr Norton er til en vis hjælp. Imens har Felton møde med en Terner og hans dulle, Phurbur. Mina har sex med en af kvinderne og finder ud af at Felton har et overdragelsesritual planlagt for Terner næste dag. Det bliver spoleret, for Jackie C skyder Felton, så hans astrallegeme er nødt til at finde et andet offer. Det bliver ikke Mina for hun har en amulet på og nøjes med at bliver skør af nogle flagermus.
Otte år senere ser vi Orlando og Quatermain, der stadig holder nogenlunde sammen, selv om Quatermain savner Mina meget. Orlando er ved at have skiftet køn til mand igen og overvejer at melde sig til hæren, mens Quatermain bare overvejer at blive ved med at drikke.
Til sidst følger 2. kapitel af en lille fortælling Månens yndlinge.
Sygt velskrevet tour-de-force i alskens litteratur, både mainstream og populær. Den her er dog svagere, fordi så mange af referencerne er til britisk popkultur i 60'erne.
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Chapter two takes place in the psychedelic daze of swinging London during 1969, a place where Tadukic Acid Diethylamide 26 is the drug of choice, and where different underworlds are starting to overlap dangerously. The vicious gangster bosses of London's East End find themselves brought into contact with a counter-culture underground of mystical and medicated flower-children, or amoral pop-stars on the edge of psychological disintegration and developing a taste for Satanism. Alerted to a threat concerning the same magic order that she and her colleagues were investigating during 1910, a thoroughly modern Mina Murray and her dwindling league of comrades attempt to navigate the perilous rapids of London's hippy and criminal subculture. Starting to buckle from the pressures of the twentieth century and the weight of their own endless lives, Mina and her companions must nevertheless prevent the making of a Moonchild that might well turn out to be the antichrist. --From amazon.com.… (more)
User reviews
Moore's alternate history in this book is not compelling ("hippy fascism" in the US?)--I thought that Warren Ellis' Planetary did a far better job of this sort of thing. Unsurprisingly, as The League of Extraordinary
Moorcock "crossover" homages? They're not exciting to me the way they would have been when I was a teenager. Modeling the villain on Aleister Crowley (as was set up in 1910)? Meh. Professed Magus Moore either proves that he has no idea what a moonchild is (and has never bothered to read Crowley's novel of that name), or he's gratuitously throwing dust in the eyes of the profane.
There were lots of fun little in-jokes; the incorporation of Rosemary's Baby into the plotline was a nice touch. I couldn't help feeling that I was missing dozens of cameos in O'Neill's crowded panels.
The art in the psychedelic sequences is great! I also thought that Moore's rewrite of "Sympathy for the Devil" was just splendid.
One thing about Moore's work with all the League stories is how much he completely delves into the world he builds around the characters. There are so many references it's enough to drive anyone mad hunting them all down. I wonder if Nevins is tired yet. We have three immortals, one over 3000 while the other two approach their first century, and Mina is completely tired of it. She's been trying to adjust as the times change around her, trying to stay as young as she appears, and it's obviously wearing on her. Having to track down Haddo during all this insanity doesn't help.
Immersed in the drug-fused free love of the late sixties, we get little references to Rosemary's Baby (tied to Haddo, along with a reference to either the Omen or Good Omens, either of which is great), Doctor Who (Mina sees a Dalek amongst multiple other things during a drug trip), even Harry Potter (that one nearly sent me out of my chair, especially what becomes of Mina's new friend Tom, who's middle name is a MARVEL and who's last name is a CONUNDRUM).
This, for me, was a step up from 1910. Can't wait to see how things are resolved in 2009 (even though a friend has already told me a little about it).
Visually, Century: 1969 may be the most striking entry in the series. O’Neill is as spot-on as ever, proving his talent and versatility with scenes varying from eye-popping Technicolor psychedelic freakouts to sepia-toned, subdued flashbacks. His talent especially shines with the
Century: 1969 takes place in an era that has been analyzed, copied, and parodied to the point of overkill, but all of the elements of this work – dialogue, storyline, even the characters’ clothing – feel genuinely late 60s. Many modern works that take place in this period seem to turn into a pastiche of embarrassing slang and ridiculous outfits, but this feels authentically hip. This series also features positive, well-rounded queer and gender-bending main characters, which is refreshing in an increasingly conservative landscape in which gay people exist as one-dimensional stereotypes, if at all.
The bad:
No one that has read previous books in this series will be surprised to hear that this work is extremely sexually explicit. The previous carnal adventures of the characters felt cheerful, relevant to the larger plot, and generally woman-positive. However, in terms of its erotic content, the overall ambiance of this volume is very different. Aside from Mina, the overwhelming majority of the characters in this book are male, except for a handful of women that give expository information about the male characters and/or have sex in the background while the male characters talk. If second-wave feminism happened in the League’s universe, it certainly wasn’t happening in 1969. In addition all of the (presumably) voluntary penetration, there is also sexual assault. In a scene in which Mina confronts Haddo on the astral plane, her unconscious body is violated by a male acquaintance. When Haddo and Mina are struggling for supremacy of Mina’s inert form, he also threatens her with the multitude of bizarre and demeaning sexual acts that he will force Mina’s body to submit to when he gets control over it. Now, it’s patently obvious that Haddo and the acquaintance are Bad Guys, and their eagerness to coerce Mina serves as shorthand to inform the reader of their Badness. But why can’t they be baby-stompers, or puppy-crushers, or salad bar sneezers, or any of a million figures that aren’t lazy, trite, hackneyed stereotypes of Badness? We’re all familiar with the moustache-twiddling villain leering suggestively while tying the beleaguered heroine to the train tracks, and this tired trope doesn’t offend my feminist sensibilities so much as it disappoints me as a reader.
The book ends with a flash-forward to 1977, which features a female-fronted punk band. The band’s song, which closes the book, is about the various degrading acts that the ex-prostitute frontwoman was submitted to when plying her trade at the behest of an abusive pimp. One might think that this would be a downbeat way to end the comic, but no! It turns out that she loved every minute, and has great affection for the man that beat the ever-loving snot out of her. Throughout all of the various dubious aspects of this book, this may be the worst. A female character besides Mina finally gets a voice, and all she can reveal is how much she loves to be degraded?
The verdict:
Most fans of the series will like this book. Despite its multitudinous flaws, it’s worth a read. Caveat emptor, though, if you’re triggered by violence against women and/or general chauvinist stupidity, you may want to go back to your dog-eared Promethea trade paperbacks (and I wouldn’t blame you).
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Omslaget viser tre personer i flower-power tøj. I baggrunden ses en stor dyster mandsperson
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra engelsk "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century #2 1969" af Per Sanderhage
Det hemmelighedsfulde selskab, bind 3.2
Side 23: Hvem behøver olie og kul, når man kan brænde gamle damer?
Side 24: Hitchcock cameo.
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741 |