The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #5
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeIssue #5 is the dramatic fulcrum of Volume One's six-part story, delivering the series' central plot revelation: the League's shadowy spymaster 'M' is none other than Professor Moriarty, who survived Reichenbach Falls and clawed his way to the top of British Intelligence. It also marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes in the series, rendered in a bravura opening flashback that adapts Conan Doyle's 'The Final Problem' almost panel-by-panel, while simultaneously planting visions that foreshadow the Martian invasion of Volume Two. Beyond its narrative weight, the issue became one of the most notorious recalled comics of the modern era: DC publisher Paul Levitz ordered the entire print run pulped after discovering it contained a genuine early-20th-century advertisement for a 'Marvel'-brand feminine hygiene product, fearing litigation from rival Marvel Comics. That decision — and Alan Moore's subsequent winking callback to it in Top 10 — cemented issue #5 as a piece of comics-publishing history as much as a storytelling milestone.
In "5: Some Deep, Organizing Power...", the Time Traveller struggles to repair his machine as the others become lost in visions of their pasts and futures, drawn into the gem's strange pull. One by one, they vanish from the present—only to return, not to the world they left, but to the bodies they once inhabited. The enemy, however, arrived first, already inside Allan. Written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, with cover art by Kevin O'Neill, this issue blends time, identity, and mystery in a story that lingers long after the final page.
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Written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, the issue was published under the America's Best Comics imprint — itself an arm of WildStorm, which DC had acquired mid-production, leaving Moore in an uncomfortable position but honoring his commitments to keep the ABC creators employed. Each issue of the series was designed to embed authentic-looking Victorian-era advertisements as backmatter; one such ad in issue #5 — a real, early-20th-century promotion for a 'Marvel Co.' douche product — triggered DC executive Paul Levitz to order the entire print run destroyed and the issue immediately reprinted with the offending brand name changed to 'AMAZE.' A small batch already shipped to UK distributors escaped destruction, and approximately two hundred copies of the original edition are believed to survive. Moore later referenced the debacle with a 'Miracle Douche Recall' newspaper headline in Top 10 #9, tying the incident to his long-running disputes over the Marvelman/Miracleman trademark.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Written by Alan Moore; illustrated by Kevin O'Neill; cover-dated June 2000; published on-sale May 10, 2000 under the America's Best Comics / WildStorm / DC Comics imprint.
- First appearance of Sherlock Holmes in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series; Holmes appears in an opening flashback sequence adapting Conan Doyle's 'The Final Problem,' in which both Holmes and Moriarty survive Reichenbach Falls.
- Central plot revelation of the volume: Hawley Griffin spies on Campion Bond's office and discovers that the League's mysterious superior 'M' is Professor Moriarty, who has been using the League to eliminate his criminal rival Fu Manchu and plans to bomb East London with a Cavorite-powered airship.
- The issue's title, 'Some Deep, Organizing Power...', is drawn directly from Holmes' own description of Moriarty in Conan Doyle's 'The Final Problem,' before the two ever meet face to face.
- The prose backup story 'Allan and the Sundered Veil' (featuring Allan Quatermain, John Carter, and Randolph Carter) concludes its chapter in this issue, with Allan experiencing visions foreshadowing events in issue #6 and the Martian invasion of Volume Two.
- The original print run was recalled and destroyed on the orders of DC publisher Paul Levitz after it was found to contain a genuine early-20th-century advertisement for a 'Marvel Co.' douche product; the replacement printing substituted the brand name 'AMAZE.'
- Approximately two hundred copies of the recalled original printing are believed to survive, all from a batch shipped to UK distributors before the recall order took effect; no U.S. copies are confirmed to have been distributed through normal retail channels.
- Alan Moore later referenced the recall with a 'Miracle Douche Recall' headline embedded in a newspaper panel in Top 10 #9, connecting the incident to Marvel Comics' earlier forced renaming of his Marvelman work to Miracleman.
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Reprints
Reprinted in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1 (2001), Magnum [Magma] #5 (2001), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1 (2002), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume 1: The Absolute Edition #[nn] (2003), La ligue des Gentlemen Extraordinaires #1 (2009), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Omnibus Edition #[nn] (2012), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Omnibus Edition #[nn] (2013), League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume One: Kevin O'Neill Gallery Edition #[nn] (2015), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Jubilee Edition #[nn] (2019)
Key issues in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
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