WMG / The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen Part 1

The Juggalos are a sizable religious cult in this universe.

Why? Because the spirits of the Dark Carnival are real. Though they're far too fringe to be considered a mainstream religion, their followers make up a group almost as large as the Cthulhu cult, and they're classified as religious terrorists in some parts of the world. Oliver Haddo tried to recruit them into his group at one point ^note  Presumably, he learned about the Carnival when he was doing research for his essay on the Great Old Ones , but they just trashed his headquarters and showered him with Faygo.

• Or perhaps they're a Spin-Off of the Hi Hats street gang.

The Weyland-Yutani Corporation is this universe's version of the Apple Corporation.

Because if you're going to become an all-powerful MegaCorp with a monopoly on space exploration, what better place to start? In Century: 2010, they'll appear in the background as the manufacturers of an iPod / iPhone analogue that shows up everywhere. It wouldn't be 2010 without one, after all...

• Alternatively Apple could become Aperture Science. The timelines don't quite work out, but both companies, founded by gaunt, eccentrically brilliant men who died before their time because of a painfully slow disease, have a fondness for manufacturing powerful computers with user friendly, smooth, white designs. After all, what's Siri for the iPhone but a less powerful, less homicidal version of GLaDOS?
• Alternatiely alternatively, Fatboy Industries and their uMaster technology.

The MULTIVAC is this universe's version of the iPod/iPhone

Before it was the universe's greatest supercomputer, it started out its life as an all-purpose entertainment storage device that everyone on the planet wound up owning. It'll show up in Century: 2010 when it's still in its "entertainment device" phase.

The Hosaka Corporation is this universe's version of Microsoft

They started out as one of the world's first big software corporations before eventually making the brain-interface computers used by cyberspace cowboys to jack into the Matrix. They're also the manufacturers of a video-game console called the "X-Deck", which eventually evolves into the ever-popular Simstim deck.

At some point, the team travels to America and meets The Man With No Name

Well, it is supposed to be a Crisis Crossover of all fiction, and it's dabbled in everything from Victorian Adventure novels, to 1950s spy serials, to Jack Kerouac, H. P. Lovecraft, and Charlie Chaplin so far. It seems like Westerns would be a logical step. The Man With No Name is one of the most iconic heroes out there, and he'd probably still be alive (though aged and possibly retired) by the 1890s. At some point, when the League was really strapped for cash, they tracked him down to steal the cache of gold that he wrested from the Confederates in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

• Perhaps his real name is William Munny. Alternately, he's another immortal who has appeared as many variants of the "Man With No Name" archetype through the years. Or he's a time traveler whose real name is Roland Deschain.
  • Or that portal in the top room of the Dark Tower actually sent Roland into a parallel Earth, where he decided to forget his quest and spend his life wandering through the West. He doesn't have a name because the portal erased all memory of his previous life, and he genuinely doesn't know his own name.

Alan Quatermain becomes Alan Moore

I sat around and this just came to me (way too much time on my hands). In the Leagues universe all fiction is true and is actually a biography of true events right? And also all books in our universe was written in the Leagues universe too right? Well then this series has to also exists in the League's universe, but most of this stuff was secret government missions, so no one would know what happened, and because of the Ingsoc years, its thought that all these people really were fiction. So then only a person with first person knowledge of these events would be able to write them, and considering that Alan Quatermain is both immortal and apparently dissapears after the epilogue of 1969, it is possible that he took up a pen name, grew a beard, and began to write these down as comics. It also explains why in the first two volumes, Quartermain was an Author Avatar for Moore, becuase in this universe he is him.

• Jossed; Allan dies at the end of Century 2009, with a funeral vaguely reminiscent of his burial in the film.

Mars, in this universe, eventually becomes known as Arrakis

I doubt this was intentional, but still...the outfit that Gullivar Jones wears in the second volume reminded me a lot of a Fremen stillsuit, complete with a gasmask and Arab-inspired robe/burnoose combo. Combined with the various Middle-Eastern motifs in the Mars scenes (hell, the book opens with Gullivar riding a flying carpet), it seems more than a little bit reminiscent of Dune. Then again, if The Invisible Man and H. G. Wells' martians both exist in the same universe around this time, it's a pretty safe bet that The Time Machine exists as well. It's entirely possible that one or more of the characters could have used it to visit the future that Frank Herbert described in the Dune books. And Gullivar and John Carter did mention the Molluscs performing genetic experiments during their time on Mars. Maybe the Sandworms are the descendants of one of these experiments.

• The existence of the The Time Machine was confirmed in the Story Allan and the Sundered Veil, in which he fights alongside Allan against Lovecraft's Great Old Ones, so the theory definitely works.
• It may or may not have been intentional, but Jess Nevins also noted the connection in his annotations for Volume 2, mentioning that Gullivar seems to be drawn with eyes that are a lot bluer than the other characters in the series, possibly in reference to the Eyes of Ibad exhibited by users of the Spice. You're not the only one who noticed it.
  • Same passage also notes that Gullivar could well be a Fictional Counterpart of Lawrence of Arabia, which Paul Atrides also was for Frank Herbert. Is it possible that Paul here is a fabricated identity created by Gullivar?
• As for chronology problems, they were mostly glossed over in the case of 1984's Ingsoc government, so why not here?

Jonathan Harker wasn't necessarily the bad guy in his marriage with Mina.

In the League universe, Jonathan Harker has apparently discarded Mina and divorced her because of his disgust with the severity of the injuries she received at the hands of Dracula and her now being "soiled" goods. But in the original novel Dracula, Jonathan is a more loyal, caring and loving husband than this later coldness would have us believe, and stays just as supportive and devoted after Dracula's attack on Mina. So why did Jonathan and Mina split up?

It's worth noting that everything we hear (what little we hear) about the breakdown of Mina's marriage comes from Mina herself. Mina is not only bitter about her marriage, but is also noticeably neurotic and insecure about her injuries. She wears the long scarf twenty-four seven to obscure them; she is touchy about any mention of her history (both about her divorce and before); and, when she realizes that Allan has seen her scars after their night of passion, she automatically believes the worst about his reaction, so much so that she treats him coldly until he manages to convince her to let him hear him out.

It's possible that Harker wasn't disgusted by Mina's injuries at all — or, at least, wasn't as disturbed as Mina would have us believe. But Mina, already sensitive to the point of neurosis about her injuries, managed to convince herself that Jonathan felt that way about her. Then she treated him just like she did Allan; and, since Harker had hidden his own traumas at the hands of Dracula, he didn't force the issue. Mina isn't the only one who suffered at Dracula's hands; Jonathan canonically suffers from psychological issues that closely resemble PTSD throughout the novel, and it was his and Mina's devoted partnership as a couple that helped him re-learn how to function after his months held captive in Dracula's castle—it's very believable that Mina's sudden coldness was something Jonathan couldn't endure for long given his own issues, and the resulting lack of communication eventually poisoned the marriage so badly that divorce was the unfortunate conclusion. Jonathan's willingness to go through with the divorce may have just been the last straw that convinced Mina that she was Properly Paranoid about Jonathan's feelings when what really happened was that she'd projected her own onto Jonathan and emotionally withdrawn from him. For all we know, Jonathan could have interpreted this coldness as proof she no longer wanted him as her husband and went through with what he thought she wanted.

• The possibility that Mina was closer to being the "bad guy" than Jonathan is helped circumstancially by the fact that there is no indication that she ever tried to make contact with their son after the divorce and no hint in her backstory that she ever sought out any of their shared family or friends in the following century. Even if we play devil's advocate and suggest Jonathan won sole custody and barred Mina from contact—which would seem to this troper to be uncharacteristically bitter for him—Quincey had to have grown up eventually. Did Mina just not care about her son enough to try to see him again? If Quincey married and had kids, that means she has family—family she totally discarded. Or—possibly—Mina's mental health issues meant that she left things on poor footing with more than just Jonathan, and she avoided confronting the issue by avoiding all of their shared friends and family from that point onward. Rather that making Jonathan look like the bad guy, the circumstances make this troper suspect Mina may have been too caught up in her own traumas to concern herself with how she affected those she claimed to love—and that she still, to this day, completely lacks self-awareness over it.
• Further not helping the idea that Jonathan was the "bad guy" is Alan Moore stating that Mina was attracted to Dracula and felt guilty for her part in his death, even though Dracula murdered her best friend, imprisoned and psychologically tormented her fiance for months (and intended to let his "brides" eat him), and fully intended to infect as many people as he could with vampirism. The first two of those facts were the first things Mina learned about Dracula as a person; being romantically attracted to him after that and regretting helping to defend herself from him (the efforts to save Mina are ultimately what caused the group to hunt him down) is really telling in a bad way about Moore's interpretation of her character. If we give credence to Word of God, Mina was basically emotionally cheating on her husband in favor of the man who forced himself on her and trapped and tormented said husband for months, which is the source of Jonathan's (not explicitly diagnosed) PTSD. While there's little to definitively make clear the dynamic that existed in Mina's and Jonathan's marriage, all of this circumstancially makes Mina appear to have been a very poor partner to Jonathan.

Even if Jonathan WAS the bad guy in his marriage to Mina, it wasn't her scars that caused it.

Mina had once been a relatively proper Victorian woman, but her harrowing experiences with Dracula left her emotionally unavailable, and also quick to pick a fight and defend herself. Jonathan had been raised with a blinkered view of how a woman should behave, and when she began to deviate from that, he found it hard to articulate his real displeasure with her, and settled on using her scars as the excuse.

• She noticeably became hugely aroused when Alan licked her scars, similar to the way a Vampire Bat will lap up blood after the initial puncture with its dry tongue - an implication that she is familiar with the feeling, and that she finds it a turn-on. She also begs Alan to bite her during sex. Possibly she developed her complex out of sexual guilt about how much more sexy the Count was compared to good old Jonathan?

The scars on Mina's neck aren't from Dracula.

As noted on the Fridge page, Mina's scars don't match up with the events of the novel, because the subtlety of Dracula's bite and the lack of visible physical damage is an incredibly important plot point and changing it would have completely altered almost everything in the story from the point at which Dracula first bites a main character. So if Dracula's bite, by very plot necessity, cannot leave those kinds of marks, who caused them? Given her neurotic behavior regarding her scars and the fact that Mina insists they result from Dracula, this troper would suggest they may actually be from Mina self-harming, and when Jonathan was horrified to discover this, Mina interpreted it as a rejection of herself. Given Mina's treatment of Quartermaine after he saw her scars, Mina, for all that she genuinely needed help and support, may have not been fully capable of recognizing, receiving, or reciprocating emotional support from Jonathan post-Dracula. If so, it's possible the truth of who was the more unaccepting spouse was other way around.

At some point the League will meet other immortals

Scottish immortals who ritualistically chop off the heads of other immortals. One of whom looks a lot like Jimmy...

The James Bond character in Black Dossier is not the same man who appears in the Bond novels and movies.

As in Casino Royale (1967) (and one of the theories on the James Bond WMG page), the name is passed on to whatever agent currently holds the 007 rank.

• He's certainly not Pierce Brosnan. But it's possible that he's Roger Moore.
• It could be the James from the novels. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen doesn't pay much attention to the continuity of the films, just classic literature.
  • But they do use characters from movies — for example, Hynkel from The Great Dictator.
    • Yes, but there does seem to be a distinct preference for the original versions of various characters, regardless of which medium they first appeared in. Hynkel first appeared in his movie, Bond did not.
• Seeing as it is set in 1958 and he's just returned from Jamaica, it would place him within the timeframe of the book, set in 1958. The film was set in 1962. This Bond also resembles the novel Bond.
• I'm inclined to agree. On the other hand, Sean Connery's Bond as he appears in the film version of Goldfinger can be found in Century 1969.
• Alternately, Bond bathed in the life-restoring fire from She just like Alan and Mina did, and he remains an active secret agent from the 1950s up to the 2000s. Considering how iconic the character is, it would make sense to have him remain an active player in the series through several successive decades (unlike a lot of other characters in the series, his popular exploits aren't confined to a single brief time period).
• 2009 makes it clear that that Bond was supposed to be Connery (and his final fate is a fittingly Moore-like response to his role in the movie. The various other Bonds that appear in 2009 cover the rest of his incarnations, right up to Daniel Craig.
  • Close. Connery actually shows up, sans-hairpiece, as one of the movie Bonds. It's implied that the original James Bond is the one from the Fleming novels.
• This troper wants to believe that the original, literary Bond is the David Niven incarnation, as he's Bond for Casino Royale. After that his nephew (Jimmy!) takes over, and goes on to become the Sean Connery-incarnation Bond. (Still haven't worked out film vs. book chronology entirely, but it's a start).
  • Actually works out pretty well, if we assume several incarnations were in the field at once (and remember, we see both Daniel Craig and Roger Moore together in Century: 2009).
  • And Daniel Craig also lived through the events of Casino Royale... because... uh- it's a simulation organized by M, based on the earliest 007 case, to test him? Maybe?
  • Probably Jossed, since everyone treats Jimmy-of-the-Black-Dossier like he's the very first, with no mention being made of any uncles. The Connery Bond also seems to definitely be one of his successors, going by J1 ("Jock").

George Lazenby was, in this universe, the only Bond who was actually a decent human being

Only actual martial artist to play Bond, so presumably more of a threat in a fight. Plus Lazenby quit being Bond after his agent warned him that such a misogynistic character couldn't survive through the liberal seventies- misogyny is one of Moore's major complaints against Bond. Plus, he may have married Emma/ Tracy, so he's obviously not as much a bastard as Connery!Jimmy.

The Van Helsing of the League universe was either a member of or a founder of The Watchers' Council.

"A bookish academic who is also an expert vampire-killer." Did I just describe Van Helsing or Giles?

• The Watchers' Council was technically founded in ancient times. Van Helsing was either a member or worked alongside them. He was so influential that he helped turned it around.
  • Moore has stated that he wants to use Buffy for the last chapter of Volume 3, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was canon.
• Van Helsing's (allegedly) Dutch, while the Watchers originated in Africa. Is it possible the organization switched custody during the Boer Wars? It'd be pretty typical Moore to blend popular culture with controversial history.

The pool of immortality is the remains of a crashed TARDIS.

Though it usually grants straight-up immortality, some people who bathed in it do die & regenerate. Alan died of old age before becoming "A.J.", Ayesha went from being African to Asian at some point, ina turned blonde (although her scars remained, possibly due to being supernatural). It is said to be something that fell from outer space, so it's as good an explaination as any. We know The Doctor exists in the Leagueverse, as his TARDIS shows up briefly in Black Dossier & NTA makes a brief mention of the Silurians, connecting them with The Creature from The Black Lagoon.

• Mina's blondness is in fact an effect she created via a wig or dye or something. In her adventures post-fountain, Pre-Dossier, she retains her brunetteness.
• Jossed by the first issue of LOEG: Century - it's a product of a black monolith
• Mina's blondness nature have been denied on Century Issue 2. She just dyed her hair blond, and now she's back being a brunette, though her color is a bit more of red than before (maybe she just died a little red, or its just color issues).

Superman in this world is Canadian.

The creators of Superman apparently based Metropolis partly on Toronto and partly on Cleveland, Ohio. And when Mina and Allen went to America per Black Dossier, they didn't visit Metropolis. Because it was in another country. Therefore, our Big Blue Boy Scout is secretly... a Canuck. Don't ask me about all the Superman knockoffs this world must have, though.

• Would that make him a Twofer Token Minority?

Orlando is an ancestor of Captain Jack Harkness.

Just as Orlando surpassed his father Tiresias in gender-bending, Jack will surpass Orlando in immortality and promiscuity.

• Unfortunately you forget that Jack got his revivication abilities from Rose a.k.a. the Bad Wolf Entity, he did not inherit them like Orlando.
  • Orlando didn't inherit them either, he got them from the Ugandan pool with a smashed monolith.