‘Before Tomorrowland’ Novel/Comic to Establish Brad Bird’s ‘Tomorrowland’

Sevens wrote:Looks like they're launching an extensive marketing campaign regarding this book. It's confirmed to have a preview at the NYCC along with the film.
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The preview starts with Lee and his mother visiting New York in 1939. He somehow discovers a comic book that explains the origins of Plus Ultra. Inside this comic book, is a pair of glasses. The comic book explains to put them on while reading the comic. While this does nothing for Lee, once Clara puts them on - she sees fantastic visions of things around her - and a voice. The voice of Orson Wells telling her about "the world according to Plus Ultra!" Her and her son go on an amazing journey of the city, with the glasses telling them all about the wonders of the future, and what Plus Ultra can do for our society.

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Clara sees the future as envisioned by Plus Ultra by wearing special glasses found with a comic book. Picture from the preview copy, and © Disney.

At the same time, we have a story of various Plus Ultra dignities working on their next plan. Chapter 11 starts with Amelia Earhart's plane and the USS Faraday (a Plus Ultra ship) being attacked. Earhart discusses the attack with Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard (who invented the Atomic Bomb for Plus Ultra as an energy source) - who determine that Henry is to blame for the attacks. We then find out that Dr. Werner Rotwang ended up leaving Plus Ultra to join the Third Reich, the Nazis, with some of this advanced tech.

However, this ends up thwarting Plus Ultra's plan to do a big public reveal of their technology on July 4th, Einstein didn't want the atom bomb to be used as a weapon, and wanted to get "the father of Plus Ultra" involved - Tesla. Einstein  hands a EMP (electromagnetic pulse) gun to Earhart, who discovers that Henry is in Manhattan.

This is where our two stories intertwine. The glasses offer Lee and Clara a chance to see more if they want to, they need to go to the New Yorker hotel, and ask to speak to a bellhop. The bellhop greets them, and then takes them up to room 3227 (this is the room where Tesla lived out the last years of his life), and they are joined by Henry who leads them on the rest of the tour. Henry questions why Plus Ultra would revel their secrets on the eve of war with Germany. On the inside of the room, there's a magnificent display of Plus Ultra's leaders, and fantastic technology they are going to bring to society. Henry is disapointed that this isn't the base of operations like he expected, but is basically a copy of the 'World of Tomorrow' exhibit (from the 1939 World's Fair?).

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The New Yorker hotel - home of the secret Plus Ultra display of future technology, in Nikola Tesla's room - 3227.

Rotwang follows his creation, HS1 (Henry) into the hotel. Suddenly, Nazis bust into the secret Plus Ultra exhibit and attempt to capture Henry, and Rotwang realizes that Henry was going to use Clara and Lee to execute his plan to attempt to infiltrate Plus Ultra. After a struggle over the now-disabled weapons, Rotwang pleas with Henry (and talks about creating, losing, and then finding him) - but it doesn't work. Rotwang realizes that his creations' body is perfect for his own use - Rotwang could live forever.

Earhart breaks into the door, and Lee and Clara nearly escape through the fire exit, nearly being killed by the battle. We don't know if Earhart successfully disabled Henry, or if Rotwang escaped with his body.