Who's got the right stuff for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1990s?

Kafkonia said:
You may want to work in Remington Steele. Given his shady past, and the fact that he's played by Pierce Brosnan, you could certainly pass it off as a long-lived James Bond in hiding from his enemies/employers. That way you can have a James Bond throughout the franchise's history (and you can even give him a Timelord-like renewal ability to explain his differing appearances.)
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He wasn't really a PI, though- just a con man. I think Laura Holt would be a good choice.
 
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It occurred to me that a good set of villains would be the martians from the War of the Worlds tv series but that would be a bit obvious / overdone. The aliens led by Dr. Lizzardo from Buckeroo Banzai or the Visitors from V. At some point, there'd have to be ninjas since nothing says 80's like ninjas except for ninjas with J.R. Ewing as their master.
 

I really don't think that this can be done satisfactorily. The original LXG draws upon literary greats, that many people recognize, even if they can't quite place the reference, or have read the original work, a full 100 years or more after these works were published. Many of these characters have appeared or inspired hundreds or more other books, films, and comics.

A lot of the characters I have seen suggested in this thread, I just don't see them inspiring entertaining stories in 90 years time.
 

green slime said:
A lot of the characters I have seen suggested in this thread, I just don't see them inspiring entertaining stories in 90 years time.
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I would go so far as to so most if not all are passing fads.

The other problem is that many of the chosen characters don't really maintain the fiction that they live in the real world.

The grittier James Bond would be acceptable and has comparable public and literary stature to the figures of the original League, but he's not actually a character of the '90s, but rather of the 50's. Jack Bauer is potentially headed that direction, but I'd wait for 24 the movie and a series of books to come out before I'd make that call, and besides he's for the '00's' not the '90's.

Rambo is on more the right track, as he's become something of an iconic figure, but he's greatly diminished in stature and I'm not sure he's not going to just disappear.

Indiana Jones definately has the stature, but by literary convention he's a character from the 30's not the 90's.

Bruce Wayne has the stature, but the assumption of his existance does devestating things to our setting.

So far, I think the best vote so far is for Charlie McGee. Stephen Kings stories are of the right tone and sufficient stature, and Charlie has the right sort of back story and also the supernatural power that his other protagonists tend to lack.

The best team I think that I can field for the present day.
Charlie McGee
Clarice Starling (though Hannible Lector might be more in line with the original concept)
Jack Bauer
Cole Sear
Anita Blake

Stretching the concept a little, Alex Murphy (Robocop) might make potentially interesting 'muscle', especially playing up his undead like nature.
 

green slime said:
I really don't think that this can be done satisfactorily. The original LXG draws upon literary greats, that many people recognize, even if they can't quite place the reference, or have read the original work, a full 100 years or more after these works were published. Many of these characters have appeared or inspired hundreds or more other books, films, and comics.

A lot of the characters I have seen suggested in this thread, I just don't see them inspiring entertaining stories in 90 years time.
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Sounds like a fun campaign. I'd play in it.
 

Darth Shoju said:
Detective Elisa Maza as the sleuth/hard-boiled detective.
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I was about to suggest her. She could lead to David Xanatos serving as a financial backer.

Harry Dresden would also be a good inclusion.

It occurred to me that Toby from the movie Labyrinth could have been empowered by his exposure to all that magic at such a formative age.

Some other characters I might like to see in such a group are Brock Samson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brock_Samson), John Doe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Doe), and Jake Foley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_2.0).

I've seen a link between LoEG and Heroes. The New Traveler's Almanac has a reference to The Big Lebowski, which has someone who can be seen in one of the Heroes online graphic novels (http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/novels/downloads/Heroes_novel_017.pdf, page 5, panel 1).
 


I think using characters from TV/Movies or from total fantasy milieus even if they are literary (like Harry Potter) is veering way too far from the basic premise of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

At the very least, they should be ostensibly be able to exist as real people with their "stories" having some context in a realish world.

For example, Hyde and the invisible man may be way out there - but their characters are from a context where they are exceptions - they are not from setting with lots of monster-men and invisible people.
 

el-remmen said:
I think using characters from TV/Movies or from total fantasy milieus even if they are literary (like Harry Potter) is veering way too far from the basic premise of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

At the very least, they should be ostensibly be able to exist as real people with their "stories" having some context in a realish world.

For example, Hyde and the invisible man may be way out there - but their characters are from a context where they are exceptions - they are not from setting with lots of monster-men and invisible people.
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Yes. Quite. Which is one of the at least three reasons why a suggestion like 'Buffy' misses the point even were she to gain such stature that 90 years from now people were writting books and making movies about her.

1) Buffy exists in a world where monsters are far from being the exception.
2) The mileau of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' is comedy.
3) Buffy is a purely (or almost purely) heroic figure, whereas the original figures were generally in thier original conception villains.

A character like Angel from that series is more to the point, but see points #1 and especially #2.

I think to that we can add a metapoint #4, 'The character in question is assumed to be the most extraordinary thing in the setting of the original story.' This also kicks out Buffy, and is why Bruce Wayne is most certainly out.
 

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