Written by Lavie Tidhar
Art by Paul McCaffrey
Published by Titan Comics
For Christmas, 1976, I received a single volume edition of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Complete Sherlock Holmes as a most treasured gift. Ever after, I have been a fan of Holmes and Victorian sleuths in fiction. Looks like award-winning author Lavie Tidhar is as well.
There can also be no denying the massive influence of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on Tidhar’s new graphic novel Adler, collecting an earlier mini-series done with illustrator Paul McCaffrey.
But hey, if it’s done this well, I don’t mind the derivativeness.
The characters here are lifted not only from Doyle but from Dickens, Bronte, Haggard, le Fanu, and from reality itself, all twisted—sometimes just a bit and other times into nearly unrecognizable shapes.
As one might expect from its title, our heroine is Ms. Irene Adler, turn of the 19th century opera singer and adventuress.
Our villain is She, as in “She who must be obeyed.” In between, an assortment of almost recognizable literary characters flit in and out and around the plot, which involves Queen Ayesha using concepts stolen from Nikola Tesla and Madame Curie to create an atomic death ray.
Tidhar’s writing is fun and easy to follow, even though nearly all of his female characters come across as much stronger, more resilient, and resourceful than their inspirations and certainly than their real world counterparts would have been. Watching as these strong women all gather and get to know each other is a nice change from similar scenes where strong male characters always seem to feel the need for an opening contest of some sort.
The most fun here, for me, though, was in McCaffrey’s artwork.
While one could make the argument that most of his female faces look alike, complete with unnatural eyelashes, I took to it as a style, and, in fact, a style not at all unlike that of a longtime favorite artist of mine, Bryan Talbot.
Like Talbot, McCaffrey draws in a highly detailed manner that succeeds in adding a layer of depth to even the simplest of illustrations. His mastery of color for lighting effects and shadows adds even more depth, making every page a joy to linger over as one reads.
But it’s the storytelling and the plot of this “League of Extraordinary Women” that keeps one reading and Tidhar and McCaffrey form a great team that keeps you interested and intrigued from the opening panels right up to the end. There’s nothing elementary about this one.
The Adler collection comes backed up with character designs and a number of impressive cover variants.
Booksteve recommends.
