The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is based on a comic-book miniseries by graphic-novel-writing legend Alan Moore and artist Kevin O’Neill, which chronicles the collective adventures of late-19th-century fictional “superheroes”: Mina Harker of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Alan Quatermain of H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines, H.G. Wells’s Invisible Man, Robert Louis Stevenson’s dualistic protagonist from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Jules Verne’s enigmatic Captain Nemo. Notably, the books depict Nemo—for the first time in pop culture—wearing Indian (specifically, Sikh) attire. Although disavowed by Moore and poorly received by critics, the film adaptation does feature the only Nemo played by an Indian actor, Naseeruddin Shah. Reviewers unfamiliar with Verne’s work declared Shah’s casting innovative.
Most adaptations depict Nemo as older than in the novels and more serious—except for the 1974 television cartoon The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo, which reimagines him as the heroic, conventionally handsome blond ocean researcher Mark Nemo. This is perhaps no worse a representation than those by celebrated English actors James Mason, Michael Caine and Patrick Stewart, all of whom played Nemo with a British accent—implying kinship with the nation Verne’s captain despises.
Finally, Caption NEMO is best hero for me -- DHARMENDRA BAKRECHA
