Despite mostly taking place in the far, far off reaches of outer space, Thor: Ragnarok
hits very close to home for many Marvel fans.
Like most films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's full of some pretty deep cuts
into Marvel's comic pages.
Here are a few Easter eggs you'll find in Ragnarok, and of course, there are Hulk-sized
spoilers ahead.
(Hulk smashing)
Throg
The first and most obvious reference to Marvel Comics' strange history is when it's revealed
that Loki once turned Thor into a frog.
That really happened, for a couple of issues at least, during one of Loki's many attempts
to overthrow Asgard.
It all starts in Thor #364, and winds its strange way through "Thor, Frog of Thunder"
meeting a bunch of rats, escaping death by alligator, playing a game of Frogger across
a road, and having a run-in with a psychic-flute-playing Morlock in the sewers.
While a completely different "Throg" would eventually take up the mantle after Thor reverted
back to his hunky Asgardian form, it's such a weird part of Thor history that it may just
be one of his most iconic tales.
Bi-Beast & company
Throg isn't even the most unexpected character show up in MCU continuity over the course
of Ragnarok.
Sure, weirdos like Howard the Duck and Cosmo the space-dog are strange, but it rarely gets
more bizarre than the four characters whose enormous busts are positioned around the Grandmaster's
tower, all of whom were presumably champions at one point.
First, there's Bi-Beast, a robot who bears a pair of impossibly-stacked faces, and who
made his first appearance in The Incredible Hulk #169.
You'll also find a bust of Ares, Marvel's very own god of war who first appeared in
Thor #129, and another character whose power seems far too enormous to comfortably slip
into a Marvel film.
Third, there's Beta Ray Bill, a deer-like alien with the same powers as Thor, and a
powerful ally to Asgard who first appeared in Thor #337.
Finally, there's Man-Thing, a magical scientist-turned-swamp monster who is definitely from Earth, and
the only one among these champions to not have a special connection to Hulk or Thor.
As the garbage dump of the universe, Sakaar really sees some diversity.
But let's head back to that crazy space-deer for a second…
Exiled Asgardians
By the end of Ragnarok, we have a bunch of homeless Asgardians floating around in a spaceship,
which is a scene that might seem a little familiar to true Thor fans.
Way back in Thor #337, a Korbinite alien named Beta Ray Bill is in a similar situation when
Thor finds him floating around on a ship called Skuttlebutt, which itself bears some resemblance
to the Asgardian's escape vehicle in Ragnarok.
He, too, is a champion of his people and in search of a new home after Surtur destroyed
their planet.
If Bill's giant bust on Sakaar's display of deceased champions is any indication, his
story didn't end nearly as positively as it did in the comics.
Contest of Champions
Once on Sakaar and enslaved by the Grandmaster, Thor gets the rundown on the whole gladiatorial
arena thing, courtesy of a Willy Wonka-styled trip through a horror tunnel, and an explanation
from the Grandmaster himself, who refers to his staged fights as a "contest of champions."
Not coincidentally, Contest of Champions is the exact title of a 1982 Marvel miniseries
starring the Grandmaster, who challenges Death to a duel, using Marvel's best and brightest
as their champions.
Their heroes included Iron Man, She-Hulk, and…
Arabian Knight.
They weren't all winners.
Scrapper 142
While Thor's original lady captor isn't ever given a formal name aside from "Scrapper 142",
she's generally referred to as a "Valkyrie."
There's some precedent for both names, even if neither are totally correct.
Marvel's Valkyrie, or rather an imposter version of her created by the Enchantress, plays a
major role in a one-shot tale in The Incredible Hulk #142.
The Valkyrie in Ragnarok isn't the one and only Valkyrie, and the number 142 is a pretty
big hint that she's just borrowing the name for now.
So, where's the real Valkyrie?
It's possible that we see Marvel's original heroine being speared during Scrapper 142's
flashback battle with Hela.
Given that the word "valkyrie" also applies to a whole regiment of warrior women, it's
safe to assume that the name probably gets passed around a lot.
Infinity Gone-tlet
One of the most confounding things in MCU mythology is the presence of the Infinity
Gauntlet.
While it's become the locus of absolute power over the course of Marvel's films, it made
its first appearance in the original Thor, as a treasure stored safely in Asgard.
While it was mostly a throwaway reference to some intense, cosmic Marvel stuff, it led
many eagle-eyed Marvel fans to wonder why there was more than one Infinity Gauntlet
floating around the MCU, since Thanos clearly had one also.
The entire scenario is retconned in one line when Hela calls the Gauntlet in Asgard out
as a fake.
Problem solved, right?
But why did Odin keep a dummy glove in his basement?
Was it a decoy?
Did he think it was real?
Or did he just pick it up at Comic Con and thought that it really tied the room together?
The world will never know.
King Kirby
Oldschool comic geeks could tell from Ragnarok's early trailers that the film would be drawing
very heavily from the art style of Jack Kirby, one of Marvel's original architects, and the
original artist of Thor.
A vast majority of the costume designs seen on Sakaar were based on Kirby's drawings of
Celestials and other strange alien gods, but one thing was pulled directly from Kirby's
comic pages: the enormous drawings on the walls of the Grandmaster's viewing chambers.
The guy's got amazing taste.
And of course, nobody missed Thor's original creator, Stan Lee, as Sakaar's shaky-handed
barber, right?
And speaking of Marvel's many creators, there's also cousin Carlo, played by Steven Oliver.
He may be a bit of a throwaway character, and he's most definitely melted all over the
Grandmaster's floor, but he was named after artist Carlo Pagulayan, who illustrated part
of Marvel's Planet Hulk storyline, which served as the inspiration for much of Ragnarok.
Fake Thor
In what might be one of the most unexpected cameos in all of the MCU, we're treated to
Matt Damon and Sam Neill.
Damon and Neill are playing the parts of Loki and Odin respectively, in Loki-Odin's very
own self-aggrandizing play.
The actor playing fake-Thor is a little harder to pin down, because he looks a lot like Chris
Hemsworth.
The reason for that is that he's played by another Hemsworth: Chris' brother Luke.
Although it's brief, it's a pretty cleverly cast, handsomely Hemsworthy Easter egg.
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