After what feels like quite some time, fans are about to get the chance to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not with a new film, but with a comic. I know it’s the big, blockbuster films that bring in the most fans (and money), but we can’t ignore the comics, can we? Since the MCU draws its inspiration from the source material, it only makes sense that there be some kind of relationship between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Comics. And for a brief time, there was, with tie-in comics being an incredibly common sight.
In the earliest days of the MCU, Marvel Comics produced more than a handful of tie-ins, practically one for each entry of the franchise. Often preludes or codas, these stories picked up on elements from the film and expanded them slightly. It was a cool addition to the MCU; however, due to the films being the priority, the comics couldn’t delve too much into the world, lest they run the risk of creating an error in continuity. While tie-in comics have mostly petered out in the last few years, Marvel Comics is taking another swing with an exciting new series.
Later this month (March 25, to be precise), Marvel Comics is going to publish Fantastic Four: First Foes #1, a new one-shot by Dan Slott and Mark Buckingham. Like the one-shot Fantastic Four: First Steps released last year, this new special is also set in the same continuity as the film, set in the universe the Fantastic Four live in. Also like the previous special, this comic takes a slight meta approach and is presented by Reed Richards’ Future Foundation as an in-universe retelling of the team’s earliest battles before the events of Fantastic Four: First Steps.
However, unlike the previous special, Fantastic Four: First Foes is the first special of four and is the beginning of a new, quarterly series that will detail more unseen adventures of Marvel’s First Family. Slott and Buckingham’s series will recount the team’s encounter with one of their classic foes, the Mad Thinker. We even get a peek at the villain on several of the issue’s variant covers (Kaare Andrews and Phil Noto’s, specifically). Marvel also noted that this particular issue will come with a short feature, written by Ryan North, the current writer of the main Fantastic Four ongoing series.
I understand that making tie-in comics for something as big and involved as the MCU can be a complicated thing. You want to tell a compelling story worthy of the films, but you’re often limited by what the people making the movies want to do (say, if a certain villain is off-limits due to future plans). While the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s large, connected narrative is a plus for many, it really puts a cramp on anything not cinematic. Thankfully, Marvel’s found a way to make these complementary stories work for the MCU.
For one, Marvel having this tie-in set on Earth-828 is a great idea. It allows the comic to do whatever it wants and introduce whichever villains it pleases without impacting the Sacred Timeline. Plus, we know from Thunderbolts* that the Fantastic Four are going to be coming to the MCU’s 616 world, and we might even be getting a full-scale reboot come Avengers: Secret Wars. This gives anything in the MCU Fantastic Four’s past a weird freedom. Anything they encounter in the past of Earth-828 might ultimately be inconsequential to the future of the Sacred Timeline.
In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to worry about this kind of stuff. We could just have books set in the MCU and let the heroes have plenty of other adventures. But Marvel wants the MCU to be as accessible as possible. They can’t have a series create canon that only a fraction of their overall audience will see or care about. It sucks because it feels like a wasted opportunity, but if Marvel felt that more comics set in the MCU were viable, it’d do it. But it’s at least found a way to give comic fans something.
With four quarterly specials, maybe this is Marvel testing the waters to see if MCU comics are worth it now. Or, more likely, they’re capitalizing on a piece of the MCU that’s on borrowed time. Either way, fans are going to be getting more comics set in the MCU and, as they say, a W is a W. Who knows? Maybe enough people buying the Fantastic Four specials will convince the higher-ups that fans want more books set in the MCU.
What do you think about the Marvel Cinematic Universe doing tie-in comics? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum!
