Marvel Is Making the First Comic That Exists Inside the MCU

Marvel has made plenty of tie-in comic books for their movies. I remember selling quite a few copies of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man book that was written by Stan Lee back in my days as a comic store clerk. Marvel has made movie prequels and movie adaptations, and movie spinoffs.

So it’s not particularly shocking in and of itself that Marvel is making a comic tied to their upcoming Fantastic Four film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. What makes it a little more notable, or at least more interesting is that (per Deadline) the company’s First Steps comic is “designed to be an artifact from the world of the upcoming movie” and also confirms that the film is “not an origin story, but will pick up four years after they become heroes.”

In other words: this Fantastic Four comic isn’t just about the MCU version of the characters — played by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bacharach — it exists as a comic within the film’s universe. As in, if you were a kid who loved the Fantastic Four in the MCU, you could walk to your local comic store (or more likely your corner drug store, since First Steps takes place in the past before comic stores even existed) and buy a copy of this book.

READ MORE: A New Silver Surfer Debuts in Fantastic Four: First Steps Trailer

Marvel’s First Steps comic is written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Mark Buckingham, with a cover by Phil Noto. As you can see above, Noto’s piece is inspired by the cover to the very first Fantastic Four #1 from 1961 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Given that image, and the fact that the book supposedly confirms the film is not an origin story, I am going to make the educated guess that this comic is this FF’s origin — retelling their first battle with the Mole Man, just as Lee and Kirby did in their original Fantastic Four #1, for fans of the group in the MCU. (The movie’s trailers have already made it clear the FF are huge celebrities in their universe.)

Lee and Kirby’s Fantastic Four stories often referenced the fact that the FF were celebrities with their own comic book — which, in an even more meta touch, was written and drawn by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. So this continues that tradition as well.

Marvel‘s First Steps comic goes on sale on July 2. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is scheduled to open in theaters on July 25.