Edward Hyde

Real Name: Henry Jekyll

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Government agent

Affiliations: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Enemies: Fu Manchu; the Si Fan; the Martian Invaders

Known Relatives: None known

Aliases: None known

Base of Operations: The Secret Wing of the British Museum

First Appearance: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1 (America's Best Comics)

Powers/Abilities: In his Hyde persona he has superhuman strength, and is able to suffer major injuries without apparent effect. He presumably heals faster than normal humans as well. Hyde can also see in infra-red, allowing him to spot the Invisible Man. The transformation is now so ingrained that Hyde can emerge whenever Jekyll gets too excited, angry or upset.

History: As recorded in the novel, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, Doctor Henry Jekyll discovered a way to release his animal nature in physical form, transforming himself into into Edward Hyde, a smaller man, almost animal-like, that was pure evil. After faking a suicide (the demise depicted at the end of the original book), Jekyll fled to France, where he took up residence in Paris.

Unfortunately Hyde continued to emerge, growing larger and more powerful as time progressed, eventually reaching a stage where Jekyll didn't even need the potion to become Hyde; any stress would do it. Hyde also went from his original height of around five feet to a height of seven feet, and he began to satisfy his bloodlust with a string of prostitute murders. This attracted the attention of both the authorities and the detective Auguste Dupin. When Mina Murray was recruiting special agents for her League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, on a mission to reacquire stolen Cavorite (a mineral that defies gravity), she investigated the stories coming out of Paris, and along with Dupin and Allan Quatermain, tracked down Hyde, using Mina posing as a prostitute as bait. In the ensuing struggle, Hyde lost his right ear, and was nearly fatally poisoned by Quatermain, but survived and was taken back to London. There, after some talks with Government doctors, Hyde and Jekyll agreed to work in the League in exchange for amnesty for Hyde's crimes.

Despite a few close calls while scouting the area where the Cavorite was being kept, Jekyll managed to prove fairly helpful, but waited around outside to provide backup while Mina, Quatermain and Griffin scouted out the area where the Cavorite had been taken. Having been called in by Griffin to provide a diversion for Mina and Quatermain to take back the cavorite, Jekyll turned into Hyde and then slaughtered several soldiers from Fu Manchu's Si Fan before the League broke out of their enemy's base. Later, upon discovering they had handed to metal to an equally evil villain, Professor Moriarty, the League took on his forces to prevent him using it either. In the attack on Moriarty's airship, Hyde and Nemo held Moriarty's forces back while Mina and Quatermain tackled the Napoleon of Crime.

Following that fight, the League were called in to investigate meteors landing in southern England, and found themselves taking on the Martian invasion. In the process, Jekyll transformed into Hyde after the Martians used their heat ray, then Hyde apparently repressing Jekyll's personality to ensure the doctor didn't get the League killed. In the run-up to the war with the Martians, Hyde informed Mina that, of all the League, he didn't hate her, and she didn't hate him, and that he believed she didn't fear him because she'd met someone even worse than him - a belief that she confirmed.

After Mina was attacked by the traitorous Invisible Man, Mina and Quatermain left to recruit the aid of Doctor Moreau, while Nemo and Hyde took up a position in the Nautilus in the Thames, where they could destroy any Martians attempting to get to the rest of London. Eventually, Griffin managed to clue the Martians in on a way to immobilise the Nautilus, but then Hyde tracked Griffin down - he'd been hiding in the League's old base in the British Museum all along. Thanks to his ability to see the Invisible Man (something he'd kept secret), Hyde caught him easily. Since the only person in the world Hyde had any respect for was Mina, he decided to punish her attacker in the most violent manner possible, brutally raping Griffin. Hyde then left his victim to die slowly and painfully from his injuries. Upon discovering his ally's brutality, the sickened Nemo nearly attacked Hyde himself.

After Mina and Quatermain returned from Moreau, armed with a hybrid virus (although none of the League knew what it was), Hyde volunteered to destroy a Martian ship to trap the invaders in one area of London. After requesting a final kiss from Mina, Hyde attacked the Martians, and, in his own pre-death words, "ended up look really heroic, when all he wanted to do was slaught something". As Hyde was destroyed, Nemo commented that, though they may not be sure if their enemies had any true emotions, the League could be sure that Hyde taught them terror.

In recognition of his sacrifice to save humanity, one of the London parks was renamed Hyde Park in his honour, and a statue erected in commemoration.

Comments: Adapted by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill from the character created by Robert Louis Stevenson. Thanks to "David" for providing additional information.

Mr.Hyde, LXG movie version

Real Name: Doctor Henry Jekyll

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Agent of the British government

Affiliations: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Enemies: The Fantom, Dorian Gray, the Dante Beast

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: The Secret Wing of the British Museum, the Nautilus

First Appearance: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (a.k.a. LXG, 20th Century Fox, 2003)

Powers/Abilities: In his Hyde persona he has superhuman strength, but whether he possess his comic counterpart's accelerated healing or infra-red vision is unknown at this time. Also, Hyde is still dependent on Jekyll drinking the serum for him to actually come out, although it would appear that the serum has gone through some changes over the years; Hyde is only free for a brief period of time before the serum wears off.

History: Initial history as per the novel (detailed above)

For reasons unknown, Jekyll eventually altered his serum so that Hyde would only come out for a certain period of time, although he could still hear Hyde talking to him when he was himself. After committing various murders as Hyde, he was eventually captured by Allan Quatermain and Tom Sawyer, who offered him amnesty in exchange for his services in the League, an offer that Hyde accepted. Later on, Jekyll discovered that a phial of his formula had been stolen, apparently by Skinner. (However, as the entire League were to discover later on, the real culprit was Dorian Gray, an operative of the Fantom sent to acquire the powers of the League.)

Jekyll refused to turn into Hyde when Venice started to collapse, but later, when the Nautilus was almost sunk by bombs that had been planted by Dorian Gray, Hyde convinced Jekyll to take the serum. Together, Jekyll and Hyde managed to drain the water out of the Nautilus, and then Jekyll helped treat the Nautilus's injured crewmen while repairs to the submarine were underway. In the attack on the Fantom's Mongolian fortress, Hyde aided Nemo in saving the Fantom's captured scientists and their families, and took out some of the Fantom's soldiers. However, one of them took a large dose of the Hyde serum for himself, becoming an even more powerful version of Hyde. Hyde and Nemo were able to keep him occupied long enough for the serum to wear off, when he was then crushed by the Fantom's fortress as it collapsed in on itself thanks to bombs planted by Skinner.

Comments: Played by Jason Flemyng.

Thanks to "David" for providing most of the write-up for this incarnation of Hyde.

CLARIFICATIONS: The League's Edward Hyde was inspired by and based on

but should not to be confused with

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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