Spoilersahead for folks who haven’t caught up with Season 2 ofJessica Jones.
Now that you’ve had a chance to get caught up onJessica Jones, we wanted to point your attention to all those clever little Marvel Comics Easter eggs that popped up along the way. There’s a lot to love in Season 2 of, arguably, Marvel’s best Netflix series, but there’s also a lot that could be easily missed without a handy guide through the insane history of Marvel Comics and some of their most colorful characters.
Some of these Easter eggs will be focused on the main characters played byKrysten Ritter,Rachael Taylor, and Season 2 newcomerJanet McTeer, but there are quite a few that exist in the periphery ofJessica Jones. Some of them dig deep into obscure Marvel Comics history–while we dig a little deeper still with out own speculation as to what their arrival on the show might mean for its future–and some even pay homage to classic examples of film noir and contemporary artists. Oh, and of course, you’ll see exactly whereStan Lee’s cameo is, if you missed it.
A note on Easter eggs: In our opinion, things like Foggy Nelson and Turk returning, namedropping the Rand Corporation, Trish’s past as Patsy Walker coming back to haunt her, and even Kaxton Industries aren’t Easter eggs, they’re plot points done in service of the telling the story and connecting the larger Marvel TV-verse. We might stretch this rule a little bit to talk about things like Captain America’s shield or the slow-going transformation from Trish Walker into Hellcat, but the majority of the following bits of trivia are meant to educate viewers who might not have had the Marvel Comics background knowledge to connect theJessica Jonesreference to its comics counterpart. The writers have done a solid job of not just delivering a fantastic superhero drama this season, but also providing fans with fun nods and references to Marvel lore along the way; let’s get into it!
The Whizzer
In Episode 1, “AKA Start at the Beginning”, Jones is fielding a number of requests for her services by questionable clients. One such character is Robert Coleman (Jay Klaitz), a man stricken with paranoia and the belief that he possesses super-speed. Since his school friends used to call him “The Whizzer”, he’s given himself that moniker as an alter-ego. He’s totally nuts, right?
Well not only is Coleman actually a super-powered speedster whose abilities (and related mental disabilities) factor heavily into Season 2’s plot, he’s also a Marvel Comics Easter egg.
Making his first appearance as Robert Frank in 1941 Golden Age comicUSA Comics#1, the super-speedy Whizzer was reintroduced and reimagined a couple of times over the decades, as both a superhero and a supervillain. Whizzer’s been a bit player in a lot of comic book adventures, battling alongside the Avengers, getting into relationships with other"forgotten heroes", and even getting snared in soap opera-levels of drama regarding the parentage of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Infamously suffering numerous heart attacks over the years, perhaps the Whizzer’s worst claim to fame is the time a posthumous clone of the character was made by Arnim Zola only to be killed and mocked by Deadpool.Jessica Jonesgave the character an interesting part to play, at the least, but there’s more lore from the Whizzer to come!
So it would have gone a long way toward making the Whizzer even more of a weirdo by revealing that he’s a horder and a co-habitater with mongooses (…mongeese?), but the inclusion of his pet mongoose is yet another super-bizarro Easter egg paying homage to the just-as-nuts Marvel Comics history.
You see, originally, before he even became the Whizzer, young Robert was on a trip to Africa with his father. When Robert is bitten by a cobra, his doctor father (inconceivably) saves his son’s life by giving him a transfusion of mongoose blood! (You see, the mongoose is a natural predator of the cobra and it has developed a resistance to its venom, so obviously the blood transfusion would have totes worked; don’t try this at home.) However, the side effect of this “cure” is that Robert also developed super-speed, because why not! A later retcon of the character clarified things using comic book science: the transfusion itself didn’t grant super-speed, but rather it activated a latent mutation that did so. Sure!
But that’s not all! You see, the Whizzer’s mongoose inJessica Jonesis named Emil, which is another nod to the comics since Robert’s father was Dr. Emil Frank. Cute. We’re still holding out hope that the Marvel supervillainMongoosecan somehow get a live-action appearance after all this pro-mongoose propaganda pretty much paved the way for his arrival. (We’re only partly kidding since Mongoose was an actual mongoose before the High Evolutionary performed some nefarious experimentation, something thatJessica Jonesis not at all shy about exploring. He also lived in New York, so …)
Dinosaur People, Skrulls and The Illuminati
To be fair, some of the folks who walked through the doors of Alias Investigations were probably crazy. But in case they weren’t, then this particular client has some top-level intel about a government-wide conspiracy. Interestingly, and perhaps not surprisingly, Marvel Comics has quite a few nods to such events.
In a general “taking over the government” and shaping the new world order vein, there’s theIlluminati, a secret organization of some of the world’s smartest and most powerful superheroeswho came together in order to secretly govern the super-powered world in order to prepare for another threat like the Kree/Skrull war. Now, Marvel fans have already seen the Kree but are still waiting for the Skrull, another alien race of green-skinned humanoids who have an irritating ability to shapeshift and impersonate just about anyone. They can be roughly described as reptilian, so perhaps this lady saw a Skrull and made the best logical leap she could based solely on her marathon watch ofVand its remake.
Seeing the Skrulls finally arrive in the MCU on the big or small screens would be huge, but I’m hoping for a completely different direction:Dr. Vincent Stegron, the Dinosaur Man! This bonkers 70s throwback once worked alongside Dr. Curt Connors (a.k.a. The Lizard) on a S.H.I.E.L.D. project that used a sample of dinosaur tissue recovered from the Savage Land. (Oh man, could you imagine “Jessica JonesSeason 3: Savage Land”?) Combine obsession with brilliance and access to gene-altering science, and presto change-o, you get Stegron the Dinosaur Man! At one point, he even planned to turn New York’s citizens into a race of dinosaur people, so perhaps he’s already gotten started.
Yeah, this probably won’t happen, but it’s fun to think it might yet be possible.
Either way, it’s too late forJay-Z.
The Ringmaster
Okay, this one’s a little less of a stretch when it comes to connecting the dots. In Episode 3, Trish convinced Jessica to visit a hypnotherapist with the hope of unlocking her blank spaces in her memories. While the therapist got mixed results, once Marvel Comics fans heard him referred to as Dr. Tiboldt, a little Pavlovian bell should have sounded deep in their memory.
We only hear the hypnotherapist’s last name, but it’s likely a nod to either Fritz or Maynard Tiboldt, a Marvel Comics supervillain who debuted in 1962 in the pages of “Hulk” #3. Better known as The Ringmaster, the not-so-goodnik had no innate powers of his own but rather used a hypnotizing device hidden away within his tophat to take control of their actions. Definitely not a rip-off of DC Comics' Mad Hatter nearly 15 years earlier, The Ringmaster matriculated from petty theft of circus attendees, to attempting to hypnotize just about every known entity in the Marvel universe in order to do his bidding, to getting a surgical upgrade granting him hypnotic eyes and a powerful, reality-altering ring that was intended for the Mandarin. (Get it?Ringmaster?) And then Punisher negated this ability by shooting off his ring-finger, as you do.
Spider-Man Stingers
No, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man didn’t swing into action during the events ofJessica Jones, but the superhero’s most famous motto did make an appearance. However, it was a twist on the moral lesson bestowed to Peter Parker by his Uncle Ben, and it was delivered in a particularly disturbing reveal.
The aforementioned Coleman had apparently recorded a video of himself just in case anything awful should happen to him. Just before the inevitable occurred, Coleman describes his super-powered origin story and quips that, “With great power comes … mental illness.” Certainly not the message the optimistic and hard-working Uncle Ben intended, but it’s definitely in keeping withJessica Jones' gritty style.
Another knock on the web-crawler comes courtesy of Jessica Jones herself responding to Griffin’s assertion that his “balls are tingling”, meaning he knows that something’s up with Trish. Is it a supernatural power, like Spidey-Sense? Nope, something more primitive: Scroty-Sense.
Captain America’s Shield
Spider-Man isn’t the only other superhero to get a nod inJessica Jones. In a much more positive light and certainly a cuter reference, Avengers member Captain America gets name-dropped by Oscar Arocho’s son, Vido (Kevin Chachon). It also doubles as a two-for-one reference to the current MCU.
When Jessica not-so-stealthily enters the Arochos' apartment, Vido catches her in the act but is more than happy to show her his action figures. The prized toy in his collection is, of course, Captain America. The only problem here is that Cap has lost his shield, a common occurrence for kids, toys, and accessories, but also a nod toCaptain America: Civil Warin which Steve Rogers physically and metaphorically gives up the shield. (Don’t worry, kids and collectors, he’ll be getting a new version forAvengers: Infinity War.)
However, Video gets a second reference in and manages to show off his engineering smarts by using magnets to keep the shield attached. Rogers, with the help of Stark tech, used a similar contraption inAvengers: Age of Ultron. Vido could probablyDIY his own full-scale version, but we’d recommend better supervision than he gets inJessica Jones…
Oscar’s Artwork
Speaking of Oscar, he’s quite the talented artist even if he’s not super-great at other things in life. In a particularly sweet and suave move, Oscar gifts And if the art looks familiar, that’s because it’sDavid Mack’s, artist for both the “Alias” comic series in the early 2000s and, of course, the Emmy-nominated main title design forJessica JonesSeason 1. We don’t have official confirmation that this isactually a Mack piece, though the artist is thanked in at least two of the credits for the current season of the show.
And if you love the artwork ofJessica Jones, might I suggest heading over toIMDband visiting their image gallery, which has a collection of episodic posters that conjure up images of pulp comics, detective tales, and hard-boiled noir stories, all while referencing the events of the episode itself. They’re really well done and unfortunately under-utilized. An example follows below:
Nods to Classic Cinema
Despite being a Netflix TV series inspired by comic book stories, there are some nice nods to classic cinema for cinephiles out there. Most of them come by way of a mysterious movie fan who has a habit of projecting black-and-white films onto the side of a building in order to watch them, giving Jessica and Trish a free, rooftop theater to enjoy as well.
A famous scene from one such movieOrson Welles' 1958 pictureTouch of Evil, is featured. For more noir cinema history,Jessica Jonesalso brings usRobert Siodmak’s 1946 noir filmTheKillers,which tells the tale of an insurance investigator tasked with tracking down the beneficiary of a victim of a hit, only to get wrapped up in increasingly complex webs spun around the femme fatale, Kitty Collins. It also centers on a boxer As a classic film noir nod, this is a solid reference, as is the fact that it’s based on anErnest Hemingwayshort story by the same name, but that story reportedly had the working title of “The Matadors.”
So what’s the big deal? Theyreferenced a weird Marvel Comics villainbent on punishing mankind–and battling Daredevil–after a bullfight riot hospitalized the title bull-fighter. True, but Matador is also a nod back to the neon sign alongside the building where we first saw Jessica Jones in the series premiere while she was surveilling her clients … and others likeLuke Cage. And we all know how that ended up …
Stan Lee’s Necessary Cameo
You knew it was coming, and you probably saw it already, but there’s more toStan Lee’s cameo than a full-size back-of-the-bus ad. It’s a little hard to see, but the ad is for the law film of Forbush & Associates. Back in 1955, Lee created a character by the name of Forbush to stand in as a low-level gofer who could bear the brunt of the writer’s jokes. The fictional founder of the satirical comic book “Snafu”, Forbush was also a wannabe superhero with no innate powers, talents, or abilities. The “super-heroic” guise of Forbush Man later arrived in 1967.
This is also follow up to Lee’s cameo inIron Fistwhich officially named him Captain Irving Forbush of the NYPD, all of which begs the question: Is Stan Lee a client of Forbush & Associates, a partner, or simply a face of their advertising? (Maybe it’s his twin Melvin instead…) The plot thickens!
Dr. Karl Malus
Okay, now we’re getting into the hard-hitting plot points ofJessica Jonesas they connect to the greater Marvel Comics universe. It’s pretty clear that Dr. Karl Malus (Callum Keith Rennie) is one of the antagonists you’ll love to hate in this season, but what exactly are his Marvel Comics connections?
Perhaps surprising no one, Malus' Marvel counterpart is much more the mad scientist than even his twisted live-action character is. Originally appearing as a Spider-Woman villain back in 1980, Malus turned his surgical skills toward researching super-powered individuals. His dabbling in mad medicine turned some superheroes villainous or brought them under his sway through technology. He’s a pretty nefarious player in the criminal underworld, having used dangerous and deadly concoctions to grant normal humans superhuman strength and to keep them addicted to drugs which he and his superiors controlled.
In a more recent run, “Superior Carnage”, from writerKevin Shinick, Dr. Malus finds himself as the host–and later the main course–for the title alien symbiote. Quite the change in outcomes!
