League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Allan Quartermain’s job is not to find lost mines and treasures in Africa. It is to find - and stop - those responsible for engineering a “world war.”

To a 19th century person, such an event was unimaginable. European nations had warred against each other for centuries, but a world war would have seemed far-fetched at the time. Little did people expect the reality that would soon descend upon them.

But in the world of fiction, anything is possible, so Quartermain gets help from other famous made-up characters. Key members of his group are:

• Mina Harker [nee Murray] (from Bram Stoker’s Dracula) who was called “Ellen Hutter” in F.W. Murnau’s standard-setting vampire story Nosferatu;
  
  
• Captain Nemo (from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea);
  
  
• Dr. Henry Jekyll (from Robert Louis Stevenson's famous story Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde);
  
  
• Dorian (from Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray);
  
  
• Rodney Skinner (a name change, due to copyright issues, but based on H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man); and
  
  
• Tom Sawyer (albeit a mature version of Mark Twain’s famous character)

What is the mission of this League of notables? To prevent the unthinkable. To keep madmen in check. To stop flying machines from dropping explosives over London.

Flying machines? In the days before the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk? What could possibly fly over London before planes were invented?