In this feature, I share with you comic book "easter eggs." An easter egg is a joke/visual gag/in-joke that a comic book creator (typically the artist) has hidden in the pages of the comic for readers to find (just like an easter egg). They range from the not-so-obscure to the really obscure. So come check 'em all out and enjoy! Also, click here for an archive of all the easter eggs featured so far! If you want to suggest an easter egg for a future column, e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com (do not post your suggestion in the comments section!).
Today, in our second Avengers edition of Comic Book Easter Eggs (here is the first), we look at more hidden references and in-jokes by Avengers writers and artists...
We begin with one that I actually featured as a Comic Book Legend years ago, but I think it works here, too. Back in the 1990s, there were not a lot of good online resources for fans to get information about comic books. Really good fan sites began to stand out by offering great information. One such site was the great Avengers fan site (which is STILL a great site), Avengers Assemble.
One fan, Jason Rivera, made extensive lists about the Avengers (member appearances, chairpersons, etc.)
Well, Rivera passed away back in the late 1990s.
In Avengers #6, Kurt Busiek and George Perez (along with inker Al Vey) gave him a great tribute in the pages of his favorite title.
The Avengers were being accused of being imposters by the Squadron Supreme.
The Avengers went to the Squadron's headquarters...
where they met a Doctor Rivera, who cataloged super-beings...
After the Squadron shows up to fight...
In the end, the bad guy was actually ON Rivera's list!
What a neat tribute by Busiek and Perez!
Speaking of Busiek and Perez, in the early 1980s, Perez began working on JLA/Avengers, which never came about. The only full colored piece he finished was the following...
Well, twenty years later when Busiek and Perez had the Avengers and JLA finally meet, in the third issue their histories are altered so that they've been having annual team-ups, and one of those team-ups?
Nice.
Reader Le Messor suggested this bit from Avengers West Coast #59 (by Danny Fingeroth, Gary Hasrtle and Chris Ivy), where a familiar name is evoked...
As you can see, they cleverly said the name of longtime Marvel staffer, Marie Severin...
Finally, reader Graeme P. suggested this bit from Avengers #191 by David Michelinie, John Byrne and Dan Green, where the Grey Gargoyle goes to his old apartment only to find out that a new woman has moved in...
Notice her name, Margot Neil, is a reference to Margot Kidder and Noelle Neill (spelled differently), who both played Lois Lane. Plus, her outfit, look and her apartment all match Lois Lane in the first Superman movie...
Graeme also wanted to note the sort of crude joke at the end there - notice the abbreviation of where the Gargoyle went to school and notice what the liquid in the vials sort of looks like.
That is it! Thanks to Graeme and Le Messor for the suggestions! For anyone else, feel free to suggest other comic book easter eggs you've come across by e-mailing them to me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com