Superhero Media: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Black Dossier

The oft-overlooked third entry in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Black Dossier is a collection of shorter narratives, filling in the gaps of the setting somewhat, covering from the end of the nineteenth century through to the 1950s. Some of these details would be further illustrated later in the Century series, but for a long time, Black Dossier is all fans had to continue the story. The story covers Alan and Mina, returning to England after the fall of INGSOC, uncovering and reading the titular Black Dossier, a report gathered on their own activities. Trying to apprehend Alan and Mina are James Bond, Emma Peel and Bulldog Drummond, because, being a The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book, Black Dossier is just packed with references to anything and everything from The Tempest to Fireball XL5. Black Dossier is probably one of the best examples of what Alan Moore is capable of as a writer, because, unlike other entries in the series, it is mostly prose, with little in the way of traditional comic panels. 

The Black Dossier of the story contains reports, extracts and novellas that mention the various incarnations of the League, from the original Prospero's Men, through to the Alan, Mina, Orlando triad. In doing so, Moore gets to flex his literary skills, writing in the styles of Shakespeare, PG Wodehouse and Jack Kerouac, to name a few, and mostly getting it pretty right; making Black Dossier a treat for Literature Graduates like me, but tending to turn off the more casual fans. I'm thrilled personally by more detail on the Hommes Mysterieux, the French answer to the League and an almost certain future wargames project for me, featuring Jean Robur, the Nyctalope, Arsene Lupin, Zenith and Fantomas. Whilst not as overall effective as the first Murray League, the Hommes Mysterieux kick the crap out of the version later seen in 1910 and may be the only superhero team comprised of criminals and serial killers that I actually enjoy reading; excepting some incarnations of the Thunderbolts. 

What Black Dossier tends to remind me of, even more than other comics, is a sourcebook for a roleplaying setting, the kind of strange yet endearing indy game that was everywhere in the 2000s where the books are collections of articles and diary entries rather than straightforward explanations of the setting. If The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a setting you'd like to try gaming in, Black Dossier is one of the best places to start, as it covers the broader timeline of the series better than most entries, and lets a shocking amount of popular culture bleed in, unifying much of it through the "hub" of the Blazing World. There are even some superheroes, mostly from the Golden Age, like The Angel and the Woman In Red, if that's the path you want to go. For an indy comic by one of the medium's great auteurs, Black Dossier creates a whole sprawling universe to rival even Marvel 616 or the DC Multiverse, with immortals, super spy agencies and underground cities galore, just ripe for your teams and/or players to explore and adventure through.