History ComicBook / Marvels

* ImproperlyPlacedGuns: In the newsreel and the ending WW2 scene, the Japanese and German soldiers are somehow almost all equipped with classic gangster [[CoolGuns/SubmachineGuns Tommy Guns]] instead of the MP-40 or Arikara rifle. Justified, though, as the Golden Age comics often depicted Mooks using the Thompson M1921/M1928A1, due to it being the typical "[[GoodGunsBadGuns bad guy gun]]" at the time.

** At the end, Phil states he'll have ''nothing'' to do with superheroes ever again, and has his picture taken when a young paperboy -- who is [[Comicbook/GhostRider Danny Ketch]].

* RealityEnsues: The epic duel between Jim Hammond/the Android Torch and Namor is beautiful to look at, but it also causes insane amounts of property damage and injures thousands of people, as well as scaring the public.

* MythologyGag: Lots, particularly single panels or pages referencing old Marvel comics/issues/fights. There's a page in the back of the paperback dedicated to listing all of them. And the artwork is very similar.

* MythologyGag: Lots, particularly single panels or pages referencing old Marvel comics/issues/fights. There's a page in the back of the paperback dedicated to listing all of them.

-->-- '''The Human Torch''', ''Marvels'' #0

** At a press conference, [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen]] can be seen chatting.

* BerserkButton: ''Do not'' mock the Human Torch. [[spoiler: Phil and Jonah found this out the hard way.]]

* NighthawksShot: At one point, Jonah and Phil are eating in a diner among some of the patrons from the actual painting...[[spoiler: and one of them is the Human Torch.]]

** A sailor heavily modelled on ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} also appears in a brief cameo for a panel.

* FullFrontalAssault: Namor, for some reason, is entirely naked here.

* HeroWithBadPublicity: Even as the Human Torch saves more lives and begins to work with the NYPD, as well as battling Namor, people still think he's a threat simply because he's an android.

* HeroWithGoodPublicity: CaptainAmerica, of course, is presented as one, and pretty much loved by the entire public-unlike Namor or the Android Human Torch.

* BadassCrew: ''ComicBook/TheInvaders'', and later, ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' and "ComicBook/FantasticFour''.

* BadassCrew: ''ComicBook/TheInvaders'', and later, ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' and "ComicBook/FantasticFour.''

It's [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks 1939]] and Phil Sheldon is a young freelance photojournalist. He's interested in going over to Europe, where he knows trouble is brewing, and he has a young fiance, Doris. This all changes, however, when he's at the press conference where Phineas Horton announces his newest creation -- the robot known as the Human Torch. Soon, other "marvels" appear, the ComicBook/SubMariner and ComicBook/CaptainAmerica among them, and Phil can only watch on the sidelines, both awed and fearful. He hopes that they will leave, that this will all pass... but he knows better.

->''"As I have learned since, I was not the first anomaly to exist... but on that day of my freedom in 1939, this world had its first confrontation with the fantastic. The [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] of miracles would begin, and in the years to come, the world would know the presence of the unnatural and extraordinary as part of reality."''

It's [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks 1939]] and Phil Sheldon is a young freelance photojournalist. He's interested in going over to Europe, where he knows trouble is brewing, and he has a young fiance, Doris. This all changes, however, when he's at the press conference where Phineas Horton announces his newest creation -- the robot known as the Human Torch. Soon, other "marvels" appear, the ComicBook/SubMariner and ComicBook/CaptainAmerica among them, and Phil can only watch on the sidelines, both awed and fearful. He hopes that they will leave, that this will all pass... but he knows better.

* DawnOfAnEra: The beginning of TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, the beginning of TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks.

* OnlySaneMan: Apparently, Phil Sheldon is the ''only'' person outside of the Marvel superhero community who actually notices that superheroes take a lot of crap despite everything they do. In a further note, Sheldon realizes that Gwen Stacy is the only person that can see beauty and experience a tremendous joy through all the apparent chaos that the ''Marvels'' cause, even when she is still mourning for her father. This makes her death pack a punch from an entirely different angle, though not less painful altogether.

** When he was a cub reporter in WorldWar2, he worked alongside a buzz-cut cigar-chomping cynic named [[ComicBook/AmazingSpiderMan J. Jonah Jameson]].

* NamesTheSame: Acknowledged with Phil Sheldon and Ben Urich's wives, who are both named Doris.

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: Alex Ross used models for certain characters, such as [[Music/{{Queen}} Fred Mercury]] for Namor, TimothyDalton for Tony Stark, [[Series/GilligansIsland Russel Johnson]] for Reed Richards, and, most notably, Creator/PatrickStewart for Professor Xavier, years before the actor [[Film/XMen would be cast for that same character]]. Don Knotts also appears as an extra.

It's the [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks 1960s]] and Phil Sheldon has two daughters and a thriving career. With the ComicBook/FantasticFour and the [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]] dominating the headlines, this seems to be an era of prosperity, where superheroes are the new celebrities. But even now, there's a dark side: mutants, ''homo superior''. Even Phil seems afraid of them, but soon comes to realize his own prejudices when he finds his daughters have helped and hidden a little mutant girl from an angry [[TorchesAndPitchforks mob]]. Soon, the public even turns against the other superheroes. Even after the FF save the world from {{Galactus}}, the public seems to both love and hate the heroes.

The direct sequel ''Marvels: Eye of the Camera'', also written by Busiek, came out as a six issue series [[ScheduleSlip from 2008 to 2010]].

* MythologyGag: Lots.

* {{Reconstruction}} / {{Deconstruction}}

* TheMerch: Partially subverted, as ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} (the foremost Marvel Comics vehicle) is completely absent, yet the X-Men are not; other huge Marvel vehicles such as ComicBook/SpiderMan, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk do show up.