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The MCU resurrects Marvel Comics' original name & company in The Fantastic Four: First Steps Easter Egg
Deadpool and Wolverine included a sign referencing Rob Liefeld, and now The Fantastic Four: First Steps pays homage to Timely Comics
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe is just full of store sign easter eggs lately. First, the Deadpool and Wolverine trailer included a shot of the two antiheroes walking in front of a storefront with the sign "Liefeld's Just Feet" emblazoned on it. And now, The Fantastic Four: First Steps continues this tradition with a new callback to Marvel history.
In one shot in the new Fantastic Four trailer at the 1:58 mark, Marvel's First Family gathers in a suspiciously empty Times Square - identifiable by the Broadway street sign and the square's distinctive triangle shape. Behind them, there's a red storefront with the sign Timely Comics on it. Take a look in the trailer below.
It's an interesting choice to spotlight Timely Comics. First Steps is curating a retrofuturistic look at the 1960s. But in the 1960s of our world, Timely Comics was long gone. The company was rebranded to Atlas Comics in 1951, which in turn became Marvel Comis in 1961. Timely's logo was also a blue-striped shield, which you can see in early issues of Jack Kirby's Captain America, devoid of the red we see in the Fantastic Four trailer. That said, Marvel's brand is deeply tied to red at this point, so perhaps the graphic design team on First Steps wanted to keep the red in as connective tissue between these two different eras for the company.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be out July 25, during San Diego Comic-Con weekend (yay!). Who knows what other easter eggs are hidden away in the theatrical cut of the film?
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