The Nemo Trilogy treats us to the extraordinary life of Janni Dakkar, the daughter of the dangerous Captain Nemo and member of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Each installment of this saga is set decades apart and gives the reader insights into remote corners of the wild and crazy world created by Alan Moore Kevin O'Neill. The descriptions below are spoiler rich so tread carefully.
Heat of Ice begins in 1925 when Janni and her crew rob Charles Foster Kane and the immortal Ayesha. Bent on revenge the two hire a trio of super-science characters to pursue the Nautilus and retrieve the material stolen as well as kill Janni and as much of the crew as possible. It turns out that Janni has taken her most loyal crewmembers on a mission to Antarctica where they encounter the Mountains of Madness from the pages of Poe as well as both Yuggoth and Shoggoth from the pages of Lovecraft. Jannie survives along with the man who will become her husband and father of her daughter -- Broad Arrow Jack.
In The Rose of Berlin, the story leaps to 1941 when Janni and Jack head into the evil Germany of Adenoid Hynkel (Hitler if you didn't already know) to rescue their daughter Hira and her busband Robur (son of the infamous Master of the World). The run smackdab into a trap in the middle of a super-science "Metropolis" and confront the robot Maria created by the scientist Rotwang and weird zombie forces controlled by Dr. Caligari. The trap was set on the behalf of Ayesha who wants revenger still for the theft two decades before. They all escape save Broad Arrow Jack and Janni beheads Ayesha.
River of Ghosts takes us to 1975 where we find an aged Janni Dakkar, a woman who is dying and who is increasingly untrusted by her daughter and her allies. Nonetheless they take the Nautilus up the Amazon in pursuit of Ayesha, who somehow still lives. Assisted by the impossibly powerful Hugo Hercules (a god apparently and the first comic superhero created in 1902) and she finds a Nazi lair filled with robot women created by Doctor Goldfoot and clones of Ayesha and Hynkel. Janni's grandson also goes on this journey. Janni, who by the point is always surrounded by the "ghosts" of her former allies and her husband chooses to die in an explosion which brings down the facility. We skip ahead to 1987 where her grown grandson has assumed the Nemo leadership role and he and his Mother erect a statue to the noble but ferocious Janni Dakkar.
The spoilers are done. For the record there are also two text pieces which purport to be by reporter and columnist Hildy Johnson of The Front Page fame. These give us additional insights into the world of this most remarkable Nemo.
We first meet Janni in the pages of Century as a young woman rebelling against her father. By the end of that tale she has assumed the control of her father's forces. We next meet her in 1969 when as an old woman she stakes Mina Murray and her allies to London. These stories in this collection help fill in the life of a most remarkable person, one who was all to ready to kill for reasons clear to a pirate. Janni Dakkar as presented here is a dangerous woman, but a woman who is loyal to those around her as they are dedicated to her. There's a lot of death in these pages, but Moore and O'Neill work hard to make those deaths of consequence for the most part.
Great stuff indeed! I wrap up my look at the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen tomorrow with The Tempest.
Rip Off
No comments:
Post a Comment