View source for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One

{{Short description|Comic Book}}
{{No footnotes|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox comic book title  <!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics-->

| image               = League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Absolute edition, vol. 1) (cover art).jpg
| caption             = Cover
| schedule            = Irregular
| limited             = y
| LoEG                = y
| genre               = [[Alternate history]]<br>[[Steampunk]]
| publisher           = [[Wildstorm]] ([[DC Comics]])
| date                = March [[1999 in comics|1999]] - September [[2000 in comics|2000]]
| issues              = 6
| main_char_team      = [[Mina Harker|Mina Murray]]<br/>[[Allan Quatermain]]<br/>[[Griffin (The Invisible Man)|Hawley Griffin]]<br/>[[Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (character)|Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde]]<br/>[[Captain Nemo]]
| writers             = [[Alan Moore]]
| artists             = [[Kevin O'Neill (comics)|Kevin O'Neill]]
| colorists           = [[Benedict Dimagmaliw]]
| letterers           = [[Bill Oakley (artist)|Bill Oakley]]
| editors             = [[Scott Dunbier]]
| creative_team_month = 
| creative_team_year  = 
| creators            = 
| TPB                 = Hardcover
| ISBN                = 1-56389-665-6
| TPB1                = Paperback
| ISBN1               = 1-56389-858-6
| TPB2                = Absolute edition
| ISBN2               = 1-4012-0052-4
| subcat              = Wildstorm Comics
| sort                = League of Extraordinary Gentlemen v1
}}
'''''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One''''' is a [[comic book]] [[Limited series (comics)|limited series]] written by [[Alan Moore]] and illustrated by [[Kevin O'Neill (comics)|Kevin O'Neill]], published under the [[America's Best Comics]] imprint of [[DC Comics]] in the United States and under [[Vertigo (DC Comics)|Vertigo]] in the United Kingdom. It is the first story in the larger ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen|League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' series. The story takes place in 1898 in a fictional world where all of the characters and events from [[Victorian literature]] (and possibly the entirety of fiction) coexist. The characters and plot elements borrow from works of writers such as [[Jules Verne]], [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]], [[Bram Stoker]], [[H. G. Wells]] and [[Robert Louis Stevenson]].

==Plot==
===Issue 1: Empire Dreams===
In 1898, one year after her encounter with [[Dracula]], [[Mina Harker|Mina Murray]] has divorced her husband and now works for the British government. She meets with [[MI5]] agent Campion Bond (the grandfather of [[James Bond (literary character)|James Bond]]), who gives her the task of gathering selected members for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a secret task force whose job it will be to protect the [[British Empire]] from potential threats. [[Captain Nemo]] escorts Mina to Egypt, where she finds a heavily intoxicated [[Allan Quatermain]] in an [[opium]] den. Two Arab men enter the den and attempt to rape Mina, but Allan intervenes and kills one of them. As the other man rushes off to tell the authorities, Mina drags Allan through the busy streets towards the docks, where Nemo's submarine, the ''[[Nautilus (Verne)|Nautilus]]'', emerges from the sea. Nemo fends off the Egyptian police with a harpoon gun, and Allan is brought on board the ''Nautilus'' to recover from his opium addiction.

For their next assignment, the League travel to [[Paris]] and meet with [[C. Auguste Dupin]] to investigate a [[The Murders in the Rue Morgue|recent string of violent murders]]. Mina poses as a prostitute to lure the killer into a trap, but is kidnapped. Allan and Dupin trace the killer to his apartment and find Mina, but are attacked by a large monster.

===Issue 2: Ghosts & Miracles===
After a brief fight, Allan forces the monster out of the apartment window, and the fall renders it unconscious. Once on the ''Nautilus'', the monster transforms into a frail, terrified man with no memory of recent events. The man is [[Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (character)|Dr Henry Jekyll]], while the monster is his [[alter ego]] Mr. Hyde. Mina bids farewell to Dupin, and the ''Nautilus'' leaves Paris. When the League return to [[London]], Bond sets them their next task: going undercover at a girls' school to investigate three separate cases of [[Parthenogenesis|sexless conception]]. 

Mina, Allan and Nemo visit the school undercover and meet the [[dominatrix]] headmistress, [[Rosa Coote]]. The girls believe they have been impregnated by the [[Holy Spirit]], and the league stay the night for their investigation. Late at night, Mina catches an unseen force sexually assaulting one of the girls, [[Pollyanna]], and throws a tin of paint over it, making the entity partly visible. The League successfully apprehend the "Holy Spirit", which is actually [[Griffin (The Invisible Man)|Hawley Griffin]], [[the Invisible Man]], and take him to their new headquarters within the [[Secretum (British Museum)|secret annexe]] of the [[British Museum]]. Bond promises Griffin that if he agrees to work for them, he will be granted a [[pardon]] for his past crimes and MI5 will research a cure for Griffin's invisibility.

===Issue 3: Mysteries of the East===
With the League fully assembled, Bond gives them the task of recovering a stolen supply of Cavorite from a crime lord referred to as "The Doctor" (an alias for [[Fu Manchu]], which name the comic was not allowed to use, for trademark reasons). He explains that Britain was secretly planning a Moon landing to coincide with the turn of the 20th century celebrations, supervised by [[The First Men in the Moon|Professor Selwyn Cavor]] and using Cavorite to power and levitate heavier-than-air machines.

The League are dispatched to London's [[Limehouse]] district in order to learn more about The Doctor. Mina and Griffin question Quong Lee (a storyteller from books by [[Thomas Burke (author)|Thomas Burke]]), who reveals that The Doctor is indeed operating within the area, but only gives them information in the form of a cryptic riddle: "The waters lap beneath the heavenly bridge. The dragon sleeps below it. My advice to you: do not awaken it". Although Griffin is sceptical, Mina concludes that The Doctor's activities must be taking place beneath Rotherhithe Bridge.

Meanwhile, Allan and Dr Jekyll enter The Doctor's lair, where they spy on him carving Chinese symbols into a man's flesh with acid. The league re-group on the ''Nautilus'' and organise their evidence. Mina believes The Doctor has stolen the Cavorite for some nefarious purpose, and suspects that he is building an aerial war machine in the unfinished [[Rotherhithe Tunnel]]. She and Allan return to the Limehouse district to investigate activity around the abandoned Rotherhithe Tunnel, and eventually find a large cavern where The Doctor's airship (the "dragon" from Quong Lee's riddle) is being constructed.

===Issue 4: Gods of Annihilation===
Allan and Mina infiltrate The Doctor's lair, but are caught by a guard. An unnoticed Griffin kills the guard and Allan disguises himself in his uniform, planning to get inside the airship and steal back the Cavorite. Griffin meets with Jekyll and tells him to create a distraction. Jekyll turns into Mr Hyde and starts slaughtering the guards, while Allan and Mina sneak into the ship, locate the Cavorite engine and steal it. They reunite with Hyde and Griffin in an underwater glass tunnel, but are cornered by more guards. To escape, Allan shoots a hole in the glass and Mina activates the Cavorite, propelling them upwards through the cascading water. The Doctor's lair is flooded, the ship is destroyed, and the ''Nautilus'' rescues the league as they fall back down into the [[Thames]].

Bond congratulates the league on their success, and leaves the ''Nautilus'' with the Cavorite, telling them he will take it back to his superior [[M (James Bond)|M]]. A suspicious Griffin follows Bond back to the Military Intelligence Headquarters, and discovers that M is in fact criminal mastermind [[Professor Moriarty|Professor James Moriarty]].

===Issue 5: "Some Deep, Organizing Power..."===
A flashback shows the climax of [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s short story "[[The Final Problem]]", in which [[Sherlock Holmes]] and Professor Moriarty have their final confrontation atop the [[Reichenbach Falls]] in Switzerland. However, Moriarty survives his fall into the water below (though his spine and right arm are broken and heal in a deformed state), and is rescued by Campion Bond and [[Colonel Sebastian Moran]]. His criminal empire is in fact a front created by British Intelligence, which Moriarty now controls along with London's West end criminal underworld, while The Doctor controls the East.

Moriarty has built his own aerial warship, which he can now power with the Cavorite. Griffin returns to the ''Nautilus'' and informs the league of what he's discovered, and that Moriarty plans to bomb London's East end and destroy what remains of The Doctor's criminal empire.

===Issue 6: The Day of Be-With-Us===
Moriarty launches his airship and starts to bomb the East end of London. While the Doctor sends armed boarders to the airship on gliders, the League boards [[Five Weeks in a Balloon|the ''Victoria'']], a hot-air balloon Nemo had stored on the ''Nautilus'', and anchor it to the airship. While Mr Hyde and Nemo attack the crew, Mina and Allan ascend to the top deck where Moriarty is waiting for them. Allan guns down the guards, but Moriarty shoots him in the shoulder and prepares to kill him. Mina smashes the Cavorite engine's container with a monkey wrench, and Moriarty rushes toward the device, grabs onto it, and is propelled into the night sky. The League leave the airship in the ''Victoria'', and are once again rescued by the ''Nautilus'', this time manned by Nemo's first mate [[Ishmael (Moby-Dick)|Ishmael]] (the narrator from [[Moby-Dick in popular culture|Moby-Dick]]).

The story ends with [[Mycroft Holmes]] (the brother of Sherlock Holmes) becoming the new director of British Intelligence, congratulating the League for their work, and telling them to remain in London should there be further need for them in the future. Meanwhile, [[Martian (War of the Worlds)|Martian]] ships fall from the sky and descend on [[Woking]], setting in motion the [[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II|second volume]].

==Extra material==
Each issue of the comic also includes a chapter of a short illustrated prose prequel called ''[[Allan and the Sundered Veil]]'', which features Allan Quatermain, [[John Carter of Mars|John Carter]], [[H. P. Lovecraft]]'s [[Randolph Carter]], and [[The Time Traveller (character)|the Time Traveller]] from [[H. G. Wells]]' ''[[The Time Machine]]''. The entire story is included in the book version of Volume One.

Also at the back of Volume One are several extras, including the covers of all issues contained in the volume. Also included is a "paint by numbers" drawing attributed to Basil Hallward, who was the painter of the eponymous ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'' in the novel. A second version is seen two pages later, coloured, and clearly intended to be the portrait towards the end of the novel when Gray's painted visage has become decrepit and horrid, thus reflecting Gray's personality. The blurb about the paint-by-numbers drawing mentions Hallward's mysterious disappearance, which is a reference to a part of the novel where Dorian Gray, upset that Hallward found out about the fate of his artwork, kills Hallward and has a friend dispose of the body, leaving no trace of evidence. The blurb for the second version of the drawing also mentions failed attempts at a paint-by-numbers by Richard Pickman (of "[[Pickman's Model]]") and a cabinet-making kit by Caligari (of ''[[The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari]]'').

A painting of Nemo's submarine, the ''Nautilus'', in the background of the cover of volume one also bears Hallward's signature.

==Second press run on issue 5==<!-- This section is linked from [[Comic book]] -->
Issue #5 contained an authentic vintage advertisement for a Marvel-brand [[douche]]. [[Marvel Comics]] is DC's chief competitive rival within the comics industry and Moore had had a public dispute with Marvel, his former employer. This ad caused DC executive [[Paul Levitz]] to order the entire print run destroyed and reprinted with the offending advertisement edited.

In a later title, Moore creates a "Miracle Douche Recall" headline on a newspaper, which is not only a reference to the furor, but is also a reference to the Marvelman, when Marvel Comics had previously retitled [[Marvelman]], which was written by Alan Moore, to Miracleman, despite Marvelman having been around for 40 years.

==Awards==

''Volume I'' won the 2000 [[Bram Stoker Award for Best Illustrated Narrative]].

==Collected editions==
* hardcover: {{ISBN|1-56389-665-6}}
* paperback: {{ISBN|1-56389-858-6}}
*[[DC Comics Absolute Editions|Absolute edition]] (deluxe hardcover): {{ISBN|1-4012-0052-4}}, including Moore's original scripts and additional artwork by O'Neill

==Annotations==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Heroesandmonsters.jpg|thumb|Heroes & Monsters]] -->
[[Jess Nevins]]' annotations for this volume are available in a book entitled ''Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' and features:

* Annotations to the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", revised and expanded from the versions previously available online.
* Essays by Nevins on the history of the "Yellow Peril" archetype, pivotal to the first LOEG miniseries; on the origin of the "crossover" concept and team-ups in fiction; and on the Victorian character archetypes present in the LOEG miniseries.
* Biographies of the main characters in the LOEG miniseries
* Biographies of the authors whose creations are featured in the LOEG series.
* Interviews with and commentary by the creators of the LOEG
* An introduction by Alan Moore

==Film==
Elements from ''Volume One'' are present in the loose 2003 [[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)|film adaptation]]. Similar to the comic, Professor Moriarty is revealed to be the antagonist in the film, though here he physically approaches the League as M, with no presence of Campion Bond. The revelation is not made clear until well into the film's climax, with no reference to Sherlock Holmes or Moriarty apparent at any earlier point. The film also mimics ''Volume One'' in a sequence where the Invisible Man (here named Rodney Skinner, a thief who stole Griffin's invisibility formula) departs from the team to spy on the antagonists while the League wrongly accuse him of betraying the group. Subtle references to the comic are also made in the background, such as a mutual newspaper front page which speculates the Martian phenomenon leading to the [[Martians (War of the Worlds)|Martian]] invasion from H. G. Wells' ''[[The War of the Worlds]]''.

==References==
*[[Jess Nevins]]; ''Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' (paperback, 239 pages, [[MonkeyBrain]], 2003, {{ISBN|1-932265-04-X}}, [[Titan Books]], 2006, {{ISBN|1-84576-316-5}})
*{{gcdb series|id=7064|title=''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen''}}

{{Alan Moore}}
{{The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume I}}
[[Category:1999 comics debuts]]
[[Category:Comics by Alan Moore]]
[[Category:Comics based on works by Jules Verne]]
[[Category:Adaptations of works by H. G. Wells]]
[[Category:Fiction set in 1898]]