Your perfect ''League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' team

Well, Century: 2009 is just around the corner, and I know League fans everywhere want to see how it all comes down.

While we're waiting for it to hit the shelves, here's my question: If you could put together a LoEG-style team of fictional characters from any era of history, who would you pick?

Remember, this is a world where every fictional character ever put on the page or put on the screen coexists together in one universe. The possibilities are endless. Nothing is off limits, and no idea is too weird.

Who would the characters be? How would you portray them? What would their relationships be like? What kind of adventures would they get into?

(As a note, this post's strictly Just for Fun. I've got nothing but respect for Alan Moore, and I'm not criticizing League or saying what direction I think the series should go in...I just love the premise, and I think it's perfect for letting your imagination go crazy. That's all.)

edited 25th Jun '12 12:00:56 AM by TheMightyHeptagon

My team, coming together (roughly) around the mid-1970s:

• Ann Darrow from King Kong as the Mina Murray-esque leader of the team. She's a beautiful, aging film star with a mysterious past, known to the team only as Mrs. Driscoll. All they know about her is that she was once involved in some kind of bizarre island expedition, and that she once survived a horrific attack on New York City by a giant monster...
• Detective Harry Callahan from the Dirty Harry movies as the washed-up former Cowboy Cop. He was expelled from the San Francisco police department and moved to the East Coast a few years before, and he agrees to join the League after a brush with New Jersey mobster 'Johnny Boy' Soprano ends with a contract being put out on him.
• Dr. Daisuke Serizawa from Godzilla as the resident badass scientist. He faked his death back in the 1950s after using the Oxygen Destroyer to kill the first Godzilla, and has since been on the run from government agents and Yakuza hitmen who want to use the Oxygen Destroyer as a military weapon. With the League, he will attempt to uncover the truth behind the interdimensional disturbances that have led to the recent rash of monster attacks in his native Japan...
• Marty McFly will get dragged into the League after he's nabbed by government agents who find photographic evidence of him existing in the 1950s and the 1880s, and want to use the Flux Capacitor for their own purposes. Instead of giving in, he joins the League, and he ends up using Doc Brown's lost notes to help the League travel between dimensions with the Flux Capacitor and repair the space-time disturbances behind the Kaiju attacks in Japan (which may also have led to the creation of that mysterious island filled with prehistoric creatures...). Amidst the more cynical adults, he provides the optimism and boyish charm.
• Agent Felix Leiter of the CIA, from the James Bond franchise, as the detached leader who brings everyone together. He was so intrigued by his buddy James' stories about the heroes that his grandfather once worked with that he'll try to recapture the magic by assembling another such team. By this time, James Bond will have bathed in the restoring fire of She like Mina and Alan, so he's still young and active in the 70s. (Thanks to excessive plastic surgery, he's also starting to look like Roger Moore)

And as a supporting character:

• Early on, the team will run into Dorothy Gale, who's now an extremely elderly woman living in a boardinghouse in rural Kansas run by her great-granddaughter Glinda Kent (in the spot where her family's farm once stood). The team will find out that the disturbances in space-time are linked to a certain interdimensional trip that she made as a child, and when they start time-traveling, they'll meet her as a teenager and try to get to the bottom of everything with her help. We'll also learn that her habit of attracting weirdness runs in the family—she's directly related to another Kansas farmgirl named Martha Kent

edited 10th Jul '14 5:02:28 PM by TheMightyHeptagon

For me, I'd have a more modern team. Consisting of:

Harry Potter: All grown up and a fully qualified Auror, Harry Potter has become every bit a pop culture icon as Sherlock Holmes and even Dracula, so why not?

Mary Poppins: There's no reason she can't be immortal, and she'd serve as a good matriarch for the team, serving as either their De facto leader, or even flat out as the leader of the team.

The Doctor: A time traveling alien with a love of the planet Earth and Britain in general? Why WOULDN'T he step in to help? On top of that, you could have a lot of fun by occasionally featuring different versions of the Doctor in each issue.

Maxi-Man: He was a superhero who appeared in 2000AD back in the 80s, he has the typical pulp power set so he'd add some needed muscle to the team. A more straight faced Desperate Dan, is the best way to describe him.

Kevin Matchstick: He was a character from an amazing comic book called Mage where he was in fact the reincarnation of King Arthur, so it's a no brainer really.

Marvin the Paranoid Android: Marvin spends a lot of time being accidentally knocked around the time stream, so for him to end up in 21st century Earth and end up being dragged into other people's problems would serves as some good comic relief.

And maybe some thinly veiled reference to Captain Britain.

edited 25th Jun '12 5:24:58 AM by TheConductor

Nice picks.

Mage sounds awesome...I need to check it out sometime.

I heard Moore finally confirmed that Harry Potter actually is going to be a major character in Century: 2009, but he's going to end up as one of the villains. I'm waiting to see how that turns out.

edited 25th Jun '12 9:11:04 AM by TheMightyHeptagon

Isn't Harry the bloody Antichrist/Moonchild

Heh...yeah, that's what I heard

Hope Moore's ready for the angry letters...

edited 25th Jun '12 9:19:29 AM by TheMightyHeptagon

Knowing Moore, he'd probably relish it.

Bah, Moore will probably use fan anguish to fuel his own dark magic!

Glycon will feast well...

Oh, shit, Moore talks to snake Gods! I forgot...

The motherfucker speaks parseltongue! He'd get put in Slytherin in a heartbeat!

No wonder he hates Potter...

edited 25th Jun '12 10:46:28 AM by TheMightyHeptagon

But Harry is a parrseltongue...

Hmm, let's see:

Although the movie was chronologically wrong (he'd still be young at the setting), Dorian Gray actually would be a good choice for a team and foreseeably with the powers he displays in the movie. So maybe Dorian could be like on the 1930's team to have him actually be pretty old.

A Sherlock Holmes based Badass Normal team: Irene Adler, Raffles, Jonathan Small. lead by M (who they think is Mycroft Holmes but is actually Moriarty)

Not sure of other members, but on a Shakesperean team, I'd like to see a Caliban along the lines of two different short stories I've read wherein he discovered Prospero's books, and is now a sorcerer and in mannerisms, sort of like a nicer, Genius Bruiser version of Hyde.

edited 25th Jun '12 5:17:20 PM by Jordan

I've always wanted to see somebody do some fanfic about the adventures of Prospero's Men, since Moore never got around to actually showing it in the comics.

If anybody ever did, giving Caliban spell-casting powers would be pretty sweet...

Don't you know Alan Moore is actually one of Voldemort's Hocruxes?

I thought he was Grigori Rasputin...

Can he be both?

edited 25th Jun '12 7:13:17 PM by TheMightyHeptagon

Hmm. Interesting idea. I would pick the early 1900's for my time period. My "League" would consist of...

John Watson: At first, I wanted to pick Sherlock Holmes instead, but it would be interesting to see Watson have some crazy adventures on his own. By the time the "League" is formed, Holmes has retired from active crime-fighting and spends his time beekeeping and writing. So while he wouldn't be an active part of the team, I'm sure Watson would consult him from time to time. While Watson might not be the leader of the team, he would likely function as its moral center. I'd like to think he's learned a thing or two about observation from Holmes by this time, although certainly nothing near Holmes' skills.

James Howlett: Yeah, I mean Wolverine. He was alive and kicking in that time period. Being the tough and stubborn fighter that he is, I imagine he would often butt heads with...

John Clayton, Earl of Greystoke: Also known as Tarzan of the Apes.

Edward Malone: The reporter who accompanied Doctor Challenger and the others on the "Lost World" expedition. From his experiences on that expedition, he'd be well prepared to deal with whatever weirdness the team came across. Maybe.

Agatha Christie: She was 20 years old in 1910, a cousin of Eddie's who has aspirations of becoming a writer, but not a reporter like Eddie.

Oh, another thought, Flashman as a Guest-Star Party Member.

Alan Moore is everyone.

Well, I created one for a dojnishi I'm making, but that one won;t be discussed here, I do have a team design of my own here. The Time Traveler (The Time Machine) (leader), Tintin (The Adventures of Tintin) Count Olaf (A Series of Unfortunate Events), Hei (Darker Than Black), Lupin III, Number 5. (Umbrella Academy), Steeljacket (Astro City), Poison Ivy, And Dr. Horrible (from Dr.Horrible's Sing-Along Blog)

edited 27th Jun '12 2:45:51 PM by DoctorCrocodile

I once tried to think of one made out of 1990s characters, but every character I thought of was either from the 1980s (John Mcclain), or from a different time period (Xena, Neo).

In the end the only ones I could think of were Agent Scully and Agent J.

What about The Narrator from Fight Club?

He's a cult leader with an army of underground brawlers at his beck and call, and (in the movie, at least) he's a pretty successful domestic terrorist. He's just the kind of guy that the League would be willing to recruit.

edited 28th Jun '12 12:04:45 AM by TheMightyHeptagon

Or Zack Taylor and Trini Kwan, from Angel Grove, California?

They've got tons of experience dealing with weird shit, and we never found out what happened to them after they dropped out of the Rangers and got Put on a Bus—maybe they joined the League?

(I actually did a few WMGs about this on the pages for League and MMPR a while ago)

edited 28th Jun '12 12:03:38 AM by TheMightyHeptagon

Holy shit, the new League is fucking balls-to-the-walls bananas awesome. And camp. Very, very camp. Moore, you magnificent, drug-smoking maniac. You've done it again.

You see, I've long thought League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen was possibly the greatest idea ever conceived in the history of sequential medium. Or at least, up there among the best. This is literally an idea where all fiction, all that has ever been conceived, written, published and enjoyed, can be referenced or brought together - if the writer is willing and capable. Name your era, then find your heroes, anti-heroes, villains or adventurers, or even incidental, non-adventuring characters (one of Moore's best additions to the setting was having characters Pollyanna (perhaps a bad example, but the only one I can think of off the top of my head) make odd supporting appearances, or have the characters refer to random literary characters that don't appear or are not prominent as being acquaintences) - these heroes' adventures can coincide, cross, or even be brought together if the need or will arises.

"Capable" is the problem, though. Without a very diligent and good writer, capable of not just mashing heroes together but creating setting (amazing and well balanced setting being the best and most endearing quality to the title) to bring it all together, you might've ended up with your average muddled crossover fanfic. Do you just present it as a crossover, or to you do some world building to make it more of a shared universe, constructed such that any manner of being can be a part of it - large or small? The charm of the League is that at all times it feels like the latter, rather than the former.

For a lover of storytelling like me, the ideas are downright endless. Endless I say.

My team? A Renaissance and/or Medieval era version of the League brings together a team to deal with a great threat but whom eventually get lost by some strange magic: it essentially results in a mix between the 1001 Nights and Grimm's Tales, in addition to legends from Europe to Africa to China to India. Random characters I thought of may or may not appearing include Sindbad the Sailor as a navigator, perhaps one of the Grimms' "hero who becomes king thanks to a mix of luck, destiny, cleverness, karma, and loyalty from randomly made friends" such as Ferdinand The Faithful as a guy bankrolling it, and the Erlkonig as a kind of demonic character leading them astray (with Bearskin appearing non-speaking as an atoning character warning them away from such influence).

Still thinking it over - mostly I like the idea of someone hiring Sindbad the Sailor as a navigator for a ragtag team of folklore characters.

Personally, I'd love to see the League title pretty much continue as a serial for as long as it possibly can, and not die whenever Moore wants it to: for it to be something that continues. It really is a downright wonderful idea. Especially if you also extend into non-written sources (Moore recently used television characters as well).

Alright, enough gushing from me...

edited 29th Jun '12 6:34:05 AM by KnownUnknown

An 80s team:

Mr Rourke: The leader who brings them all together on his resort island that holds amazing secrets.

Jessica Fletcher: A mystery write/mystery solver; team matron.

John Mc Cain: Cop; really hard to kill.

B A Barracus: Former special forces, former mercenary, engineer and tough guy

Angus Mac Guyver: Gadgeteer.

Main series antagonist: exposing the lies of the Visitors.

Another recurring antagonist: Jason Vorhees ("This foo just won't stay DOWN! Worse'n you, Mc Cain!"

I kind of thought about adding Jason to my team a while ago.

The crazy thing is, the League's leaders probably wouldn't be averse to recruiting him.

They didn't mind hiring an invisible rapist, a hulking murderer, or a terrorist in a submarine. A serial killer would be par for the course for them...