The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen—Nemo: Heart of Ice

The latest tale from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen—Moore and O’Neill’s pastiche of public domain literary heroes and their own spin-offs—will not disappoint fans. The story picks up in 1925, a decade and a half after Captain Nemo’s death, and follows his daughter, Janni Dakkar, as she steers the Nautilus submarine on a course for Antarctica. Pursued by foes attempting to retrieve the valuables she and her crew have taken from the mysterious Queen of Kor, Janni must negotiate the bizarre temporal distortions that make traversing the Antarctic even more treacherous than normal. This is precisely where Moore shows off his storytelling, employing a cool little narrative trick that has the readers thinking they have been caught in the same time loop as the story’s protagonists. What is so staggering about Nemo: Heart of Ice, however, is O’Neill’s elegant yet disturbing visuals; one particular two-page spread depicting the bizarre region of Megapatagonia, where animal creatures talk backward French, should leave the viewer slack-jawed. Indeed, should readers tire of rereading the story (doubtful), they could effectively turn it into a flip-book and simply soak in the rich blues, lavenders and greens of O’Neill’s stunning palette. (Mar.)