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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

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This article is about the comic series "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". For The League of Gentlemen (disambiguation), see The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (disambiguation).
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Cover for the graphic novel League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Volume One by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
Publication information
PublisherAmerica's Best Comics
First appearanceThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1 (January, 1999)
Created byAlan Moore
Kevin O'Neill
In-story information
Base(s)The British Museum, London

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, published under the America's Best Comics imprint of DC Comics. As of 2005 it comprises twelve issues (published as two six-issue mini-series, each collected as in graphic novel form, but forming a single ongoing story), as well as a film adaptation of the first six-issue miniseries. There is also a prequel short story, "Allan and the Sundered Veil", included in the book form of the first miniseries.

Overview

The story takes place in 1898 in a fictional world where all of the characters and events from Victorian era adventure literature actually existed. The world the characters inhabit is one far more technologically advanced than our own was in the same year. This setting allows Moore and O'Neill to insert 'in-jokes' and cameos from many of the great works of Victorian fiction, while also making contemporary references and jibes. (In issue 1, there is a half-finished bridge to link Britain and France, referencing problems constructing the real-world Channel Tunnel.)

The League is assembled by the British government to protect the empire from various menaces, including the criminal genius Fu Manchu (Vol. 1) and the Martians from H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds (Vol. 2).

The individual members of the League are:

The League are recruited for the Government by one Campion Bond. Bond is an original creation likely an homage to Margery Allingham's Albert Campion and Ian Fleming's James Bond.

Campion Bond deserves special attention because he may be the only character in the series who is an original creation of Moore's. Every other character in the series, from the dominatrix/schoolmistress Rosa Coote to single-panel throwaway characters like Inspector Dick Donovan, is an established character from a previous work of fiction or an ancestor of a character from modern-day fiction. This has lent the series considerable popularity with fans of esoteric Victoriana, who have delighted in attempting to place every character who makes an appearance.

Sherlock Holmes and Dracula are notably absent from the League's adventures, though the former appears in a flashback sequence and the latter's connections to Mina Murray do not go unnoticed. Holmes is still believed by the public to be deceased following the events of "The Final Problem". Moore has noted that he felt these two seminal characters would overwhelm the rest of the cast, thus making the book a lot less fun.

The juxtaposition of characters from different sources in the same story is similar to science fiction writer Philip José Farmer's works centering around the Wold Newton family.

Moore has announced his intentions to write the adventures of other Leagues in different historical eras. One possible group of heroes is seen in a portrait dated 1787 seen in the League's headquarters in volume 1 of the comic. A slightly different version of the portrait can be seen in the film version.

The heroes in the portrait appear to be:

According to the New Traveler's Almanac, an appendix to the trade paperback collection of The League Vol.2, the earliest incarnation of the League was known as "Prospero's Men" and consisted of:

  • Prospero the Duke of Milan, the sorcerer protagonist of Shakespeare's 1611 play The Tempest.
  • Caliban, Prospero's malformed, treacherous servant, also from The Tempest.
  • Ariel, a sprite and air sprit, bound to serve Prospero, also from The Tempest.
  • Christian, a pilgrim Everyman, protagonist of John Bunyan's 1678 novel The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come.
  • Captain Robert Owe-Much, a British explorer and discoverer of the Floating Island called Scoti Moria or Summer Island, President of the Council of the Society of Owe-Much, and the title character from Richard Head’s 1673 book, The Floating Island or a new Discovery Relating the Strange Adventure on a late Voyage from Lamberthana to Villa Franca, Alias Ramallia, to the Eastward of Terra Del Templo: By three Ships, viz., the ‘Pay-naught,’ the ‘Excuse,’ and the ‘Least-in-Sight’ under the Conduct of Captain Robert Owe-much: Describing the Nature of the Inhabitants, their Religion, Laws and Customs (published under the pseudonym Frank Careless).

This league collapsed in 1690 when Christian found the "heavenly country" for which he was seeking, and thus left this world. Allegedly, Prospero later followed him, as hinted in the Almanac.

Inspiration

The title and concept may be inspired by The League of Gentlemen (the novel and subsequent film, not the unrelated comedic television series) as well as the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. It may also have a seed in the comic book superhero teams Justice League of America and the Justice Society.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler

Volume one

Volume one opens with Mina Murray recruited by Campion Bond to assemble the League. Bond dispatches Miss Murray to Egypt along with an unnamed "sea captain" (who later we discover to be Captain Nemo). Whilst in Cairo, Murray finds Allan Quatermain, who has become an opium addict. The duo are forced to flee to a port after Quatermain defends Miss Murray from a group of Arabs who attempt to rape her, killing two of their number. Down at the docks, Nemo emerges from the Nautilus and blasts the pursuing "mohammedan rabble" with a large harpoon gun, rescuing Murray and Quatermain.

Their next assignment is to head to Paris in order to rendezvous with C. Auguste Dupin (a detective from Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue) and capture a beast-man who transpires to be Dr Jekyll/ Mr Hyde. He has been hiding in Paris after faking a suicide, and preying on prostitutes. With Jekyll/Hyde successfully captured and handed over to MI6, the remaining trio head to a girl's school in Edmonton, run by the sado-masochistic Miss Rosa Coote. Rumours abound that many of the female pupils have become impregnated by the Holy Spirit. After a single night's investigation, the trio discover that the "Holy Spirit" is none other than Dr Hawley Griffin, the Invisible Man, who (much like Jekyll/Hyde) has been hiding since faking his own death. He is, by the way, attacking a girl certainly based on Elanor H. Porter's Pollyanna.

The League is then convened at its headquarters in the secret wing of the British Museum, where they are sent to recover a sample of cavorite from the clutches of Fu Manchu (who is not mentioned by name, for reasons of trademark).

Whilst Nemo decides to remain on board his submarine, the remaining quartet are dispatched to London's Limehouse district in order to discover more about the Chinese "devil-doctor". Murray and Griffin learn from an informant named Quong Lee (a storyteller from books by Thomas Burke) that Fu Manchu is indeed operating within the area and is planning something big, however Lee only gives them information in the form of a cryptic riddle, stating "The waters lap beneath the heavenly bridge. The dragon sleeps below it. My advice to you: do not awaken it". Although Griffin is skeptical, Murray concludes that Manchu's activities must be taking place beneath Rotherhithe Bridge. Meanwhile, Quatermain and Jekyll enter Manchu's lair itself (an opium den/bar), and Quatermain spots the doctor applying caustic paint to one of his victims. The duo are almost sussed as spies, however they manage to escape.

Back on board the Nautilus, the League convenes once more and Miss Murray pulls all the strings of evidence together. She believes Manchu had obviously stolen the cavorite for some nefarious purpose, and states that there is an uncompleted tunnel beneath Rotherhithe Bridge, which would be a perfect place for him to craft some form of aerial war machine without being discovered. Four of the group plan to infiltrate his lair and steal back the cavorite, with Nemo remaining on board the Nautilus.

It is Quatermain and Murray who first manage to get into the Chinaman's lair, and they discover a gigantic flying craft armed to the teeth with guns and cannons (which is obviously the "dragon" which Quong Lee spoke of in his riddle). Although they are discovered by a guard, an unnoticed Griffin is able to kill the guard and Quatermain takes his uniform, allowing him a disguise so that he might get inside the Dragon and steal back the cavorite. Griffin heads back outside to fetch Jekyll in the hopes of creating a diversion. Once inside one of the entrances (some form of office building/warehouse), Griffin infuriates Jekyll to such a degree that he becomes Hyde and begins slaughtering Manchu's henchmen.

Having stolen the cavorite, Murray and Quatermain are re-united with Hyde and Griffin in an underwater glass tunnel, and although they lock themselves in they realise it will only be a matter of time before Manchu's men burst in and kill all of them. Luckily, they are quickly able to come up with a plan and put it into action. Hyde grabs Quatermain and Murray, with Griffin holding onto his neck. Quatermain blasts a hole in the glass roof with his elephant gun and Miss Murray activates the cavorite, propelling the group upwards through the cascading water. Manchu's base is flooded, the Dragon is destroyed, and the Nautilus rescues the group as they fall back down into the Thames.

Bond congratulates the group upon the success of their mission, and leaves the Nautilus with the cavorite, telling them he will take it back to his superior M. However, Griffin is oddly absent from the group, having disguised a load of brooms (as himself) using his own bandages, spectacles and clothing. He follows Bond back to the Military Intelligence Headquarters, and discovers that M is in fact Professor Moriarty, the arch-nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty has constructed his own aerial war machine, and with the cavorite he can now put it into action. Griffin returns to the Nautilus and informs the group of what he's discovered. Nemo realises that M is Moriarty, and also knows he plans to bomb London's east-end, wiping out what is left of Manchu's criminal empire.

The League embark on board the Victoria - a hot-air balloon on Nemo's ship that was once owned by Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg - and board Moriarty's ship. Hyde and Nemo begin an attack on the crew (Nemo using a machine pistol, Hyde using his fists), whilst Murray and Quatermain ascend to the top deck where Moriarty is waiting (Griffin has cowardly stripped and remains by the balloon, which is still anchored to the ship). Quatermain guns down Moriarty's guards using his own machine-gun, however the Professor disarms him and prepares to kill him. Just in time, Miss Murray smashes the case containing the cavorite and Moriarty foolishly rushes toward the device, grabs onto it, and propels himself into the night sky. The League leave the ship via the means of the balloon, and once again are rescued by the Nautilus, this time manned by Nemo's first mate Ishmael (the protagonist from Herman Melville's "Moby Dick").

The series ends with Mycroft Holmes congratulating the League for their work, telling them to remain in London should there be more for them to face in the future. The comic itself ends with the scene of Martian ships falling towards Woking, and thus sets in motion the second volume.

The book version of Volume one also includes a short prequel called Allan and the Sundered Veil, which features Allan Quatermain, John Carter, Lovecraft's Randolph Carter, and the Time Traveller from H. G. Wells' The Time Machine.

Volume two

Volume two opens on Mars, where John Carter and Gullivar Jones have assembled an alliance (including the Séroni from Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis) to defeat the aliens who have been bedeviling the native Martians. These prove to be the aliens from The War of the Worlds, who learn about Earth from the humans on Mars and launch themselves there.

When the aliens land on Earth, the League is dispatched to guard the crater in which they have landed. They are present when one of the first aliens emerges from the spacecraft, after an onlooker falls into the pit. When a team of men descend into the pit to make peace with the visitors, the aliens unleash the power of their "heat-at-a-distance machine" (i.e. a laser weapon). Before the weapon opens fire, Nemo realises its nature and pushes the group onto the ground, thus keeping them below the deadly beam while the rest of the massed crowd is cooked. Jekyll turns into Hyde and begins to rage, threatening the aliens with violent death. Realising that they can hardly fight the creatures, the League retire to a nearby inn, at which they run into a confident military division who have been sent to defend the crater. Hyde indulges in a somewhat compassionate conversation with Mina, and Griffin (under cover of invisibility) leaves to form an alliance with the Martians.

The next morning, the group emerge from the inn and hear the military shelling the spacecraft, only for the aliens to retaliate yet again with their laser weaponry. The army division is obliterated, as is the inn which the League were lucky enough to exit. A carriageman (William Samson Snr) arrives to take the group back to the British Museum, where they shall receive more orders from Mycroft Holmes. He tells Miss Murray to stay at the museum and learn what she can about Mars, also giving her the locations of the British gun emplacements. This puts her in extreme danger, as while Nemo, Hyde and Quatermain return to the crater in order to survey the situation, Griffin stays behind and assaults Murray.

During their reconnaissance, the other three members of the League come close to a Martian tripod, an enormous three-legged war-machine. They quickly return to their coach and are taken swiftly back to London. Upon returning, Hyde finds Miss Murray lying beaten on the floor and realises what has happened. Shortly afterwards, Mycroft Holmes sends Mina and Quatermain on a new mission, giving them very vague specifications concerning their task. In the meantime, Nemo and Hyde patrol London's rivers on board the Nautilus, attacking the Martians and retrieving their engineering when possible.

During their mission in the countryside, Mina and Alan encounter a man called Teddy Prendick, the protagonist from H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau. He is obviously insane and gives them little information, save that in the woods nearby lurks a Doctor whom he once encountered. Their search is uneventful, and they return to a country inn. Quatermain remarks that he'll be damned "if (he) sleeps on the floorboards", while Mina replies that he doesn't have to. This leads to a situation in which the two of them make love, and the comic from this point splits between their love scene, a scene in which Hyde is beating a Martian tripod on board Nemo's submarine, and a quick three-panel "shot" of Griffin telling the aliens they "have to do something to the river". Awakening post-coitus, Quatermain discovers the scars on Mina's neck, and is seemingly horrified.

The next day, Nemo discovers that the Martians have used some sort of red weed on the river, and it has immobilised his submarine. Quatermain tells Mina that he was not shocked by the nature of her scars, but rather his second wife (named Estella, from Haggard's book "Allan's Wife") had similar scars on her own neck, and that he found it odd "that destiny should so distinguish the two women (he) loved the most". They engage in another love scene in the forest, but this time are disturbed by one of Dr. Moreau's animen, who is comically based on the children's comic-book character Rupert Bear, and indeed the rest of his animal-human hybrids are similar to famous characters from children's fiction ( e.g Mr Toad, Mr Rat, Mr Badger and Mr Mole from The Wind in the Willows). Indeed, the entire wood, which Quatermain remarks as being huge, may be A. A. Milne's Hundred Acre Wood, and one of the creatures looks much like Tigger.

Hyde returns to the British Museum and finds Griffin there. Taking full advantage of this chance encounter, Hyde exacts his revenge by brutally beating and then raping Griffin, "because (his) treatment of Miss Murray was uncivil..." Griffin is killed due to these injuries. Mina and Alan meet with Dr Moreau in his secret hideout in the forest, and tell him that Military Intelligence has asked for H-142. Moreau seems disturbed by this request, but obliges nonetheless and offers the duo dinner.

During dinner with Hyde back at the museum, Nemo discovers that the brute has killed Griffin, and attempts to kill him. He is held back by the coachman Samson, who urges him not to kill Hyde seeing as he is their only hope against the Martians. Nemo grudgingly obliges.

The following morning, Murray and Quatermain return to the city with H-142, finding gas-masked intelligence agents waiting for them, along with Agent Bond. They proceed to the riverside, where Nemo and Hyde are waiting for them. Bond says that all bridges apart from London Bridge have been blown up in a bid to impede the invaders, and that H-142 must be "delivered". As the League arrive at the bridge, they see that the Martians have all gathered on the other side. Bond leaves with the cargo crate carrying the hybrid.

Seeing that nothing is stopping the Martians from crossing, Hyde gives Mina a fond farewell, and dances out onto the bridge towards an oncoming tripod, singing happily. The machine attacks him but he survives, charging into its front leg and ripping it off. With the walking machine toppled, Hyde rips open the top hatch and eats the alien inside. The other tripods activate their rays and kill Hyde, followed by a gun retort from downriver. Nemo is curious as to what the guns could be firing, and Bond tells him the H-142 has been fired. Quatermain is confused, and Bond explains indifferently that it was indeed one of Moreau's hybrids, but was in fact a hybrid bacterium, made up of anthrax and streptococcus. Nemo is infuriated, and Bond coolly replies that officially the Martians will have been killed by the common cold, whilst any humans found dead will have been killed by Martians (crossing with Wells' storyline). Angered by the use of British government's heartless use of biological weaponry against its own people, Nemo leaves in the Nautilus and tells Quatermain and Murray to "never seek (him) again" mistakenly believing that they knew the British plan.

A month later, Mina and Alan are walking through Serpentine Park (which Allan says will soon be named after Hyde, thus giving it the name Hyde Park). Mina says that she is to leave for Coradine, a ladies' commune in Scotland, leaving Allan alone on a park bench, and ending volume two.

The New Traveller's Almanac

Volume two has an extensive appendix, most of which is filled with an imaginary traveller's account of the alternate universe the League is set in. This Almanac is noteworthy in that it provides a huge amount of information (46 pages) of background information - all of which is taken from pre-existing literary works or mythology. This quasi-Expanded Universe shows the plot of the comic to be just a small section of a world filled with notable characters and places from world literature. The travel reports, mostly compiled from log entries by Mina Murray, Prospero and Captain Nemo, talk about topics such as:

Note: This list is not complete.

There are many more references, some of which are hard to spot and might be described as easter eggs for the connoisseur.

Future works

Alan Moore departed from Warner Bros, including its subsidiaries DC Comics and Wildstorm Comics, as a result of a dispute with the filmmaker over an incorrect allegation that Moore had approved of the film version of another of his comic book works, V for Vendetta, and failed to retract the comment or apologise. As a result, Moore has confirmed that any future installments of League stories will be published by Top Shelf Productions and Knockabout Comics.

Collections

  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, collects vol 1 #1-6
    • hardcover: ISBN 1563896656
    • paperback: ISBN 1563898586
    • Absolute edition (deluxe hardcover): ISBN 1401200524, including Moore's original scripts and additional artwork by O'Neill
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Book 2, collects vol 2 #1-6
    • hardcover: ISBN 1401201172
    • paperback: ISBN 1401201180
    • Absolute edition (deluxe hardcover): ISBN 1401206115, including Moore's original scripts and additional artwork by O'Neill

Source works

Principal characters

Secondary characters

Similar pastiches

Adaptations

The League of Extraordinary Genlemen
Directed byStephen Norrington
Written byAlan Moore (comic books)
Kevin O'Neill (comic books)
James Robinson (screenplay)
Produced byTrevor Albert
Rick Benattar
Sean Connery
Mark Gordon
Don Murphy
Michael Nelson
StarringSean Connery
Naseeruddin Shah
Peta Wilson
Tony Curran
Stuart Townsend
Shane West
Jason Flemyng
Richard Roxburgh
Max Ryan
Distributed byTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Release dates
11 July, 2003
Running time
110 min.
LanguageEnglish

A film starring Sean Connery, Peta Wilson, Stuart Townsend, Naseeruddin Shah, Richard Roxburgh, Jason Flemyng, Shane West, Tony Curran and directed by Stephen Norrington was released on July 11, 2003 in the United States. It adds the additional characters Tom Sawyer (from the novels by Mark Twain; it is not anachronistical for Sawyer to appear as a young man in the film, Twain wrote a Tom Sawyer "PI" story early in the 20th century: in the film he is an American secret service agent sent by Teddy Roosevelt) and Dorian Gray (from the novel by Oscar Wilde), as well as a new villain. Characters from the comic are also changed:

  • Quatermain is the leader of the team, and is not recovering from an opium addiction as he is in the comic.
  • Mina Murray is still Mina Harker, and a vampire.
  • The Invisible Man is a new character known as Rodney Skinner, a thief who has stolen the invisibility formula (because the film-makers were unable to obtain the rights to Wells' character). While Dr. Hawley Griffin from the comic is a sociopath, Rodney Skinner is merely mischievous.
  • Jekyll and Hyde appear, but they are also portrayed in a more favorable light in the film than they are in the comic and Jekyll still needs his potion to turn into Hyde.

In a move reminiscent of the James Bond novels, the League is recruited by a character known as "M". Moriarty from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories also makes an appearance, as does a character referred to as the "Fantom" who resembles the Phantom of the Opera or French master villain Fantômas. The character of Campion Bond was supposed to appear (one media report suggested that he would be played by Roger Moore, thereby having two former James Bonds in one movie), but the character was dropped before filming began.

Originally cast as Mina Murray-Harker, Monica Bellucci had to withdraw from the project due to production overruns on Tears of the Sun. This would have been the second time Bellucci would have played a "bride" of Dracula (the first being Bram Stoker's Dracula).

The film met with criticism, as many fans felt that the complex, highly literary storyline had been oversimplified to create a basic action flick to appeal to the general public.

This film is not to be confused with the film of The League of Gentlemen, which was a 1960 British heist film.

See also

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