In the mighty Marvel manner, The Fantastic Four: First Steps pays special tribute to late Fantastic Four creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Set in a 1960s-inspired retro-futuristic world designated Earth 828 (in honor of Kirby’s birthday, August 28), Fantastic Four takes place in a reality where Marvel’s First Family — Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) — are celebrity superheroes who appear on everything from the cover of Time magazine and cereal boxes to their own Saturday morning cartoon, The Fantastic Four Power Hour, and an official comic book authorized by the Future Foundation.
When Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) first emerges from flame-filled skies to herald the coming of Galactus (Ralph Ineson) in New York City’s Times Square, it’s just outside the offices of Timely Comics. Marveling at the sight of the glistening, surfboard-riding scout are Timely Employee #1 and Timely Employee #1 (Martin Dickinson and Greg Haiste, respectively), who resemble Kirby and Lee of the early ’60s — before the mustached Stan “The Man” Lee became the face of Marvel (hence Haiste’s era-accurate appearance).
Timely Comics is the predecessor of Marvel Comics, where Lee and Kirby ushered in the modern Marvel Universe with The Fantastic Four #1 in August 1961. In their debut issue, the Fantastic Four — Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch, and the Thing — faced the menace of the Mole Man and his subterranean army of monsters, including Giganto (who gets clobbered by the Thing during a montage recreating the iconic cover earlier in the film).
The Timely office is a treasure trove of Easter eggs. “Kirby’s” drawing board appears to pay homage to 1960’s Strange Tales #79, an issue of the monster mag co-written by Lee and penciled by future Iron Man co-creator Don Heck with a cover by Kirby. The monster in that creature feature? “The Thing.”
On the wall is an uncolored page from another Lee-Kirby collaboration, 1961’s Tales of Suspense #27, from a story titled “Oog Lives Again!” Next to that is Kirby’s fully-colored art from 1963’s Fantastic Four #13, the first appearance of the Red Ghost and Uatu the Watcher. Specifically, the page is from part 3 of the issue, titled “The Watcher Appears.” (While Uatu doesn’t appear in First Steps, the omnipotent observer plays a role in Lee and Kirby’s original “Galactus Trilogy,” Fantastic Four issues #48-50, which inspired the film.)
Kirby and Lee collaborated on more than 100 issues of Fantastic Four between 1961 and 1971. The faceless creators sometimes made fourth wall-breaking cameos during their legendary run: Doctor Doom visited the Marvel Bullpen in 1962’s Fantastic Four #10, and “Jack and Stan” were famously turned away from Reed and Sue’s wedding in the cameo-filled Fantastic Four Annual #3 in 1965.
“He’s a visionary,” director Matt Shakman told Marvel.com. “We would have no Marvel Studios today without Jack Kirby. He created so many of these amazing characters, and he built this world along with Stan Lee. So many of our heroes launched from his mind and his pen, and we wanted to honor that. We wanted to honor his distinctive style.”
The filmmakers described that style as “When Kirby Meets Kubrick,” the visionary writer-director behind 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Kirby adapted the iconic sci-fi film in a 1976 Marvel Treasury Special in the first instance of “Kirby Meets Kubrick.”)
“We wanted it to be more than just a passing tip of the hat,” Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige added. “There are direct lines from his pencil that he drew with at his drawing board by himself, pouring his universe-spanning imagination on to the page. There are direct lines from there into this film.” Feige added that Kirby, co-creator of such heroes as Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Black Panther, the X-Men, and the Avengers, was “one of the greatest storytellers and artists of the 20th century.”
“[We wanted] this movie to be an unabashed celebration of Mr. Kirby, who I think should be spoken in the same breath as Stan Lee at every moment,” Feige continued. “He was never as vocal or as at the forefront as Stan was. He also passed away long ago, and he didn’t get to see any of what his work would inspire.” Kirby died in 1994, the same year that Marvel’s First Family starred in the low-budget, Roger Corman-executive produced Fantastic Four flick that ultimately went unreleased.
Marvel Studios’ first Fantastic Four film ends with this quote from Kirby, visionary co-creator behind the Fantastic Four, Galactus, and the Silver Surfer: “If you look at my characters, you will find me. No matter what kind of character you create or assume, a little of yourself must remain there.” ‘Nuff said.
