Marvel Cosmic Invasion’s 8 Best Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed

After months of anticipation, fans are finally playing Marvel Cosmic Invasion, unleashing a diverse group of fifteen heroes against Annihilus’ invasion of Earth.

While being a fantastic beat ’em up, the game also includes some all-time great Easter Eggs for fans of Marvel lore – cameos and references that you may have missed if you’re not a longtime fan of Marvel Comics. Here are the seven best that every player deserves to see for themselves.

8

The Infinity Cone and Other Level-Specific Food

Level: Sanctuary II – The Great Experiment and More

In a reference to the long history of beat ’em ups using found food as healing items (begun by 1988’s Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja, and seen in iconic games like Streets of Rage and Double Dragon), Marvel Cosmic Invasion hides foodstuffs around each level to help you out.

However, what you may have missed is that each level has location-specific foods, and some of them are great visual gags. While the first level ‘New York City – Road to Annihilation’ uses classic pizzas and hotdogs, other levels have way funnier healing items.

Thanos’ ship Sanctuary II includes an icecream cone fashioned after the Infinity Gauntlet, while Fort Galactus includes an Escher-esque churro shaped like his comic ship, the Taa II.

Perhaps most amusingly, when you return to New York in the final level, you once again pick up pizzas, but this time topped with gross green slime, just the way Annihilus’ troops like it.

7

Captive X-Men

Level: Genosha – Heavy Metal

It’s easy to miss, but at the start of ‘Genosha – Heavy Metal,’ the game tells you that you can free captive mutants by destroying doors in the Sentinel-guarded prison complex. Attack the metal doors you see throughout the level and you’ll free some deep-cut X-Men characters whose identities we won’t spoil here.

6

Comic Costumes

Level: All Levels

Like most beat ’em ups, you can vary the color of your heroes so that multiple players can choose the same characters without becoming confused (unlock new choices via the ‘Cosmic Matrix.’) While some of the choices offered are random palette swaps, others recreate deep-cut comic costumes.

Comic-canon costume changes include: Wolverine’s Fantastic Four costume; She-Hulk’s grey skin; Venom’s 2010s Thunderbolts recolor; Iron Man’s Silver Centurion, Stealth Suit and Model 42 armors; and Spider-Man’s Negative Zone costume and short-lived, gadget-packed Threats and Menaces suit, which debuted in 2021’s Amazing Spider-Man Volume 5 #61.

5

New York Billboards

Level: New York City – Road to Annihilation

Having the Beetle of all characters as a boss basically counts as an Easter Egg of its own, as the obscure Spidey villain (initially a foe of the original Human Torch, and later the heroic Mach X as a member of the Thunderbolts) makes his entrance as the game’s first boss fight.

However, while facing off against Beetle, you can also see several billboards in the background, including references to Wilson Fisk’s Kingpin, Mary Jane Watson’s acting gig on Secret Hospital, and Damage Control – the company who clean up after Marvel’s superhero battles, and count Galactus’ no-good son Gus and a sentient, alien bulldozer among their ranks.

4

Brute Force, Fin Fang Foom and Jeff the Landshark Cameos

Level: Destromundo – The Flying Menagerie

Fans battle Venom aboard the Destromundo – the menagerie ship of the monster-collector Lady Hellbender (who also appears in 2021’s Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.) However, before facing the symbiote, several more obscure Marvel monsters can be seen in the background.

Cameos include the cybernetic dolphin, lion and kangaroo of Brute Force (aka Surfstreak, Lionheart and Hip Hop) – a 1990s comic which has since been retconned into an early version of the Weapon Plus project that gave Wolverine his adamantium.

The pink, axolotl-like aliens that can be freed in this level don’t appear to be a reference to any pre-existing Marvel aliens. The closest comparison appears to be X-Men‘s Sobunar of the Depths, who is a far taller, more dignified hero.

Jeff the Landshark and the Man-Thing are also seen caged on the ship, and mid-way through the level, you can see kaiju including Iron Man foe Fin Fang Foom and Doctor Strange enemy Gargantos (aka Shuma Gorath) tangling with Annihilus’ forces.

3

Fantastic Four Cameo

Level: NYC Rooftops – The Last Battle

Prior to the final battle with Annihilus, the Fantastic Four’s Baxter Building home appears in the background of this level, with Annihilus’ bug soldiers scaling the walls. The FF famously call New York home, but could this also be foreshadowing the First Family joining the game as playable characters in the inevitable (but not yet announced) future DLC?

Check out the background of ‘Helicarrier – Operation Jailbreak’ for a similar cameo, with versions of the Avengers’ iconic quinjet parked up within the Helicarrier.

2

Nova Kills Annihilus

Level: NYC Rooftops – The Last Battle

One of the three challenges in the final level is to beat Annihilus while playing as Nova. Players may wonder why this challenge selects Nova, given he doesn’t have any particular disadvantage in the level. The answer is that it’s a reference to 2006’s Annihilation, on which the game is (very) loosely based.

The celebrated comic event includes several of the heroes from Marvel Cosmic Invasion – including Beta Ray Bill and Phyla-Vell – and concludes with Nova reaching inside Annihilus’ indestructible carapace and tearing his guts out of his body, taking revenge for the death of the Nova Corps.

The game includes some other comic grudge-based challenges: ‘Wakanda – Battle for Birnin Zana’ asks you to take out Klaw with his heroic nemesis Black Panther, while ‘Destromundo – The Flying Menagerie’ wants you to beat down Venom with his old enemy Spider-Man.

1

Golden Axe Homage

Level: All Levels

In a reference that has nothing to do with Marvel Comics, the thieving Hoppsaks from Annihilus’ army appear to be an homage to Golden Axe‘s Thief enemies (aka Gnomes.)

Like the classic beat ’em up’s thieves, Hoppsaks are diminutive enemies carrying large sacks who drop useful resources when hit. The Hoppsaks’ visual design appears to be a deliberate reference to one of the most beloved beat ’em ups of all time.

Those are the eight Marvel Cosmic Invasion references no Marvel fan should miss, but that’s not everything there is to see – call out the game’s other Easter Eggs in the comments below.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is available now from Dotemu.