All the best Easter eggs from Captain Marvel: cameos, secrets and references

By Jesse Schedeen

Full spoilers follow for Captain Marvel.

Each MCU movie contains many references drawn from Marvel's comics universe, and Captain Marvel is no exception. This new epic of superheroes is full of cameos, references and Easter eggs that eagle-eyed Marvel fans will find.

From Carol Mohawk to Legends of Heroes Protector and Spectrum, to Avengers: Links to the End of the Game, here are all the Easter eggs, references and cameos we found in Captain Marvel.

MCU Connections

Captain Marvel offers many connections that link the movie to the largest MCU and answer long-standing questions about the universe. This is Marvel's latest film to use the Tesseract as a means of intrigue, while explaining how this artifact happened to Nick Fury. It also reveals the story behind the Fury Pager and the origin of the Avengers initiative, while presenting some familiar MCU faces, such as Agent Coulson, Ronan the accuser and Korath.

Mar-Vell

The most important change to the film is that of Mar-Vell, Carol's mentor. In comics, Mar-Vell was the original Captain Marvel and used the human cover identity of Dr. Walter Lawson. In the film, Mar-Vell changed sex to become Dr. Wendy Lawson and never becomes a superhero, leaving Carol free to claim the title of Captain Marvel from the start.

Carol & # 39; s Mohawk

Carol's costume is very much inspired by contemporary Marvel comics, including her helmet and mohawk. This episode was presented by artist Jamie McKelvie for the Captain Marvel 2012 comic book. It pays tribute to the mohawk-like flapper that we see on the helmets of many Kree soldiers.

The binary form of Carol

The height of the film sees Carol finally release all her superhuman potential, bursting her body into waves of fiery energy. In comics, Carol sometimes turns into binary, a more powerful version of her usual self that only manifests itself when it absorbs enough energy – and that seems pretty similar to the version we see in the end of the movie.

L & # 39; ASIS

The film also relies on elements of Captain Marvel's Ultimate Universe version, especially for the faster ASIS advanced spacecraft. In the Ultimate Universe, this ship was the brainchild of Dr. Philip Lawson (the ultimate version of Mar-Vell), and Carol was chosen to lead the security.

Stan Lee

Stan Lee has made appearances in all MCU films so far, and until now, his sad demise has not stopped this trend. Plus, Lee's cameo in Captain Marvel has an extra layer of meta-strangeness; he can be seen on the train reading a script for Mallrats, Kevin Smith's comedy of 1995 that launched all the fashion "Stan Lee cameo". And he also gets an opening logo MCU exclusively reserved for Stan, which presents different shots of the creator of Marvel, where we usually have images of different Marvel heroes.

Kelly Kelly Sue DeConnick

The train sequence also features another Marvel creator closely associated with Carol Danvers. After Carol gets off the train, she misses out on writer Kelly Sue DeConnick (easy to spot thanks to her distinctive red hair and hair). DeConnick was the first writer to tell the story of Carol, from Marvel to Captain Marvel, and his work naturally had a major influence on the film.

The period

The film includes a number of pop culture references from the 90's that help reduce the exact period until 1995. For example, when Carol uses the public phone, the wall behind her posters for the album of Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness, which was recorded between March and August 1995 and published in October. The Blockbuster Video store includes a VHS copy of True Lies, released in theaters in July 1994 and probably not available at Blockbuster until the following year. We also learn that Carol disappeared in 1989, six years before the film's main story.

Nick Fury's children

In the movie, Fury says he has no children (although he is a bit suspicious). In comics, however, Fury has several children. One of them, Mikel, followed his father into the espionage business. Another, Marcus Johnson, only recently discovered his father's true identity and changed his name to Nick Fury, son. This son allowed Marvel to remove the old white Nick Fury and replace it with another specifically inspired by the Fury appearance in the MCU.

Nick Fury: Secret Agent

Fury also refers to his mishaps during the Cold War. This is a nod to the colorful story of the character in the comics. Originally, Fury was portrayed as a World War II soldier in the comic Sgt. Fury and his screaming commandos. In the 1960s, he was reinvented as a super spy James Bond-esque before finally becoming the grizzled director of SHIELD that we know and love today.

Eye of Fury

The film finally reveals exactly how Fury is hurt at the eye in the MCU unit, the truth being a little less glamorous than one would have expected from the head of SHIELD. In comics, there are different explanations for Fury's injury depending on the universe in question. In the classic Marvel universe, Fury was injured by a burst of shells fired from a German grenade. In the Ultimate Universe, he was caught in an explosion when a military convoy carrying some subject-test weapon X was blown up.

Classic Colors

When Monica helps Carol choose a new color palette for her costume, some of the abandoned choices pay homage to Captain Marvel's classic outfits. The red and black motif is a tribute to Carol's original Marvel costume, while the white and green motif pays tribute to Mar-Vell's first costume.

Protective

In the film, we learn that the original name of Fury for Avengers Initiative was "The Protector Initiative", until inspiration is a lightning after learning the Carol Air Force call sign. The protectors' initiative could be a nod to the hero Kree Noh-Varr. Although he was originally named Marvel Boy, Noh-Varr ended up taking on the role of Protector after joining the Avengers.

Carol's call sign

Although the film certainly draws from the source of Carol's story, as an air force pilot, his call sign was very different in the comics. She was nicknamed Carol "Cheeseburger" Danvers after an embarrassing incident when she threw up her meal in a training simulator.

Carol's Amnesia

Carol is fighting a nasty case of amnesia in the film, which his comic counterpart knows too well. More specifically, Carol lost her memories and powers after a battle with the mutant Snape, who was draining energy. Even after Snape turned to good and his life as X-Man, the relationship between these two heroes has always been tense.

Goose the flerken

One of the big twists of the movie is to reveal that the goose cat is actually an alien called Flerken. Goose is based on Chewie, Carol's cat, who also turns out to be an extraterrestrial imposter in comics. It's Rocket Raccoon that spotted the alien hiding in the middle of them.

The supreme intelligence

On several occasions in the film, Carol is tormented by leader Kree, known as Supreme Intelligence, who takes the form of Dr. Wendy Lawson in her mind. In comics, the Supreme Intelligence usually appears in its true form, a giant tentacle head sheltering one of the most intelligent brains in the universe.

Monica Rambeau

The film sets the stage for another Marvel hero who will debut in a future MCU movie. While Monica Rambeau is only a child in this film, if we consider that the MCU follows the comics, she will eventually become a superhero in its own right. In comics, Monica actually inherited the mantle Captain Marvel before Carol, and she already passed other names like Photon and Spectrum. (Photon, of course, was the call sign of Monica's mother, Maria, in the movie.)

Lieutenant Trouble

Carol refers to Monica as "Lieutenant Trouble". In the comics, Carol and Monica are much closer to age, and this nickname is reserved for a girl named Kit Renner, who idolizes Carol.

Torfa

The planet Torfa is one of the first battlegrounds of the film, but it plays a much larger role in comics. Torfa is portrayed as a home for refugee Skrulls, at least until these Skrulls begin to fall victim to a mysterious disease. It was eventually discovered that they were poisoned by pollution from vibranium extraction.

To learn more about Captain Marvel, check out our review, find out why Mar-Vell's sex exchange is so important, retrace Tesseract's confusing timeline, watch the actors that Captain Avenger could beat in Avenger, and find out everything you need to know about Goose, Captain Marvel's cat.

Jesse is a writer with gentle manners for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket in follow @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.