After all the hype, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 proved itself a worthy successor to
the first film.
With another Awesome Mix Tape blasting and another round of adventures for Star-Lord
and his gang of unlikely heroes, Vol. 2 offered up the same mix of action and comedy fans
have come to love.
And like the first installment, the newest Guardians is packed with Easter eggs.
Here are all the details only true fans noticed in Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
Major spoilers ahead!
Retro tracker
One of the very first shots of the movie shows Star-Lord tracking the Abilisk — the giant
space octopus — on a very retro-looking piece of hardware.
It looks about as 21st century as Star-Lord's Awesome Mix Tapes, and for good reason — that
space alien tracker is literally just a Mattel Electronics Classic Football game.
If you squint during the movie, you can even see a faded "Mattel Electronics" written across
the top.
Glimpse of Eternity
When Ego forces his will onto his son and Peter's eyes fill with stars, Peter whispers
one word: "Eternity."
To casual fans, it sounds like he's saying, basically, "Man, that's a big universe."
But it also seems like a reference to a God-like being from the comics.
In the Marvel Universe, Eternity is a character who encompasses everything in the universe,
a being with tremendous cosmic powers.
Remember how Ego is kind of a god, but with a little "g"?
Well, Eternity is the big G — one of them, anyway.
In Marvel terms, Star-Lord got himself a glimpse of God.
Heavy.
Grandmaster surprise
One of the best surprises in the Thor: Ragnarok trailer was the appearance of Jeff Goldblum
as the Grandmaster.
And if you thought you'd have to wait until November to see him in action, you're in luck.
Goldblum makes a brief, dancing cameo in the credits of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,
which...doesn't serve any purpose that we can tell, but it's a nice nod to the coming
clash of worlds happening in the MCU.
Galaga tactics
When the Sovereign drone ships attack the Guardians, we get even more proof that writer-director
James Gunn is completely in love with the '80s — the drones attack in two streaming
lines, a pitch-perfect flight plan from the original Galaga arcade game.
Even their weapons sound pretty similar:
And when all the Sovereign pods explode in the quantum asteroid field except one, the
pilots gather around the last remaining starfighter — just like kids in an arcade.
Planet Hulk
After their encounter with the drones, the Guardians are forced to make an emergency
landing on an empty planet.
The place fills up pretty fast, though, as both Ego and the Ravagers track the Guardians
to the planet's surface.
But if Quill and crew had spent a little more time walking around those woods, they may
have seen that they weren't the first voyagers to crash-land in that forest.
In fact, they might have been able to see a big, Hulk-sized footprint in the ground.
That's because Berhert, the planet they landed on, is apparently the same one where Hulk
fought the Galaxy Master in Incredible Hulk #111.
There's even a race that lives there — the Sagittarians.
Contraxia
Nobody's making up planet names for Guardians.
Just about every planet that shows up relates back to one that's already been established
in Marvel comics.
That includes Contraxia, the planet where Yondu makes his first appearance in the film.
The first time Marvel readers saw Contraxia was in Jack of Hearts #2, and it served as
the setting for Jack's adventures for three issues.
The planet showed up again in Marvel Zombies Supreme Vol 1 #4, which saw Jack of Hearts
returning to fight the undead Squadron Supreme.
Like in Guardians, the Contraxia of the comics is cold and bleak, the kind of place where
you're bound to run into an unsavory character or two.
Speaking of which...
Howard the Duck Vol. 2
Ahh, Howard.
"That's it.
No more Mr. Nice Duck."
The star of a Terrible movie, but an awesome Easter egg in both Guardians movies.
Howard returns in Guardians Vol. 2, this time relaxing with a drink on Contraxia.
The camera slides past him pretty quickly, so you have to keep an eye out for him.
Howard the Duck might seem like an odd choice to stick in Guardians of the Galaxy, but to
James Gunn, if the Duck fits, it sits.
Gunn told Yahoo!
Movies in March 2017 that he's "a huge Howard the Duck fan."
Well — a huge fan of Howard the Duck comics, that is.
Like the rest of humanity, Gunn thought the movie from the '80s sucked.
We'll just have to wait until Vol. 3 to see where the Duck shows up next.
Original Guardians
Guardians Vol. 2 featured a ton of new faces, but for those who've kept up with the comics
over the years, most of them weren't actually new at all.
Sylvester Stallone's character, Stakar Ogord, first appeared in 1975 in Defenders #27.
He becomes Starhawk and joins the Guardians in the first issue of their 1990 run.
During Yondu's epic, technicolor funeral, we also get to see Charlie-27, Aleta Ogord,
and Martinex T'Naga, who also showed up on Contraxia in the movie.
These characters were all involved with the older and original incarnations of the Guardians
of the Galaxy team.
The post-credits scenes also gave us a glimpse of Krugarr, who in the comics becomes Doctor
Strange's apprentice.
Either Gunn is just paying tribute to the old Guardians, or they'll all be back in Vol.
3.
Again, we'll have to wait and see.
Adam Warlock
One of the final Easter eggs in the movie came during one of the post-credits scenes.
Ayesha, the Sovereign's leader, unveils a golden cocoon that contains a man she only
refers to as Adam.
Longtime fans of the comics realized pretty quickly that she was talking about Adam Warlock,
a mainstay of Marvel's cosmic comics.
Like in the movie, Adam was created inside a cocoon in the comics and grew to become
an incredibly powerful character after taking possession of one of the Infinity Stones.
What his role will be in the MCU and the upcoming Infinity War is still uncertain, but it's
definitely going to be a game-changer.
Stan the delivery man
Playing a game of Spot the Stan is always fun, and Guardians 2 doesn't disappoint.
But...the plot thickens: When we see Stan Lee talking to The Watchers as Rocket and
Yondu are portal-jumping across the galaxy, he tells them about his job as a FedEx delivery
man.
You know, which was totally his job in Captain America: Civil War.
"Are you Tony Stank?"
"Yes, this is Tony Stank.
You're in the right place."
On one hand, it makes for a meta Easter-egg-within-an-Easter-egg moment.
On the other hand, it's possible confirmation of a long-held fan theory that Stan Lee is
a Watcher himself — an alien being that observes momentous events in the Marvel universe.
Even in light of that evidence, the studio still isn't explicitly confirming that theory,
but think about it: every one of these movies covers a major event.
So by Marvel logic, there's probably a Watcher somewhere in each of those movies.
Someone who always shows up...and always looks the same...and has no other reason to be there…
Someone like...Stan Lee.
"Stan Lee came back?"
"Stan Lee never left.
And I'm starting to think his mind is no longer in mint condition."
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