December 7th, 1941.

[colonel_green]

Four scans from The Marvels Project #8.


The pieces come together as the proto-Invaders get word of a coordinated Axis plan to attack the USA:  a contingent of Germans and Atlanteans (led by U-Man) will surface in Washington and assassinate FDR and Churchill (who's in town for a secret meeting), while an unknown Japanese contingent will strike at the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour. 

Captain America decides that he, Namor, and Bucky will deal with the German/Atlantean prong, and dispatches Human Torch and Toro to Hawaii to look out for whatever's going down there - they assume, based on the details of the German strike, that the Japanese group will be of a similar kind, presumably some unknown superhumans or special bomb. 

Oops.

And so the war begins...




Pearl Harbour was the first time, we're told, that Jim felt vaguely glad he wasn't human.




Asskicking, is what happens.

The series wraps up, detailing in the epilogue how the Invaders formed shortly after, Nick Fury reenlisted after his friend Red was killed at Pearl Harbour, John Steele continued operating in France until vanishing after Normandy (I'm assuming Brubaker has something in mind for Steele in the future, given how much page-time he got in this series), etc. 

The narrator of the series, the Golden Age Angel, remarks that, for all the sorrows, the new era of technology and magic truly was an amazing time to be alive.
 

Comments

[qob]

Just a little thing, Harbour is the British spelling, but it's "Pearl Harbor" as it's an American city.

[colonel_green]

I know that's not how American spell it, but that's how Canadians spell it, so I just write it that way.

[qob]

Still not a Canadian city, thus the spelling.

[colonel_green]

We're trying to get you guys to take the hint.

[halialkers]

Except this is about a battle in WWII that affected Americans.

WW2

[nefrekeptah]

I seem to remember that the America's knew that something was about to go down, but they didn't know that it was Japan doing the attacking; they couldn't have known, because the US was in peace talks with Japan at the time.

Re: WW2

[colonel_green]

Regarding Pearl Harbour specifically, various warning signs had been detected hours before the attack, but because of a variety of screwups and misunderstandings, nobody was alerted in time to do anything.

More generally, though, no, the US was by that point basically certain that war with Japan was inevitable, which they knew from reading Japanese diplomatic cables. The talks in question were just being drawn out as long as possible in order to buy time (Roosevelt's main focus being on Europe). Avoiding war in 1941 would have meant completely compromising American's Pacific defence perimetre.

Re: WW2

[halialkers]

Actually, there was also a lot of good old fashioned racism. FDR's gang believed that since Japan couldn't even conquer a China neck-deep in civil war that they sure as Hell wouldn't be able to launch an attack of that magnitude. Then they very much damn well did and beat the Allies like a drum for six months.

The lead-in to the war was inevitable, but it was inevitable because Japan was seeking to be the chief imperialist in China where the USA preferred an Open Door there and had since Theodore Roosevelt's Administration. Then the fuck-ups with the peace treaties following the end of World War I, and then came the USA, which to Imperial Japan was what Saudi Arabia is to the United States today decides on an oil embargo towards Japan.

With the USSR kicking the everloving shit out of the Japanese Army they chose to strike South to secure oil supplies.

Pearl Harbor was no unprovoked attack any more than 9/11 was. But none of that mattered in 1941.

Re: WW2

[colonel_green]

That's not true; they were quite aware that Japan was a serious threat (everybody in the West was, following Tsushima) - they specifically didn't think that Pearl Harbour could be attacked, for tactical reasons, but they weren't under any illusion about Japan as a potential adversary (not to say they didn't have racist views toward them), though the speed of their success surprised everyone (though a lot of that had to do with strategic mistakes on the part of the Allied commanders; MacArthur and Percival could probably have held out much longer than they did had they played their cards better).

Re: WW2

[halialkers]

Oh, they knew Japan was intending to attack, but the US government of the time was expecting a more limited assault on the Philippines. It's a testament to the US-centric histories of the war one reads that Americans tend to overlook that December 8th saw the opening of a massive Japanese offensive across the entirety of Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Including the single worst defeat of the UK in its history. The Japanese in the first six months of the Pacific War were fighting multiple powers far stronger in a purely economic sense and were vastly outnumbered. And yet they were kicking ass non-stop until the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea began to take out all their carriers one-by-one.

Re: WW2

[colonel_green]

Their success against Britain is heavily mitigated by the extent of Britain's commitments elsewhere at the time; their invasion of Malaya was a shoestring operation that would have failed had the forces that were supposed to be there been there.

Re: WW2

[halialkers]

Mitigated? This is the Britain that got the shove from Norway, France, Greece, Crete, nearly got the shit kicked out of it by 2 divisons commanded by Irwin Rommel? The British Army never did that great in the war, the one Allied army that actually showed it could fart and walk at the same time was the Red Army and it was only able to do *that* because Uncle Sam was providing the logistical part of it.

Re: WW2

[proteus_lives]

The war was lost for them by the end of 1942. Their own generals and adminrals warned them if they didn't win in a year, then they weren't going to win.

Re: WW2

[halialkers]

IMHO that determinism is misplaced. Japan *did* beat the Allies like a drum for six months, and given its disadvantages in the war did far better than it reasonably should have.

Re: WW2

[jlroberson]

Is that why we were blockading their gasoline?

Re: WW2

[halialkers]

We were blockading that because the America Firsters were incapable of recognizing that war was brewing anywhere.

[kusonaga]

So this title has been good?

[colonel_green]

I've enjoyed it. Most of this is very familiar material by now, and Brubaker doesn't try to introduce some huge new conspiracy or anything, which is a good thing overall, but it doesn't make it stand out nearly as it might have otherwise. It's all the little details and the bits with non-familiar characters (like John Steele) that surprise the most.

[jlroberson]

The problem I have is that toward the end it's become less comics than the History Channel on paper. Too many large illustrations with captions strung along them; too much telling and not showing in detail. As the story gets bigger it becomes less interesting, particularly as this is where we're overlapping with actual history; their story then becomes less interesting and a reason to remain engaged is lost in this SAVING PRIVATE RYANness.

This is not to knock the quality of the work. In particular, Epting.

[kirke_novak]

What does it say that I am mostly concentrating on Namor's man-neeps?

[skalja]

You know, I like Steve Epting's art but I'm not thrilled with the way Namor's drawn here. IIRC, Namor is twenty or a little older at the beginning of America's involvement in the war, and since reaching maturity he's aged slower than full-blooded humans. Here, he looks like he's in his mid-thirties at least.

[cmdr_zoom]

I think as far as most fans are aware, Namor has always been the age he (currently) is. The wide-eyed sprat who looks like a mostly-naked Peter Pan and says stuff like "Suffering sailfish!" isn't in anyone's consciousness but the real historians and collectors.

[jlroberson]

Ever read the one where he tries to help Hitler and Mussolini? Oh, no one wants that Namor back. He talked like a particularly nerdy Dead-End Kid.

[alienist]

I kind of want other people to tease him mercilessly about it.

[skalja]

Oh, I'm not asking for "Weeping weakfish!" Namor to show up in this mini; that wouldn't fit tonally at all. But "born in 1920s, was young man in WW II" is a pretty basic part of Namor's history, and while I wouldn't expect a casual fan to know that, I would expect creators and editors to keep that kind of thing in mind when they're writing WWII stories which include Namor.