DC Comics: Americas Best Comics (LOEG)



Here is the America's Best Comic League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY MOVIE


In 1899, men dressed as German soldiers attack the Bank of England and steal Leonardo da Vinci’s layouts of Venice’s foundations. Shortly after, led by their leader the “Fantom”, men dressed as British officers kidnap German scientists and destroy a factory, causing tension between the United Kingdom and Germany which could lead to an international war, with both attacks marked by highly advanced weaponry (for the time) such as tanks and machine guns. Sanderson Reed of the British Empire ventures to Kenya, visiting a gentlemen’s club to recruit world-renowned hunter and adventurer Allan Quatermain. Quatermain, retired and mourning the loss of his son after his last adventure, has no interest in serving the British Empire further. Armed men attempt to assassinate Quatermain and destroy the club, forcing Quatermain to agree to work with Reed.

In London, Quatermain meets “M”, Reed’s employer, who explains that the Fantom plans to destroy Venice to prevent a meeting between the leaders of the world, his ultimate goal being to start a world war and arms race to profit from sale of his weapons. To combat the Fantom, a team of unique individuals known as the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is being formed – consisting of Quatermain himself, Captain Nemo, chemist Mina Harker, and invisible thief Rodney Skinner. M sends the group to recruit their fifth member, immortal Dorian Gray, who remains youthful while a currently missing portrait of himself ages. Dorian once was infatuated with Mina, but refuses to join the team. The Fantom and his assassins attack, but thanks to the presence of U.S. Secret Service Agent Tom Sawyer, the assassins are defeated although the Fantom escapes. Mina is revealed to be a vampire, a result of her past encounter with Count Dracula. Dorian and Sawyer join the team and set off to recruit their final member, Mr. Hyde, in Captain Nemo’s submarine, the  Nautilus .

After capturing Hyde in Paris, Quatermain negotiates with him into joining the team by offering amnesty for his past crimes. Hyde agrees, transforms into his harmless self, Dr. Jekyll. On the way to Venice, it eventually becomes clear that there is a traitor on board when a camera’s flash powder is found in the ship’s wheelhouse and one of Dr. Jekyll’s transformation formulas goes missing. Skinner is accused of being the saboteur, but he disappears.

Upon the League's arrival in Venice, bombs planted beneath the city begin to destroy buildings in a domino effect. Nemo concludes they can stop the chain reaction by destroying a building out of sequence using one of the Nautilus’ missiles. Quatermain, Sawyer, Mina and Dorian take Nemo’s automobile to outrun the chain reaction with Dorian and Mina leaping out to fight the Fantom’s men. Quatermain spots the Fantom and confronts him, revealing him to be M. Sawyer manages to signal for the missile to be launched and what's left of Venice is saved. Dorian returns to the ship and kills Nemo’s first mate Ishmael, revealing he is the traitor. The league learns of M and Dorian’s treachery, who escape in an exploration pod. A phonograph record made by M is found, M explaining his true goal was to gather physical elements of the team (Skinner's invisible skin, Jekyll's Hyde formula, Mina's vampire blood, and Nemo's technology, while he only needed Quatermain to capture Hyde) to make superhuman formulas to sell to the highest paying countries, with Dorian revealing bombs are hidden on the submarine. The bombs detonate, damaging the sub, but Hyde drains the flooding water from the Nautilus’ engine rooms. Skinner, who stowed away on Dorian’s pod, messages the group to follow his lead.

The Nautilus travels up the Amur River to northern Mongolia where the league reunites with Skinner. Skinner reveals M runs a factory where weaponized versions of the Nautilus are being constructed along with M's other weapons. The kidnapped scientists are forced to make "invisible spies, an army of Hydes, vampiric assassins." In order that they do so, M has held the scientists' families as hostages. The league break into the factory and split up. Nemo and Hyde free the scientists and their families. Skinner sets bombs to destroy the factory. Quatermain and Sawyer go after M, who is revealed to be Professor James Moriarty. Mina confronts Dorian and kills him by exposing his portrait to him. Quatermain fights Moriarty who points out Sawyer has been taken captive by Sanderson Reed, who has been turned invisible. Quatermain shoots Reed, but is then stabbed by Moriarty who escapes out of a window with the collection of formulas. Sawyer manages to use Quatermain’s teachings to shoot Moriarty dead from afar, the formulas sinking into the icy waters below. Quatermain dies from his injuries, telling Sawyer that the new century is now his just as the old one was his.

Quatermain is buried in Kenya beside his son, but the other league members recall his story of how a witch doctor, whose village he had once saved, blessed him, saying as long as he was in Africa, Africa would never allow him to die. After Sawyer, Mina, Nemo, Skinner and Dr. Jekyll depart, the witch doctor appears and performs a ritual. A bolt of lightning strikes Quatermain’s grave, leaving the result ambiguous.

CAST

 * Sean Connery as Allan Quatermain
 * Naseeruddin Shah as Captain Nemo
 * Peta Wilson as Mina Harker
 * Tony Curran as Rodney Skinner
 * Stuart Townsend as Dorian Gray
 * Shane West as Tom Sawyer
 * Jason Flemyng as Dr. Henry Jekyll / Edward Hyde
 * Richard Roxburgh as The Fantom / "M" / Professor James Moriarty
 * Max Ryan as Dante
 * Tom Goodman-Hill as Sanderson Reed
 * David Hemmings as Nigel
 * Terry O'Neill as Ishmael