When Does "The Marvels Project" #2 (2009) Take Place?
"The Marvels Project" #2 "Part Two" is a historical fiction superhero comic-book written by Ed Brubaker that released September 9th, 2009. So when is The Marvels Project" #2 set?
It takes place on the fictional Marvel Universe timeline in the year:
We know this because Germany is currently under the control of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime as is clear from swastika armbands on soldiers and Lieutenant Sawyer saying, "the closest he's been to the Nazi border since"... So it must be between 1933 AD and 1945 AD.
1940 AD
We know this because Germany is currently under the control of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime as is clear from swastika armbands on soldiers and Lieutenant Sawyer saying, "the closest he's been to the Nazi border since"... So it must be between 1933 AD and 1945 AD.
More specifically, the first textbox of narration from Doctor Thomas Halloway/The Angel on the first page of the issue reads, "The early days of 1940 were a strange time in New York City." and the second: "As winter clung to the streets, things were changing." So presumably it's late winter or early spring 1940 AD at the start of the issue.
Furthermore, the second page includes some time and place setting free-floating text at the top reading, "FRANKFURT, GERMANY FEBRUARY 1940." Therefore it is likely February of 1940 AD at least by this early scene.
[Later, a Daily Bugle newspaper front-page is visible dated for "MONDAY, DECEMBER" and an unclear day number followed by "1941". So presumably the story ends in December of 1941 AD but, based on the following issues, this must be a production mistake.]
If one accepts the concept of the sliding timescale of the Marvel Universe, the events of this story might only take place at this point from its own point-of-view and they might move forward in time relative to new stories. Galactus, a god-like character with this fictional universe says in "The Utimates" #5 v2 that 'The present moment--the "now"--hurtles from past to future along a stream of events. And events have weight. Sometimes, the weight is vast--sometimes, so light as to be undetectable. But some events--those with a peculiar, unique gravity-- are caught by the present. Dragged in its wake, like planets about a sun. Always just a handful of years behind...' As Douglas Wolk wrote in 2021, "The big Marvel story is a funhouse-mirror history".
It is a chronologically midway comic in the Marvel Comics Universe multiverse timeline and can be read at its timeline point after the previous issue, "The Marvels Project" #1 (2009) or after "Marvel Comics" #1 (1939).
