Harry Potter as the Antichrist?
By Tribute on June 20, 2012 | 4 Comments
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
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How has this guy not been sued yet?!?!
Did not world famous expert on children’s literature Prof. Jack Zipes refer to Harry Potter as a tool for “cloning little capitalists”? Perhaps Mr. Moore is not as wrong as we all think at first glance as the blatant financial greed of all those involved in producing the Potter craze in the first place is too obvious for words. As for bringing Mr. Moore to court how would the seemingly morally redundant go about defending the moral righteousness of their alleged creation Harry Potter? I say alleged because news on the grapevine is that the Willy the Wizard people who claim to have proof of rampant plagiarism by Rowling and Little are all set to have another crack at finding a chink in the legal armour of the British establishment whose politicos and media are devoted to protecting Rowling from all forms of scrutiny… while the yen, Euro, Rupee and Dollar continue to pour in.
Harry Potter is amazing, that’s why its as popular as it is. There will never be anything like it, no matter how many copycats out there try to recreate it.
There was something very like it indeed according to the Willy the Wizard people, something called the book written by Adrian Jacobs for his son that Rowling and her buddy Christopher Little simply made off with!
That case was stifled in court so that the evidence they CERTAINLY HAVE would never see the light of day. Let us not forget that ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown after whom Rowling named her son is one of her closest friends. Let us also not forget that her PR people police the internet daily to combat any whiff of the truth getting out with claptrap very similar to the response above.