Mythology Gag / Infinity Crisis

Infinity Crisis

When dealing with a series that brings together this many different worlds and, in some cases, shows a lot of continuities coming from some franchises, a few of these are inevitable.

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• Literally when Constantine mentions that Thor has red hair in the myths, and Thor justifies that detail as a prank of Loki's that got out of hand.
• Upon hearing what SHIELD stands for, Cisco observes that someone must have really wanted the organization's initials to spell SHIELD (with Coulson admitting that's "pretty much" true).
• Mephisto appears to Thanos after the Snap to give him some instructions while having his own agenda.
• Barry and Wally note that they are slower in the MCU world than their own.
• Constantine notes the various supposed origins of the Phantom Stranger as the comics have played with the man's history being unknown.
• When the heroes dismiss time travel as an option, Jane Foster notes that the wider consequences should also be considered, unwittingly invoking the reason for the Dominators' invasion of Earth in the original crossover.
• Hela hints at an interest in anyone who can cause that much death, which invokes Thanos' reasons for assembling the Gauntlet in the comics.
• Constantine compares the Ancient One to "a prat of a fallen angel I used to know", and also mentions the time he cured himself of cancer by selling his soul to three lords of Hell.
• When he takes over HYDRA, the Skull disposes of the former head with his Dust of Death.
• As in the comics, Jane Foster is able to wield the Hammer of Thor.
• Black Lightning breaking Red Skull's jaw is a nod to the Avengers storyline Red Zone, with Lightning taking the place of Black Panther.
• In Gamma Relations, Jane decides to take on the code name of Thunderstrike.
  • It's hinted that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch might be mutants and possibly related to Magneto. In the comics, they were initially mutants and Magneto's children, until a recent retcon suggest otherwise.
• In Powers and Marvels, the Power Rangers are compared to "rejects from a 1990s Japanese TV show".
  • The confrontation between the Power Rangers and the Avengers ends in a similar matter to the confrontation with the Justice League in Justice League/Powers Rangers; where Kimberly was interrogated by Diana in the comic, here she is 'questioned' by Mister Fantastic and the Scarlet Witch.
  • The Power Rangers Earth is named Earth-1993 after the year the franchise made its debut.
• In In Hand and Foot: Bullseye makes his debut much as he did in Kevin Smith's "Guardian Devil" arc, flipping a paper clip to break a wine glass and marking his place in A Catcher in the Rye.
  • Also, Michaelangelo's unintended observations about the similarities between the Turtles and Matt can be taken as a reference to how the circumstances of the Turtles' origins were inspired by Daredevil's.
  • Later, Bullseye quotes the 2003 film as he is about to kill Elektra, only to be interrupted by the rest of the Defenders before he can strike the fatal blow.
• In Distant Cousins, Carol mentions a recent bad date she had with someone called Marcus, a reference to the controversial storyline in Avengers where she was essentially raped by the Scarlet Centurion.
  • The Lex Luthor of Earth-1978 muses that the Lex of Earth-38 reminds him of "an idiot nephew of mine".
• In Sins, Sirens and Strife, Darcy criticizes the Justice League for operating out of a manor but suggests that the Avengers hire a butler, referencing both Avengers Mansion and Edwin Jarvis from the comics.
• In Infinity Crisis: The Inhumans, Ozel is revealed to be a speedster. This is a nod to her meeting Quicksilver in her sole comic appearance.
• Counterpart Conferences:
  • In Chapter 1, the Thirteenth Doctor reunites with Missy, who proceeds to mock her sense of fashion. The Doctor retorts that, at least, she wasn't a flashy-glow skeleton, referencing the botched resurrection of the Saxon Master in "The End of Time" and one moment in the same episode in which he shows to a bunch of homeless people his skeleton, who was glowing.
  • In Chapter 3, a displaced alternate Joker talks with the Earth-51 Joker about some of the other versions of them he's witnessed while traveling the multiverse, including a demented punk clown and a version who is "just makeup and a scarred face".
  • In Chapter 7, Batman paraphrases a memorable quote from Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.
  "We've all stared into the abyss. The difference between us and you? You blinked."
  • In Chapter 11, Mr. Mxyzptlk briefly shows multiple of his appearances and, when asking Superman the danger of him getting too serious, mentions the Justice Lords version of Clark. He also mentions his trip to the world of Injustice, saying that he had to trick Regime Superman into thinking he killed Mxy, just so he could go away.
• The Earth-911111 "Toni" Stark uses the Just One Capable Artificial System Technical Analyst or JOCASTA, referencing the female android from the comics.
  • This Earth's Iron Man goes by the moniker Iron Maiden and her nickname is "Toni", like in the Marvel Mangaverse^note who's actually Tony's sister, and her first name is Antoinette as opposed to Antoni here.
  • Male!Black Widow is called Black Spider, which was a name an alternate Natasha goes by in Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #47.
  • Thor was transformed into a female in Earth X.
  • A Scarlet Warlock (male Scarlet Witch) has appeared in Exiles #85.
• In Tomorrow's Guardians, Groot and Rocket are classified by a scientist as a "floral colossus and pet rodent" respectively. The dialogue even nearly matches the original.
• Infinity Crisis: Glimpses features a chapter set on Earth-78227, a world loosely based on the MCU save for the fact that Betty Brant is Spider-Girl, an event that only happened in a one-off storyline in an early issue of What If?.
• In Skysurfin' Surprise, the Skysurfer Strike Force's Earth is referred to as Earth-199596, as the show was originally broadcast from 1995-96.
• In Salvation Run, Nora's words suggest that Kyle Rayner is a Green Lantern in her future, and a billionaire named Ted Kord is another captive of the Skrulls.
• In An Adventure of a Multiversal Crisis, an adult Charlie Bucket is now running Wonka's factory. It seems that, unlike his boss, Charlie isn't against hiring humans and all of his employees are fellow creations of Roald Dahl. James Henry Trotter is Charlie's assistant, Matilda Honey is the head of Research and Development, George Kranky is mentioned, and they have a government contact named Sophie.
  • Still in An Adventure... (and as said in the Shout-Out page), Randolph Carter is related to John Carter of Mars. (albeit as distant cousins rather than as descendant and ancestor).
• In A Darker Shade of Red, the Doctor mentions an Earth where superhumans started proliferating in the seventeenth century as a result of a prominent one being sent back in time four centuries and forcing reality into compensating for his presence.
  • Discussing the alternate versions of Clark Kent/Superman that exist in the multiverse, the Doctor cites examples such as a reality where Kal-El's spacecraft landed on Earth in the Middle Ages and ended up forging Excalibur (Superman: Kal), a Superman that faces standard criminals more often than superhumans or a world where he became the ruler of Russia during the Cold War.
• In Infinity Crisis Aftermath: Therapy Session, Agatha Harkness implies that Wanda Maximoff is not the first Scarlet Witch. This is a nod to James Robinson's Scarlet Witch series, which revealed Wanda's biological mother Natalya Maximoff adventured as a Scarlet Witch before Wanda did.
• In Celestial Navigation, She-Hulk is revealed as being able to Breaking the Fourth Wall as she does in the John Byrne comics.
  • During their fight, She-Hulk mentions how she and Hercules "briefly had a thing in canon."
• In An Amazing New Year, how Jerry Chang gained his powers is meant to homage the events of the PS4 game Marvel's Avengers, but on a much less destructive scale.
• In An Avenging Christmas, Doctor Who's home universe is designated Earth-231163 as an homage to the British way of dating the show's debut: November 23, 1963. British dating puts the day before the month.
• Another Side of the Glimpses has several.
  • The main characters from Homestuck (humans & trolls) are noted to looking like their Pesterquest counterparts, but slightly older.
  • The series uses the same Interactive Fiction format used in the comic and because of that, multiple commands used in the comic are also used here (characters being named with insulting names before their real ones, "[X] like a [Y] and [Z]", "Ascend"...). There's even the "[X] as a [Y] because shit just got [Z]" command from Problem Sleuth who is used more than one time during the series!
  • Andrew Hussie briefly reminisces about his time nursing Spades Slick back to health. Also, Squarewave & Sawtooth are namedropped, as well as Hussiebot, who makes a return.
  • While Lady Deadpool looks at Earth-413, she has the feeling that it's going to be a long day (another famous sentence from Homestuck).
  • Mario' full name is stated to be "Mario Mario".
  • At one point, while Mario is fighting Jack English, he crashes on "the garden of an old robot lady and her pet Goomba", possibly referencing a challenge on Super Mario Galaxy 2 in which Mario had to give a Goomba to a Gearmo. Later, he uses his penguin costume to freeze Jack and when he frees himself and tries to stab Mario, the plumber uses the infamous Backwards Long Jump glitch to escape him. He crashes into Coconut Mall as a result.
  • In order to save Mario from being killed, Luigi uses his "Green Missile" technique from Super Smash Bros. (which is referred to as "Rocket Launcher"). Not only that, but several mentions of the Smash Bros tournaments and Master Hand are made throughout the series.
  • The note written in the stripes of paper wrapped around the box that falls on Mario' head, seemingly written by Candy!Gamzee, is a reference to this Homestuck panel showing Jack English receiving the same message, courtesy of the sober, regular Gamzee.
  • The beginning of Chapter 3 contains a lot of nods to previous installments of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise: Eggman' releasing ancient gods or creating an an interstellar amusement park, the one time he held Amy at gunpoint, the time when Metal Sonic impersonated Eggman, as well as mentions of Fang the Sniper, Windy Wallis & Super Sonic, Lyric & Ixis Naugus. Not to mention that the beginning of this chapter is a retelling of Issue #4 of Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW)... at least, until Jack English destroys the army of robots.
  • The scene where the fictional Pighead observes Tangle fighting robots while smoking a blunt is an homage to those panels in Act 5 Act 1 of Homestuck, Pighead & Tangle respectively replacing Diamonds Droog & Aradia Megido.
  • During his conversation with Rose Lalonde, the Deadpool Pulp references the original adventures of the Deadpool Corps, more specifically the time they had to stop the Awareness (which they named "Frank").
  • In Chapter 4, the group of Raving Rabbids who is fighting the Broforce uses their talents in dancing in order to distract them. The command used even notes that they haven't used said talents in years.
  • Still in Chapter 4, Richard names Sonic "Maurice", his actual middle name in the Archie comics.
  • In Chapter 5, Rayman and his friends are introduced in a way similar to the intro cutscene of Rayman Origins.
  • Still in Chapter 5, while Tails is on the Tornado, he listens to the new single of the Forget Me Knots (Mina Mongoose' band from the Archie comics) on the radio. Later on, when him and the others are discussing, Tails references the translator he conceived in Sonic Colors and, when the characters from Earth-2012 come out of a portal, Sarah is so groggy at first that she confuses Blaze with her ex-girlfriend Lily.
  • In Chapter 6, while Pighead is talking with Alto Clef, she ends up bringing Kondraki along, who has his penis stuck in a water bottle. This is a nod to Ship in a Bottle, a canon builded around this very same premise.
  • In addition of the use of the first planned backstory for Phase 3 (see Development Gag on the main page), Noodle also references Cyborg Noodle' malfunctioning and trying to kill everyone, something that happened in Phase 3 before being retconned in 2017 when Phase 4 was launched. Later on, we learn that 2D reminisced at one point about his multiple illegitimate children, something that happened between Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the story of the band.
  • Still in Chapter 6, while the narration focuses on Spades Slick, it is noted that the Midnight Crew do live performances as musicians. Per Word of God, this is a reference to this non-canon donation panel from Problem Sleuth.
  • In Chapter 8, when Team Sburb comes to see Bec Noir & Ms. Paint, the former calls Jade by her name while the others are only called "nuisances". Per Word of God, this is a reference to the dog-like loyalty to Jade that Jack has acquired when he became Bec Noir.
  • Still in Chapter 8, Terezi Pyrope interrupts the Narrator while he's introducing Maxwell Lord, revealing she could hear him since the beginning. This is a nod to The Homestuck Epilogues, where she was able to hear Ultimate Dirk Strider' narration.
  • In Chapter 9, while the universe of Star Wars is shown, there's a nod to the death of Empire Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin who establishes this universe as following the timeline of Star Wars Legends.
  • During the brief segment showing the world of South Park, Stan, Kyle, Cartman & Kenny are operating under their superhero identities and there's brief mentions of ManBearPig, Cthulhu & the latter' friendship with Eric in the episode "Coon vs. Coon & Friends".
  • When Sly Cooper faces Rivet, she shows him she's trustworthy by stating she's a friend of Ratchet, the raccoon and the lombax having already met during another multiversal tournament.
  • When the world of Sam & Max is introduced, D.E.L.I.L.A.H. makes references to the finale of The Devil's Playhouse (in which the original Max died and the current one is his alternate past self) and shows the two enlisting the help of a new, anonymous recruit to investigating the Snap and its effects.
  • The presentation of Rick and Morty and the part of the Multiverse in which the events of the show happened references basically all the notable actions of Evil Morty in "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind", "The Ricklantis Mix-Up" & "Rickmurai Jack".
  • When she ends up revealing her Dark Secret to the reader, D.E.L.I.L.A.H. makes a mention that she used to say that she was her body and wanted to be more than her body when she lost it. "I AM MY BODY AND I AM MORE THAN MY BODY" are actual Arc Words from Act 3 of the Adult Swim ARG.
• In Fathers and Daughters, when Peter/Spider-Man and Betty/Spider-Girl first meet, they guess that the other is called Spiderling and Captain Spider, respectively. The name "Spiderling" was the alias of Peter and Mary Jane's daughter Annie from The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows and "Captain Spider" was the alias of a Flash Thompson who gained spider powers in What If #7 (Vol. 1), the same comic whose Betty Brant Spider-Girl inspired the Infinity Crisis version.
• In Rampage of the Rani, the titular antagonist directly mentions the destruction of Gallifrey by the Spy Master and the Doctor's past as the Timeless Child.
• In Infinity Crisis Aftermath: Tete-a-Tete, Ravonna is introduced wearing a gold and green suit of armor. This is an intentional nod to the armor she wore as Terminatrix, which debuted in Avengers Annual #21 (1992).
• In Infinity Crisis Aftermath: A Flashy Debut, Killraven is gifted a couple of weapons. One is a lightsaber, and the other is an energy shield once used by Captain America. This is a nod to Avengers Forever. A version of Killraven appeared in that maxiseries wielding one of Captain America's energy shields.
• DEATHFAME, similarly to its preceding installment, has a bunch of those.
  • In the "shitisdope" teaser, after the War Doctor frees the Last Son of Alcatraz from his brainwashing, Viet Congs and Americans alike are seen chanting "No more", which was the defining catchphrase of this Doctor.
  • The "Wakey Wakey" trailer sees D.E.L.I.L.A.H. making a bunch of those: the creation of the Justice Society^note which also counts as a Continuity Nod to the post-Vast Oink Earth-51, the first album of Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor being All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling, the Earth-199999 Doctor Octopus' tentacles being made with Stark Enterprises technology^note Which references an unused plot point coming from an early draft of the script of Iron Man., the events of Squidward's Suicide and the Prime version of Squidward reminiscing and being troubled by his encounter with his counterpart from that fanfic (which happened in the first version of "Spongebob in Randomland"). There's even a double one: the robot mentions an adventure of the Twelfth Doctor during which he and the Monk, who reversed the Russian Revolution after having made Grigori Rasputin listen to Boney M's "Rasputin"^note Which was a once-planned but ultimately scrapped adventure imagined during Twelve's era. and, after that, the Spy Master is shown looking at a video recording of the incident and taking notes, a reference and Call-Forward to his own stint as Rasputin in "The Power of the Doctor".
  • Chapter 1 shows several of the characters on the Bea Arthur playing Monopoly and complaining about the game, possibly a nod to the beginning of Deadpool Corps #6. Later, when the Midnight Crew is caught and has to show themselves, Andrew Hussie pulls him in a Bear Hug and explains that Spades Slick is his only friend, something he once said to him in canon. Slick's history and relationship with Ms. Paint is also referenced and, finally, he's also called "Robo-Jack" at times, a nickname that was sometimes used to refer to him by the main characters.
  • In Chapter 2, Pighead pulls out a wallet and shows D.E.L.I.L.A.H. the dead body of the Meat version of John Egbert, all-but-stating that the wallet belongs to the Meat iteration of Terezi and referencing her putting John's body inside it after his death on The Homestuck Epilogues.
  • While meeting Monika & Sayori, when June asks her if they know how to fight, the former references how she was able to control the world of the game they were living in before by hacking into it, which is the big twist of the game she comes from.
  • The introduction of the Toppat Clan makes mentions of a civil war, years ago, that torn the Clan from the inside, clearly referencing the "Toppat Civil War" timeline in Completing the Mission.
  • The first sequence of Chapter 3 is an interview with Magolor, who talks about an amusement park he created, referencing the Special Edition of Kirby's Dream Collection, in which he does just that.
  • During his discussion with Dr. Starline about the discontinuation of the Metal Virus and a refocusing on Surge & Kit, Neo Metal Sonic mentions "identity issues" he had in the past and explains that he had already prior knowledge of alternate realities by once visiting the Earth of another blue-coloured hero, likely referencing Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide. There's also a nod to the infamous lost level from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Hidden Palace.
  • Sonic is shown being able to turn Super without using the Chaos Emeralds, which can bring in mind the fangame Sonic RPG, in which its iteration of the Blue Blur could do the same.
  • Missy's reintroduction & memories she has in mind upon being resurrected are basically a fast recap of the events of "The Doctor Falls".
  • In the first Intermission, Pighead is shown wearing an outfit made of various Doctors' pieces of clothing, bringing in mind the Spy Master doing exactly that after his takeover of the Doctor's body in "The Power of the Doctor".
  • In the sequence happening in the world of SUPERHOT at the beginning of Chapter 4, Dave, Dirk, Terezi & Spades see the following order: "SERVE THEM RIGHT", which is one of the orders given in one of the levels of the original game.
  • While the main quartet fights the Algae Men, Spades Slick' beatdown of Sydney Moist drags on so long that the Narrator has to tell him to stop, his dialogues being a nod to this panel of Post-Scratch Jack Noir being told by Hussie to stop slamming the face of his cell's guard against the door (long story). Later, Slick pulls Lord English's assault rifle out of his pockets, a weapon that he took for himself late in the comic.
  • In Chapter 5, when Doug Rattmann shows himself and talks to Luigi & Feferi while all three are on Earth-2009, he reminisces about his employment at Aperture Science (showed in the Lab Rat digital comic) and explains more about the history of the caves he's visiting, including a mention of one of its inhabitants surviving a volcanic eruption as a baby and trying to redo one in order to destroy the villages around and create a perfect city as an adult.
  • Among the sentences added by Pighead when she vandalized Booster Gold's chalkboard, the one associated with "The Great Darkness" is "It was Pariah all along!", a nod to Dark Crisis.
• In How I Stopped Worrying..., the way Dreadpool plunges towards She-Hulk while screaming can bring in mind Hulk Vs. Wolverine, in which its iteration of Wade did exactly the same to Wolverine (except that the former doesn't have his hand cut).
• Miraculous: Aftermath, due to happening after the finale of Season 5 of the series, makes multiple references to the battle against Shadowmoth.
• In Cleaning Duties, when Nathan Drake is introduced, not only is he married to Elena Fisher but there's also mentions of their daughter Cassie, indicating that they're in a point after Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
• Fire vs Water is a direct adaptation of Marvel Mystery Comics #8 & #9 and its story arc of the battle between the Human Torch & Namor.
• Legacy of the Doctor has some of them.
  • The segment of the Second Doctor shows him and his companions fighting multiple generations and iterations of the Cybermen, including the Mondasian versions, the Cybus ones and the CyberMasters.
  • As usual for him, the Third Doctor drives Bessie.
  • The Fourth Doctor offers Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur a jelly baby. The dino takes all the bag, here.
  • At the end of the chapter, Ben Grimm asks for the Doctor to drive him to Alicia Masters, a reference to the 90s Incredible Hulk cartoon "Fantastic Fortitude" in which Ben, at the end, plans to do exactly that.
• Multiverse TV, due to its Framing Device being the titular television, provides blink-and-you'll-miss-it mentions of important events from several continuities. Too much to mention them all, actually.
• In A New Ally, the War Master uses the fake name of "Harold Saxon", bringing in mind his successor. Though, in following installments, this was retconned and changed to "Rudolf Limmer".
• In Daughters of the Morningstars, while the dimensionally-displaced Rory Morningstar explains to the Staff and residents of the Hazbin Hotel what Hell looks like in her world and her parents' own attempts to redeem sinners, Charlie brings up Sir Pentious' death and ascension to Heaven, remarking that Rory's claims are proving this event wasn't just a one-time occurrence.
• In Meet JB, while he's exploring the Multiverse casually, the titular character talks about Earth-616 and, presenting it as the Earth of the Marvel Universe, namedrops Secret Wars (1984), Days of Future Past, One More Day & Secret Invasion (2008).
• In Rebirth of Friendship, while looking at the outside of the Hazbin Hotel, Future!Pighead remarks that the place already gained the makeover Alastor gave it in the pilot of the show. There's also multiple mentions of Charlie's interview with Katie Killjoy and Angel Dust having a part of responsability for its failure.
• The Nth Whatsit shows Pighead using her powers to trigger regenerations in everyone. The new incarnation of Barry Allen & past incarnation of Marianne Peters (two of her test subjects) are noted to look like Ryan Kwanten^note One of the actors originally considered to play Barry Allen. and Chris D'Elia^note Peters' original actor before being dropped and replaced by Tig Notaro..
• In The Exiled Doctor, which is itself loosely based on the Big Finish audio "Exile", the alternate Third Doctor claims that she still has legs as her first line. This is also the first line the Eleventh Doctor said upon being born. She also complains that she's still not ginger, something both Ten & Eleven complained about in canon.
• In The Watcher's Choice, Uatu remarks that the designated numbers of realities are always in flux and uses the examples of the MCU and the Earth without any heroes that serves as the true homeworld of the Monks, naming several of their numbers.
• In Some Random Snippets, the Ninth Doctor crashing on Equestria and resurrecting into a new form because of said crash brings to mind the Eighth Doctor dying after crashing on Karn and the Sisterhood of Karn reviving Eight in order for him to regenerate as the War Doctor in "The Night of the Doctor".

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