Contemporary League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?

[Concrete]

After reading the article found below, I have begun considering who could possibly be included in a contemporary League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. While the article does give some suggestions; (Alice Morgan from Luther, Moses from Attack the Block, Superhoodie from Misfits, and the eponymous Hanna.) I'm sure that this esteemed forum could give a lot more.

http://comicsalliance.com/the-league-of-extraordinary-gentlepersons-1996-art-parody/

I suggest that the suggestions follow the following rules, but if you feel that these should be changed or disregarded, either propose a change, or suggest a character anyways.

1. The character is fictional.

2. The character is alive during the twenty-first century.

3. The character lives in a world similar to our own.

I would suggest no superheroes, because they already got their teams, but if you feel this is irrelevant, go ahead and suggest one anyways.

[The Glyphstone]

Dexter Morgan as the Token Evil Teammate, maybe?

[Red Fel]

An easy one is Jason Bourne. Multiple novels, multiple films with another on the way. Highly trained, capable, deadly combatant and able to fade into the background and stay under the radar. And there's the whole amnesia angle to use as you like.

[TheThan]

Lets see, how many spies can I cram into one team:

James bond (bond franchise, 1967-2015)
Frank Moses (RED franchise, 2010,2013)
Ethan Hunt (mission: impossible movie franchise, 1996-2015
Garry “Eggsy” Unwin ( Kingsman the secret service, 2014)
Bryan Mills (Taken franchise, 2008-2015)
Jason Borne (borne franchise, 2002-2012)
John and Jane smith (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, 2005)
Brock Sampson (the Venture bros 2003-2016)

that ought to do.
Now I dunno what happens when you put nine lone wolf agents on the same mission. But I guarantee it’s going to involve a lot of explosions.

[Calemyr]

Lets see, how many spies can I cram into one team:

James bond (bond franchise, 1967-2015)
Frank Moses (RED franchise, 2010,2013)
Ethan Hunt (mission: impossible movie franchise, 1996-2015
Garry “Eggsy” Unwin ( Kingsman the secret service, 2014)
Bryan Mills (Taken franchise, 2008-2015)
Jason Borne (borne franchise, 2002-2012)
John and Jane smith (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, 2005)
Brock Sampson (the Venture bros 2003-2016)

that ought to do.
Now I dunno what happens when you put nine lone wolf agents on the same mission. But I guarantee it’s going to involve a lot of explosions.

Darn right, there will be. You put a dangerous woman played by Angelina Jolie in the same team as James Bond and Brock Sampson. John and Jane are going to be out of ammo before the mission even starts!

[TheThan]

Haha

Oh speaking of Angelina Jolie; how about Laura Croft from Tomb raider

The latest game was as recent as 2015 (yeah it’s the rebooted version but meh) plus all the movies game out post the year 2000.
she's got a laundry list if useful skills, including athletics (climbing, balancing, swimming etc), archaeology (or at least treasure hunting), shooting (various guns, bows etc). plus she plays for sport, so she's likely to be actually interested in joining the team. And you know, one of the most prominent female video game characters ever devised.

[Calemyr]

Haha

Oh speaking of Angelina Jolie; how about Laura Croft from Tomb raider

The latest game was as recent as 2015 (yeah it’s the rebooted version but meh) plus all the movies game out post the year 2000.
she's got a laundry list if useful skills, including athletics (climbing, balancing, swimming etc), archaeology (or at least treasure hunting), shooting (various guns, bows etc). plus she plays for sport, so she's likely to be actually interested in joining the team. And you know, one of the most prominent female video game characters ever devised.

Yeah, I was trying to think of my list and the ones I have off the top of it are:

Leader: The Boss (The Saints Row games). Charismatic, dangerous, and absolutely crazy.
Joel and Ellie (The Last of Us). Skilled survivalists. Ellie makes a good perspective character and Joel is a ruthless brawler.
Lara Croft (The recent Tomb Raider reboot). "It's just one girl!" "Yeah, well, that 'one girl' is kicking our asses!"
Sherlock (BBC's Sherlock). Brilliant, entertaining, and hilariously less sociopathic than the Boss. ("I prefer 'puckish rogue'.")

Only a five man band, yes, but just think about the amount of banter these five could put out! The snark! It's off the charts!

[comicshorse]

They need some magical back up for the weird cases so I'm voting for Harry Dresden

[Starbuck_II]

I love the idea that Zack used to have time dilation field abilities. But strangely, if you watch later stuff he stops having.

[factotum]

Hasn't this already been done? The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels go all the way up to 2009, where we find such delights as Harry Potter (who got possessed by evil and destroyed the whole of Hogwarts) and Captain Nemo's (great?) grandson, who is still wandering the oceans in a submarine. James Bond appeared in an earlier book, along with Fireball XL-5 (the spaceship). The only characters carried over from the original Victorian books are Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain, who both drank of the Fountain of Youth and are thus more than a century old by the final book--they're joined by Orlando (from Virginia Woolf's novel, later made into a movie) who is immortal and keeps changing from man to woman and back again.

[comicshorse]

Hasn't this already been done? The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels go all the way up to 2009, where we find such delights as Harry Potter (who got possessed by evil and destroyed the whole of Hogwarts) and Captain Nemo's (great?) grandson, who is still wandering the oceans in a submarine. James Bond appeared in an earlier book, along with Fireball XL-5 (the spaceship). The only characters carried over from the original Victorian books are Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain, who both drank of the Fountain of Youth and are thus more than a century old by the final book--they're joined by Orlando (from Virginia Woolf's novel, later made into a movie) who is immortal and keeps changing from man to woman and back again.

Also Mrs Peel from 'The Avengers' ( no, not those Avengers)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avengers_(TV_series)

who is now head of British Intelligence along with all of Steed's other female partners

Actually this makes me want to do an all British League now

John Steed (The Avengers). Group 'face', charm and contacts.

Sherlock Holmes (The BBC versions squeaks in over 'Elementary')- Party investigator and all round know-it-all

James Bond - Muscle

Lara Croft- Survival skills, combat skills, archaeology knowledge

John Constantine- (DC Comics) Occult knowledge, weird contacts, some magic

[Killer Angel]

John Constantine- (DC Comics) Occult knowledge, weird contacts, some magic

At this point, I'd pick Lucifer, from the TV show. :smallwink:

[comicshorse]

At this point, I'd pick Lucifer, from the TV show. :smallwink:

Lucifer may have an english accent but I think he was 'born' somewhere else :smallsmile:

Interestingly his brother angel has an american accent. Not sure what that tells us about the Divine Plan

[Mordar]

I'd like to add:


El Mariachi - We need some style with our gunplay
The Rock - I don't care...pick one...I might choose Beck given his "bounty hunter" bit


I had a couple more, but decided they were too super-powery.

- M

[Rogar Demonblud]

I agree on Beck, since he recognizes that the first choice (Option A) is to politely ask to do this without violence. Too many 'heroes' have violence as the only option.

[Killer Angel]

Lucifer may have an english accent but I think he was 'born' somewhere else :smallsmile:


Well, the rules in the OP are: the character is fictional, is alive during the twenty-first century, and lives in a world similar to our own. :smalltongue:
And come on, it would be totally cool! :smallcool:

[comicshorse]

Yeah but wouldn't fit with the 'all British' theme I was going for

(But yes it would be cool :smallcool: Just imagine Sherlock and Lucifer in the same group)

[Fishybugs]

Raymond Reddington (The Blacklist) as the mastermind would work well....

[Brother Oni]

(But yes it would be cool :smallcool: Just imagine Sherlock and Lucifer in the same group)

I'd prefer John Constantine and TV series Lucifer for the banter:

John: 'Morning Lucy.
Lucifer: Sod off John.
JC: OoooOOOooo. Someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning. What's the matter, daddy issues keeping you up at night?
L: No, I was imagining what happened to Astra's soul after you damned her. A young innocent girl's soul like that? She would have been passed around like a party favour.
JC: **** you.
L: Now there's a tempting offer. If you play your cards right, I may even give you a reach around.
Lara Croft: *Eyeroll* Can't I have my morning tea in peace just once?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

This would not be a bad fit for The Doctor, even if he usually tries to work alone. He's basically exactly what a League character would be like: a long-standing media reputation and a particular "gimmick" (supersmart alien genius).

[Traab]

I was thinking the Winchester brothers from Supernatural.

[Killer Angel]

I'd prefer John Constantine and TV series Lucifer for the banter:

John: 'Morning Lucy.
Lucifer: Sod off John.
JC: OoooOOOooo. Someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning. What's the matter, daddy issues keeping you up at night?
L: No, I was imagining what happened to Astra's soul after you damned her. A young innocent girl's soul like that? She would have been passed around like a party favour.
JC: **** you.
L: Now there's a tempting offer. If you play your cards right, I may even give you a reach around.
Lara Croft: *Eyeroll* Can't I have my morning tea in peace just once?

This League starts to be interesting... :smallbiggrin:

[TheThan]

So lets figure out what the team should have.
A modern day league needs to have vast capability to deal with a vast amount of threats. Punching their way through problems isn’t always the answer. Besides it’s likely they would need to puzzle out the situation before they punch it out. So let’s build a team that’s capable of doing just that.


A Detective (interrogation, clue finding)
A Medical doctor (patching the team up, investigating weird medical cases)
A scientist/inventor (for building things and investigating scientific cases)
An archaeologist (for investigating weird archeology related cases)
An occultist (for those weird supernatural cases)
A generalist (for filling in any gaps)

Not only doe these six characters need to be skilled in their fields, but they also need to be capable outside in the field.

So here’s my list:

Detective John McClane (Die Hard franchise (Detective)
Dr. Dana Scully (X-files. Doctor)
Colonel Samantha Carter (StarGate Franchise, scientist/inventor)
Lara Croft (Tomb raider franchise, archeologist)
Bryan Mills (taken franchise, generalist)


All I’m really missing is an occultist. Unfortunately I don’t watch enough TV in that genre to pick a character. Does anyone have any ideas? You know, we could use a technology expert/computer hacker as well. Again I’m drawing a blank.

So my reasoning behind the team:

John McClane (detective)- he’s a NYC police detective with a talent for sniffing out trouble, he’s also tough as nails and a skilled fighter. Despite his accomplishments he has spent the majority of his time on the NYC police doing boring mundane detective work so he should be skilled in the detective roll. Plus he can drive anyone absolutely crazy.

Dr. Dana Scully (doctor)- she’s a high level medical doctor, with experience handling weird medical cases. Also she’s a trained field agent for the FBI so she can shoot a gun. She’s actually probably the least combat capable of the team but she’s still not helpless in a fight.

Colonel Samantha Carter (scientist)- she’s an astrophysicist that has been traveling to different planets and handling alien threats for years now. Oh and she’s a U.S. air force colonel with leadership and combat experience.

Lara croft (archaeologist)- she’s a trained archaeologist/treasure hunter with self taught survival and combat skills. Plus she’s tremendously athletic and can traverse just about any terrain with little difficulty. She would probably become the heart of the team, Dana and Sam are both rather Cerebral in thought.

Bryan Mills (generalist)- he’s a retired CIA field agent that’s actually not wanted by the feds (unlike Jason borne), which allows him to operate on or off grid (where as Jason borne can only operate off grid) as needed. He has a grab-bag of skills including but not limited to tracking, surveillance, interrogation, infiltration, and combat.

[GloatingSwine]

James Bond appeared in an earlier book, along with Fireball XL-5 (the spaceship). The only characters carried over from the original Victorian books are Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain,

He's in The Black Dossier, which is exceptionally weird even by Alan Moore standards.

He's a villain in the LXG universe.

[GolemsVoice]

Since I'm currently rewatching all the X-Files, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, all the way. You can't really just get one, they come as a pair!

Lara Croft is a good suggestion.

[Rogar Demonblud]

You'll need some kind of hacker/tech type as well, in this day and age.

[Southern Cross]

Speaking from a person who HATED the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...
If you want a mystic how about John Constantine? While his show did end, he did guest-star on Arrow...

[GloatingSwine]

One thing you'll note about LXG is that there are no comic book characters in it.

Not even in the modern set ones.

It's a universe predominantly filled with literary characters. It's not about drawing from popular culture but from written worlds.

Stick to books for your LXGs, and if there are films based on the books use book versions of characters.

Your options for wizarding should be Harry Dresden or Anton Gorodetksy.

[Blackhawk748]

Yeah, I was trying to think of my list and the ones I have off the top of it are:

Leader: The Boss (The Saints Row games). Charismatic, dangerous, and absolutely crazy.
Joel and Ellie (The Last of Us). Skilled survivalists. Ellie makes a good perspective character and Joel is a ruthless brawler.
Lara Croft (The recent Tomb Raider reboot). "It's just one girl!" "Yeah, well, that 'one girl' is kicking our asses!"
Sherlock (BBC's Sherlock). Brilliant, entertaining, and hilariously less sociopathic than the Boss. ("I prefer 'puckish rogue'.")

Only a five man band, yes, but just think about the amount of banter these five could put out! The snark! It's off the charts!


They need some magical back up for the weird cases so I'm voting for Harry Dresden

The team is done, though the audience may die from Snark Poisoning.

[comicshorse]

One thing you'll note about LXG is that there are no comic book characters in it.

Not even in the modern set ones.

I

I'm pretty sure Dan Dare appears and he's a comic book character

(Billy Bunter also appears in comics but started as prose stories so ....)

P.S
Also Rupert the Bear and Tiger Tim ( who are some of Moreau's creations) are from newspaper comic strips

[TheThan]

Speaking from a person who HATED the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...
If you want a mystic how about John Constantine? While his show did end, he did guest-star on Arrow...

I love the concept, but i wasn't terribly keen on the execution. Which makes threads like this really fun.



You'll need some kind of hacker/tech type as well, in this day and age.

The only hacker I can think of right off the top of my head is Alec Hardison from Leverage. But he’s already on a team… hrrm.

[dps]

Let's see:

Team Leader: Mac Taylor
Science Guy: Abby Scuito
Magic/Occultist: Rupert Giles
Team Medic: Mark Sloan
Team Muscle: Isador Cortez
Computer Expert: Penelope Garcia

[comicshorse]

The only hacker I can think of right off the top of my head is Alec Hardison from Leverage. But he’s already on a team… hrrm.

Hell, lets get his arch rival 'Chaos' in there and raise the snark level some more

[Clertar]

For the hacker part, it would have to be Root, from Person of Interest :smallcool:

[Traab]

Could always go Abbey/Mcgee from NCIS if you want a hacker type. More Mcgee really, but abbey is a great all around forensic type who also is decent with a computer.

[Friv]

One thing you'll note about LXG is that there are no comic book characters in it.

Not even in the modern set ones.

It's a universe predominantly filled with literary characters. It's not about drawing from popular culture but from written worlds.

Stick to books for your LXGs, and if there are films based on the books use book versions of characters.

Your options for wizarding should be Harry Dresden or Anton Gorodetksy.

Just based on the original, though, it's primarily pulp and mass market literary characters.

The fact is, television is a new media that's as prevalent, if not more so, than books in the modern era, so television and movie characters should be fair game.

Would agree about comics characters, though, and everyone should be on the same rough playing field. That is, if you sort of squint, everyone on the team should be reasonably able to have had their media adventures prior to joining the team, without one of them rendering another one obsolete. So I'd be dubious about, say, putting Harry Dresden on the same team as Jason Bourne, just because Dresden's world is so chock-full of in-your-face magic that I can't imagine how it wasn't visible in Bourne's adventures.

[Pex]

Harry Potter
James Bond
John McClane
Jason Bourne
Dr. Joan Watson
Douglas Fargo
Flynn Carsen

Honorable Mention for not being 21st century:

Indiana Jones
Encyclopedia Brown
Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew

[factotum]

So I'd be dubious about, say, putting Harry Dresden on the same team as Jason Bourne, just because Dresden's world is so chock-full of in-your-face magic that I can't imagine how it wasn't visible in Bourne's adventures.

I'm not sure that's a valid criticism, for two reasons: firstly, Dresden's world is *our* world--magic is supposed to be secret from the "normal" people. It's in your face for Dresden himself because he's part of that secret world. The second issue is that the printed Leagues have already mixed things up massively--I've already mentioned that Fireball XL-5 and James Bond appear in the same volume, so we have a world where rocket ships are commonplace in the 1950s crashing into the semi-serious spy antics of the James Bond novels. If that can happen in the published works, no reason something similar can't happen in the speculative version.

[Rakaydos]

the guy from Da Vinci Code with the super memory.
SAL 2000 (HAL's "sister", possibly throwing in some Skynet references)
Jason Borune, assasin/spy
Kitty Norvel, werewolf journalist

[thorgrim29]

Agreed on the Winchester brothers, though that will inevitably lead to everybody else in the team dying. The Doctor might be a bit OP for this, how about Captain Jack? Other than that, Lara Croft or Nathan Drake from video games, either Carter or Mckay from Stargate, Neil Caffery from White Collar, Jason Bourne or Jack Reacher, Harry Dresden, Hermione Granger (not enough girls on the team, and better than Harry if you take out Prophecy Power (tm)).

[digiman619]

My choice for this:
Carlisle Cullen from Twilight (Medical doctor/muscle)
Doctor K from Power Rangers RPM (scientist/inventor)
Daniel Jackson from Stargate (archaeologist)
Harry Dresden from the Dresden Files (occultist/detective)
Ziva David from NCIS (infiltration)

[Benthesquid]

I'll submit to individuals for potential inclusion on the team, and a villain.

Will Graham (Hannibal)- Filling the role occupied by Mina in the original book- Will is an experienced and capable investigator who has survived one of the worst monsters of his era. He brings to the table his experience as an FBI agent, his familiarity with the worst humanity can offer, and his weird metronome empathy powers.

Shadow (American Gods) I went back and forth between Shadow and Fat Charlie, but in the end I didn't have the heart to take away Fat Charlie's happy ending. Shadow, who has drank with gods, fist-fought a leprechaun, and been to death and back, will do his part to hold up the occult end of the team.

Heisenberg (Breaking Bad): The semi mythical lord of the drug trade. As the song puts it "A kingpin cooking meth in the middle of the day/having dinner by the pool with the DEA." The key here is the interplay between Walter White as we saw him (a deeply conflicted man who slowly dug his own grave until Heisenberg buried him) and what the people who crossed him would have seen- a skilled chemist and master manipulator who came out of nowhere, built an empire, and left everyone who crossed him dead.

[Rakaydos]

Written works only:

Skitter (Worm): I just decided that this thread is sorely lacking in Worm characters. Skitter has a superheroic ability to control bugs within a several black radius. She can hear through them, kinda sorta see through them, sence their locations in 3D space, and individually control each member of multi-million bug swarms. But they're still just regular bugs she finds around. Oh, and she has a bulletproof costume she made from spidersilk.

Charles McCormac (Mercy Thompsen series and spinoff): A werewolf with native american shaman blood. He sees spirits and can transform into a monsterous killing machine. His job is to kill other monstrous killing machines (werewolves) who've lost control and arnt listening to his father anymore. He's also a top notch financial advisor and hacker.

General Contact Unit Arbitrary (Culture): a Culture AI ship that visited Earth around 1977. Has ridiculus control over reality as we humans know it. Refuses to read minds, not a fan of overt contact with earth, but quite manipulative.

Atticus O'Sullivan (Iron Druid): An immortal magic user, looks 16. stays current with pop culture to blend in. Draws power from physical contact with the earth. Has been shot through the heart, and survived thanks to a contingent spell.

Anita Blake (Anita Blake): Necromancer with a Master Vampire as a familiar. Licenced Hunter of the supernatural. More template stacking than Harry Dresden.

[The Glyphstone]

Point of order, Atticus was 'killed' by a headshot, not a heartshot.:smallbiggrin:


(Also, spoilers for Hunted, btw.)