The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One (2001)

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One is a comic book limited series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, published under the America's Best Comics imprint of DC Comics in the United States and under Vertigo in the United Kingdom. It is the first story in the larger 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 Murray has divorced her husband and now works for the British government. She meets with MI5 agent Campion Bond (the grandfather of James Bond), who gives her the task of gathering selected members for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a secret task force whose job is 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, 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 travels to Paris and meet with C. Auguste Dupin to investigate a 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. Henry Jekyll, while the monster is his alter ego Mr. Hyde. Mina bids farewell to Dupin, and the Nautilus leaves Paris. When the League returns to London, Bond sets them their next task: going undercover at a girls' school to investigate three separate cases of 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 apprehends the "Holy Spirit", which is actually Hawley Griffin, the Invisible Man, and takes him to their new headquarters within the 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, as the name was not allowed to be used in the comics due to trademark issues). He explains that Britain was secretly planning a Moon landing to coincide with the turn of the 20th century celebrations, supervised by Professor Selwyn Cavor and using Cavorite to power and levitate heavier-than-air machines.

The League is 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), 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 regroups on the Nautilus and organises 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. A suspicious Griffin follows Bond back to the Military Intelligence Headquarters, and discovers that M is in fact criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty.