drezdn's crazy business ideas #5: The Oscar Wilde Adventure Squad →[More:]This was an idea I had for a comic book, or adult swim style animated show. In 1899, Oscar Wilde didn't die, instead he was brought into a special government program that replaced his skeleton with one of coke steel making him stronger than ten men. He was then made a special agent of crown and recruited a team of specially trained British writers from the 19th Century to fight evil.

An accident on a mission leads to Oscar retreating to Alaska where he fights bears. But! a great threat in India causes the government to bring him back home and to form a new team.

Using a time machine developed by H.G. Wells, Wilde collects the authors and heads out on their mission.

The members
Charles Dickens: Trained as a ninja during his life on the street, also a dirty old man

Mary Shelley: Master of espionage, and total goth babe.

Rudyard Kipling: Weapons expert and racist

H.G. Wells: science officer, explosives expert and socialist

And to handle their vehicles, they have french attache, Jules Verne, who oversees their transportation including a steam-powered battletech style mech.

Together they travel to India to discover that the evil Saki, in conjunction with the Bronte sisters (also ninjas), are attempting to unleash a device that will spread doom across the land.

At first the heroes get captured by Saki, with Oscar Wilde having to pick between the lady or the tiger, considering either a mistake. Dickens fights the Bronte sisters. Maybe I could work in Joseph Conrad somehow. You get the picture.

The fights delay them long enough for Saki to make his way for an escape, but then a sniper shoots him. But no, he isn't dead, it turns out the Saki they were fighting was actually an automaton controlled by two trained monkeys. There's a note telling them that Saki has already set his nefarious plan into motion.

The sniper was none other John Milton, the last surviving member of the William Blake's Action Unit, who had been camped out for months after their defeat, waiting for the perfect shot.

The idea is that it would sort of be a stand-alone parody of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, but very poorly researched (ie. nothing beyond looking at their wikipedia entries and things I already know, or think I know). There could even be an American spin off team lead by Mark Twain.