Now updated with Finale easter eggs (spoiler alert)!
Ms. Marvel, on Disney Plus, is a wonderful balance of adaptation and fresh, new content. That being said, since Ms. Marvel is another chapter of the MCU, there are cameos and easter eggs aplenty. And if you’re looking to know every single fun wink to previous MCU movies and TV—we’ve got you covered. Here’s every easter egg in Ms. Marvel so far!
Avengers: Endgame
Kamala teases that her upcoming video will be “why Thor secretly is a gamer,” which, as seen in Avengers: Endgame, is actually true.
She also explains that the public’s knowledge of the events of Endgame seems to have come from Scott Lang’s podcast, appropriately named: “Big Me Little Me.”
AvengerCon
You could write a whole article about all of the easter eggs at AvengerCon, but I shall do my best to summarize the most prominent ones.
AvengerCon is held at Camp Leigh, the “Home of Captain America.” Though we visited 1970s Camp Leigh in Endgame when it was SHIELD’s first hidden base, the last time we saw it chronologically was Cap and Black Widow booting up computerized Arnim Zola, only to have to flee for cover when Alexander Pierce launches a missile at them. Just to hammer it in, “The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan” can be heard playing in the background.
At AvengerCon, there is a drawing where Captain America’s butt is emphasized, referencing Scott Lang’s “America’s ass” line from Avengers: Endgame.
Kamala’s powers flare up for the first time while she’s at AvengerCon. A similar incident occurred in Marvel’s Avengers video game, where Kamala gained her powers via the Terrigen Mists on A-Day, another Fan Convention-type event meant to celebrate Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Zoe’s cosplay, while inaccurate in-universe, is a call back to Carol Danvers’s Ms. Marvel-era “Leotard of Power,” with some added fishnet stockings. Bruno’s complaints about it being inaccurate is similar to an incident in the first issue of Runaways where Alex plays an Avengers MMORPG and another player turns up in a sexualized Invisible Woman skin, prompting other players to protest the inaccuracy.
Kamala does a similar bit of cosplay adaptation, covering the seam between her Captain Marvel jacket and pants with a red sash around her waist. A sash isn’t part of Carol’s outfit in the MCU but it is in the comics.
Department of Damage Control
Agent Cleary of the Department of Damage Control, first seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home, appears in the mid-credits scene.
They appear to be the main antagonists thus far, having appropriated Tony Stark’s EDITH drones to help their search for Kamala (thanks again for that, Tony), which they seized during the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Tracksuit Mafia
In the Creative Closing Credits, a Trust A Bro van from Hawkeye is driving by in the background. Trust A Bro was one of the Tracksuit Mafia’s shell companies. Taking place in Jersey City, it seems that Kingpin’s empire spreads pretty far beyond Hell’s Kitchen.
Kingo Jr. and Kingo Sr.
Ms. Marvel made sure to pay tribute to (one of) the MCU’s first South Asian superheroes,’ Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo, with Kamala and Kamran talking about which actor their mothers prefer, Kingo Jr. or Kingo Sr., not knowing that they are the same immortal (eternal?) man.
Illumin-Aunties
While the name Illuminati has been around much longer than Marvel, it’s notable that the group of gossiping older women at Kamala’s mosque dubbed the ‘Illumin-Aunties’ comes after we see Earth-838’s Illuminati, headed by Captain Carter, Black Bolt, Captain Marvel, Professor X, Mr. Fantastic, and Mordo.
Pulled straight from the page
A majority of the plotlines in this show have been adapted from different arcs in Ms. Marvel comics.
When Kamala laments that she’s not allowed to do “a single normal teenage thing,” her father replies that she’s not normal. Her first comic arc is titled No Normal.
Generation Why was also the title of an issue in Kamala’s original comic run.
The names on the plaque outside Coles Academic High School are all prominent writers and artists from Kamala’s comics, including the character’s co-creators, G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona.
G. Willow Wilson is also alluded to through Kamala’s guidance counselor, Gabe W. Wilson.
Her maternal grandmother, Sana, is named for Sana Amanat, one of her creators.
Bruno references Kamala having fallen into the Hudson River. In the comics, Kamala’s first heroic act was rescuing Zoe from falling in the Hudson River, using her “embiggened” hand to scoop her off of the riverbed. In the show, she uses her ‘Hard Light’ embiggened hand to stop Zoe’s fall at AvengerCon.
The guy running the falafel cart laments that “vultures in Armani suits” are buying up all the property in the area. An arc of Kamala’s comics involved her fighting HYDRA’s Villainous Gentrification plot in her community. May be foreshadowing, may just be a reference.
A cockatiel is briefly seen in Kamala’s video, and later as she and Bruno chat on the rooftop, a neon sign advertises “Edison Electronics”. Both allude to the clone of Thomas Edison, her first supervillain in the comics.
The poster that shows Ms. Marvel sitting on a streetlight evokes the cover of issue 5 of her initial run.
Even the end credits pay tribute, recreating the comics as street art or billboards.
ClanDestine
Instead of being Inhuman (a group of human-alien descendants with powers), Kamala and Kamran are revealed to be descended from ClanDestine, a group of immortals descended from Adam Destine and a Djinn.
Some Inhumans fans are upset by the change (Iman Vellani herself seemed to want the Inhumans giant pet bulldog to make a cameo in the show), but the change does make sense culturally and opens the door to yet another lesser-known Marvel superhero family.
Bruno’s Future
Bruno is still the best Circle Q clerk, friend, and inventor in Jersey City and his current arc in the show seems similar to his struggle in the post-Civil War era for Ms. Marvel, where after injuring himself in an attempt to free an unjustly arrested friend, he chooses to go to college in Wakanda, as it is the only school that will accommodate his disability, thereby ending his friendship with Kamala.
Episode 3 of the show has him being accepted to CalTech instead but does have him injuring his arm while helping Kamala fight ClanDestine. Whether the injury will be permanent has yet to be seen, but he is sporting a cast for the rest of the series.
QR Codes
Like in Moon Knight, take care to look out for QR codes hidden in the episodes as some of them lead to full, free-to-read Ms. Marvel comics on the Marvel website.
EMBIGGEN
She said it, she said the thing!
In the climactic fight to protect Kamran from the Department of Damage Control, Kamala finally says her catchphrase ’embiggen,’ which she uses when she grows parts of herself for fights, as she did here in order to take out the Pulse canon.
Mutant, not Inhuman
Fans of the comics recognize Ms. Marvel as an Inhuman, or a part human part alien with powers. The Inhumans are already part of the MCU and have been shown in Agents of SHIELD, The Inhumans, and Multiverse of Madness.
However, the most recent episode teases that Kamala might not be Inhuman or just a descendant of Clan Destine, but a mutant, even playing a few notes of the 1992 cartoon X-men theme as they did in Multiverse of Madness.
Shape-shifting or Teleportation?
The finale episode “No Normal” ends with Kamala either shape-shifting or switching places with Carol Danvers (in either case, hello Brie Larson!).
The original comic of “No Normal” ended with Kamala shape-shifting into Carol Danvers in her Ms. Marvel outfit. However, Kamala’s powers have completely changed so it’s hard to say if shape-shifting is among her powers.
If it is teleportation, then Kamala may also have some of the abilities of Rick Jones, who used Nega-Bands to be able to switch places with Mar-Vell, who was in the negative zone.
In any case, I can’t believe we’re going to have to wait a full year to find out what happens next!
What was your favorite Ms. Marvel easter egg/cameo? What references are you hoping to see in The Marvels?
(featured image: Disney/Marvel)
