Researching and writing about comic books turned big box office films has been the most fun for me this last year - as well as, the most exhausting work. At first glance, I was ready to dismiss The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as pure Hollywood exploitation for the all mighty dollar. But when I heard Sean Connery was going to play one of these "super heroes" I felt I owed it to him to dig deeper into the comic legend. As it turned out, this was not your typical comic book story, at all.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a team of characters, each with their own gifts or "powers." But not in the sense that most comic book fans would be familiar with ... instead of shooting webs from their wrists, blades from their knuckles, or turning into a steroid green mass of monster flesh ... these super heroes (and villains) are simply legends of great literature:

A Rouge - Rodney Skinner aka Dr. Hawley Griffin (from H.G. Wells - The Invisible Man)
A Scientist - Captain Nemo (from Jules Verne - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)
A Spy - Tom Sawyer (from Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
A Hunter - Allan Quatermain (from H. Rider Haggard - King Solomon's Mines)
A Vampire - Mina Murray (from Bram Stoker - Dracula)
A Beast - Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde (from Robert Louis Stevenson - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) ... actually is two of the original 6 XGL
An Immortal - Dorian Gray (from Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray)

As the story begins, these seven have been dug up from their famed literary exploits to help rid the city of a mysterious madman attempting to take over the world. Of course, London should be the first place for a megalomaniac to begin taking over the world. After all, The X-Men have their villains in New York and Washington to worry about right now.

The first to be recruited and lead this new band of prim and proper super heroes is Allan Quatermain, who Hollywood has seen fit to have promoted. In the comics, Mina was the team leader. Neither Tom nor Dorian were characters in the comics. Although, it can be argued that references occur with regard to the authors and their famous creations within the comic book series. And notably absent is their most notorious adversary, Dr. Fu-Manchu, from the first 6 issue mini series. Likely one of those political correctness moves, the arch villain bent on world domination is some mysterious "masked" madman known only as The Fantom (ummm, fantom? phantom?? The Phantom of the Opera???). And while film makers may impose sly literary references in the movie, it is doubtful they would go to such clever lengths to test the intellect of their audiences. That's what books are for ... even illustrated ones.

The Recruiter:

• Mycroft 'M' Holmes, played by Richard Roxburgh (Sherlock Holmes in the made-for-Brit television The Hound of the Baskervilles, and playing Dracula in next year's monster mash - Van Helsing)

The League:

• Allan Quatermain, played by Sean Connery (Darby O'Gill and the Little People, everyone's favorite James Bond, Zardoz, Meteor, Outland, Highlander I and II, Indiana Jones's dad, First Knight, and Dragonheart)
• Mina Murray, played by Peta Wilson (the famed femspy in the television series, La Femme Nikita)
• Captain Nemo, played by Naseeruddin Shah (movie star of countless films in India)
• Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, played by Jason Flemyng (Deep Rising, the TV mini series Alice in Wonderland, Bruiser, and another Alan Moore comic turned film - From Hell)
• Rodney Skinner aka The Invisible Man, played by Tony Curan (The 13th Warrior, Gladiator, television mini series The Mists of Avalon, and Blade 2)
• Tom Sawyer, played by Shane West (Dracula 2000)
• Dorian Gray, played by Stuart Townsend (Lestat in Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned)

The Villians:

• Dante, played by Max Ryan (Attila)
  ... (from Durante Alighieri - Dante's Inferno poem La Divina Commedia)
• The Fantom, played by ????
  ... this is a literary guess of mine, check out the film to find out how they play this out (from Gaston Leroux - The Phantom of the Opera)

The comic series threw together some of our most memorable characters in classic Victorian era literature. Much as the famous authors themselves crossed paths during this time period. Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker had competed for the love of the same woman, who Bram would eventually marry. Part of the fun of this comic book mini series was trying to figure out each of the literary players. Also, each character was recruited following personal problems: Quatermain was found toking away at an opium den, Murray recently divorced from her love Johnathon Harker (maybe due to her being bitten by Dracula, and forced to drink his blood), Griffin (now Skinner in the film, due to some unresolved copy write issue) was molesting and impregnated an all-girl's school, Edward Hyde has the mob attempting to kill him, and Capt. Nemo is back to his literary self - an Indian Sikh engaging in various acts of piracy with his nifty ship Nautilus, to battle the British forces oppressing his beloved homeland.

It will be painfully obvious to fans of these heroes that the film will have been toned down for the sake of political correctness. Alan Moore's rather mature 'slash' comic mini series for DC Comics, poked fun everywhere, not just the literary era. Racism, pornography, religion and political commentary all were all fair game, with as much disregard to "taste" as possible. Much of the artwork was exploited to give the reader a feel for the era. There are advertisements within the comic, with particular attention to the fake ones, such as the Marvel "Whirling Spray" Vaginal Syringe ... which, needless-to-say, caused DC enough concern over what their comic book rival might feel about such a term, they reprinted the ad to read with the word Amaze, instead.

As for the other characters ... Mycroft 'M' Holmes or Sherlock's brother? Naw, it's James Moriarty, Holmes's infamous antagonist (from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of the Baskervilles) was the mysterious boss in the comics, not the recruiter. Campion Bond (due to current copy write, they couldn't use Ian Fleming's James Bond character which began with On Her Majesty's Secret Service, so they poked a lil fun by creating the ancestor-ish secret agent) was the recruiter under orders from "M" ... watch for a possible brief appearance of this character, which is due to be featured in the sequel. And Dr. Fu Manchu, which sadly doesn't look to be featured at all in the film, was the arch villain in the comics. There is always hope in the sequel (from Sax Rohmer - The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu).

Release Date: July 11th, 2003

Check out the cool trailers and other goodies at The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen web site (yeah, yeah, they will likely shorten this to LXG or simply "The League" or something during it's release):

http://www.leagueofextraordinarygentlemen.com/