The Marvels Project is a 2009-2010 Marvel Comics miniseries, written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Steve Epting. Released to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the original Marvel Comics #1, it is a retelling of the earliest days of the Marvel Universe from the perspective of the Angel (no, not that one), one of the company’s first heroic figures.
It is 1938. In New York, an elderly man on his deathbed by the name of Matt Hawkins, once known as the outlaw called the Two-Gun Kid, tells his doctor, one Thomas Holloway, about his visions of the future, a future filled with superpowered beings, gods, monsters, an age of Marvels... and it'll all start soon, in New York City.
Sure enough, one year later, as the Nazis begin to march across Europe, a man named Phineas Horton unveils the first artificial man, a man who catches fire when exposed to oxygen. The media frenzy caused by this "Human Torch" proves to be the catalyst that sends Matt Hawkins' prophecy into motion, as the artificial man escapes from his forced confinement and sets out to prove that he isn't a monster, Thomas decides to take up the guns of the Two-Gun Kid to become a costumed crime-fighter, a warrior from below the waves declares war on humanity for the harm they've done to his people, and a kid from Brooklyn is chosen as the test subject for a top secret project...
The Marvels Project contains examples of the following tropes:
- Appropriated Appellation: In need of a superhero name that won't panic people, Thomas Halloway decides to go with a nickname he was given as a teenager by the convicts of the jail his father worked in - the Angel.
- Badass Normal: Many of the early superheroes, such as the Angel, and the Phantom Bullet. It backfires in the Bullet's case, since he's shot to death.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Nick Fury and his buddy Red are loud, crude, and obnoxious "yahoos". They're also frighteningly good at what they do, staging a two-man raid on a Nazi convoy to recover Abraham Erskine.
- The Bus Came Back: Many of the characters featured in this story are those from the old Marvel Mystery Comics, making their first reappearance in decades.
- Busman's Holiday: The one day supercop Jim Hammond decides to take a day off, at the heavy suggestion of his fellow cops, Namor decides to try and attack Coney Island. And he just happens to be spending his day off there when it goes down, forcing him to become the Human Torch to stop Namor.
- The Cameo: Professor Phineas Horton's partner, James Bradley, is a small role in issue 1. Modern day comic readers might know him as supporting X-Men character Doctor Nemesis.
- Character Focus: In addition to the starring roles given to the Human Torch and Namor, Thomas Halloway, the Golden Age Angel, is the other main character.
- Chekhov's Gunman: In issue 1, as Thomas Halloway is making his way through the audience at the cinema, there's a tall, skinny blonde kid he passes by glowering furiously at the screen. It's a young Steve Rodgers.
- C-List Fodder: Possibly even lower than C-List. The Ferret and the Phantom Bullet, both genuine Timely Comics characters from the Golden Age of comics, die to show how dangerous the Nazis are.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Red Hargrove, Nick Fury's best friend, is killed offscreen in issue 8 due to being present at Pearl Harbor.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Heinz Kruger is a devoted father and husband who misses his wife terribly. He's also a loyal Nazi who kills Abraham Erkskine.
- Fantastic Racism: As always with the Marvel Universe. The unveiling of the Human Torch has the good citizens of New York react with outrage and horror, demanding he be gotten rid of.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: The Invaders foiling the attack on Roosevelt and Churchill is kept secret because it takes place on the same day as Pearl Harbor, and Captain America didn't want to dishonour those who died that day.
- How Do I Shot Web?: The Human Torch initially doesn't have the best control over his powers. It's only after setting fire to a large amount of downtown New York that he starts getting a handle on them.
- Human Popsicle: John Steele had been kept in cryo-stasis in a Nazi lab, until an Allied bombing raid frees him.
- Idiot Ball: Heinz Kruger, trained spy, thinks it's a good idea to let off a "heil Hitler" at the end of a communique. This is just as his apartment's cleaning lady walks in.
- Kill It with Fire: The Ferret's office is firebombed by the Nazis to make sure nothing of his investigation gets out.
- Last Disrespects: The Phantom Bullet is killed by Nazis, and his body just dumped in the garbage. The NYPD aren't terribly sympathetic, regarding vigilantes as an insult.
- Life Will Kill You: Matt Hawkins, once the Two-Gun Kid, dies of old age in a New York nursing home.
- Make an Example of Them: The Red Skull first appears lining up everyone in a village in France to kill them. He doesn't particularly care whether anyone's innocent or not, he just wants to make a point.
- Meta Origin: It is implied that the super-soldier serum was derived from Atlantean DNA.
- Neck Snap: The fate of Major Kerfoot, at the hands of his handlers.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Abraham Erksine was either canny or scatterbrained to not write down all his notes, causing problems for the US government when he's killed. Not helping is Steve Rodgers breaking the Vita-Ray Machine when he kills Heinz Kruger.
- Piggybacking on Hitler: Meranno is an Atlantean working with Hitler, mainly so he can get at Namor.
- Reluctant Mad Scientist: Abraham Erskine is forced to work for Nazi Germany, who aren't the sort of people who take "no" for an answer, until he's rescued by Nick Fury.
- Revenge Before Reason: The Nazis depth-charge the Atlanteans and take the corpses to study, pissing off Namor, who soon makes his way to New York. Not bothering to distinguish between surface dwellers, the sight of people on Coney Island enjoying themselves sends him into a berserk rage.
- Sequel Hook: The epilogue for issue eight mentions John Steele vanished after D-Day, a plot thread that'd be followed up in Brubaker's Secret Avengers.
