Baby Yoda Technically Exists In The Marvel Universe

Warning! Spoiler for Empyre: Fantastic Four #0 below

Baby Yoda took the world by storm after becoming the surprising co-star of The Mandalorian. Now, the lovable character known as ‘The Child’ has made his first crossover into the pages of Marvel Comics, as he was referenced in the latest issue of the Fantastic Four. 

‘The Child’ made his first appearance in The Mandalorian in the series first episode, as the Baby Yoda turned into the breakout character in the Star Wars Universe. Disney, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni did a masterful job in keeping the character hidden from promotional material which made his debut that much more exciting. The 50-year-old force sensitive creature proved to be the perfect, cute foil to Mando as their adventures have been surprisingly heartwarming. With the reveal long passed, Disney has released a series of merchandise around the character, including most recently Baby Yoda cereal from General Mills.

Now that Star Wars and Marvel are both under the same umbrella at Disney, it’s become more and more common to see sly references to the sci-fi adventure films in the pages of the comics. Case and point, in this week’s Empyre #0: Fantastic Four, ‘The Child’ gets a hilarious namedrop.  The prelude to the upcoming Empyre event features the Fantastic Four family ending up on an alien planet after running out of gas. On the planet, an Elder of the Universe called the Profiteer runs a gladiator arena where Kree and Skrulls fight against each other. While the adults deal with the main mission, Franklin and Valeria Richards end up checking out the casino. It’s there, they use their powers to “break the bank” and come out with all of Casino Cosmico’s resources. The Fantastic Four make a deal to return the money in exchange for gas (and to free two children from the arena). But how exactly were the children allowed to gamble? They pulled the Baby Yoda excuse.

The Richards kids are uber-smart, so when they were denied at the door, Franklin claimed they were an alien race called the Valerians, and that like ‘The Child’ they were in fact much older than they appeared: “No, we’re Valerians, an ancient race that ages very slowly. We’re hundreds of years old.” The doorman buys it and when Valeria asks how, Franklin responds “Baby Yoda. If he can be fifty…”

Franklin’s reference to Baby Yoda might be the first time ‘The Child’ was namedropped by his nickname in a Disney property. But, what’s apparent is that even in the Marvel Comics Universe, Baby Yoda exists in some fashion. Considering the Fantastic Four comics are filled with plenty of space adventures, it’s not impossible the Richard’s might cross paths with the Star Wars Universe one day. But until then, this is a fun little Easter Egg.

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Liam McGuire
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Lead writer for Screen Rant’s comic team. [email protected]. Find me on Twitter @LiamRMcGuire for comic news and reporting.

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