For yesterday’s The Pull List, go here.

The Marvels Project #1 – Marvel – $3.99

Score: 7.5

Retroactively changing continuity, or “retconning”, can be a tricky feat. And trying to recon an entire universe’s continuity from the start can be an even bigger feat. This is what the focus of The Marvels Project is. Going all the way back to the very first days of the Marvel Universe to the creation of the first Human Torch, this story looks to bring readers an insight in to the relationships that helped forge the current Marvel world. The issue begins with Dr. Halloway, the man destined to become The Angel (though it isn’t mentioned yet in this series) working with a dementia patient known as Matt Hawk back in 1938.

Hawk tells Halloween about the heroes, villains, gods and monsters that will soon rise and how it all begins in New York City. Coming in one morning, Halloway finds out that Hawk died in his sleep but before he passed on, he had left something for the doctor. Upon opening it, Halloway sees a gun and a note that reads, “From One Hero to Another-” only to realize that Matt Hawk was the Two-Gun Kid, a masked western hero that the doctor had read about for years.

He wonders if the future that Matt told him about could be real. From there, the story examines the origins of Namor’s appearance to surface dwellers as Nazis begin to drop depth charges to acquire Atlantean “samples” and FDR’s involvement in the funding of the first Human Torch. When the Torch is first revealed to the public, there is a huge backlash of man made monsters on American soil. Knowing that the American government will need all the support they can garner with the upcoming hostilities with Germany, the President orders the Human Torch disposed of.

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To take a look at yesterday’s Pull List Reviews, click here.

Captain Britain and MI13 #14 – Marvel – $2.99
Score: 8.5

This is one of the times where the vocal minority needs to help save a book. If Spider-Girl could be saved, this book most certainly deserves it. Unless something happens in the final issue #15 that prevents the characters from being able to appear in future issues like the entire nation of England being nuked off the map, there is no reason the series shouldn’t continue.

At the New York Comic Con this past February, Paul Cornell was praised for his work on the series. Now months later, it is being brought to an end far too soon. The past few months, the book has fallen just short of the top 100 comics in terms of sales which may be why Marvel is giving it the axe despite being the best Captain Britain series in recent memory, especially after the dismal storytelling of New Excalibur.

By the end of the previous issue, the war between Dracula and his vampire army and the nation of Britain had taken a huge toll. Captain Britain had been expelled from his country as Spitfire had turned on her own team, resulting in the deaths of Pete Wisdom, the Black Knight and Fauza. Blade also turned his back on the battle and walked away. The hardest part of this issue is to describe the events that happen within because of the sheer volume of spoilers it would contain. Most of the enjoyment of the issue comes from the surprises that come up that would only be ruined if I tried to describe the plot in detail here.

Usually comics lend themselves to the “holy crap” moments with a stunning final panel setting up for the next issue. This issue bucks that trend in its first few pages. What follows is a great example of Leonard Kirk’s fantastic pencils of action scenes combined with the dry British dialogue that Paul Cornell has mastered so well, probably since he hails from Britain it gives him an unfair advantage writing it. Kirk also does a great job with the way he draws blood in the issue. Often times, gory battles can come across as gratuitous.

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