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Want to know more about Marvel Studios’ First Family ahead of the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps? Marvel Comics is here to help — by reviving a trope that’s been around almost as long as the Fantastic Four have been published.

Deadline reports that Marvel will publish a Fantastic Four: First Steps comic book tie-in by Matt Fraction and Mark Buckingham on July 2, three weeks before the new movie reaches theaters. (It also features cover art from Phil Noto that harkens back to Jack Kirby’s original Fantastic Four #1 cover from 1961; take a look below.) Here’s the gimmick, though: it’s intended to be a comic book that exists inside the world of the MCU Fantastic Four, published by the Future Foundation itself.

In a statement about the comic, Marvel comic book editor-in-chief CB Cebulski said, “As Marvel’s First Family, the Fantastic Four and their stories have always been at the very center of the Marvel Universe. With The Fantastic Four: First Steps coming later this summer, we at Marvel all felt this was the perfect opportunity to bring our teams together in honor of their legacy in both the world of the film and within our comics. It’s been a blast to have our teams in Publishing and Studios bounce ideas back and forth to create something truly special and one-of-a-kind, and we can’t wait for fans to be able to dive in to this comic—squarely in the world of the MCU—and experience the Fantastic Four like we’ve never seen before this summer.”

The idea of Marvel publishing Fantastic Four comic books in a world where the Fantastic Four exists is almost as old as the FF themselves; Johnny Storm was reading an old Sub-Mariner comic book just before meeting the real thing all the way back in Fantastic Four #4, an issue before he could be seen reading an issue of The Incredible Hulk. By 1962’s Fantastic Four #10, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby themselves were appearing in the comic, being confronted by Doctor Doom as he tries to lure the FF to their Doom; the Thing even complained about his portrayal in the comic in the same issue.

The upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps comic release won’t even be the first time fans will get a chance to read an in-universe release from the fictional Marvel Comics — that would be 2000’s Marvels Comics series, which featured multiple releases from the Marvel that exists inside the Marvel comic book universe. (There was even a Marvels Comics: Fantastic Four issue, by Karl Kesel and Paul Smith.) This will, however, be the first MCU Marvel comic release — and if it sells well, who knows if more will be on their way?

Fantastic Four: First Steps #1 will be released July 2. The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be released in theaters July 25.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• The MCU needs Anya Taylor-Joy's Magik in it (and not just for the X-Men connection)
• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.