Trying to be a little more positive before I go back to slagging off the new Star Trek movie (see the last two entries), I thought I’d put my creative juices to a little work, and tackle a question posed by my Bryan Irrera, and try to come up with a modern-day version of the League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, the League is an entity in a series of amazing graphic novels by Alan Moore (and a lackluster film allegedly based on same) encompassing classic pulp heroes and villains formed as a secret British-government run team of “extraordinary” people to protect the interests of the British Empire. The original team included such notable figures as Dr. Henry Jeckyll, Mina Harker, Allan Quartermain, and so on.
Moore has evolved the team as time has gone on, creating new generations in different decades. In his Black Dossier, Moore started to run up against the hostile waters of trademark and copyright laws and needed to hide the true identities of some of his characters like Jimmy the Spy and Miss Emma Night.
A couple of times, Bryan and I have talked about who would be the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen if they were operating today. He’s had some inspired ideas for team members in the past, which have influenced some of my selections, I will admit. (Most notably Cole, who was on his team as well.) After a lot of debate, and a little bit of thought, I arrived at this list.
Some ground rules. First, while Alan Moore’s League obviously concentrates on British characters protecting the remains of the Empire, my team is considerably more multinational, as I believe any team today would need to be. They’d probably be operating with UN sanction, instead of just the British Crown, allowing them more access to trouble spots that are no longer under Her Majesty’s long shadow.
Second, I decided to stick with characters who are known in their own right and not as parts of a team already. This rules out the DC and Marvel superhero pantheons, obviously. Even though they aren’t “really” a team, I count the characters from Heroes in this category. Also, characters who are mainly known as sidekicks to other heroes are generally ruled out, so as much as I would love to have Dorothy McShane Schofield on my team, she has to sit this one out.
Third, characters need to be contemporary, or near contemporary. Characters from the future, or who make their name in the future, are verboten, so no Wesley Crusher or Mike Smith.
I’m also reaching across more media than Moore since the 1990′s, 2000′s, and onward have new versions of the Penny Dreadfuls. TV, films, games, and websites share the place in today’s culture that the pulps did in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
With all that out of the way, here is my team.
The team is led by Lara Croft, famous British explorer and archaeologist. Recruited for the team by her predecessor in the position, longtime friend and rival Dr. Henry Jones Jr., Croft assumed command after Jones mysteriously disappeared. She is brash, brazen, and willing to take risks that many — no, make that most — would consider ill advised, yet she always manages to get the job done. An inspiring leader, she has earned the loyalty of all of the other members of her team.
Croft’s second in command is Dr. Leroy Brown, the team’s strategist and researcher. Although older than Croft (he just marked his 50th birthday) he defers to her leadership mainly due to a dislike of field work. In addition to his encyclopedia-like knowledge (which had earned him his now-hated boyhood nickname), Brown’s mastery of computers and information systems makes him invaluable. Although shy and retiring, rumor has it that Brown was once quite the ladies’ man, as evidenced by his long list of female operatives who he has been known to call on in a pinch, ranging from longtime friend Sally Meaney to newcomer Harriet Welsch. While most of the team members receive very generous stipends from the U.N. in reward for their work, Brown still insists on only accepting the same salary he started with: $91.25 a year…plus expenses.
Nancy Thompson is the team’s resident demonologist and parapsychologist. In her life she has experienced more supernatural phenomena, and fought off more otherworldly baddies, than anyone since the legendary Mina Harker. Her bravery and recklessness are second only to Croft’s, and her boundless energy and dogged determination have convinced the rest of the team that she probably never sleeps. Like her idol Harker, however, Thompson has a dark side that has only been glimpsed on rare occasions. Like Dr. Brown, Thompson also has a team of field operatives she can call on in an emergency, most notably two brothers from Kansas.
Nancy’s right-hand man and protege is Cole Sear. At only 21, Cole is very wise beyond his years and has as much experience, or more, than anyone on the team except for Nancy and Dr. Brown. He has been at work with the paranormal ever since the age of 9, when he discovered that he had the ability to not only communicate with, but also see and interact with, the dead. Originally seen as a bit of a mascot for the team, Cole has more than pulled his weight in recent years.
The team’s resident engineer and gadgeteer is Go Mifune. Once an aspiring young race car driver, Go was crippled in a horrific accident in his mid 20′s, and turned his talents to the mechanical and engineering aspects of his preferred field. Dr. Jones recruited him to the team six years ago, after telling him about a former member of the team: a similarly-crippled tennis player who had used technology to allow her to walk again. Much of the team’s high-tech weaponry and gadgets are Go’s creations. Some of his teammates believe that the reason Go joined the team was to use its resources to help him in his obsessive search for two people: his long lost brother, and the mysterious Racer X, who Go believes responsible for the accident that crippled him.
Amélie Poulain heads up the European operations for the team. While her angelic looks might lure people into a false sense of security, her targets often find that to be a fatal mistake. Miss Polain has a singular ability to see connections between people and things, and in her former job learned more about human nature than almost anyone else in history. She is also very creative and innovative, particularly in the area of revenge. She handles most of the team’s “wet work” when discretion is a must.
And on the other side of the globe, the team’s Asian operations are overseen by another disarmingly beautiful woman, Moroboshi Lum. Mrs. Moroboshi (née Invader) is one of a notorious alien race known as the Oni. Like her European counterpart, Lum uses her feminine wiles and beauty to her benefit, and the people that she goes up against are often shocked by her abilities. Lum is also the team’s extraterrestrial expert, and has almost single handedly fought off a number of alien incursions. Like her longtime friend Go (who recruited her), Lum is also obsessed with a missing loved one: her darling husband Ataru.
That’s my team. Your milage may vary.
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