The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, publication of which began in 1999. The series spans several volumes.
See main article: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One. In the aftermath of the events of the novel Dracula, a now disgraced and divorced Mina Harker (née Murray) is recruited by Campion Bond on behalf of British Intelligence head "M" and asked to assemble a league of other extraordinary individuals to protect the interests of the Empire. Together with Captain Nemo, Mina travels to Cairo to locate Allan Quatermain, then on to Paris in search of Dr. Jekyll; finally in London she forcibly recruits Hawley Griffin, The Invisible Man, who completes this incarnation of the League. Meeting with Professor Cavor, the League is sent against Fu Manchu in his Limehouse lair, who has stolen the only known sample of cavorite and plans to use it to build an armed airship, against which Britain would have little defence. Having eventually retrieved the cavorite, the League delivers it into the hands of their employer — none other than Professor Moriarty (nemesis of Sherlock Holmes), who plans to use it in an airship of his own, with which he will bomb his adversary's Limehouse lair flat, taking large parts of London and the League itself with it. An aerial battle above London commences, and the League eventually triumphs. Mycroft Holmes replaces Moriarty as the League's employer, and the extraordinary individuals are given the task of remaining in the service of the Crown, awaiting England's call. Some kind of a meteor shower is shown, leading up to the events in Volume II.
See main article: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II. Placed during the events of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, Volume II opens on Mars, where John Carter and Lt. Gullivar Jones (of Edwin Lester Arnold's Gullivar of Mars) have assembled an alliance to fight against Martian invaders. When the invaders are forced off Mars and land on Earth, they begin to build their tripods. Griffin leaves the League under cover of invisibility to form an alliance with the invaders before betraying it outright, stealing plans for the defence of London as well as physically and emotionally assaulting Mina.
Mycroft Holmes deploys Nemo and Hyde to defend the capital by patrolling London's rivers in the Nautilus. Meanwhile, Murray and Quatermain meet up with Dr. Moreau in his secret hideout in the forest, and tell him that MI5 has asked for something known as H-142. Hyde returns to the British Museum and tortures Griffin, breaking Griffin's leg and raping him before murdering him. Hyde dies fighting a tripod, allowing time for MI5 to launch H-142. However, before he goes to fight the tripods, he asks Mina for two things: for her to give him a kiss, and permission to touch her breast.
MI5 then launches H-142: a hybrid bacterium, made up of anthrax and streptococcus. Nemo is infuriated, and Bond coolly replies that they will claim that, officially, the Martians died of the common cold, whilst any humans found dead will have been killed by Martians. Angered by the British government's heartless use of biological weaponry, Nemo leaves in the Nautilus and tells Quatermain and Murray to "never seek [him] again", mistakenly believing that they knew the details of the British plan.
See main article: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier.
Presented as a stand-alone sourcebook, rather than as the third volume, the Black Dossier has a framing sequence set not in the Victorian era but in 1958. Events take place after the fall of the Big Brother government from Nineteen Eighty Four (the in-story explanation for this apparent date-shift is that Orwell's book was published in 1948). The story itself sees Mina Harker and Allan Quatermain—now immortal after bathing in the fire of youth from She—on their quest to recover the Black Dossier itself (a confessed MacGuffin), in a metafictional unravelling of the secret history of the now-disbanded League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Out to stop them is a trio of secret agents: James Bond, Emma Night, and Hugo "Bulldog" Drummond. The pursuit takes Mina and Allan from London to Scotland and eventually to the magical Blazing World, overseen by Shakespeare's Prospero.
Initially intended to be accompanied by a 45-rpm record featuring songs referenced in the plot, this addition was shelved ostensibly to be included as an incentive with the 'Absolute Edition', and ultimately dropped entirely—to the chagrin of the author/singer. A limited number of copies of the record were eventually produced in the UK.[1]
See main article: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century.
The third volume, a 216-page epic spanning almost a hundred years and entitled Century, is divided into three 72-page chapters, each a self-contained narrative. The volumes were tentatively scheduled to be released annually with Part 1 released on 13 May 2009; Part 2 not released until 28 July 2011; and Part 3 being released in June 2012.[2]
Chapter one is set against a backdrop of London, 1910, with Halley's Comet passing overhead, the nation prepares for the Coronation of George V, and far away on his South Atlantic island, the scientist-pirate Captain Nemo is dying. In the bowels of the British Museum, Carnacki the ghost-finder is plagued by visions of a shadowy occult order who are attempting to create something called a Moonchild, while on London's dockside the most notorious serial murderer of the previous century has returned to carry on his grisly trade. Chapter two takes place almost 60 years later in the psychedelic daze of Swinging London during 1969, a place where tadukic acid diethylamide 26 is the drug of choice (similar to LSD), and where different underworlds are starting to overlap dangerously to an accompaniment of sit-ins and sitars. Starting to buckle from the pressures of the twentieth century and the weight of their own endless lives, Mina and her companions must nevertheless prevent the making of a Moonchild that might well turn out to be the Antichrist. In chapter three, the narrative draws to its cataclysmic close in London 2009. The magical child whose ominous coming has been foretold for the past hundred years has now been born and has grown up to claim his dreadful heritage. His promised eon of unending terror can commence, the world can now be ended starting with North London.[3]
See main article: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Nemo Trilogy.
Presented as a stand-alone hardcover spin-off rather than a new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen story, the trilogy consists of three chapters, Nemo: Heart of Ice, Nemo: The Roses of Berlin, and Nemo: River of Ghosts.
Nemo: Heart of Ice follows Janni Dakkar to Antarctica in 1925. The story opens with Nemo and her crew robbing a great treasure from Ayesha, who appears to have great influence over Charles Foster Kane. Nemo travels to Antarctica as her father once did on a trip that drove him mad. Kane recruits Frank Reade Jr., Jack Wright, and Tom Swift to retrieve Ayesha's treasure from Nemo. The trio follow her to Antarctica where they encounter a pit that leads to Yuggoth, a mysterious white giant and an ice sphinx. Nemo: The Roses of Berlin takes place in 1941 where Janni Dakkar and Broad Arrow Jack's daughter Hira and her husband Armand Robur are captured by Adenoid Hynkel's Nazi-forces, Nemo and Jack go to Berlin on a rescue mission only to find out they have been lured into a trap. They are soon pursued by the remains of the Twilight Heroes, Maria and Dr. Caligari. Dr. Mabuse later helps the pair evade capture and reveals to them the plot had been orchestrated by Ayesha, who has become an ally of Hynkel, to get her vengeance after the events of "Heart of Ice". Nemo: River of Ghosts takes place in the year of 1975 and is set in South America.[4] [5] Janni sets off down the vastness of the Amazon, from the ruined city of Yu-Atlanchi to the fabulous plateau of Maple White Land to settle scores with old enemies.
See main article: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: The Tempest.
The fourth volume was released in six parts, starting in June 2018. Not only has it been announced as the last League story, but also creators Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill have described it as their final work in the comic book medium.[6] The plot is described as follows: "Opening simultaneously in the panic-stricken headquarters of British Military Intelligence, the fabled Ayesha's lost African city of Kor and the domed citadel of ‘We’ on the devastated Earth of the year 2996, the dense and yet furiously-paced narrative hurtles like an express locomotive across the fictional globe from Lincoln Island to modern America to the Blazing World; from the Jacobean antiquity of Prospero's Men to the superhero-inundated pastures of the present to the unimaginable reaches of a shimmering science-fiction future. With a cast-list that includes many of the most iconic figures from literature and pop culture, and a tempo that conveys the terrible momentum of inevitable events, this is literally and literarily the story to end all stories".[7]
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics are generally set in the 20th century, but the chronological order of the fictional world does not correspond with the order of release:
| Title | Year | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume I | 1898 AD | |
| 1a | Allan and the Sundered Veil | 1889 AD | |
| 2 | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II | 1898 AD | |
| 2a | The New Traveller's Almanac | 1899 AD | |
| 3 | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier | 1958 AD | |
| 3a |
| 1953 AD | |
| 3b |
| 1620 AD | |
| 3c |
| 1912 AD | |
| 3d |
| 1908 AD | |
| 4 | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century – 1910 | 1910 AD | |
| 4a | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 1: Into the Limbus – Love Amongst the Troglodytes | 1236 BC | |
| 4b | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 1: Into the Limbus – In the Wake of the Black Nautilus | 1910 AD | |
| 4c | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 1: Into the Limbus – Her Long, Adorable Lashes | 1964 AD | |
| 4d | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 1: Into the Limbus – Requiem for a Space-Wizard | ||
| 4e | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 1: Into the Limbus – Coming Forth by Day | ||
| 4f | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 1: Into the Limbus – Huckleberry Friends | ||
| 5 | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century – 1969 | 1969 AD | |
| 5a | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 2: The Distance from Tranquility – Escape from Nowhere | 1896 AD | |
| 5b | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 2: The Distance from Tranquility – Glass Shirts and Goose-Bones | 1964 AD | |
| 5c | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 2: The Distance from Tranquility – Babes in Toyland | 1896 AD | |
| 5d | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 2: The Distance from Tranquility – A Long Way from Baltimore | 1964 AD | |
| 5e | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 2: The Distance from Tranquility – Skulls and Amazons | ||
| 5f | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 2: The Distance from Tranquility – Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girls... | ||
| 6 | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century – 2009 | 2009 AD | |
| 6a | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 3: Saviours – A Cricket-Cap of Thorns | 1901 AD | |
| 6b | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 3: Saviours – A Harsh Mistress | 1964 AD | |
| 6c | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 3: Saviours – Moonbeams, Home in a Jar | ||
| 6d | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 3: Saviours – A Moonlight Flit | ||
| 6e | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 3: Saviours – A Sea of Crises | ||
| 6f | Minions of the Moon, Chapter 3: Saviours – The Sins of the Father | ||
| 7 | Nemo: Heart of Ice | 1925 AD | |
| 7a | A Perfect Match... And a Perfect Fuse! | 1938 AD | |
| 8 | Nemo: The Roses of Berlin | 1941 AD | |
| 8a | The Johnson Report: Princess Dakkar of Lincoln | 1965 AD | |
| 9 | Nemo: River of Ghosts | 1975 AD | |
| 10a | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: Tempest – Prologue I | 2009 AD | |
| 10b | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: Tempest – Prologue II | 2996 AD | |
| 10c | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: Tempest – Prologue III | 2009 AD | |
| 10 | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: Tempest | 2010 AD | |
| 10d | Seven Stars | 1964 AD | |
| 10e | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: Tempest – Epilogue I | 1964 AD | |
| 10f | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: Tempest – Epilogue II | 1968 AD | |
| 10g | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: Tempest – Epilogue III | 2164 AD |
There have been a number of versions of the League, and in particular in the comic book the membership and activities of these Leagues were fully explored, interwoven into an extensive world timeline.
The first League was established at the behest of England's Queen Gloriana recommending that Italian sorcerer Prospero and his squire Orlando found a group of extraordinary individuals after her death who would operate independently of the government. This seems to have been done in the hope of establishing a bridgehead between her own faerie realm and the mortal world, via the ethereal Blazing World archipelago in the North Atlantic, in the wake of her successor King Jacob's ruthless purge of faeriekind from the British Isles, and the subsequent retreat of those magical elements from everyday life.
This League collapsed in 1690 when the unwilling extradimensional traveler Christian found the heavenly realm he had been searching for in order to lead him to his home, the Blazing World. Some years later Prospero followed him into this realm, as did Caliban and Ariel, thereby beginning the League's connection with this otherworldly realm as per Gloriana's desires.
The second League was formed by Lemuel Gulliver in the 1750s and secretly gathered in Montague House, London, in service to the British Crown.
This League ended with the death of the elderly Gulliver in 1799. Natty Bumppo having already departed the League some time before, the remaining members continued their association for some time, though not in a capacity as agents of the Crown.
"Allan and the Sundered Veil", the prose short story accompanying vol. 1 describes an unsuccessful attempt by the Time Traveler (the nameless hero of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine) to assemble a League of his own. This group drew three heroes from different points in time:
It had been the Traveler's hope to create a group capable of heading off the looming threats of the Lovecraftian world of Yuggoth. This gathering proves ill-fated however, as the three heroes were each drawn from out-of-body experiences, and each returns to his own life before the Traveler can impart any knowledge of consequence about the enemy (though the denizens of Yuggoth would later prove to be persistent foes of later incarnations of the League).
The Victorian League was led by Mina Harker, recruited for Military Intelligence by Campion Bond. They meet in the British Museum, built on the remains of Montague House. First convened (unknowingly) under the service of Professor Moriarty, they later report to Mycroft Holmes, brother of the great detective Sherlock Holmes.
This League collapsed during the closing days of the Martian Invasion of 1898 following the deaths of Griffin and Jekyll/Hyde, and the resignation of Nemo. Quatermain and Murray went their separate ways shortly afterwards, although continued their ties with Campion Bond and British Intelligence as they traveled the world.
A second League was formed by Mina in 1907, upon the return to England of herself, Quatermain and Orlando, whom they had met while traveling. Still meeting in the museum's secret vault, they continued to work for Mycroft Holmes' British Intelligence.
Having tried (and failed) to avert disaster at George V's coronation in 1910 and battled their French equivalents in 1913 Paris, the end of Mina's Second League ostensibly came about with the outbreak of World War I, during which A. J. Raffles was killed. By the 1930s, an elderly Carnacki had retired for health reasons. In 1937, Murray, Quatermain and Orlando first made a clandestine excursion to the Blazing World, where they gained important future allies, unbeknownst to the government.
Les Hommes Mystérieux are the French equivalent of the League, similarly composed of "questionable" or criminal individuals.In 1913, responding to psychic warnings received by Thomas Carnacki, Mina's second League traveled to the Paris Opera House to thwart a scheme of Les Hommes Mystérieux, where the two groups fought.
Les Hommes Mystérieux later participated in World War I, and during this conflict Jean Robur died when his airship was shot down at the Battle of the Somme. After the war Les Hommes Mystérieux supposedly disbanded.
The German version of the League, known as Die Zwielicht-Helden ("The Twilight Heroes"), was formed around 1909 and based in the "newly constructed Berlin Metropolis". Its members were:
Die Zwielicht-Helden was said to have survived up to the 1930s in different incarnations. Rotwang and Cesare both appear to have died prior to 1941 (presumably in the events of their respective films), while Maria was destroyed and Caligari killed in a confrontation with Janni Nemo in Berlin in 1941, leaving Mabuse the only surviving member of Die Zwielicht-Helden.
Mina and Allan disappeared while on a mission to America in 1946, just before a totalitarian government came to power in Britain. Orlando, the only other surviving League member, also had vanished by this time, (supposedly transformed by magic into an orange cat). MI5 assembled a team of replacements, each of whom was roughly intended to correspond to one of the members of Mina's original (Victorian) League, which arguably had been the most successful of all the incarnations.
Fraught by tensions and prone to failure from the outset, this team only went on one mission together—battling pirate-slaver James Soames and Italian criminal mastermind Count Zero (both from Frank Richards's Greyfriars School series)—before disbanding. During the course of the mission, the Iron Warrior was accidentally destroyed.
This marked the end of the League as a group in the employ of the British government. They later would operate outside the law as fugitives and freelancers, following their own agenda rather than that of any official masters.
By 1948 a totalitarian government (Ingsoc) was in control of Britain, which denounced and denied the League in all its forms. Many came to believe the extraordinary individuals never existed, and were nothing more than characters from fiction.
In 1958, not long after the Big Brother government's fall, the two surviving Leaguers (Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain) returned to London and broke into British Intelligence headquarters, stealing the Black Dossier that contained details of all the League's incarnations.
A new and deadly breed of Cold War agents were tasked to stop them and retrieve the Dossier.
Eventually successful, Mina and Allan departed to the Blazing World once more, far beyond the reach of the shadowy agencies pursuing them, where they were reunited with Orlando, Prospero, Fanny Hill, and many other previous members of the League. In the process of their pursuit Drummond was killed by Jimmy.
In 1964, Mina assembled a short-lived British super team.[8]
In the same year, MI5 assembled its own super team, which came into conflict with Mina's Seven Stars:
By 1969 Wilhelmina Murray, Allan Quatermain and Orlando are summoned by Prospero in order to investigate the recent activities of Oliver Haddo's sect. They settle in the Seven Stars' former headquarters and start searching for clues that eventually make them split ways. After ingesting a drug pill and meeting Haddo on the astral plane, Mina appears to be close to insanity and is taken away in an ambulance against her will, thus failing to rejoin her teammates. Mina's disappearance leads Allan to fall back into drug addiction. In the late 1970s, Orlando leaves Quatermain and joins the British Army.
By 2009, the League is defunct, until Orlando, recently discharged from the British Army, is tasked by Prospero to eliminate the Antichrist, and is reunited with Mina, and a now homeless and once-again drug addicted Allan who at first refuses to join them. Meanwhile, Jack Nemo, the last descendant of Captain Nemo, is waging a terrorist campaign in the Middle East. The League battles the Antichrist, who is holed up in a secret location with the still living head of Oliver Haddo.
During the onslaught, Allan was killed while fighting the Antichrist. Soon after Night was granted immortality and left MI6. Allan's body was buried in the same grave in Africa where he faked his death.
In 2010, the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – America: 1988" was announced as an April Fools' Day joke, complete with mocked-up cover.[13] [14] This 1988 league was the supposed successor to another league disbanded in 1979 by Oscar Goldman. The 1988 League was created after the murder of Mr. Miyagi to prevent a resurrected Tony Montana and his occult gang, the Lost Boys, from killing all those between him and domination of America.
