Having been consistently building for the last 17 years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline is quite complicated... and the arrival of The Fantastic Four: First Steps doesn't exactly make things much clearer.

First Steps includes one key element that really works, convincing me that the MCU should challenge the DCU in one big way.

Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." Credit: Marvel Studios / 20th Century Studios First Steps functions both as an adaptation of a thus-far hard to translate roster (it's the fourth go-around for these characters since 1994),