A Modern League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

[Nepenthes]

This exercise seems tailor-made for Hype. Who would you pick from modern fiction to form a new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Alan Moore's group is based on Victorian literature: I think a contemporary version could include film and/or television as our primary forms of entertainment

The main criteria for selection is that they should be a) widely recognisable and iconic in pop culture, b) have an ability to serve on a team of adventuring heroes, and c) were created after 1900 and are heroes of the late 20th century.

You don't have to have seen the film or read the books to think up a well-rounded list of characters. The Victorian LoXG is comprised of:

Alain Quatermain - African hunter and adventurer, unrivalled marksman, presently an an opium addict
Wilhemina Murray - divorced wife of Jonthan Harkness from Brams Strokers Dracula. In the film she's actually a reluctant vampire herself
Captain Nemo - Scientific genius, Captain of the Nautilas, turned his back on civilisation and belongs to no country
The Invisible Man - killed a policeman because he was cold and wanted his jacket
Jekyll and Hyde - the monstrous Hyde is smart, articulate and evil. Rapes and kills the invisilbe man for betraying them to the Martians
Campion Bond - the MI5 contact for the group who for legal reasons cannot be connected to another modern agent with a similair name
Cameos include the Artful Dodger and John C Carter of Mars

Villains
Moriarty - criminal mastermind and Sherlock Holmes' mortal rival, infiltrated MI5 and posing as "M'
Fu Manchu - The Chinese 'devil-doctor', builds flying war machines from stolen British tecnology
The Martians - from War of the Worlds, tripods and little squiddy guys


Pick a line-up and then tell how you would "age" the characters. How have they developed from their earlier appearances? What are the team dynamics, who do they fight? etc. I have my own ideas but I'm interested to see suggestions from others first.

If you haven't read either of the trades I would take this opportunity to strongly suggest you do so.

Apologies if this has been done before. I did search for it but nothing came up.

 

[Joker]

I'm not sure of what the entire line up would be...but Dexter from the Darkly Dreaming Dexter series would have to be in it. He would perfectly fill the unhinged, Invisible Man type role. My problem with this is I dont read that much modern literature...It's all from the mid 1800's to the mid 1900's for me usually...

 

[shapeshifter]

might be tough with copyright.
sadly if this were done today we would probably see
Robert Langdon
Neo
Buffy the Vampire slayer
Jason Bourne
and Harry potter
vs

Hannibal Lecter and Freddy Kruger.

 

[JackBauer]

Not modern, but a 1920's League could have Henry Jones Sr., a grown up Wendy Darling, and Tarzan. Can't think of others from that period right now.

I'll come up with a modern one later, but having Dexter is definitely interesting.

 

[BatB]

Well considering the fact that there have been many different incarnations of The League. This seems like a very cool idea. . And of modern fictional characters as well? intriguing .

Here are my rough picks-

-TELEVISION LEAGUE-
* Dexter (why not)- A cloaked killer of killers, who has become increasingly masochistic. To the point of slowly removing his own flesh piece by piece.
* Hiro Nakamura- A 60 year-old time traveling samurai-warrior.
* Angel- A vampiric detective who after losing his only chance at becoming mortal has awakened to a greater awareness of the world, and has begun a new absolute crusade against all those creatures who would hide in the shadows.
* Cameron- A deadly female cyborg of the future trying to prevent a judgement day beyond all imagination.
* Tru- A former morgue technician who can speak to the dead. And has since developed the power to see into the etherial realms.

-MOVIE LEAGUE-
* Jason Bourne- Former agent, now aged merc for hire.
* Harry Potter- Wizard protector of the mystical-plains.
* Lara Croft- Retired adventurer and expert in mythology and the occult.
* Sam Whitwikey/Bumblebee- A Man and his robot protector/friend, seeking a means to end a long standing intergalactic war once and for all.
* Hannibal Lector- Wheel-chair bound; Psychologist, Artist, Surgeon, Genius, Cannibal.


I'll probably end up revising these, and creating some others.

 

[Evil Twin]

Part of the fun of the league is seeing defunct characters allowed to move on in life/story, not just current characters cobbled together.

For example, we might see a 60 year old Steve Austin who has become more and more a cyborg over the years. Nancy Drew become a Miss Marple type. Retired race car driver Speed Racer. Buffy allowed to move on from vampire slaying to being a mother. etc.

Thinking about it, it might be fun to update some of the Bond girls into agents working for the league.

Also, modern M = Emma Peel.

 

[Chris Wallace]

V. Say he'd lived, & saw that other world governments had gotten severely out of hand.

 

[Joker]

On a side note, I hear Volume 3 of the League is actually going to have an allusion to Buffy in it...that should be interesting

 

[Chris Wallace]

I can also say Indy. Despite my feelings about "Crystal Skull".

 

[Joker's Lackey]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen,_Volume_III:_Century
This is the 20th century Volume that Alan Moore is writing.


But if I could pick my own..

the Time Traveler from HG Well's the Time Machine. Would act as the Teams Scientist and Transport. And would be played by Guy Pearce.

Mr. Bond, a character reference to Ian Flemings James
Bond. This would be Andrew Bond, Father to James and Son to Campion, and would only answer to Mr.Bond due to copyright laws. Same role as Campion. Played by Perice Brosnan.

Superman. He would have to be renamed of course, as well being Powered down a bit. He would still come from a Distant planet, look Human. Be stronger and Faster than an average Human, have impenetrable skin. Also be highly affected by any form of radiation. Played by Tom Welling.

Silk Spectre. Athlete-level strength and great fighting prowess. Would love her to be in. I would want Sally. Played by Carla Gugino.

Daughter of Alan Qutermaine. Would like to see a daughter of Mina and Alan Qutermaine which would give the team another link to the first team. Give her a little Buffy-esque attitude. Played by Monica Bellucci.

Zorro. Takes the Master Swordsmen and Marksmen role of the Team. Played by Javier Bardem.

and the Phantom. Kit Walker. Don't really need to explian why. Played by Billy Zane.


That would be my team.

 

[Nepenthes]

Yeah, Dexter's awesome.

one team i was thinking of would be a direct analogue of the Victorian team. but I was having trouble filling the Invisible Man and Nemo. So far it would be...

Allan Quartermain - Indiana Jones
Mina Murray - Buffy Summers
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Bruce Banner and The Hulk
Captain Nemo - Edward Scissorhands
Invisible Man - Dexter


Another guy that would be awesome on a team is Marty McFly, all grown up with time travel tech and other cool gadgets. Maybe the proffessor is downloaded into a machine and helps him create stuff, or Marty just creates it himself. He's like an old geeky dad or uncle that's really funny and chilled out but then he takes you back to watch a dinosaur do a massive crap and you're like holy ***** dude.

 

[The Avatar]

I remember when the movie came out, there were literally dozens of this threads.

btw, for my contribution I would say the Jackal from Frederick Forsyth's "The Day of the Jackal" Set in the 1960's, the Jackal is the best assassin in the world, and nobody know's anything about him - other than he's English.

Another well to tap would be some of Stephen King's characters, like Johnny Smith from "The Dead Zone" who can see the future or learn personal information about people/objects by touching them. Or Charlene McGee from "Firestarter" who is a pyrokinetic (start fires with her mind). There's other good characters from King, but those are ones of the top of my head.

If we don't have to limit ourselves exclusively to novels and literature, than I'd say Macgyver would be a must.

 

[Silvermoth]

What about Roland of Gilead from the Dark Tower series instead of Allan Quarterman

 

[Nepenthes]

The Jackal is a great villain. Nancy Drew is awesome too, but i think definitly a guest star. MacGuyver and Harry potter should be definite shoe-ins on team. maybe later on we should add a poll with a shortlist of say 20 characters, everyone picks five for team

Evil Twin, are you talking Stone Cold Steve Austin? Geezus christ, that would be insane, ha ha. Wrestlers. I guess we count count video game characters too. So it's either Lara Croft or Indiana, to the death. Who do we choose?

 

[Evil Twin]

Evil Twin, are you talking Stone Cold Steve Austin? Geezus christ, that would be insane, ha ha. Wrestlers. I guess we count count video game characters too. So it's either Lara Croft or Indiana, to the death. Who do we choose?

Actually, I'm talking The Six Million Dollar Man Steve Austin.

 

[Chris Wallace]

might be tough with copyright.
sadly if this were done today we would probably see
Robert Langdon
Neo
Buffy the Vampire slayer
Jason Bourne
and Harry potter
vs

Hannibal Lecter and Freddy Kruger.

The main person I can't see is Neo; in the real world he can't fight, fly or be useful in any way.

 

[Raiden]

From the literary world, I think these characters could make the list:

Jason Bourne
The Gunslinger (from Stephen King's Two Tower series)
Jack Ryan
Nancy Drew
Harry Potter

 

[Joker]

Moore uses characters from literature, not glorified childrens stories that will be forgotten in 10 years, like Goosebumps. So Harry Potter does not deserve a place on any team baring the LoEG name.

 

[Sawyer]

I've got a whole bunch of television, film, literary and comics characters here...

Booster Gold (the aged time-traveler. Formerly looked down upon by fellow heroes, until his adventures with Rip Hunter in the time-stream were revealed. He escaped to his own past to protect his younger self from any time-travellers looking to do him harm. Now he is back in the present and better than ever at what he does.)

Harry Potter (the protector of the magical realm. Some claim that he is the most powerful wizard the world has ever, and will ever, know. Has become increasingly addicted to magic as he has grown older.)

Sam Oliver (the devil's bounty hunter. A child of a demon, he is thought by some to be the antichrist. He is the only "reaper" that has ever been spoken to directly by the devil. Has given in to his demonic side as time has gone on.)

Malcolm Reynolds (the captain of Serenity. Brought to the present by Booster Gold, after the entire crew of Serenity was killed, including his wife Inara and young son.)

BB (the teenage daughter of Beatrix Kiddo. Has become an assassin like her dear mother, after her mother was killed by Nikki Green, the daughter of Vernita Green, an assassin who had worked with Beatrix.)

More to come...

 

[Sawyer]

Moore uses characters from literature, not glorified childrens stories that will be forgotten in 10 years, like Goosebumps. So Harry Potter does not deserve a place on any team baring the LoEG name.

I disagree wholeheartedly.

 

[Jochimus]

I'm sure we've had threads like this before...anyway, I would probably go with comic-strip and pulp characters from the '30s and '40s as a sort of retooled "Defenders Of The Earth", only set the story in the 1950s as an homage to the alien-invasion films of that era:
* Annie Warbucks, the leader, now in her late twenties and retaking control of her late adoptive father's company after it is misappropriated for illegal testing of weapons that turn out to not even have been built on Earth in the first place.
* Dick Tracy, the mentor-figure, forced into retirement from police work by corrupt politicos who implicated him in a scandal that cost him his marriage and very nearly got him killed.
* Flash Gordon, a veteran space-warrior who has to shake himself out of a half-drunken stupor brought on by nobody believing that he was abducted by alien invaders years prior.
* Lamont Cranston, the group's financier, long having been publicly exposed as The Shadow and been banned from ever adopting that guise again, but has been rebuilding his fortune.
* Doc Savage, the jack-of-all-trades of the group, the born fighter who often comes into conflict with the others who are either more laid-back than he is (like Tracy and Cranston) or just plain too thick for his tastes (like Gordon).
* Britt Reid, the group's PR man. Still operates as the Green Hornet, but solo in that capacity (Kato's fate is not initially revealed or discussed, thus to leave the mystery open for later).
* Steve Canyon, the group's flyer. Jumps at the chance to pilot again after being ousted from the military for misconduct in Korea and then being under suspicion by the Senate Committee On Un-American Activities.
* Mandrake the Magician, the group's resident illusionist. Though he gives the outward impression of being a simple practitioner of hypnotic tricks, it is heavily implied that he is a powerful sorcerer whose chooses to exercise self-restraint, and is perhaps even a descendant of Merlin.
* The Phantom, who at first does not particularly care for getting involved in helping fending off the coming alien invasion, believing himself to have more immediate concerns, until crates of the weapons are put to use on the villagers in his own jungle territory.
* Finally, Buck Rogers, who comes back from the 25th century to head off the impending interstellar armada from the future. As with J'onn on JLU, it's his arrival that finally sets in stone the formation of the new LXG.

I also tried to stay away from using any Marvel or DC characters, even though some of these characters have been affiliated with Marvel and/or DC in past adaptations (ex: The Shadow and DC). That's also why I avoided using Blackhawk as the pilot and brought in Canyon instead.

 

[cerealkiller182]

I tried to stay with literary characters (most of which have been adapted anyway)

Quatermain- Dirk Pitt, maybe Jason Bourne

Invisible Man- Dexter, maybe Patrick Bateman

Hyde- Crowley from Good Omens (not monsterous or mean but a demon with powers)

Nemo- Traveler from Time Machine

Mina Murray- Rachel Morgan from the Hollows series

M- Jack Ryan, maybe Robert Langdon

Villains
Classic Universal monsters
Project Mayhem from Fight Club
Crimson King (which in itself has a similarity to Tyler Durden)
Dinosaurs from Jurassic Park

Cameos:
The Narrator from Fight Club, one of the modern day superheroes, Duddits from Dreamcatcher, Thinney's (more of an object) from The Dark Tower series, TinTin, Hunter S Thompson, Rant from Rant, Dirk Gently, Bezu Fache from Da Vinci Code, Forrest Gump, Wormsley Common Gang, Death, and I cant think of others but ideas will be added when they come

 

[Spider-Fan83]

The Winchester Brothers, Sam & Dean (Supernatural)

using the knowledge and training passed down from they father, they hunt down, all things supernatural

Melinda Gordon (Ghost Whisperer)

with the ability to communicate with the earthbound spirits

Peter Petrelli (Heroes)

Ability to absorb the powers of other w/o killing them

Ned (Pushing Daisies)

A man with the unique magical ability to bring dead people back to life

John Amsterdam (New Amsterdam)

cursed with immortality

Mike Traceur (Knight Rider)

A former Army Ranger and failed race car driver, who was recruited to become the new Knight rider, the driver of the most technically advanced vehicle in the world

 

[cerealkiller182]

I really likethe idea of the Crimson King from Stephen Kings stories leading Project Mayhem from Fight Club to commit acts of terrorism and try to bring down order and "light" as the evil force for the League to battle.

With Project Mayhem as an anarchist group and Crimson King as a psychic puppetmaster i think it would work well.

 

[BatB]

I don't know if this would work necessarily but;

-Western League-

* The Lone Ranger - Co-Founder/Ex-Government Agent
* Tonto - Tracker/Marksman
* John Henry - Engineer
* Zorro - Spy/Thief/Swordsman
* Kwai Chang Caine - Mystic/KungFu Master

I'm just looking for a female character, so....