For Fun Only: U.S.-based League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

donbosco

donbosco

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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a group of British citizen and colonial secret agents, employed by the British Government in the 19th Century, that serves to protect England from threats, both normal and paranormal. (It is a graphic novel) The group is comprised of fictional characters whose “lives”and adventures took place, more or less, during the latter half of that century.



The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen



What would a contemporaneous U.S. version of this group look like? Who would be a member? This is a loose concept and the lack of rules is salient feature of the idea.
 
donbosco said:
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a group of British citizen and colonial secret agents, employed by the British Government in the 19th Century, that serves to protect England from threats, both normal and paranormal. (It is a graphic novel) The group is comprised of fictional characters whose “lives”and adventures took place, more or less, during the latter half of that century.



The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen



What would a contemporaneous U.S. version of this group look like? Who would be a member? This is a loose concept and the lack of rules is salient feature of the idea.
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If only the Orderof the Golden Fleece were such
 
Rounding out middle school folk tales, John Henry and Pecos Bill.

Then maybe Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn.

You could pick maybe Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade.

Trying to come up with the fictional equivalent of Ben Franklin.
 
So here’s the question - what do these characters bring to the team?

Bunyan and Henry are size and strength pretty obviously and Poor Richard is sagacity.

Chingachguk is also wisdom and just for the hell of it, let’s say he’s got great, Green Arrow/Hawkeye skills with a bow and arrow.
 
Pecos Bill brings that frontier grit and determination. Plus he can ride freaking tornadoes.

Tom Sawyer comes up with the clever schemes. Just a crafty character.

Phillip Marlow or Sam Spade can solve a crime and bring two fists and a 45 with them.

Might be nice to get a woman on the team despite the Gentleman moniker. The brits have two although I've never heard of Mina Murray.
 
I also have a quibble with this so called British League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. How do the brits get to claim Captain Nemo, an Indian character written by a frenchman? Roland is a French Knight from a French legend and the Orlando flavor was written by Italians.

If the thievin Brits get them, then we get Zorro. He was written by an American.

Grampa Simpson Grandpa GIF by MOODMAN
 
donbosco said:
Annie Oakley has been kind of turned into fiction - like Buffalo Bill she starred in dime novels.

Hester Prynne?
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That was sort of the issue I encountered- most American characters that endure from that time are historical people with exaggerated exploits, rather than pure fiction.
 
I would nominate Nellie Bly, (a) successfully went "Around the World" in 72 days in 1889, (b) went undercover as a patient at a mental hospital, (c) invented immersion journalism, such as working at a copper factory, (d) invented milk cans and stacking garbage cans, and (e) got herself arrested when she was falsely accused of being a British spy in WW1 when all she was doing was "reporting from the front."
 
05C40 said:
I would nominate Nellie Bly, (a) successfully went "Around the World" in 72 days in 1889, (b) went undercover as a patient at a mental hospital, (c) invented immersion journalism, such as working at a copper factory, (d) invented milk cans and stacking garbage cans, and (e) got herself arrested when she was falsely accused of being a British spy in WW1 when all she was doing was "reporting from the front."
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I think we're looking at fictional characters. I think when you look at somebody like Nelly Bly or Amelia Earhart or Annie Oakley, they lived an amazing real life.

But no hard and fast rules. Miss Bly certainly meets the extraordinary criteria.
 
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gtyellowjacket said:
I think we're looking at fictional characters. I think when you look at somebody like Nelly Bly or Amelia Earhart or Annie Oakley, they lived an amazing real life.

But no hard and fast rules. Miss Bly certainly meets the extraordinary criteria.
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The only reason Nellie Bly isn't a fictional character is because any self-respecting book editor would have dismissed a recounting of her actual life as absurdist fiction that no one would believe.
 
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