Captain Marvel came. Captain Marvel saw. Captain Marvel conquered. The global Box Office chants only one name today – Carol Danvers. Marvel has delivered yet another master-class and if you are a true fan of the world’s most profitable franchise, you may have already watched the movie. As you all might know by now, all MCU movies come loaded with incredible comic book references and Easter eggs. Captain Marvel was no exception. If you have missed them, we are there to watch your six. Presenting – All the Easter Eggs in Captain Marvel you probably missed in the theatres!!!
13. The Stan Lee cameo
With the death of the comic book legend back in 2017, the world is still reeling from this enormous loss even today. All Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have a cameo appearance by the Godfather of Marvel Comics. Stan ‘The Man’ Lee was given an opening scene tribute right in the beginning of the opening sequence of Captain Marvel. After that, he was seen again making a guest appearance in a train, where he is seen reciting the lines for Mallrat, the Kevin Smith movie that was released in 1995 (Stan Lee had appeared in the movie as a guest actor). The timeline of Captain Marvel and Mallrats release date coincide and that is what makes the cameo appearance even more special.
12. The Kree Supreme Intelligence
The Supreme Intelligence is an artificial Kree construct which is worshipped as a God by the Kree. The Supreme Intelligence is the amalgamation of all Kree minds. When a Kree dies, he is absorbed into the A.I construct, the dead Kree’s memories adding on to the Supreme Intelligence’s knowledge. In the movie, the Supreme Intelligence takes on the form of a huge green head with multiple eyes. The movie never shows the Kree Supreme Intelligence in its true form. This was kind of a let-down.
11. The Very Last Blockbuster store
After the rise of Netflix and other online streaming services, Blockbuster’s stocks took a dive as it held on to its old and outdated business model. The result was fairly evident – Blockbuster, which used to be a multi-million dollar global chain, is now confined to just one store in Bend, Oregon. The movie featured Carol escaping the Skrull warship and crash-landing on a Blockbuster Video store. This is the same store. Back in 1995 which also happened to be the movie’s premise, Blockbuster was still going strong. Brings back a lot of memories, doesn’t it??
10. True lies reference
Captain Marvel is a product of a long line of blockbuster movies. Before Marvel held monopoly over over-the-top action and huge budgets, Hollywood had a hard time convincing the investors to invest in movies that had a large production cost. True Lies was the first movie to break that barrier. Its budget was more than a Hundred Million dollars and used extreme levels of action sequences to woo the viewers. The Captain Marvel movie shows a billboard where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis are seen in a True Lies movie poster before the head of the former is blown away. This is an epic 1990’s reference to an epic 1990’s movie.
9. The Right Stuff reference
The Right Stuff was about the American Space Program test pilots, whose story to push beyond the limits of human potential, to go faster, higher and further, is what would one day lead to the Apollo Program that landed a man on the moon. With Carol Danvers being a test fighter pilot for the USAAF in her previous life, there had to be a reference to this movie as Carol’s life resonated a lot with the lead actors of that movie. When Captain Marvel fell down the rabbit hole into the blockbuster video, the first movie case she picks up was of ‘The Right Stuff’. Coincidence! We think not!!!
8. Kelly Sue-Donnick’s mysterious cameo
Much of how the modern Captain Marvel is viewed by the 21st Century comic book fan could be credited to Kelly Sue-Donnick, the famed Marvel Comics writer that brought Captain Marvel to the modern age with her stories. The movie pays tribute to her contributions to Captain Marvel when she is the first person Carol sees when she boards the train to catch the Skrull impostor. Kelly is easily spottable due to her signature hairstyle and spectacles.
7. Khn’nr – The Skrull Captain Marvel
During the Secret Invasion storyline, a lot of the heroes of the Marvel Universe were secretly replaced by the shape-shifting Skrulls, who planned on a planet-wide invasion of Earth. In that storyline, a Skrull called Khn’nr was brainwashed into thinking that she was actually Captain Marvel. When push came to shove, Khn’nr defied her Skrull overlords and actually became a superhero instead of a double agent. The Skrull impostor disguised as Captain Marvel that was killed by Yon-Rogg in the movie is a clear reference to Khn’nr.
6. The Kree Starforce
In the comic books, the Star Force was a group of genetically modified soldiers of the Kree military wing. They were stronger, faster and more agile than the average Kree. The names of the original Starforce squadron – Atlas, Minerva, Bronchar, Korath and Yonn-Rogg, were all featured as the Kree shock troop unit sent to an alien planet to investigate a Kree spy going missing. It was a clear reference to the original Star-force. In the comics, they were actually high-level inter-galactic outlaws and supervillains.
5. The Accuser Corps
When we hear the name Ronan the Accuser, we wonder why he is given that succeeding moniker! Turns out, Ronan is not called the Accuser because he went rogue. The Accusers were actually a group of Kree Heavy Warships that were infamous for carpet bombing planets for the most minor of offences. In the comic books, the Accuser Corps were the personal policing arm of the Kree, and was responsible for handling all of the internal affairs of the Kree Empire. Glad to know that there was at least some mentioning of the Accuser Corps in the movie.
4. The Protector Initiative
Before Nick Fury chose the name ‘Avengers’ for his idea of “a group of remarkable people who could do things that we never could”, he called the initiative with the ridiculously sounding “Protector” Initiative. As unoriginal as it sounds, the Protectors were actually a group of Kree refugees that landed on Earth and helped protect it against extra-terrestrial threats in an alternate reality. In that reality, Noh-Varr became Captain Marvel but also ended up adopting other names with due course of time – like Marvel Boy and the Protector!
3. Captain Marvel turns into Binary
Many do not know this but Captain Marvel has two states of power levels in the comic books. The first one is where she looks like your regular red, white and gold superhero that can kick most of the bad guys’ asses. But sometimes, when she is pushed beyond her limits, Captain Marvel holds the ability to enter into her second state of power, and after she enters into it, she is called Binary – a flaming angel that can burn down anything and everything in her path. In the comics, she is a force to be reckoned with. The movie also does justice to her Binary powers.
2. Captain Marvel meets the Avengers
After Infinity War, the unlucky half of the universe withered to dust and died, including Nick Fury. But before Fury could literally cease to exist, he activated that cosmic pager that Carol gave him. In the mid-credits sequence, we see that the Pager has stopped working. The very next moment we see Captain Marvel in the Avengers HQ, asking about Fury. This leads to several questions, chief of them being – How did Captain Marvel survive the Infinity War snap? Endgame must give us some answers.
1. Goose and the Space Stone
Right after the credit roll ends, we see Goose back on the table in Nick Fury’s office. We now know that Goose is a Flerken, an extra-terrestrial organism that is considered dangerous even by Skrull standards. The Flerken’s ability to eat anything and everything is seemingly infinite when we realize that Goose had not only consumed a horde of Kree Soldiers but also the powerful Space Stone aka the Tesseract. After making Nick Fury wear an eye-patch for the rest of his life, Goose regurgitates back the Space Stone, thus solving the plot hole of how the Space Stone ended up with Shield.
