3 out of 5

Following on Black Dossier‘s expansion of The League’s worlds into more modern references, Century loosely tracks – over its titular timespan – the foment of more apocalyptic stuff – this time coming in the form of the antichrist – and then also borrowing some structure (and verse) from Kurt Weill’s / Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera.  Each chapter is presented as a 72-page prestige, taking place in (or close to) a particular year, and especially as we tipple into 2009, stuff as visually to the gills with who’s-who cameos as The Traveler’s Almanac was with textual nods.  The Dossier did this as well, but the mixed text/ comic medium of that volume – and that it seemed more rightly to take place ‘inbetween’ stories – made it a bit more of a fun experience, whereas Century’s application of it ends up feeling like a distraction from the story itself.

…Which is actually rather straightforward this time around, and then rather padded out by an expected excuse to go psychedelic in the 1969 era…  The most engaging bit of the story actually comes before things really kick off, in 1910, when the League plays more as background to the next installment of the Nemo legacy, meanwhile getting their first hints of an armageddon to come.  The 60s era issue features a wearied and fraying league, and in 2009, Moore is allowed to take some snipes at modern fantasy writing with an overall underwhelming adversary, which can’t quite compete with the effective world-ending sensations of prior volumes.  (And which is ironic, given said adversary’s  provenance…)

This, in my mind, boils down to that straightforward structure: enemy identified, enemy tracked, enemy fought.  Shifting from less literary references toward more movie / TV shows has seemed to encourage Kevin O’Neill’s style to be slightly less controlled, more focused on caricature, and so – especially in the ’69 and ’09 volumes – the pacing is oddly rushed.

Century ends up being an acceptable adventure tale, but it’s a lot of sound and bluster that doesn’t feel like it overall advances the League’s world.  Taken as a coda to the giant task undertaken in previous books of usurping all of the world’s fictions into one universe, it is a rather effective closing.  Hopefully allowing for a fresh start on whatever the next incarnation of the League may be…