Harry Potter fans may think they know everything there is to know about the beloved fictional character, but a new take on the boy wizard will introduce audiences to Potter’s more demonic side. Alan Moore, the cult graphic novelist responsible for creating Watchmen and V for Vendetta, is adding a new villain to his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book series and he shares many of the same characteristics of J.K. Rowling’s literary hero. Over the last decade, Moore has built his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series into a satire of the history of Western literature, featuring appearances by a host of British literary characters. Century 2009, the third volume of the series’ Century trilogy, introduces a familiar-sounding Antichrist at the center of its narrative, according to Laura Sneddon of London’s Independent, who received an exclusive sneak peek of the upcoming volume. In her advance review of the book, Sneddon writes: “At no point does Moore use the words ‘Harry’ or ‘Potter,’ but a magical train hidden between platforms at King’s Cross station, leading to a magical school where there are flashbacks of psychotic adolescent rage and whimpering children pleading for their life, all strewn with molten corpses, does rather suggest a link to the Boy Who Lived. A hidden scar and a mentor named Riddle, though possessed as he is by the real villain, completes the picture.”
This isn’t the first time Moore has made a thinly disguised reference to the Harry Potter franchise. In the second volume of the Century arc, Moore introduced a man named Tom who taught magic at a school “up north” — a not-so-subtle allusion to Voldemort. It will be interesting to see how fans react to seeing their hero villainized and how J.K. Rowling herself responds to Moore’s interpretation of her classic character. Century 2009 will be released in North America on July 10. ~Emily Davies