History ComicBook / TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen

** American folk hero Myth/PaulBunyan is part of the monstrous horrors in [[spoiler: Prospero's apocalypse]].
* AdaptationalWimp: Quatermain is imagined here is a timid, strung-out old junkie who is often ashamed of himself. Even when he regains some of his old verve, he's never quite the bold and confident adventurer he is in the original. It was true Quatermain became more vulnerable throught his original stories he never sunk to the levels he is here.

** [[Film/CasinoRoyale1967 J-R4]] is subject to this in ''The Tempest'', who in the source materiel was secretly the BigBad. Here, he's just an awkward reserve agent [[spoiler: who is unceremoniously killed off by the rejuvenated James Bond.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: In ''The Tempest'', Prospero releases fantastical creatures from the Blazing World back onto Earth, and they begin overriding humanity. Also, he manipulates the Moon's inhabitants into conquering the Solar System, setting up an interplanetary dictatorship that will last for at least a millenia.]]

** [[invoked]]The Moonchild's teenage {{Wangst}} and obsession with fame and coping with celebrity is likewise an exaggeration of the source character's flaws, in addition to a pastiche of millennial culture in general. [[spoiler: Sure, Harry Potter could whine a lot, but he never resorted to a school shooting to solve his problems.]]

** Even ignoring the in-universe perception of the modern period as a Crapsack World by the originally-Victorian protagonists, Moore seems to have gone to great lengths to make the entire setting into a dystopia, re-interpreting many beloved characters are objective, irredeemable villains (case in point: [[spoiler: Harry Potter is the Anti-Christ]] and the protagonists of ''Stingray'' are insinuated to be rapists) and the world in general seems to be much worse-off than real-life, such as Captain Nemo's grandson Jack Nemo being a fictional equivalent to Osama bin Laden and could potentially destroy the world all on his own if he wanted to and Britain having gone through a mercifully short totalitarian regime based on ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. It borders on flanderization and makes you wonder if this is actually [[DarkWorld an evil-twin mirror-universe]] of our own.
** The world is implied to get worse in the future during The Tempest. Satin Astro warns of numerous horrors being inflicted on the world, including the world being taken over by a dictator on Mars and ravaged by warfare between [[Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes sentient ape-men]] and [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} living machines]]. And when [[spoiler: Prospero]] begins his attack, he ends up unleashing numerous mythical monsters onto the world, triggering a worldwide apocalyptic scenario. By the end, the main characters [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere abandon Earth]] and just observe as Earth is attacked by the likes of [[Franchise/StarTrek the Romulans]] and [[Series/DoctorWho the Daleks]].

* CreatorProvincialism: Most of the characters are based off English works, just as [[Creator/AlanMoore the writer]] and the artist are English. That's fine and dandy for the initial [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain Victorian]] setting, but it's quite jarring to see how few, say, American and Japanese references appear when the plot travels to 2009. The fact that famous English post-Victorian era characters like [[spoiler: Franchise/JamesBond and Franchise/HarryPotter]] receive no small amount of AdaptationalVillainy hasn't helped either.

* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: Jimmy vs. Emma Peel is so hilariously one-sided it might as well be an execution. She disarms, cripples, and kills him in exactly five moves. He never even lands one on her.]]
* DarkerAndEdgier: Everything is portrayed a lot grittier and darker than the source material. The [[spoiler:Nautilus]] gains a new, darker look and a ''lot'' MoreDakka [[spoiler: but a lot less Dakkar]] in volume three.

** Franchise/JamesBond is shown as a rapist thug, who [[spoiler: murders Emma Peel's father and is a traitor to England, secretly a CIA agent]]. Moore believes that [[http://io9.com/5086230/5-things-i-learned-about-women-from-the-james-bond-books the unsavory]] [[http://www.papermag.com/2015/09/anti-idris_tracing_the_james_b.php aspects of Bond]] in the original Creator/IanFleming stories were made LighterAndSofter in the movies with Creator/SeanConnery giving him AdaptationalAttractiveness. [[spoiler: The humiliating manner of his death (see above) just rams the point home.]]
*** Additionally, the presence of "J-series" agents derived from him and [[spoiler: his rejuvenation at the Pool of Kor]] double as a deconstruction of the nature of LongRunner franchises that keep characters around for decades after their debut.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: An important tidbit is dropped in Volume 1 and only picked up on later, in Volume 2: [[spoiler: Hyde lies about being able to see Griffin; While he can't see his normal form, he ''can'' see the little bugger's body heat, which is how he corners Griffin in Volume 2 and eventually kills him]].

* GenreRoulette: The overall plot goes, in order of publication, from SteamPunk thriller to Victorian AlienInvasion to a combination of 1950s spy thriller and {{Zeerust}} (with multiple other genre pastiches inside a [[ShowWithinAShow Book Within a Book]]) to musical set in the 1910s to psychedelic occult story set in the 1960s to a BlackComedy parody of [[spoiler: Franchise/HarryPotter]] set in 2009. And we don't even know what all the final volume will get into by the time it's done.

* GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler: The aftermath of Hyde's rape of Griffin. Nemo's horrified scream upon investigating and having to be held back to keep him from killing Hyde in rage as a result and Griffin's blood covering both Hyde's shirt and half the table him and Nero were having dinner on are the only major clues that it wasn't pretty.]]
* GrandTheftMe: This is how Oliver Haddo has been keeping himself alive throughout the 20th century as his original body and subsequent ones aged and died. Among his more notable victims were Cosmo Gallion, the villain from ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' episode "Warlock", and [[spoiler: Tom Riddle AKA Voldemort]]. He planned to take over the body of Turner from ''Film/{{Performance}}'' but was stopped when Jack Carter killed Cosmo's body mid-transit, forcing him to improvise.

** [[spoiler: Alan dies saving Mina and Orlando from the Moonchild.]]

* TheMagicComesBack: [[spoiler: At the end of Vol. 4, Prospero leads Blazing World's armies against the nations of humankind, bringing wonders and fantasies back into the world in full force. It was apparently Gloriana's plan all along.]]

* PosthumousCharacter: Dracula is already dead by the time the story takes place, but his influence has far-reaching effects on Mina, decades and even centuries after the events of the novel. [[spoiler: In the Travellers Almanack, Mina and Quatermain return to his castle in Romania. It is abandoned, but someone has left a few letters written in blood there]]

* SpannerInTheWorks: Oliver Haddo's plan to transfer his mind into [[Film/{{Performance}} Terner Purple's]] body fails [[spoiler: when he is shot in the head by [[Film/GetCarter Jack Carter]], whose investigation into his cult had flown under everyone's radar, leaving Allan and Orlando baffled when they find his current body dead in his shop.]]

* TigerByTheTail: Volume 1 ends when the volume's BigBad [[spoiler: Moriarty]], impulsively grabs onto the cavorite powering his flying ship after its container ends up shattered. He has just enough time to horrifiedly realize what he's just done before the anti-gravity metal shoots up into the sky and he finds himself too high up in the air to let go without falling to his death. But since the released cavorite only continues going up and up all the way into space, [[spoiler: his frozen corpse is later found floating aimlessly through space while still holding onto the cavorite in a later volume]].

* VomitIndiscretionShot: In Volume 2, Mina is given a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown by [[spoiler: The Invisible Man]], climaxing in him kicking her so hard in the stomach she vomits on the floor, which [[spoiler: Griffin]] then proceeds to ''shove her face into''.

* InvisibleStreaker: Griffin, as in [[Literature/TheInvisibleMan the source material]], has to undress to be truly invisible. Not that it helps against Hyde. The second Invisible Man was also this, but his chain smoking and coughing fits made him almost useless as an operative.
* JarOfTheBizarre: One of the many strange things kept at the League?s secret base is a dead Cottingley fairy preserved in a jar of formaldehyde.

* HeroicSacrifice: Two characters give their lives to safe others.

** The Amazon's on the moon live in areas with air and gravity generated by [[Film/TwoThousandAndOneASpaceOdyssey monoliths]].

* AnythingThatMoves:
** Fanny Hill is shown in ''Black Dossier'' to not be choosy when it comes to who or what she has intercourse with.
** As a side effect of his/her immortality, Orlando has become VERY well versed in human sexuality. If his own accounts are true, he's been involved with, among others, Ramses II (though not exactly by choice), Aeneas of Troy, Romulus (and Remus, there was a bit of a mixup there), Sindbad the Sailor, Merlin, and many many ''many'' more.
** Hyde in his crazier moments.

** Both being spies, Tara King from ''Series/TheAvengers'' is now the sister of ''Series/JasonKing''.

* WholePlotReference: Some of the stories are retellings of specific works: Volume 2 is a DarkerAndEdgier (if the original wasn't grim enough) retelling of ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', ''Century: 1910'' is heavily based on elements of ''Theatre/TheThreepennyOpera'', and ''Century: 1969'' is a joint {{Prequel}} to ''Film/GetCarter'' and ''Film/{{Performance}}''.

* OutWithABang: A gruesome example in the second volume: Hyde rapes the InvisibleMan Griffin to death.

* FairyTaleFreeForAll: The Almanack references the places where ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'', ''Literature/{{Bluebeard}}'', ''Literature/SleepingBeauty'', and ''Literature/PussInBoots''.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Janni is always barefoot.

*** The volume has all its issues begin with spotlights on relatively unknown but otherwise highly influential comic creators called "Cheated Champions of Your Childhood". All of these generally discuss the lives and careers of these creators...and how they are often victims of the comic industry fucking them over much like how Moore himself was, but some of whom never managed to gain fame like Moore and disappeared into obscurity in spite of how much they had contributed to the medium. [[SarcasmMode But hey, Alan and Kevin are clearly just grumpy old men talking out of their asses so no need to be that outraged about how the industry mistreats its artists.]]

** ''Nemo: River of Ghosts'', published in March 2015, features an 80-year-old Janni going on her final adventure in the Amazon River Basin, to fight the possible resurgence of Ayesha [[Literature/TheStepfordWives via android duplicates]], [[Film/TheBoysFromBrazil Hynkel clones]] and [[Film/IlsaSheWolfOfTheSS Nazi She-Wolves]].

* GagBoobs: Rosa Coote's got a pair of enormous breasts, complete with permanently erect nipples.

* NewMediaAreEvil: This trope has had a profound impact on the world building of the series. It is easily notable how in later volumes there is a less focus on the modern literary output and lines of dialog come off that works like ''Literature/HarryPotter'' are poorly defined and stealing from older, better literature. It is clear Alan Moore perceives older literature was more challenging and had higher purpose and Moore in interviews has maintained he sees modern culture as a decline into shallow escapism. As noted in EarlyInstallmentWeirdness in the second volume Moore was using literature written at least through the 1960s. However when the volumes came that a lot of these stories could have been used or referenced they were not. It also appeared that most of the literary characters that do show up are ones created by authors Moore himself knows. Moore has also stated he doesn't find all modern works as examples of the decline, but exactly which works from at least the mid 20th century onward that Moore would not classify as inferior is a very good question.

** Franchise/HarryPotter [[spoiler:is TheAntichrist appointed by Oliver Haddo/Tom Riddle/Voldemort to bring the new aeon, whose adventures in Hogwarts was all a ruse to keep him diverted from his real path]].[[note]]He has an epic FreakOut and goes KillEmAll on Hogwarts, murdering Ron, Hermione, Draco, [=McGonagall=], Ginny, Dumbledore, Hagrid and Snape (who gives a DefiantToTheEnd speech) before settling at Grimmauld Place for ten years taking anti-depressant pills and procrastinating on self pity.[[/note]] His portrayal as a whiny SpoiledBrat is Moore's TakeThat on the millennial culture's obsession with celebrity, riffing on the implications of Harry as TheHero being famous for doing nothing, content to be an UnwittingPawn while remaining essentially mediocre in skill and knowledge and yet receive unmerited fame and praise, a CharacterExaggeration of Harry's original portrayal, the sentiments of which are voiced by [[spoiler:Severus Snape]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The series ends with Emma killing Jimmy, Mina and Jack Nemo declaring their love for each other, Captain Universe marrying Electro-Girl, and the entire crew of the new Nautilus made immortal so they never have to worry about dying. Although, they had to escape Earth because Prospero had released fantastical creatures from the Blazing World, overruning humanity and turning Earth into a dystopia, while the Moon's inhabitants had conquered Venus and Mars, setting up a tyrannical empire destined to last for at least a millenium.]]

* UncannyValley: In-universe, [[spoiler:the frozen corpse of ComicBook/StardustTheSuperWizard. Both Moore's text and O'Neill's illustration for the piece emphasize [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KVAvuR0Cpjw/TgmFW64bizI/AAAAAAAAFmc/S6qweQbB46A/s1600/superwizard.jpg just how warped a Fletcher Hanks creation would look in real life]], with its enormous stature, tiny head, and compacted rippling muscles.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** Even his take on the Antichrist[=/=]Moonchild is a lot more accurate in one of his arcs from the books that was excised from the movies. Harry Potter's more angsty appearance here reflects his arc in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Book 5]] which also had sections where he was worried he would be possessed by the BigBad and felt resentment at his mentor for manipulating him, much of which was removed in the movies]]. In addition, the character has green eyes which the movies removed, because the actor complained about the contacts. Like [[spoiler:where the movies made Ron Weasley into an AdaptationalWimp, his brief on-panel appearance in ''Century: 2009, shows him alongside Severus Snape, to be the only one to be brave enough to talk to Harry and reason with him where everyone else is cowering in fear or crying in anguish. Likewise

** As a result Moore appears to construct that each generation slowly longs back to how it was before brining in the continual decline of fiction Moore believes in today.

** Mina Murray is presented as a hero for her part as the protagonist of ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' rather than the Count, Van Helsing and other elements which have supplied the cottage industry of vampire films, who by contrast are barely referred to and alluded to. Likewise, unlike more modern neo-victorian takes like ''Series/PennyDreadful'' or the film adaptation, Moore makes it clear that Mina did not retain any powers from Dracula's bites after his death. In the original source she wasn't turned into a full vampire and was cured completly of it by Dracula's death.

* InsistentTerminology: Alan Moore has firmly grounded himself against critics with saying there is a firm difference between his "stealing" of literary characters to put into a new story versus adapting an already existing story into a new medium. Though some argue that while this logic holds up with Moore on sequels to the original work without the original author's intent or involvement, adaptations in other mediums are themselves derivitive and stealing from the original rather than continuations.

* HereThereWereDragons: All of the magic and sorcery that populate fairy tales and folklore was real in the ''League'' world in one way or another but that magic has been pushed further and further into the background by various forces, essentially disappearing completely due to the puritanical King Jacobs purge of magical creature's after Queen Gloriana's death, which caused the Fairy Realm to seal itself off from Earth. The governments of the world have taken it upon themselves to not only keep a tight lid on this fact but also relegate the amazing things that happen in their own time as fiction.

* EvilCounterpart: ...sort of. The League has counterpart organizations working on behalf of the French (Les Hommes Mysterieux) and German (Der Zweilicht Helden) governments. While The League tends to include at least a few traditional heroes, Quatermain and Mina Murray, the closest thing the French have to a hero is ''Literature/RoburTheConqueror and Literature/ArseneLupin. The Germans are strictly villains, with such monsters as Film/DrMabuse, [[Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari Dr Caligari]] and his somnambulist assassin, and Dr Rotwang from Film/{{Metropolis}} and his Robot Maria.[[note]] Though Creator/FritzLang admitted that this was TruthInTelevision, he noted that German audiences in the 20s believed in supervillains more readily than superheroes.[[/note]]

* CanonWelding: Moore, has done this with the comic, making vague references to the source material for ''Ozymandias'' and ''The Black Freighter''. Oh, sure, it's only references to the inspirations for them, and Moore would probably rather have his skin boiled than actually go further than that, but this is Creator/AlanMoore, ''there are no coincidences''. As an aside, Moore is a close friend to Moorcock, close enough that Moorcock has allowed Moore to put in some Moorcock characters into the ''League'' series free of charge.

** In regards to the Nemo Trilogy, attention has been called to an old essay Moore wrote about the contrasting viewpoints of science from the Victorian-age onward. It is not surprising elements of this have influenced the world building of the League. Here the works of Creator/JulesVerne or Creator/HGWells are held up to a higher standard and played straight for being mostly ForScience or forewarnings with does of DoNotDoThisCoolThing. By contrast the science of the American Edisonaide kids like ''Literature/TomSwift'' are mocked for focusing on their desires being far less noble. While it true that both inspired real individuals to invent in their adult lives such the Nautilus inspired Creator/JacquesCousteau to become an oceanographer specifically because he wanted to be partially like Captain Nemo and Edisonade books were eaten up by young kids who wanted to invent things of their own. But on the flipside the sole builder of tasers is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axon_(company)#Controversies Axon]]; a PredatoryBusiness that goes to extreme extents to protect its monopoly on weapons cops use to torture suspects and named if after Tom Swift. Meanwhile the closest person in real life to Captain Nemo's non scientific goals can be brutally honest said to be Osama Bin Laden (in which Moore made the Bin Laden expy in League a descendant of Nemo).