Nemo: The Roses of Berlin is the next story in Alan Moore‘s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen universe. This one is a follow-up to the previous story, Nemo: Heart of Ice, and it follows the story of Janni Dakkar, the daughter of the legendary Captain Nemo. In The Roses of Berlin, it’s 1941 and Janni and her husband Broad Arrow Jack travel into the heart of Berlin to rescue their daughter from the hands of Adenoid Hynkel.
What I’ve enjoyed about The Roses of Berlin and the previous volume is that the series has gone back to the high adventure of the first two volumes of the series. There is fun to be had in this series, and plenty of references to books and movies and what have you, but it doesn’t feel like you have to have a classics degree from Oxford to understand the story. Maybe it just helps that I know what Moore is referencing here, and I feel like I’m on the inside of some kind of special club. I think that has always been part of the appeal of the entire series. You may not catch everything that Moore is referring to, but when you do catch something, you feel like all those high school English classes were worth something.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press