The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: THE TEMPEST is the final volume of the League, commencing in summer 2018 as a 6 issue mini-series.
Promotional image for Volume IV.
Official Synopsis:
Six-issue miniseries will serve as "swan song" not only to award-winning LEAGUE series but also to creators' careers
After an epic seventeen-year journey through the entirety of human culture – the biggest cross-continuity ‘universe’ that is conceivable – Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill will conclude both their legendary League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and their equally legendary comic-book careers with the series’ spectacular fourth and final volume, The Tempest.
Tying up the slenderest of plot threads and allusions from the three preceding volumes, The Black Dossier, and the Nemo trilogy into a dazzling and ingenious bow, the world’s most accomplished and bad-tempered artist-writer team will use their most stylistically adventurous outing yet to display the glories of the medium they are leaving; to demonstrate the excitement that attracted them to the field in the first place; and to analyse, critically and entertainingly, the reasons for their departure.
Opening simultaneously in the panic-stricken headquarters of British Military Intelligence, the fabled Ayesha’s lost African city of Kor and the domed citadel of ‘We’ on the devastated Earth of the year 2996, the dense and yet furiously-paced narrative hurtles like an express locomotive across the fictional globe from Lincoln Island to modern America to the Blazing World; from the Jacobean antiquity of Prospero’s Men to the superhero-inundated pastures of the present to the unimaginable reaches of a shimmering science-fiction future. With a cast-list that includes many of the most iconic figures from literature and pop culture, and a tempo that conveys the terrible momentum of inevitable events, this is literally and literarily the story to end all stories.
Commencing as a six-issue run of unfashionable, outmoded and flimsy children’s comics that will make you appear emotionally backward if you read them on the bus, this climactic magnum opus will also reprint classic English super-team publication The Seven Stars from the murky black-and-white reaches of 1964. A magnificent celebration of everything comics were, are and could be, any appreciator or student of the medium would be unwise to miss The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: THE TEMPEST.
Issue 1: Farewell To Forever
Cover of issue 1
Issue 1 was published on July 11th 2018 by Top Shelf in the USA and Knockabout in the UK.
Plot Summary:
In 2009, in the fabled lost city of Kor in Uganda, Mina Murray, Orlando and Emma Night bathe in the mythical pool. This rejuvenates them, and grants Night eternal life as well as restoring her youthful appearance.
In the apocalyptic future of 2996, in the futuristic city of We, Satin Astro and her lover Burt flee from the Lord Of Mars. Burt is captured but Satin Astro escapes and travels back in time to the 21st century in an Aeonosphere to warn the human race of an impending disaster.
In 2009 at the British Intelligence headquarters in Vauxhall, London, an ill and elderly James Bond is briefed on the 2009 Moonchild catastrophe (which occurred 2 months prior). He is shown security footage of Orlando, as well as being informed of the details of the disappearance of the previous ‘M’, Emma Night. Night stole various documents from the headquarters (including the Black Dossier) before fleeing. Bond announces himself as the new ‘M’.
Back in Kor, Murray, Orlando and Night discuss where they will go next. They cannot go back to British Intelligence due to Night’s desertion, and their status with Prospero and The Blazing World is unclear. They decide on Lincoln Island, despite being unfamiliar with Jack Dakkar, the current Nemo.
In London, Satin Astro and Mars Man enter The Seven Stars’ former hideaway, The Star Chamber. They are seeking information about the other members of The Seven Stars in the filing system of Vull The Invisible (Mina Murray’s Seven Stars alter-ego). They discover that Zom The Zodiac was ‘discorporated’ by The Duke De Richeleu in 1966, and David Gaunt aka The Flash Avenger died of lung cancer in 1968. This leaves themselves, Vull, Captain Universe and Electro Girl as the remaining members of the Seven Stars.
In Nacumera on the west coast of Africa, Murray, Orlando and Night intercept an Aquanaut security patrol submarine which is refuelling at the dock. Orlando attempts to negotiate with the Aquanauts, but when she is touched inappropriately, tears off the testicle of one of the men. Murray’s team then steal the submarine (named Dugong) and head for the South Pacific.
Back at the MI5 headquarters, James Bond has recruited the ‘J-Series’ agents to aid him. These are the various incarnations of James Bond (such as Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Daniel Craig). MI5 have interrogated two associates of Emma Night to gain information on her whereabouts, and they implicated Cathy Gale, who Bond reminisces that he once had sex with. When Gale was interrogated, she revealed that she flew Night to Uganda before committing suicide. Following this lead, they discover security footage from Sierra Leone of the Murray team bound for Nacumera, and Bond recognises the rejuvenated Night. Realising that Murray’s fantastical league (which he previously encountered in 1958) is real, Bond boards a Spectrum Jet for Africa.
Meanwhile, Satin Astro and Mars Man locate one of the surviving Seven Stars - Electro Girl; who is now 80 years old and lives in a Faraday Cage selling her surplus electricity to the National Grid. They reveal to her that in 2009 or 2010 a great catastrophe irreparably ruins the earth and by the year 2996, humanity exists in flying Overcities or domed citadels such as We. Earth is ruled by The Lord of Mars, a tyrant who controls the earth from his base on Mars. Electro Girl refuses to help them, and cannot provide any information as to the whereabouts of Vull.
The Dugong submarine reaches Drake’s Passage, off the coast of Patagonia. They pass the musical utopia of Pepper’s Land and through the Riallaro Fog Bank which shrouds Lincoln Island.
James Bond and the J-Series Agents reach Kor, and the reserve agent J-R4 helps Bond into the pool, granting him eternal life.
The Murray Team continue their journey, passing through the islands of Spectralia (inhabited by ghosts), Coxuria (inhabited by pygmies), Figlefia (a vast and constant sex orgy), Fanattia (constantly arguing with each other) and Aleofane (where they use their fame to buy information).
In Kor, James Bond is rejuvenated by the pool and looks forward to having “endless fun”. He begins by shooting agent J-R4 in the head, and activating a timed nuclear bomb at the pool. Bond and the J-Series agents leave Africa as the nuke explodes, destroying Kor and its pool.
The Murray Team reach Lincoln Island and decide to approach underwater. However, they encounter Hugo Coghlan walking along the sea bed, who grabs the Dugong and carries it to the island.
Issue 2: And An Age Of Giants, Adieu
Cover of issue 2
Issue 2 was published on September 12th 2018 by Top Shelf in the USA and on September 19th by Knockabout in the UK.
Official synopsis of Issue 2:
Opening with a 1919 deathmatch between two American superhumans in the ruins of Utopia, the second issue of Moore and O’Neill’s final comic series takes its readers on a breath-taking ride over a waterfall of storytelling styles, from a startling 21st century Lincoln Island and its current incarnation of the legendary Captain Nemo, through a New York coping with an ageing costume-hero population, to a London where a drastic escalation is commenced by the rejuvenated sociopath controlling MI5. All this, and a further reprinted adventure of 1960s super-team The Seven Stars awaits in issue two of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume IV: The Tempest. — Issue #2 in a 6-issue mini-series, each issue 32 pages in (mostly) full color, saddle stitched, 6 5/8” x 10 1/8” (standard comic-book size), $4.99 (US).
Plot Summary:
In 2010 in the British Intelligence headquarters at Vauxhall, James Bond researches the history and previous incarnations of the League. Reading through the Black Dossier as well as additional documents pertaining to the League, Bond discovers that the last League controlled by the British government was the Victory Vanguard in the 1960s, and before that the Warralson Team in the 1940s. He works his way back through the League's history, through the 1898 Murray League, Gulliver's League and Prospero's Men.
In 1919, in the ruins of Utopia in the South Atlantic, Hugo Danner and Hugo Hercules fight an epic duel. Hugo Danner reveals his vision of a perfect future inhabited only by his kind, but Hugo Hercules retorts that he is quarter-god, before brutally headbutting Danner, killing him.
On Lincoln Island in 2010, Hugo Hercules brings the apprehended Dugong submarine ashore, throwing Mina Murray, Orlando and Emma Night onto the beach. Orlando runs up behind Hugo and tries attacking him with Excalibur, but the strike has no effect on him; in fact he barely notices the sword's impact. Hugo calls for reinforcements; they arrive in the form of Tacarigua (the current Ishmael) and The Pink Child. Murray and her League are taken to see Jack Dakkar, the current Nemo.
In New York City in 2010, Marsman and Satin Astro pay a visit to Jim Logan (Captain Universe) who is now retired. Logan volunteers at a special retirement home/hospice for aged superheroes. He reveals to Satin and Marsman that he retired having lost his enthusiasm for superheroes after the world became overpopulated with them, and that he has some important information for them at the U.N.
In Vauxhall, James Bond reads a dossier entitled 'Prospero's Men 1610-1696'. The document is shown to the reader as a double-page comic strip, written in iambic pentameter. In the strip, Prospero and his League (Ariel, Caliban, Orlando, Don Quixote, Mistress St. Clair and Captain Robert Owemuch) have sailed to the Blazing World on Owemuch's ship. Prospero declares the Blazing World as a refuge for fantastic beings, immune to the passage of time. Much to the shock of the others, Arial and Caliban assist Prospero in climbing overboard, whereby he walks over the ocean into the Blazing World, in the same way as Christian (a previous member of this League) had done previously (this is detailed in the New Traveller's Almanac). And like Christian before him, he instructs his companions to follow him. This document informs Bond of the existence and nature of the Blazing World.
At Captain Universe's headquarters at the U.N. he shows Satin and Marsman an old reel of film footage from Kansas in 1920. The reel relates to America's response to the League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Les Hommes Mysterieux and Die Zwielichthelden. It shows a film director choreographing the moment where a baby Superman lands in Smallville and is found by his foster parents. The clip reveals that America's superheroes were in fact faked. Hugo Danner, America's only true superhuman had disappeared (due to the duel in 1919) and science heroes such as Tom Swyfte had declined, so America had to stage its superheroes as a result.
Back at Vauxhall, Bond commissions Spectrum to build him a submarine with nuclear capabilities. Along with his J-Series agents, he sets off in his new submarine, heading for the Blazing World.
On Lincoln Island, having been dressed in a selection of Janni Dakkar's old clothes, Murray and her team are addressed by Jack. He reveals that he knows a lot of information about them, including their involvement with the antichrist incident the previous year, and that they have visited the pool in Kor. The reason for this knowledge is Augustus Van Dusen - who in spite of being killed in 1925, left behind hundreds of thousands of punch cards after his death. In the 1990s, technology had advanced sufficiently to catch up with Van Dusen's brilliant brain, and his punch cards could be uploaded into a single mainframe - which collectively form an artificial copy of Van Dusen's consciousness - a literal 'Thinking Machine'. Van Dusen has become Lincoln Island's primary source of intelligence.
Van Dusen explains that he has obtained the same intel regarding Emma Night and Kor as Bond had seen, and reveals to them that Kor's pool has been nuked, and that Night's three friends including Cathy Gale had been tortured into suicide. Orlando is furious about Kor's fate, and from this information Murray's team deduce who the culprit is - Bond. They also realise that Bond has made himself immortal, before destroying the pool to prevent anyone else from using it. Night swears to return to London to 'Avenge' her friends. Van Dusen also reveals that he has gained intel regarding a very recent catastrophe that occurred in the North Atlantic - the location of the Blazing World.
Meanwhile, Bond and his agents reach the edge of the Blazing World, where he fires a nuke into it. The nuke disappears from their scanners, as it leaves the normal dimension of reality and enters the Blazing World. As the warhead detonates and The Blazing World is seen to be blown apart, Bond hums the famous 'James Bond' theme music to himself whilst musing that he has "fucked fairyland" and that they should be "back to London in time for breakfast".
Issue 3:
Cover of issue 3
Issue 3 is due to be published in October 2018.
Official synopsis of issue 3:
Like something from an unbelievable parallel world where there were once comic publications exclusively for girls, this third jaw-dropping installment of Moore and O'Neill's astonishing swan-song takes us from a boarding school in Big Brother-dominated England to a civic ball with a Frankenstein monster in Toyland, pausing for some 1960s pop-art espionage and a breath-taking musical interlude along the way. Concluding with a demonstration of an unusual nuclear defense system (for which the reader will require 4-D spectacles thoughtfully provided) and containing Seven Stars classic "Showdown in Space," you dare not miss issue three of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. IV: The Tempest. -- Issue #3 in a 6-issue mini-series, each issue 32 pages in (mostly) full color, saddle stitched, 6 5/8” x 10 1/8” (standard comic-book size).
Extra Material:
As with previous volumes of the League, Volume 4 includes supplemental extra material at the end of each issue. In this case, the extra material is a six-part comic series called Seven Stars Monthly. This comic is presented in the style of 1960s science fiction comics, with black and white artwork and an antiquated tone.