First Steps hits theaters this weekend, audiences will get a very good look at a very retro spaceship, the Excelsior. But didn't we already see this rocketship before? Haven't the Fantastic Four already crossed over into the main Marvel universe?

Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby lead a charming, retro-styled MCU adventure that finally does justice to Marvel's original superhero team.

Indeed, by the 1990s, the only Marvel property with a proper theatrically released film was (checks notes) Howard the Duck. But as Tim Burton's Batman hit theaters in 1989, and another comic property, Dick Tracy, had a release in 1990, one intrepid producer knew that there were opportunities in Marvel's so-called House of Ideas.

First Steps is an alternate-universe Marvel movie that uses its parallel universe not to complicate but to separate, shedding the narrative labyrinths of its predecessors. Thanks to the multiverse, its heroic,

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Tomorrow, July 26, at 10:00 a.m. ET, you can pre-order the Fantastic Four: First Steps Galactus LED popcorn bucket from AMC, Regal, and Cinemark for $79.95.

I t might be off-putting to mention Stan Lee when The Fantastic Four: First Steps wears its affections for Jack Kirby on its knit sleeves. But Lee used to say that Marvel's stories reflected the world outside our window.

Ralph Ineson, whose gigantic stature and booming voice can be found in Fantastic Four this week, co-starred alongside Nicholas Hoult, aka Superman's Lex Luther, in last year's Robert Eggers-directed Nosferatu remake. And now, the pair have bonded further, as each currently serve as the main antagonist in this year's comic book movie tentpoles.