‘Guardians 2’ offers plenty of Easter eggs

tar-Lord and crew have raked in $145 million-plus domestically with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” the latest film featuring the Marvel Comics band of misfit space adventurers.

Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista) return, as do Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and the now-baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel). But these aren’t the only Marvel characters seen by far.

Writer/director James Gunn has peppered the film with Marvel Comics references and characters, some of whom are explained further in this column.Potential spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen the film.

As “Vol. 2” begins,the Guardians are working for a race of arrogant, goldskinned aliens called The Sovereign.The Sovereign are original to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but they appear to be origin points for two well-known comics characters.

‘Him’ and ‘Her’

Ayesha leads the Sovereign, and in a post-credits sequence is attempting to hatch the next version of the Sovereign’s evolution, a being she calls “Adam.”

Adam Warlock and Ayesha are names given to two characters also sometimes called “Him” and “Her” in the pages of Marvel Comics. “Him” first appeared in 1967’s “Fantastic Four” #66 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but the character was significantly reworked in “Marvel Premiere” #1 in 1972, by then editorin-chief Roy Thomas with artist Gil Kane.

Adam Warlock’s tales continued when Jim Starlin returned to Marvel in the “Strange Tales” book in the late 1970s.

Ayesha, also known as Paragon or Kismet, was another attempt to create a perfect being; she first appeared in the “Incredible Hulk” Annual #6 in 1977.

Adam Warlock would see his greatest success sales-wise in the 1990s series “Infinity Gauntlet.”

Ego

Kurt Russell is featured in “Guardians 2” as Ego, who claims to be the father of Peter Quill, aka StarLord (Chris Pratt).

The team travels to Ego’s planet, which has its origins in the comic books. Ego the Living Planet was created by Lee and Kirby, and first appeared in Thor #132, dated September 1966.

Original Guardians

The original Guardians of the Galaxy first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #18, dated Jan. 1969. The film hints that Yondu, who belonged to this team in the comics, was in a previous team with Stakar (aka Starhawk), played by Sylvester Stallone in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.”

Also glimpsed in “Vol. 2” are Michael Rosenbaum as Martinex, Ving Rhames as Charlie-27, and Michelle Yeoh as Aleta.Miley Cyrus plays the uncredited voice of the CG character Mainframe, and the character Krugarr also is seen.

In the comics, the Guardians exist in an alternate future. They appeared in titles including “Marvel Presents,” “The Avengers” and “Marvel TeamUp” in the late 1970s.

In the 1990s, writer/ artist Jim Valentino revived the team for a new “Guardians of the Galaxy” title that ran for 62 issues.

Taserface

Valentino created the villainous Taserface, who made his first appearance in the first issue of the 1990 “Guardians of the Galaxy” series.

Mantis

The empathic Mantis was created by Steve Englehart and Don Heck in “The Avengers” #112

in 1973.

Nebula

Nebula, played by Karen Gillan and also seen in the first “Guardians,” first appeared in the comics in “The Avengers #257” (July 1985), by writer Roger Stern and artist John Buscema.

Howard the Duck

After making a cameo in a post-credits stinger for the first “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Howard the Duck gets another brief cameo in “Vol. 2.” In the comics, Howard comes from a planet of talking ducks but finds himself trapped in the Marvel comics universe. The wisecracking character was created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerick in 1973.

Gerber came to prominence in the 1970s, perhaps the most important of the second wave of Marvel creators. Gerber brought a quirky, absurdist outlook to the Marvel Comics of the early ‘70s. His deconstructive run on “The Defenders” expanded the limits of what could be done with a Marvel comic book. In “Howard the Duck,” he created a runaway hit, expanding from comic book to magazine to newspaper strip.

The Watchers, informant

Stan Lee, who has made cameo appearances in many Marvel films, is shown in “Vol. 2” talking to The Watchers, extraterrestrial beings who record the knowledge of events in the multiverse. Lee and Kirby created the Watchers, the first of whom, named Uatu, appeared originally in 1963’s “Fantastic Four” #13. The in-joke of Lee’s appearance here is that he has potentially played the same “character” in each of his cameos, as he gathers information to report back to the Watchers.

“Stan Lee clearly exists, you know, above and apart from the reality of all the films,” Marvel’s Kevin Feige told Screenrant. “So the notion that he could be sitting there on a cosmic pit stop during the jump gate sequence in Guardians was something very fun ...we thought it would be fun to put that in there because that really says, so wait a minute, he’s this same character who’s popped up in all these films.”