This text incorporates spoilers for The Improbable 4: First StepsThe Improbable 4: First Steps sees Marvel’s First Household lastly be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, albeit solely to a sure extent. Whereas produced by Marvel Studios, The Improbable 4: First Steps doesn’t happen inside the MCU’s sacred timeline, however as a substitute in an alternate actuality, generally known as Earth-828. Feeling like a recent entry level for brand new followers or audiences who could have grown uninterested in different MCU titles, The Improbable 4 is in a universe all its personal and may be loved as a standalone film with fewer overt references to previous MCU titles.
Nonetheless, that doesn’t imply The Improbable 4: First Steps is devoid of Easter Eggs. The film predominantly options callbacks and references to the Improbable 4’s storied historical past in comics, animation, and even previous function movies. Very similar to the not too long ago launched Superman, it drops the viewers right into a lived-in universe with a way of historical past that skips the origin however options loads of particulars that give the universe life.
Listed here are the most effective Easter Eggs and references in The Improbable 4: First Steps.
10
1994 Roger Corman ‘Improbable 4’ Solid Cameo
Throughout the Ted Gilbert opening montage, a sequence of persons are seen saying, “Thanks, Improbable 4.” One group options one lady and three males, a mirror of the Improbable 4 line-up itself. That is no coincidence, as these are the precise forged of the legendary, unreleased Roger Corman-produced Improbable 4 from 1994. Alex Hyde-White (Mister Improbable), Rebecca Staab (The Invisible Lady), Jay Underwood (The Human Torch), and Michael Bailey Smith (The Factor) are actually getting to look in a brand new Improbable 4 movie as civilians of Earth 828.
The 4 additionally attended the world premiere of The Improbable 4: First Steps in Los Angeles, California, giving them the prospect to stroll the crimson (or on this case, blue) carpet that they by no means received for his or her Improbable 4 movie. After 31 years, the forged of the unique cinematic Improbable 4 lastly received the second within the highlight they’ve been denied far too typically.
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Improbable 4 Cartoon Legacy
Early on in The Improbable 4: First Steps, audiences see a cartoon model of the Improbable 4’s adventures. Within the movie, this cartoon is the place Ben Grimm/The Factor’s catchphrase, “It is clobberin’ time,” originates. The animation fashion of the cartoon is meant to evoke the 1967 The Improbable 4 and 1978’s The New Improbable 4 cartoon sequence. The New Improbable 4 was the cartoon during which H.E.R.B.I.E. originated.
The Improbable 4: First Step‘s post-credits scene offers a more in-depth have a look at the animated sequence, that includes H.E.R.B.I.E. in his unique 1978 design. It additionally incorporates a catchy music, “The Improbable 4 Energy Hour (Cartoon Theme)” written by Michael Giacchino. The title appears to be a play on The Marvel Motion Hour, a block of syndicated tv that includes Marvel cartoons within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, which included The Improbable 4 and Iron Man. In an odd little bit of cosmic coincidence, Iron Man was the start of the MCU’s Section One, and The Improbable 4: First Steps was the start of Section Six.
8
“Cosmic Tree”
The Improbable 4: First Steps options an end-credit music titled “Let Us Be Devoured” by Andrea Datzman, finest generally known as the composer of Inside Out 2. Versus previous unique songs composed for the MCU’s movies like Kendrick Lamar’s “All of the Stars” from Black Panther or Soundgarden’s “Reside To Rise” for The Avengers, which embrace extra fashionable music sounds, “Let Us Be Devoured” sticks with the Nineteen Sixties setting of The Improbable 4: First Steps and is finished within the fashion of a traditional people music.
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Curiously, one lyric of the music says, “Grown from that very same cosmic tree.” It’s unclear if “Let Us Be Devoured” is a diagetic music to the world of The Improbable 4: First Steps, however the concept of a cosmic tree appears like a deliberate callback to the multiversal tree seen on the finish of Loki Season 2 and was additionally glimpsed in What If…? Season 2’s finale. With the Improbable 4 set to journey throughout the multiverse in Avengers: Doomsday, this appears like a deliberate lyric.
7
The Human Torch Cannot Assist however Love a Herald of Galactus
Johnny Storm / The Human Torch is one in all Marvel Comics’ most outstanding girls’ males, and Joseph Quinn’s MCU incarnation is a brand new spin on that. Right here, Johnny is much less a womanizer and extra a romantic, or at the very least a heart-led sort of man. He has a right away attraction to the Silver Surfer upon coming into contact together with her, and among the best components of the film is his flirtation and eventual attraction to the Silver Surfer’s humanity.
With Johnny Storm having romantic emotions for Shalla-Bal, it appears like a spin on his comedian guide counterpart’s romance with Frankie Raye / Nova, one other one in all Galactus’ heralds. Johnny Storm additionally fills the Alicia Masters position within the unique “Galactus Trilogy” storyline of getting the Silver Surfer to see the error of their methods and finally activate Galactus.
6
Sly Reference to Avengers Tower
Throughout the opening montage of the Ted Gilbert Present, one lady says she was within the Pan Am constructing when the Mole Man kidnapped the whole complicated. Situated at Park Avenue and forty fifth Road, the Pan Am constructing is now generally known as the MetLife Constructing. It was the Pan Am constructing when it opened in 1963, till it was bought by MetLife in 1981 and formally renamed in 1992. This seemingly implies the Mole Man’s encounter with the Improbable 4 happened in 1963, if the development follows the identical timeline as actual life.
Nonetheless, what makes this fascinating is that Park Avenue and forty fifth Road within the Marvel Cinematic Universe shouldn’t be historically the placement of the real-life MetLife Constructing, however as a substitute the place Avengers Tower is positioned. Following Spider-Man: Homecoming revealing somebody purchased Avengers Towers, a preferred fan principle was that the constructing can be integrated into the MCU’s Baxter Constructing. 2025 lastly noticed the Avengers Tower query answered, as Thunderbolts* revealed it was bought by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. The preliminary intent was for it to be the Watchtower, and it’s now the bottom of the New Avengers. Throughout two universes, Park Avenue and forty fifth Road in New York have significance, however for various causes.
5
Recreation of The Improbable 4’s Debut Cowl
Marvel Studios loves recreating comedian panels in its function movies. From Captain America: The First Avenger recreating Captain America punching out Hitler from his debut comedian to the long-lasting Civil Battle #7 cowl of Captain America and Iron Man preventing in Captain America: Civil Battle. The Improbable 4: First Steps isn’t any totally different, because it recreates the long-lasting cowl of The Improbable 4 #1 of the workforce preventing Giganto, the monster managed by the Mole Man.
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The Mole Man is greater than a easy cameo, as Paul Walter Hauser performs the Improbable 4’s first comedian villain, and his dominion of Subterriana performs a pivotal position within the climax. The Improbable 4’s preliminary encounter with Giganto and The Mole Man, which is briefly proven within the movie, was expanded upon in The Improbable 4: First Steps tie-in comedian, which hit cabinets on July 9, 2025.
4
Improbable 4 Villains
Although Galactus and The Silver Surfer are the first antagonists of The Improbable 4: First Steps, the film is stuffed with references to lots of their traditional foes. Within the opening montage that recounts the workforce’s previous victories, the Ted Gibert Present options the beforehand talked about Mole Man and name-drops The Mad Thinker. Regardless of John Malkvoch’s character, The Purple Ghost, being minimize from the completed movie, he’s nonetheless talked about and segments of his motion scene are featured within the montage, together with Mister Improbable preventing one in all his tremendous apes, Peotr the orangutan.
Shortly earlier than the arrival of the Silver Surfer, Reed Richards tells the workforce he has discovered a strategy to monitor and take down many different villains, together with The Puppet Grasp, Diablo, and The Wizard. Many of those characters may be seen in cartoon type within the movie’s end-credit scene, together with a cameo look by Dragon Man.
3
Franklin Richard’s Future
The central stress of The Improbable 4: First Steps is Galactus’s need to assert Franklin Richards, the son of Reed Richards and Susan Storm, to free him from his starvation and take his place as the brand new devourer of worlds. That is taken from the comics, as Franklin Richards is predicted to grow to be the brand new devourer of worlds and exchange Galactus, marking the top of the present universe and the beginning of a brand new one. Franklin Richards notably turned Galactus in Earth X, the identical comedian that featured Shalla-Bal’s Silver Surfer.
Reed Richards initially can’t imagine that their unborn child has any superpowers, provided that he has run each check possible and might’t discover something. Galactus tells Reed that the unborn child is concealing and miserable his cosmic powers, which Reed can’t detect. Within the comics, Franklin Richards is an Omega-Degree mutant who can warp actuality to his whim. Nonetheless, many occasions within the comics, he has suppressed his powers, together with the latest Ryan North run on the title, the place Franklin used his talents even to maintain his powers locked away from himself, apart from sooner or later of the 12 months.
2
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby is the co-creator of The Improbable 4 alongside Stan Lee, and the duo’s 102-issue run on comics is taken into account one in all, if not the best, collaborations in Marvel Comics. Stan Lee has typically gotten many of the consideration by way of MCU variations, and The Improbable 4: First Steps provides the legendary creator his due with the workforce’s ship named The Excellesior, a callback to Lee’s signature catchphrase.
That mentioned, greater than some other Marvel Comedian, the Improbable 4 are very a lot linked to Jack Kirby. He infused lots of his historical past and mannerisms into Ben Grimm/The Factor, with the character’s Jewish heritage later serving as an acknowledgment of Kirby’s personal beliefs. Because the credit come to an in depth, earlier than the second enjoyable post-credit scene, the film ends with a quote from Jack Kirby: “In the event you have a look at my characters, one can find me.” It then reveals that the Improbable 4’s actuality on Earth 828 is, the truth is, a reference to the birthday of Jack Kirby, August 28, 1917.
1
Latveria and Physician Doom
Physician Doom is The Improbable 4’s archenemy, and has been featured in each one of many previous cinematic incarnations of the workforce for higher or worse. With Physician Doom set to be the first villain of Avengers: Doomsday, there have been questions on whether or not the notorious villain would seem in any respect in The Improbable 4: First Steps, and extra importantly, whether or not Robert Downey Jr.’s Physician Doom would hail from Earth 828. Physician Doom is alluded to a few occasions within the movie, notably when Sue Storm types the Future Basis and speaks with the United Nations; one empty chair belongs to the nation of Latveria.
Doom lastly makes his look in The Improbable 4: First Steps‘ mid-credit scene, although Robert Downey Jr. shouldn’t be proven. Sue Storm walks into her lounge to seek out Physician Doom trying over Franklin Richards. Doom is holding his masks, together with his signature inexperienced cloak obscuring his face. The scene then cuts, with the caption, “The Improbable 4 will return in Avengers: Doomsday.” Physician Doom has arrived for Franklin Richards, and with this cameo look, he retains the custom alive of Improbable 4 movies additionally that includes Physician Doom.