The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II (2002)

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II is a comic book limited series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, published under the America's Best Comics imprint of DC Comics in the United States and under Vertigo in the United Kingdom. It is a sequel to the original volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and like its previous installment is a pastiche of various characters and events from Victorian literature; though it borrows a great number of characters and elements from various literary works of writers such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ian Fleming, Robert Louis Stevenson and Bram Stoker, it is predominantly a retelling of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.

The volume continues the narrative of Mina Murray, Allan Quatermain, Hawley Griffin, Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde and Captain Nemo who respond to an invasion of England by extraterrestrial invaders.

Plot

Issue #1: Phases of Deimos

On the planet Mars, John Carter and Gullivar Jones have assembled an alliance of Martian races to combat an invading race of non-Martian aliens called "Molluscs" (the aliens from H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds). After a fierce battle, the Martian alliance successfully force the Molluscs to leave Mars, but Carter worries that they might go to Earth.

On Earth, in the year 1898, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (consisting of Allan Quatermain, Dr. Henry Jekyll, Mina Murray, Captain Nemo and Hawley Griffin) arrives in Horsell Common, where a Mollusc spaceship lies at the centre of an impact crater.

Issue #2: People of Other Lands

The League meets with MI5 agent Campion Bond, and debate about what the mysterious craft is and where it came from. A tentacled alien emerges from the craft, and a group of men carrying a white flag descend into the crater to make peace with it, only to be incinerated by a powerful heat-ray from the craft. As the heat-ray kills the onlookers gathered around the crater's edge, Dr. Jekyll turns into Mr. Hyde, who threatens the alien with violent death. Mina manages to calm Hyde down, and the League retreat to the nearby Bleak House Inn.

Later that day, the British armed forces arrive in the area, and Griffin sees another spaceship falling from the sky towards Woking. Mina checks on Hyde, and they have a compassionate conversation about their friendship, which is something Hyde does not feel he shares with the other League members, but he politely asks Mina to leave, believing he will kill her at the slightest provocation. Meanwhile, Griffin returns to the crater on his own and encounters the aliens. Communicating with them by drawing pictures on the ground, he tells them he wishes to be their ally.

Issue #3: And the Dawn Comes Up Like Thunder

The next morning, the League leaves the inn and hears the military shelling another spaceship that has landed in Surrey. Most of the army division is incinerated by the alien's heat-ray, which also destroys the inn. A coach arrives to take the League back to London, but on the way, Mina starts to fear not every League member will survive this mission. At their headquarters in the British Museum, Mycroft Holmes tasks the League with researching Mars and returning to Horsell to observe the alien's behaviour. Bond gives Mina secret military plans and tells her to study them, as well as find out all she can about Mars. Allan, Hyde and Nemo set off back to Horsell, leaving Mina on her own and unprotected at the headquarters. Griffin stays behind and hides under cover of invisibility, and once Mina is alone he fiercely assaults her, then flees with the military plans.

During their reconnaissance, Allan, Hyde and Nemo encounter a Tripod, an enormous three-legged war machine, and set off back to London to warn British Intelligence. Upon returning to the museum, Hyde finds Mina lying beaten and unconscious on the floor, and realises what has happened. After Mina recovers from her attack, Mycroft sends her and Allan on a new mission: they travel to the South Downs to find a scientist who may be able to help stop the invasion.

Issue #4: All Creatures Great and Small

While Mina and Allan are away, Captain Nemo and Mr. Hyde patrol the Thames in the Nautilus and fend off the oncoming Tripods. The advanced technology aboard the Nautilus proves to be an even match for the Tripods, and Nemo orders his crew to bring the wreckage of a destroyed Tripod on board so they can study the alien technology.

While investigating the South Downs countryside, Mina and Allan meet a man called Teddy Prendrick (the protagonist of H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau). He is insane and gives them little information, but does mention a "devil doctor", whom they suspect could be the scientist they are looking for. Despite Prendrick's warnings, Mina and Allan continue to search the countryside, retiring to a country inn at the end of the day, where they end up having sex. Awakening afterwards, Allan notices horrific scars on Mina's neck (which were left by Count Dracula) and is shocked at the sight. Back in London, Griffin approaches the aliens again and tells them they have to "do something to the river" to stop the Nautilus.