Adam Warlock's 70s new costume from Marvel Premier was designed as an homage to the Golden Age Captain Marvel, complete with the gold lightning bolt on the chest.
The third printed issue is titled Nightmare on El Street, a pun on Superman and Supergirl's House of El.
Alex emerging out of the sewers waters as snarling furiously "My turn" is a nod to Wolverine doing and saying the same thing in The Dark Phoenix Saga.
Animal Man: Issue #16 has a shout-out to Watchmen. "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" ("Who watches the Watchmen?", in Latin) is graffiti-ed on a toilet wall.
Astro City is loaded with these, many of which are very subtle.
Astro City as a locale is one big Shout Out to the comic book industry; almost all the streets, neighborhoods and locations are named for notable creators, and with the massive Mount Kirby as the most prominent landmark.
Julius Furst of the First Family is based on DC Comics' creator Julius Schwartz.
A race of shape-shifting aliens is named the Enelsians, after MAD magazine writer E. Nelson Bridwell.
Usagi Tsukino appears in the background of a coffee shop scene in issue #35. She, Setsuna, Haruka and Michiru later show up as guests at Alysia's wedding in issue #45.
Issue #40 is called "Ghost in the Cowl," and the title is even drawn in a pastiche of that film's logo.
The Joker's first appearance has civilians dismissing his threats over radio as a hoax, much like the 1938 The War of the Worlds broadcast, mentioning it in all but name.
The 1960's Batman series was generally held in disfavor by Batman's comic book creators, but prolific Batman writer Chuck Dixon was a fan of the show, and snuck in some tributes here and there. Most notably in a two-parter featuring pirate-themed villain Cap'n Fear, which was structured much like a two-parter for the show, and began "in the shadow of the Westward Bridge."
In Batman Incorporated Vol 2 #3, the bar owner Small Fry and his henchman Bully are modelled on The Dandy characters "Bully Beef and Chips" (Chips = Fries).
Paul Cornell's Knight and Squire takes the cake — there are so many allusions in this comic that there is a text piece in the back to help non-Brits understand them! Notable ones include the Milkman who took down Two Ton Ted from Teddington, the Black and White Minstrels (named after an infamous program that included blackface all the way up to the 1970s), villainous counterparts to The Beatles (who even broke off and formed a villainous Wings), the Knight's AI on his motorcycle being named after Dan Dare's spaceship, and much, much more. And that's just in two issues!
Grant Morrison has said that Beryl "Squire" Hutchinson is named after D.C. Thomson character Beryl the Peril (originally from The Beezer, but currently in The Dandy). So naturally, Cornell gives her a spikey-haired boyfriend called Dennis Ennis.
In the graphic novel Batman: The Scottish Connection, during a car chase on a single-track hill road, Bruce narrowly avoids hitting a camper van coming in the opposite direction. Driving the van is Paw Broon from the Sunday Post comic strip The Broons, with Maw in the passenger seat and Horace and one of the twins visible in the back. The licence plate has the letters DDW, referring to the original artist of The Broons, Dudley D. Watkins.
One of the posters in Kate Kane's apartment in Batwoman: Elegy is for The Dusted Bunnies, the band at the center of the comic Hopeless Savages.
In Batwoman (2017) #17, Renee Montoya says that her ringtone for Kate is a Hayley Kiyoko song. Kate is later shown listening to some of Hayley's music.
In Issue #25 Ted Kord flies the Beetle around Bludhaven with Oracle and recreates several of Nite Owl's scenes from Watchmen in the process. For bonus points Nite Owl was originally supposed to be Ted Kord.
It might be a coincidence, but the Sunday, Feb. 21 2010 "Bizarro" comic was a German Shephard reading ink blots (he saw "Bad Dog" in all of them).
Brother Power the Geek: The freaks in the Freakshow at the "Psychedelic Circus" were all based on the styles of "Big Daddy" Ed Roth and Harvey Kurtzman, both of whom were good friends of Joe Simon.
In the DC One Million 80-Page Giant, Rey Misterio can be seen leaping into a large crowd scene.
In the New 52 Doctor Fate #11, Khalid is kidnapped by ghostly Roman legionaries led by the spirit of Julius Caesar. These scenes are drawn in a more cartoony style that makes the Romans look a lot like the ones from Asterix. At one point Khalid descends underground and finds skeletons resembling Asterix, Getafix, Vitalstatistix (and his shield-bearers) and Cacofonix, in their poses from the "A Few of the Gauls" page.
In Final Crisis Aftermath: DANCE, the Super Young Team disbands halfway through the series and everyone goes their separate ways. True to his stated desire for "constant forward motion", Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash decided to take a walk and simply kept going, eventually amassing followers who walk behind him. You know, like Forrest's cross-country run in Forrest Gump.
In the third issue of the Great Ten miniseries, Thundermind (a bald telepath) knocks off the helmet of a God of War and reads his mind while he screams at him to "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Like so much X-Men...
During Kyle's tenure on the Green Lantern series, a lot of his constructions were shout outs to Anime, video games, and cartoons. He enjoyed making Mecha and on at least one occasion he made a Chun LiExpy. Apparently Kyle Rayner is a Humongous Mechaotaku.
Allegedly in Green Lantern (Vol. 4) #25, the sound effect "EEEPAAAA" can be found. This is a shout out to The Simpsons Movie, in which Comic Book Guy says that "EEEPAAAAA" is a sound effect from a Green Lantern comic book.
The names of two GL Corps members, Arisia and Eddore, are also Lensman shout-outs — specifically, to the home worlds of that series' two Precursor races.
In one JLA story, Kyle's mind wound up in the body of the Martian Manhunter. Upon mastering the Manhunter's shapechanging powers, Kyle transformed himself into various other fictional Martians, such as Marvin The Martian and Tars Tarkas.
The form taken by a host of the Butcher bears more than a passing resemblance to Khorne.
Isamot's name is a Sdrawkcab Name of one of the writers of the series (Peter J. Tomasi).
One issue of Secret Origins told the origin of the Golden Age Green Lantern; three sailors are shown bringing the lantern from China. The sailors are quite obviously from Terry and the Pirates.
The moment in issue #25 where Superman punches the World Forger while flanked by symbolic images of his son and deceased father was an homage to the iconic "Father-Son Kamehameha" scene from the end of the Cell Games arc in Dragon Ball Z. Artist Jorge Jimenez confirmed the connection on Twitter, even saying that Dragon Ball was what got him into drawing comics as a young man.
In the first annual, a group of Kord Industries workers are sent to survey an abandoned research facility. The increasingly creepy atmosphere prompts this exchange:
Worker #1: Wasn't there a Star Trek like this? Kirk, Spock an' McCoy beam down to some abandoned research facility an' the next thing you know— Worker #2: Doodoodoodoo—doodoodoodoo— Worker #3: That's the Twilight Zone theme, jerk. Worker #2: Oh, yeah. You're right.
During the period where Guy Gardner became more mellow after experiencing a head injury, he was shown reading the book I Am Not Spock by Leonard Nimoy.
When the JSA All-Stars were looking for a team name, Judomaster suggested Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman, to which one of her teammates even mentions G-Force (Americanized version of the anime).
In the first storyline for JSA, the team goes up against Mordru and begin shifting into different realities. One of them is an anthropomorphic animal world home to the "Justice Critters". Starman in this world is a fox, making him "Star Fox".
In one issue, a parallel universe Joker was shown as very old and decrepit, sporting a smiley pin with a splatter of blood - just like the one in Watchmen.
In another issue of the same arc, there is a crowd of heroes in an outpost at the border of the universe which includes Owl Man.
Klarion issue #2 has two major shoutouts: A group of teenage wannabe gangstas that befriend Klarion are clearly based on Archie and friends. The second is in a museum of superheroic vehicles- a flying saucer with eyeballs is clearly shown, a nod to Silver Age title Fatman the Human Flying Saucer.
In Robin (1993) Annual #5, there are several references to Logan's Run and the novella Universe by Robert A. Heinlein. In the case of the former, the inhabitants of Gotham sacrifice themselves at 30 years old so that their bodies can be converted to plant fertiliser. Tris Plover goes on the run from the proctors and is rescued by Batman, who is the oldest person that she has ever seen. In the case of the latter, the Generation Ship Gotham has been travelling aimlessly for generations. So much time has passed that the inhabitants have forgotten that they are on a ship.
In Action Comics Annual #8, the two warring species, the Zarn and the Zentauri, are named after the similarly antagonistic Narn and Centauri from Babylon 5.
Their first story provides two examples: In future Smallville, a round ship named "The Jules Verne" offers a tour around the world in 80 minutes, a homage to Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. Later, Superboy catches one of the satellites launched by USA Project Vanguard.
In Legionnaires #59, a baseball player has the name Sisko on his shirt. And in #60 a group of people sitting in a Metropolis cafe discussing the storyline look a lot like alien versions of the Friends cast.
And what appears to be one to the Hulk in this story - J'onn is addicted to cookies, two of the other superheroes hid them in a prank. Hilarity Ensues. In addition, the phrase "Mars Needs Chocos!" sounds a lot like a certain B-Movie title with a trope named after it.
Martians call their planet Ma'aleca'andra, a reference to Malacandra, the Martians' name for their planet in C. S. Lewis's The Space Trilogy. (Though J'onn's name for Earth is Perelandra, which was Venus in The Space Trilogy; Earth was Thulcandra.)
In 1952, David Starr, Space Ranger created John Jones, the colonial Martian farmhand who becomes a heroic sidekick, and Telepathic Spacemen ancient (native) Martians who moved beneath the surface of Mars once it became uninhabitable. Martian Manhunter was created in 1955, and the titular character is named J'onn J'onzz, (he would anglicize it to John Jones as an alias) in an allusion to the work by Paul French.
When J'onn got a Shapeshifter Mode Lock, he was trapped in a form similar to his usual one, but with four arms, a reference to the four-armed Green Martians in John Carter of Mars.
Mister Miracle (2017): Issue #8 of Tom King's run sees Funky Flashman helping to babysit Scott's son, Jacob. As Jack learns how to walk, Funky exclaims "that's my Jack! He's the king!" Jack Kirby, creator of Mister Miracle, was famously nicknamed king by fans. Also somewhat heartwarming when you realize Funky is based off Jack's old partner Stan Lee.
Funky later makes the claim that he and 'Genius Jake' came up with a story together about this star-eating god who is guided by a golden dog (the "Golden Retriever") to where he can find more stars to eat. It's a very clear reference to Galactus.
Mister Miracle: Funky. He can say, like, six words. Funky: Genius Jake doesn't have to talk! Funky talks plenty! He provides all the imaginations, I do the words!note Because Stan Lee wrote the dialogue while Jack Kirby did the artwork, usually.
In Society of Super-Heroes: Conquest of the Counter-Earth #1, the Blackhawks of Earth-20 were designed with the Spice Girls in mind.
The Just #1:
Chris Kent mentions he had a team up with The Sandman. Damian then asks if he specifically meant the Neil Gaiman Sandman.
The Philip Larkin quote.
Pax Americana #1:
The Earth-4 heroes are basically the ones that DC acquired from Charlton Comics in 1983. Alan Moorewanted to use these characters for a certain little project, but DC decided that they didn't want him to basically destroy their newly-acquired IP for a one-shot series, so we got a set of Expies instead. The Earth-4 heroes are somewhere in between the traditional DC portrayal of the characters and Moore's Expies; let's just say you may find yourself looking for a shape-changing blotch on The Question's mask, and the symbol on Captain Adams' forehead may look familiar (he's also clearly blue rather than the paler "silvery/metallic" shade he usually has in his other DC incarnations).
Mastermen #1:
The "American Crusader" comic is clearly meant to be a reference to the Captain America counterpart from Earth-8, albeit a Golden Age version. However, the character's design is based off the actual American Crusader, a Golden Age character that fell into the public domain and has been used in both Tom Strong and Project Superpowers.
In The Multiversity #2, Stingray, the Batman of Earth-34, is briefly seen with the same color scheme as the Stingray from The Avengers.
Marv Wolfman wrote for New Teen Titans and worked on a few episodes of Jem. One issue of New Teen Titans included a theater in the background that read "Broadway Magic starring Jerrica Benton", referring to an episode of Jem.
The Oracle Code: Yeong wears a denim jacket with Superman and Wonder Woman badges, and wears an Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld shirt one day and a Green Lantern shirt the next, Ben's jacket has a Cadmus badge and Micheal has a Teen Titans Go! style Robin doll, that ends up being left behind at first when he's taken. The girls also play card games with a Batman deck.
In one issue of The Power of Shazam!, Captain Marvel is shown strange alternate versions of himself that might exist if history changed. These include: Captain Thunder (DC's former Captain Ersatz Marvel), a Captain whose limbs and head detach from his body (M.F. Enterprises' Captain Marvel), a Billy Batson who transforms into Captain Marvel by striking a pair of wristbands together (Marvel Comics' Rick Jones and Captain Marvel), and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny.
Poison Ivy (2022): Flashbacks in issue #21 reveal that during Ivy's first-time imprisonment in Arkham, an inmate in the cell next door named Violet gave Ivy words of encouragement that inspired her to endure ever since, though Ivy's never seen her again after that. This nods to Valerie, the unseen next-door cellmate of the protagonist(s) in V for Vendetta.
In one panel of the volume "Brief Lives", Delirium is either conjuring up or drawing on the wall a little beastie that looks an awful lot like Cerebus the Aardvark.
In "Doll's House," the nightmares Brute and Glob are hiding in the mind of a little boy named Jed. While inside his dreams, the art style, dialogue, and layout shift to resemble that of the classic Little Nemo pages, another comic about dreaming.
Included in the end matter is Jonathan Lord's full filmography. The films listed include the titles of several old DC Comics books, such as The Brave and the Bold and The Sea Devils.
Superman vs. Shazam! crossover has a reference to "Jack and the Beanstalk": "It comes like the sound the giant must have made after falling from his towering beanstalk!"
Top 10 is a comic series literally made up of Shout Outs, with constant homages to classic geek literature and characters like Doctor Octopus and Vegeta rounding out crowd scenes. One of the best is a scene in a hospital featuring famous "doctors" from comics, including Doctor Fate and Doctor Octopus... who here is an octopus wearing a stethoscope.
In the background of issues #11 and #12, you can see The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) playing in a movie theater in the background. Ozymandias' plot to prevent nuclear war bears some similarities to the movie itself, where nuclear war is prevented by aliens coming to Earth, and telling the planet to put aside their differences, or be wiped out, essentially.
Includes explicit mention of an episode of the original Outer Limits with a similar basic plot.
Wylie's Gladiator is visible on Hollis Mason's bookshelf.
The entire "Tales of the Black Freighter" comic-within-a-comic is inspired by The Threepenny Opera and the song "Pirate Jenny" (a.k.a. "The Black Freighter") in particular.
The child kidnapper murdered by Rorschach named his dogs Fred and Barney.
Possibly a coincidence, but the Owlship looks uncannily similar to Seleno the Electric Dog, a primitive robot built during WWI as a testbed for a torpedo guidance system.
Hollis Mason's Nite Owl I costume is very similar to The Phantom's◊ costume, and his dog is even named "Phantom".
For that matter, towards the end, it features a TV advertising the start of The Outer Limits episode "The Architects of Fear". The basic premise of the villain's plan is almost identical to that episode. Although Alan Moore claims it was a coincidence they were similar, he deliberately added the Shout Out upon discovering the similarity.
DC editor Len Wein, who is most famous for creating Swamp Thing, tells a different story: Moore admitted to stealing the plot from The Outer Limits; when Wein pushed him to change it to something original, Moore refused, and Wein quit the book over it. Years later, Wein has had the last laugh: in writing the Before Watchmen Ozymandias series, Wein had Veidt get the whole idea from "The Architects of Fear."
When Laurie and Jon are talking her comment "...hopelessly lost in the fog" is very similar to Chief's hallucinations in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
In one issue of Xombi, the characters are sitting around discussing a film they've just seen. Cast and plot details make it clear that the film they're discussing is the Film Within a Film from The Player.
At one point in Y: The Last Man, Yorick is messing with a "Fuck Communism" lighter, and mentions that he based it on a comic book character's lighter. Jesse Custer had the same lighter in Preacher.
Early in his career, Mark Millar did a stint writing Sonic the Comic. He credited this gig with helping to pay for his wedding, and thus there are references to Sonic in several of his works, including Secret History of the Authority and Wanted mini-series.
