History of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

In the fictional The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen universe there have been a number of versions of the League, and in particular in the comic book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier the membership and activities of these Leagues were fully explored, interwoven into an extensive world timeline.

17th Century

Prospero's Men

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.

• Prospero, the Duke of Milan, the sorcerer protagonist of Shakespeare's 1611 play The Tempest. Before his League was assembled, he lived in Mortlake under the alias of John Subtle. (The faux-Shakespeare fragment in The Black Dossier entitled Fairy's Fortunes Founded includes a list of Prospero's alter-egos, also including historical English occultist John Dee.)
  • Caliban, Prospero's malformed, treacherous servant, also from The Tempest.
  • Ariel, a sprite and air spirit, bound to serve Prospero, also from The Tempest.
• Christian, a pilgrim Everyman, protagonist of John Bunyan's 1678 novel The Pilgrim's Progress.
• 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 central character from Richard Head's 1673 book The Floating Island (published under the pseudonym Frank Careless).
• Don Quixote, the Spanish aristocrat, from Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quijote de la Mancha.
• Amber St. Clair, the courtesan from Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor.
• Orlando, the sex-changing immortal from many works, but drawn most closely from Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography.

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.

18th Century

Gulliver's League

The second League was formed by Lemuel Gulliver in the 1750s and secretly gathered in Montague House, London, in service to the British Crown.

• Lemuel Gulliver, the far-flung protagonist from the 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.
• The Reverend Dr. Christopher Syn, also known as the pirate Captain Clegg, and later known as the Scarecrow, the vicar turned pirate turned smuggler from the Doctor Syn novels (1915–1944) of Russell Thorndike.
• Sir Percy and Lady Marguerite Blakeney from The Scarlet Pimpernel novels of Baroness Orczy published in 1905, set in late 1792.
• Nathanael "Natty" Bumppo, the hero of the Leatherstocking Tales (1827–1841) of James Fenimore Cooper, the most famous of which is Last of the Mohicans. In Cooper's novels he is variously called Deerslayer, Hawkeye and Pathfinder as well as several other names.
• Frances "Fanny" Hill, the eponymous heroine of the 1749 erotic novel Fanny Hill by John Cleland.
• Orlando, the sex-changing immortal from many works, but drawn most closely from Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography.

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.

19th Century

Mid-19th Century League

Based on some of the portraits displayed at the British Museum HQ, there has been since the first issue of the LoEG some fan speculation about the existence of mid-19th century league. Some names frequently mentioned are:

• Sir Francis Varney, the vampire from James Malcolm Rymer's Varney the Vampire
• Count Allamistakeo, from Edgar Allan Poe's "Some Words with a Mummy".
• The Blue Dwarf, a.k.a. Sapathwa, from the eponymous novel by Lady Esther Hope.^[1]
• Jack Harkaway, from Jack Harkaway's Schooldays by Bracebridge Hemyng.^[2]
• Phileas Fogg, the gentleman traveler from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne.
• Dorian Gray, the forever young main character from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
• The Steam House, from the eponymous novel by Jules Verne.

Although there are some strong hints of its existence, no reference is made, not even in the Black Dossier issue.

The Time Traveler's League

"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:

• Allan Quatermain, drawn from just before the formation of the first Murray Group.
• John Carter, Edgar Rice Burroughs' hero, drawn from just before his first journey to the red planet.
• Randolph Carter, of various works by H.P. Lovecraft, drawn from one of his first experiences with transcending reality through dreams (here supposed to be a distant relative of John).

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).

Wilhelmina's First 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.

• Wilhelmina Murray, of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.
• Captain Nemo, the Indian submariner from Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island, and his play Journey Through the Impossible.
• Allan Quatermain, the elephant hunter and African explorer of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and its various sequels.
• Dr. Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
• Hawley Griffin, also known as The Invisible Man, from the 1897 novel by H. G. Wells (Moore gave Griffin his first name, that of murderer Hawley Crippen).

Associates

• C. Auguste Dupin, of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and its sequels, assisted Murray and Quatermain in capturing Jekyll / Hyde in Paris.
• Quong Lee, the storyteller of Thomas Burke's Limehouse Nights and its sequels, provided Murray and Griffin with valuable information regarding the location of the stolen Cavorite.
• William Samson Senior, father of Bill Junior, the Wolf of Kabul, served as the League's coachman during the Martian invasion.
• Dr. Alphonse Moreau, of H. G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau, provided the League with a crucial weapon against the Martian invaders.

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.

Early 20th Century

Wilhelmina's Second League

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.

• Miss Wilhelmina Murray, of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.
• Allan Quatermain Jr., a rejuvenated Allan Quatermain from H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and its various sequels.
• Orlando, the sex-changing immortal from many works, but drawn most closely from Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography.
• A. J. Raffles, reformed thief from E. W. Hornung stories.
• Thomas Carnacki, the occult detective from Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder by William Hope Hodgson.

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 (The Mysterious Men)

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.

• Jean Robur, an insane genius who creates a flying machine, from the The Clipper of the Clouds and The Master of the World, by Jules Verne.
• Arsène Lupin, a master thief, from the books written by Maurice Leblanc, recruited to "cancel out" any benefits afforded to Mina's League by A. J. Raffles.
• Nyctalope, the first superhero ever written; created by Jean de La Hire.
• Fantômas, a criminal mastermind created by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain.
• Monsieur Zenith, a pure albino who uses drugs that give him extraordinary abilities.

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.

Die Zwielicht-Helden (The Twilight Heroes)

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:

• Dr. Mabuse from a series of novels by Norbert Jacques. Mabuse is a criminal genius, gambler and in one Lang film an undying entity who can possess others.
• Dr. Caligari, the homicidal mesmerist, and (supposedly) Cesare, his mind-slave, both from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
• Dr. Rotwang along with Maria, the "female automaton" he created. From Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

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.

Late 20th Century

The Failed Warralson League

Mina and Allan disappeared while on a mission to America in 1946, just before a brutal 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.

• Miss Joan Warralson from the stories by W. E. Johns.
• William Samson, Jr., the Wolf of Kabul, who appeared in Wizard and Hotspur. His father, William Sr., appeared in Volume II as a coachman to Murray's League.
• Peter Brady, the Invisible Man, from the television series The Invisible Man.
• Professor James Gray, the inventor of The Iron Fish submersible device, who appeared in The Beano. (He is seen as a child in Volume II.)
• The Iron Warrior, a giant robot from Thrill Comics and New Funnies.

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.

The post-Ingsoc Ensemble

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.

• Jimmy, James Bond, the British spy created by Ian Fleming for the novel Casino Royale and its sequels.
• Miss Night, Emma Peel, spy and partner of John Steed in The Avengers.
• Uncle Hugo, Bulldog Drummond, adventurer and private detective in a series of novels.

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.

The Seven Stars League

Minions on the Moon reveals that Mina was part of a British super team in 1964, whose full membership is shown in 1969:^[3]

• Captain Universe, alias of Jim Logan, interplanetary superhero created by Mick Anglo.^[4]
• Vull the Invisible, in actuality Mina Murray; the original Vull appeared in The Ranger written by Temple Murdoch.
• Mars Man, a Martian explorer who came to Earth to study its "social life and civilization", from the Marsman Comics.^[5]
• Zom of The Zodiac, whose magic grants victims of crime the power to stand up to criminals, from Big Win comics.^[6]
• Satin Astro, featured in "Burt Steele and Satin Astro in the Year 3000 AD" by Dennis Reader in Whizzer Comics.
• Captain Zenith, in Captain Zenith Comic, a super-speedster.^[7]
• Electro Girl, from G-Boy Comics, Whizzer Comics, and Super-Duper comics.^[8]

Murray Group Under Prospero

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.

21st Century

2009: All that is left

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.

• Miss Wilhelmina Murray, of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, now a mental patient
• Allan Quatermain, Jr., relapsed drug-addict, from H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and its various sequels.
• Orlando, now returning as a female immortal from many works, but drawn most closely from Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography.
• Mary Poppins, a magically powerful woman who helps Mina fight the boy antichrist, from P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins books.

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.

Spoofs

Spoof 1988 American League

In 2010, the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - America: 1988" was announced as an April Fools' Day joke, complete with mocked-up cover.^[9][10] 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.

• Emmett Brown, scientist from Back to the Future.
• Jack Burton, transportation specialist from Big Trouble in Little China.
• B. A. Baracus, ex-commando from The A-Team.
• Angus MacGyver, tech from MacGyver.
• "Lisa", mysteriously powerful femme fatale from Weird Science.

References