Before Beatlemania, there was Marvel’s Fab Four. After Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch, and the Thing battled the subterranean Mole Man’s island of monsters and the shape-shifting Skrulls in their street clothes, 1962’s The Fantastic Four #3 turned Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm into celebrity superheroes. The classic issue by creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby not only saw the four don their colorful costumes for the first time, but also marked the debut of their flying Fantasti-Car and their secret, high-tech headquarters: the Baxter Building.
The issue also featured a Human Torch pin-up page by Kirby, which true believers may have spotted in a snippet of new footage from Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps movie.
In the four-second clip posted below, Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) is enjoying a bowl of dinnertime Lucky Charms cereal. On the front of the period-accurate box: mascot L.C. the Leprechaun (who debuted in 1964). On the back of the box: himself flaming on as Human Torch, taken from Kirby’s pin-up in Fantastic Four #3.
“You’re late,” Johnny tells sister Susan (Vanessa Kirby) and brother-in-law Reed (Pedro Pascal). “What do you mean?” Sue asks, surprised that her kid brother seems to know news she’s yet to break: Sue is expecting.
“What do you mean what do I mean? You’re late for dinner,” he responds.
“He is really smart,” director Matt Shakman previously told EW about Quinn’s Johnny in the 1960s-set Fantastic Four reboot. “He’s on that spaceship for a reason, and I think sometimes people forget that in various comic stories, he’s been one of the most heroic of them, even if he’s undercutting his heroism at every turn through humor. He’s Sue’s brother, which means they are cut from similar cloth.”
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“He’s a man that leads with a lot of bravado, which can be an affront sometimes. But also he’s funny,” Quinn added. “Myself and [Marvel Studios boss] Kevin [Feige] were speaking about previous iterations of him and where we are culturally. He was branded as this womanizing, devil-may-care guy, but is that sexy these days? I don’t think so. This version of Johnny is less callous with other people’s feelings, and hopefully there’s a self-awareness about what’s driving that attention-seeking behavior.”
Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world in an alternate Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline, The Fantastic Four: First Steps “introduces Marvel’s First Family as they face their most daunting challenge yet,” the synopsis states. “Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer. And if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal.”
Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps — starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Paul Walter Hauser, Natasha Lyonne, Sarah Niles, and John Malkovich — opens only in theaters on July 25.
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