At the opening of Avengers: Infinity War, there is a new logo for Marvel Studios in honor of the 10th anniversary of the studio, with the IO in Studios turned into a 10. That follows the general collection of clips from the various Marvel Studios films that leads into the new logo. The fact that these films have collected a decade of continuity really shows in Avengers: Infinity War, which is a true celebration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and all of its history. It is also a celebration of the work of Jim Starlin, as this movie really does a marvelous job of adapting Starlin's Infinity Gauntlet storyline to the big screen... at least in its own way.

With a story this big, the filmmakers would have been hard pressed to not fill the movie with tons of Easter Eggs and amusing references to past Marvel Studios films, as they had plenty of opportunities to work a number of them in there. They did not let down any fan who entered the theater on the hunt for some clever, obscure references! There were practically dozens of them! Here, then, we will take a look at 25 of our favorite Easter Eggs and references, from classic comic book pages translated into film to a familiar blue face popping up when you would least expect it!

WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War, in theaters now.

25 PERFECT BALANCE

Very few movie posters have ever been combed over quite as much as the movie poster for Avengers: Infinity War. People were angry that Hawkeye was not on the cover and were convinced that Ant-Man was hidden on it somewhere. As it turned out, the reason that neither of those characters were on the cover is that neither of them were in the movie. More than that, however, the characters chosen for the poster were clearly chosen for a specific sense of balance.

The film discussed balance a lot and there were a number of examples of it throughout the movie. For instance, Corvus Glave stabbed the Vision at the beginning of the film and at the end of the film, the Vision stabbed Corvus Glave. Thanos, naturally, spent practically the entire film talking about the importance of killing off half the people in the universe so that the other half could have better lives. That is the whole point of him acquiring the Infinity Gauntlet, so that he could do it in an instant instead of going from planet to planet as he had been doing for decades. Of course, he actually did pull it off in the end. So about the poster, then... there are 24 characters on the poster. Twelve of them die and an equal amount of them live. Perfect balance.

24 HULKS? WE HAVE THOSE!

In the first film that drew the disparate characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe together, The Avengers, there is an iconic sequence at Tony Stark's home where he negotiates with Loki about their current situation. Loki is essentially humoring Tony in their "negotiation" because he figured that it was a way to get close to Tony. When that fails, he mocks Tony about the predicament that the Avengers were in, noting that he, Loki, has a whole alien army! Tony retorts that, "We have a Hulk." The Hulk then shows up and pummels Loki (it doesn't end the fight, of course, but it shows that they are a lot more evenly matched than Loki believes).

Similarly, in the opening scene of the movie, Loki is attempting to negotiate with Thanos when Loki, too, notes that his side has a Hulk! Hulk then attacks Thanos, but in a twist, it is not Hulk who is pummeled and thrown into the ground by Thanos, demonstrating that things are not going to go the way that the did before. Of course, it also doesn't end the fight, either, as Heimdall sends Hulk off to Earth to warn the rest of the Avengers of Thanos' imminent arrival.

23 UNCLE MORGAN

When we first see Tony Stark and Pepper Potts in the movie, they are in a strange position. After their impromptu engagement at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tony is clearly looking forward to a future with Pepper while she is dubious because of the whole "he just put an Arc Reactor back into his body after having it removed years ago." Tony, though, sees the addition of armor that he can activate at any time as a good thing, as it means that he will be able to armor up at a moment's notice to protect Pepper and what he hopes will be their child.

He mentions that they could have a kid and name him after her eccentric uncle, Morgan. Morgan Stark, of course, is a character from the comics. Introduced in Tales of Suspense #68, Morgan is Tony Stark's cousin, the "perfect balance" to Tony about what happens when you are born into a rich family. Tony Stark was born rich and became a self-made billionaire. Morgan Stark was born rich and became a gambling loser who was willing to sell out his own cousin to get out of gambling debts (Tony still forgives him).

22 HERALD STAND-IN

Some of the biggest changes from the comic books to the film in the case of Avengers: Infinity War came from the fact that certain characters, like Silver Surfer, are not currently in the control of Marvel Studios due to Marvel's past deals with Fox. One of the most notable characters who is licensed to Fox is the Silver Surfer. The Silver Surfer was actually the character who saw the beginning of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline occur. Jim Starlin took over that series with Silver Surfer #34 and that was when he brought Thanos back to life and set him on his journey to killing half the universe.

Therefore, once Thanos collected all of the Infinity Gems/Stones and formed the Gauntlet, the first hero that he sought out was the Silver Surfer. He then easily defeated him, sending the former herald of Galactus (wielder of the Power Cosmic) hurtling towards Earth. That's when Surfer crashed into Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum where he warned Strange that "Thanos is coming." In this film, since Silver Surfer was not available, the replacement was Hulk/Bruce Banner, who were the ones that instead crashed into Strange's home and gave that exact warning.

21 DEVILISH STAND-IN

A perfect example of a character who is not available due to contract rights and yet is someone who has touched the various parts of the Marvel Universe in major ways is Mephisto. Introduced in the pages of Silver Surfer as essentially a stand-in for the devil, Mephisto grew obsessed with the purity of Silver Surfer's soul. It made Surfer's soul a prime target for a collector like Mephisto, but it also made Surfer extremely dangerous to Mephisto. In the years since, Mephisto has moved on to have an impact on nearly every area of the Marvel Universe, including erasing Spider-Man's marriage (as part of a deal to save Aunt May's life) and serving as Thanos' lackey during the Infinity Gauntlet series.

Since Mephisto is not available for Infinity War, it was Thanos' lieutenant from the Black Order, Ebony Maw, who served in the same role as Mephisto did in Infinity Gauntlet. This is demonstrated when Maw repeats the precise dialogue that Mephisto did early in the Infinity Gauntlet series, about Thanos, that "my humble personage bows before your grandeur." It is important to note that Mephisto only said that because he wanted to get close to Thanos so that he could try to steal the Gauntlet for himself. It appears that the Maw is more legitimate in his praise for Thanos.

20 WATCH OUT FOR THE CAULDRON!

When Tony Stark enters into the damaged Sanctum Sanctorum of Doctor Strange after the Sorcerer Supreme summoned him following Bruce Banner's grave warning, Tony and Strange quickly get on each other's bad side with their respective attitudes towards each other. Tony especially draws Strange's ire when he leans up against something at Strange's home and Strange and Wong quickly have to tell him that he really should be leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos.

The Cauldron of the Cosmos is an artifact that Doctor Strange has had in the comics since the early days of The Defenders. What is interesting about it is that it really does not have the same place in his armory as things like the Eye of Agamotto or the Darkhold. Instead, it was mostly something that Strange used to relax. You see, the Cauldron allows Strange to view different realities and timelines and he would often “sit for hours upon end – and dwell upon the immutable mysteries of the universe!” That said, it does have a more practical application, as it has powerful scrying abilities, as well. In addition, Strange can treat it as a sort of cosmic Alexa, when he needs quick information about something. Mostly, though, he uses it for meditation.

19 DOCTOR STRANGE IS GREAT WITH KIDS

As noted, Tony Stark and Stephen Strange were constantly sniping at each other in the beginning of the movie (which made Doctor Strange's sacrifice later in the film to save Tony's life all the more poignant). Tony tended to go for the clever insults while Strange went for just standard insults, as he likely is too busy learning all the magic spells that he can to spend time coming up with cool pop culture zingers like Tony (one of which you will see in the very next entry). One of Tony's clever insults was to ask Doctor Strange, "What is your job exactly, except to make balloon animals?"

While this is a general insult about how Strange seems like the sort of entertainer that you would see at a kids birthday party, it is also likely a humorous reference to a bit that Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange) filmed on Jimmy Kimmel's talk show. In the bit, Doctor Strange is summoned to Kimmel's home. He believed he was there to face off against some demons, but in reality, Kimmel wanted to hire him to entertain the kids at a birthday party. Strange refused, until he saw that there was $150 in it for him. The scene then cut to the good doctor actually making balloon animals for the kids! When one kid insulted his balloon animal, Strange teleported the kid and the balloon animal into a demonic dimension.

18 SQUIDWARD NEVER GETS ANY RESPECT

Of all of the Black Order, the Ebony Maw is clearly the biggest sycophant for Thanos. His whole deal is that he is basically the hype man for the Mad Titan. In the beginning of the film, he tells the dying Asgardians, "Hear me, and rejoice! You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. You may think this is suffering. No... it is salvation. The universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile... for even in death... you have become children of Thanos" Creepy.

During the film, when the Maw tries to get the Time Stone from Doctor Strange (while Strange is with Tony), Iron Man tells him, "Go away, Squidward, Earth is closed!" In case you are unfamiliar with the genius of Spongebob Squarepants, Squidward is a reference to Squidward Tentacles, the next door neighbor of Spongebob Squarepants, who Spongebob believes is one of his best friends. This is despite the fact that Squidward is practically openly hostile to him all the time. As you can tell from his name, Squidward is a squid and he has a big, odd-looking gray head -- and he really does look a lot like Ebony Maw, so Tony's reference game is tight.

17 ART IMITATES... OLD VIDEO GAMES?

Throughout the film, one of the most amusing bits is seeing Groot now acting like a sullen teenager, who is not interested in anything but the video game that he carries with him. The video game in question is called Defender, a 1981 release that was one of the most acclaimed video games of the early 1980s. It is one of the most difficult early arcade video games and was a big success (after initially seeming like a flop due to how hard it was to win).

From the official description of the game, "Your mission, as captain of the Defender, is to protect the humanoids stranded on the planet from their alien abductors. The scanner will help you determine a strategy to shoot down the alien ships before they reach the humanoids. If you destroy the aliens after they have captured their prey, you must return the humanoids to the safety of the planet or they will fall to their death. If an alien carries its victim out of your range, the humanoid will mutate, join the alien force, and take to assault with deadly vengeance!" Sound familiar? Granted, it also describes roughly 60% of the arcade games of the era, as space was a popular setting. You could get away with simple graphics because you were inventing new characters without set designs; but still, the similarities are neat.

16 SIX DEGREES OF KEVIN BACON

This film is filled with movie references, as both Star-Lord and Spider-Man routinely reference pop culture during the film. For example, Spider-Man's plan for defeating Ebony Maw actually coming from a "really old movie" called Aliens. Of course, the plot (opening up a hole in the ship to suck Maw out of the hole into outer space) was actually how Ripley defeated the alien in both Aliens and the previous film, Alien. Still, that is just a typical movie reference. A more substantial one that is tied to the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the constant references to Kevin Bacon.

In the original Guardians of the Galaxy movie, Star-Lord talked a lot about the "greatest movie of all-time," Footloose, about how Kevin Bacon's character saved the day by having a big dance. Therefore, at the end of the film, Star-Lord challenges Ronan to a dance-off. This was just meant as a distraction, but it has grown in the future tellings to new Guardians member, Mantis. Thus, the legend of Kevin Bacon has grown a lot among the Guardians by the time that they meet the Avengers, so it makes sense that Mantis would think that Kevin Bacon might be an Avenger.

15 THEY REALLY WILL FRY ANYTHING

On top of all the seemingly non-stop action in the film, the movie also tries to find time to explore some character development. One of the notable examples of this came when we first meet Scarlet Witch and Vision in the film. They are together at a hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the two years since Captain America: Civil War, they have grown close, even though Scarlet Witch has been doing her heroics while on the run as part of Captain America's "Secret Avengers" team (which is basically the same thing that Cap ended up doing in the Civil War comic book series). Meanwhile, Vision has been working regularly for Iron Man (presumably as a registered superhero alongside War Machine), and Vision is looking for something more with their relationship.

While they walk together in the streets of Edinburgh, there is a visible sign noting "We will deep fry your kebab" in a store window. Since that sign was added for the film, it sure appears to be a planned Easter Egg. The joke has drawn a lot of happy responses from Scottish viewers, who view it as a gag about how Scotland is known for their willingness to deep fry nearly anything, including kebabs. Also, kebabs are close enough to shawarma that it could be a sly reference to the post-credits sequence in the first Avengers film, where they all get together to ear shawarma... and the Avengers sure do get fried in the end! Too soon?

14 MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY

Since he has gone on the run with his ragtag group of heroes, Captain America has effectively given up most of the trappings of his time as Captain America. He does not have his famous shield, he has stripped his uniform of all of the bright flag aspects, and his beard now serves as his mask. It is interesting, though, to note that everyone still calls him "Cap," including his fellow rogue Avengers. It is interesting because, otherwise, it sure seems like Steve Rogers has followed the comic book story of Nomad perfectly.

After the events of the famous storyline, "Secret Empire," in the 1970s, Steve Rogers was distraught to learn that an evil secret society called the Secret Empire had been able to turn the country against him through a series of fake news articles and TV news stories. At the end of the story, after Cap proved his innocence and the existence of the Secret Empire, he was shocked to learn that the President of the United States was even involved! The President actually shot himself in front of Cap's face! This left Steve so disillusioned that he gave up the Captain America identity and took on the "man without a country" superhero name and costume of Nomad.

13 LITTLE BOY BLUE

Before they became two of the most successful movie directors in Hollywood from their two hit Captain America films (The Winter Soldier and Civil War, two of the most acclaimed films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Joe and Anthony Russo were best known for their work in television as directors of acclaimed television comedies like Arrested Development, Community and Happy Endings. It was their Emmy Award-winning work on Arrested Development (where they directed the pilot together and then directed 14 episodes split between them) that really got their names on the map and eventually led to their film success, so they are very grateful to that series.

In their previous Marvel movie, Captain America: Civil War, they had an Arrested Development Easter Egg in the film where they showed the Bluth stair car during the airport fight scene in the movie. Arrested Development, you see, is about a rich family that has to deal with an economic downturn when it appears as though the head of the family business, their father, has been stealing money for years. They had to sell a lot of their assets, including their personal jet. They still kept the stair car for the plane, though, and it became a family car. In Infinity War, one of the characters from the show, David Cross' Tobias Funke, was once almost part of Blue Man Group. Thus, Tobias, covered in blue, was featured at Collector's collection on Knowhere.

12 THANOS RE-ENACTS SNATCH

The Collector's obsessive need to collect interesting things is ultimately his undoing in Avengers: Infinity War, as the Collector has the reality stone at his home on Knowhere and Thanos shows up to collect the stone from the Collector. Interestingly, this, in and of itself, is a bit of an Easter Egg, as in the original story of Thanos' search for the Infinity Stones (then called Infinity Gems), Thanos Quest, Thanos actually did get the reality gem from the Collector.

However, what is interesting is what Thanos says to the Collector when he is trying to get the reality stone from him. He tells him, "Where is the stone?" This is like a cool homage to a 2000 British crime film called Snatch. The Collector is played by Benecio del Toro. Well, in Snatch, del Toro played Franky "Four-Fingers." In the opening scene in the movie, Franky and his gang break into a diamond company while dressed as Hasidic Jews. Franky keeps asking people, "Where is the stone?" Ultimately, he discovers the gigantic 86-carat diamond that he was there to steal. The rest of the movie is about the various other criminals who try to steal the diamond from Franky.

11 REALITY IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE

Perhaps the most famous part of the original Infinity Gauntlet storyline is the sequence in Infinity Gauntlet #4 where the remaining superheroes get together and attack Thanos en masse in an attempt to distract him long enough for Silver Surfer to be able to snatch the Gauntlet from his hands while he had his guard down. Seeing the various creative ways that Thanos took down and slaughtered some of the most powerful superheroes in the world was quite a sight to see.

In his fight against the collected superheroes on Titan at the end of the film, Thanos did not have quite the same level of clever punishments in store for the heroes that opposed him. However, earlier in the film, when the Guardians of the Galaxy tried to attack him on Knowhere after arriving to collect the Reality Stone, he showed the ability of the Stone (which he has retrieved well before the Guardians arrived and he just used the power of the stone to make it look like they still had time to stop him). He used it on Mantis and Drax, turning Mantis' body into ribbons and Drax's body into brick-like stones. This is precisely the same thing Thanos did to Nebula and Starfox (Thanos' brother, also known as Eros) during the aforementioned Infinity Gauntlet battle scene. It must be nice for artist Ron Lim to see his ideas end up used in a film like that!

10 TINY BUBBLES...

In one of the most poignant scenes in the movie, Gamora is captured by Thano. Earlier in the film, Gamora made Star-Lord promise that he would kill her if she ever was about to be captured by Thanos. This way, he could not force her to tell him where the Soul Stone was hidden. Star-Lord agrees and when he corners her and Thanos on Knowhere, he tearfully points his blaster at her and she begs for him to pull the trigger. He ultimately does so, but is shocked that instead of a laser blast coming out of his gun, it instead shoots out tiny bubbles!

This was, of course, Thanos being a jerk again with the reality stone. At the same time, this is likely a clever reference to the hit 2000 video game, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, the last of the Marvel vs. Capcom series of fighting games until Capcom finally got the license to use Marvel characters again in 2010. In the video game, which naturally has Marvel characters fight against Capcom characters a la Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, Thanos is one of the playable characters. For whatever reason, Thanos' attacks end with little bubbles coming out of him. It's such an odd detail that it has stuck with fans for years.

9 HUNGRY LIKE THE WHITE WOLF

This one is arguably more of a Black Panther Easter Egg, but since it also appears in this film, we figure we should count it here, as well. Towards the end of the film, the Avengers come together in Wakanda to help protect Vision while T'Challa's sister, Shuri, tries to remove the mind stone from Vision without killing him. The plan would then be for the Scarlet Witch to destroy it. Obviously, this did not end up happening, as Thanos was able to use his time stone to reverse time to before Scarlet Witch destroyed the mind stone.

In any event, when the Avengers arrived at Wakanda, Steve Rogers got to reunite with his old friend, Bucky, who is referred to as the White Wolf now. The White Wolf in the comics was the name of a young white child whose family died in a plane crash in a country nearby Wakanda. King T'Chaka took the boy, Hunter, in and raised him with T'Challa. Hunter grew up to become the White Wolf, head of Wakanda's secret police. T'Challa disbanded the secret police when he took over as king and Hunter became a mercenary instead. Now, Bucky takes on the name in the films.

8 THE AVENGERS OF THE ROUND TABLE

At the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, despite proving himself worthy of becoming a member of the Avengers and actually getting an offer from Iron Man, Peter Parker decided that he did not want to commit to being an Avenger full-time while he was in school. So Tony had to improvise another reason for his press conference in the film (hence his engagement to Pepper Potts, instead). However, when Spider-Man hitches a ride on Thanos' space ship on the way to Titan, he ends up becoming an Avenger anyways, as Tony Stark inducts him into the team. Amusingly, Tony uses a "knighting" hand gesture to add him to the team.

This is obviously just a general joke, but at the same time, it is interesting to note that Iron Man has had a very specific interaction with King Arthur in the past. In a classic story in Iron Man #150 by David Michelinie and Bob Layton (a story that they re-visited 100 issues later in Iron Man #250), Iron Man and Doctor Doom were transported to the past and actually met King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table! Doom, naturally, teamed up with the evil Morganne Le Fay and Iron Man had to help Arthur and the knights repel their attack. In a What If...? comic about what if Iron Man never returned home from the Middle Ages, Iron Man was even knighted by King Arthur!

7 WHERE THE HECK IS VORMIR?

Possibly the biggest mystery in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was finally solved in Avengers: Infinity War, which is where was the soul stone? There were countless theories about the location of the Soul Stone and we are pretty sure that of the hundreds and hundreds of possible guesses over the years, not one person ever correctly guessed that the soul stone was going to be on the planet Vormir. In fact, learning that it was on the planet Vormir likely raised the same question in the minds of many fans, "What the heck is Vormir?"

The Marvel Universe has lots of planets in it, but few are quite as obscure as Vormir, which is home to a race of dangerous beings known as Vorms who travel the universe until they find planets that they can feast off, sort of like Galactus, but with more malice involved. Interestingly, after a brief cameo in Avengers #123 where a Vorm is mistaken for an actual mythological dragon, we learned the history of the Vorms in Avengers #124, which also (in a separate story) contained the origin of Mantis. The very next issue, Avengers #125, is the first time that the Avengers fought Thanos in the pages of the Avengers' own title, as part of a crossover with Jim Starlin's Captain Marvel series.

6 IF I HAD A HAMMER

During Thor: Ragnarok, Thor managed to defeat Hela, the sister he never knew that he had, but it was at an extremely high cost. He had to destroy Asgard to kill her and before that point, she managed to destroy his trusty hammer, Mjolnir, and also stab him through the eye. In this film, Thor slowly brings himself back to his old self in an attempt to kill Thanos and save half the people in the universe. Thor gets a cybernetic eye from Rocket Raccoon but to replace Mjolnir, he had to travel to Nidavellir to get the dwarves there to forge him a new weapon.

Once there, he discovered that Thanos had already killed most of the dwarves and closed down the foundry, leaving the head of the group, the blacksmith Eitri, without the use of his hands. However, Thor was able to convince Eitri to let forge him one more weapon, a weapon powerful enough to defeat Thanos. The new weapon is designed on the hammer that Thor used in the Ultimate Universe, which is a mixture of a hammer and an axe. The name of the hammer, Stormbreaker, is a reference to the hammer that Odin had Eitri forge for Beta Ray Bill when the alien proved that he was worthy of wielding Mjolnir, so Odin decided to basically introduce a second Mjolnir with Stormbreaker.