The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a group of British citizen and colonial secret agents, employed by the British Government until the mid-20th Century, that serves to protect England from threats, both normal and paranormal. They are never called "the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" in-universe, instead being referred to by the name of their leader (Prospero's Men, the Gulliver Group, the Murray Group, etc.).

History of the League [ edit | edit source ]

Queen Gloriana hired Prospero aka John Suttle to form a group of heroes, forming the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This version of the League existed for many years in the 17th Century.

In the 18th Century a new League was formed, led by Lemuel Gulliver. This incarnation lasted until Gulliver's death in 1799.

A 19th Century League was formed and led by Mina Murray. This League existed for only two years, but was very competent at its tasks in stopping Professor Moriarty and the Martian Invasion.

In the early 20th Century a new League was formed by Murray. This League existed until the 1940s.

The British Government, during the reign of Big Brother, attempted to mimic the Victorian League, but this new incarnation disastrously failed at their first attempts leading to the abandonment of the League by the Government.

Now as an independent group of the Blazing World, the League was eventually was formed in 1969 after an unsuccessful attempt in 1964 by Mina using superheroes.

Incarnations of the British League [ edit | edit source ]

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.

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

Mid-19th Century League [ edit | edit source ]

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

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

Mina Murray - A teacher who had encountered Count Dracula.

Allan Quatermain - a British Colonial Explorer, addicted to opium and in his 70s.

Captain Nemo - formerly Indian Prince Dakkar, now an infamous sea pirate who has sunk hundreds of British vessels.

Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde - a scientist who created a way to separate his evil side from him, creating a wicked dwarf who slowly grew bigger and more powerful for the more sins he committed.

Hawley Griffin - aka the Invisible Man, a megolamaniac rapist whom was made invisible by unintentional means.

Warralson Team [ edit | edit source ]

Captain Joan Warralson - a Female Airforce Pilot.

William Samson Junior - a traveller of the Afghan regions.

Iron Warrior - a robot that exploded on it's first mission.

Professor James Grey - a survivor of the 1898 Martian invasion, he creates a submarine.

Dr. Peter Bradey - a scientist who replacated Hawley Griffin's experiments, but unlike Griffin he was not talented at concealing his identity.

Fourth Murray Group [ edit | edit source ]

1958 MI5 League [ edit | edit source ]

Jimmy Bond - a traitorous spy working secretly for the CIA

Emma Night - a woman skilled in fighting

Hugo Drummond - a bulky strongman, racist, xenophobic but loyal to country and his friend.

Other Leagues [ edit | edit source ]

The Time Traveler's League [ edit | edit source ]

Although not officially refered to as a League, this group of characters was formed by The Time Traveller and consisted of three heroes from different points in time. It had been the Traveller'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).

The members were:

Allan Quatermain, drawn from just before the formation of the first Murray Group.

John Carter of Mars - American soldier, drawn from just before his first journey to the red planet.

Randolph Carter - drawn from one of his first experiences with transcending reality through dreams.

Robur the Conqueror, an insane genius who creates a flying machine.

Arsène Lupin, a master thief,

Nyctalope, a superhero.

Fantômas, a criminal mastermind

Monsieur Zenith, a pure albino who uses a drug that gives him extraordinary abilities.

Minions on the Moon reveals that Mina was part of a British super team in 1964, whose full membership is shown in 1969.

Victory Vanguard was a super team formed by MI5 in the 1960s as a rival to the Seven Stars.

Ace Hart

Mark Tyme

The Purple Hood

Tommy Walls

Crash Britannus

Mr Apollo

Swift Morgan

Silver

Implied members of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen [ edit | edit source ]

Other characters have been implied, though not confirmed, to have been members of some version of the League.

Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective. A cigarette case of his bears the symbol of the League.

The Doctor, time-traveller and Time Lord. Throughout his numerous depictions in the original television series, he has frequently retained the question mark motif as some part of his varying outfits. This may well have been an inspiration for Moore's decision to use a question mark as the symbol of the League.

The 2003 film adaptation featured an alteration of the roster of Volume I, adding to the team Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray and replacing Hawley Griffin with Rodney Skinner. Allan Quatermain is the leader of the team while Mina Harker is its chemist. Past incarnations of the League are here revealed to have been fabricated by Professor Moriarty.

Allan Quatermain

Mina Harker

Captain Nemo

Rodney Skinner

Dorian Gray

Henry Jekyll

Edward Hyde

Tom Sawyer

Spoof 1988 American League [ edit | edit source ]

This spoof 1988 league was the successor to another spoof league which was 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 killing all those between him and domination of America.

Emmett Brown, scientist.

Jack Burton, transportation specialist.

B. A. Baracus, ex-commando.

Angus MacGyver, tech.

"Lisa", mysteriously powerful femme fatale.

Spoof 1996 "Extraordinary Gentlepersons" League [ edit | edit source ]

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlepersons 1996" Abuse of Playback, the technologically-derived drug made from distilled human memories, is sweeping the world – and Special Agent Fox Mulder learned too late that Playback was put forth on this planet by the Purity, seeking to condition humanity to their rule so as to better combat the Deadite incursion threatening the aliens’ homeworld. Now Mulder is missing, and it falls to his partner, Dana Scully, to re-activate secret protocol LXG-71, the “League of Extraordinary Gentlepersons” (protocol renamed 1993 for “sensitivity reasons”).