Ancient evil, new mutants and hints of future villains in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Professor X, Mystique, Beast plus a young Jean Grey, Scott Summers and Nightcrawler faced the wrath of the first mutant and his Horsemen (Magneto, Storm, Psylocke and Angel.)
The sequel set in the 80’s featured an extended cameo by Wolverine and saw the return of Moira MacTaggert.
Did you catch all the other surprise cameos, insider nods and big hints of what could happen next in theWolverine film or future X-movies?
Before we reveal our favorite Easter Eggs here’s a SPOILER ALERT!
If you have not seen stop reading now.
Seriously.
OK.
Here it comes:
Proteus
Rose Byrne returned as CIA agent Moira MacTaggert and revealed she had a young son in the years since Professor X mind wiped her in the First Class finale. In the comics Moira was not American CIA agent but a Scottish genetics expert. Moira set up her lab on Muir Island, which was owned by her family. Moira and Charles were lovers but she married another man and had a child named Kevin who Moira kept locked at the island research facility because of his dangerous powers. Kevin was a mutant with the power warp reality but he possessed and used up other bodies to fuel his powers and became known as Proteus aka Mutant X.
Morlocks
Caliban is the ruthless leader of a mutant underground who cashes in on desperate mutants on the run in the movie. In comics, Caliban is a member of the Morlocks, a mutant tribe living under Manhattan. Caliban was a meek underground dweller with the power to sense and track other mutants. The small shy mutant is later transformed into a powerhouse Horseman of Apocalypse.
Fight Club
Mystique rescues Nightcrawler from an underground fight club in Berlin where mutants are forced to battle for the pleasure and profit of the audience. In the New Mutants comics, the young heroes were forced to infiltrate, fight and rescue other mutants from the Gladiators, a Fight Club in Los Angeles run by the Shadow King, a mutant of pure psionic energy who possessed other bodies and was the first evil mutant Charles Xavier encountered in comics.
Blob
We never saw his face, but in the Fight Club scene Angel defeats a big “Blob” of a man who falls flat before his next match against Nightcrawler. This loser could only be Fred J. Dukes aka Blob, who appeared briefly in the first Wolverine movie.
Stan “The Man” +1
While legendary Marvel creator Stan Lee didn’t have a snappy line, the co-creator of the X-Men did appear with his wife Joan as a couple watching the destruction caused by Apocalypse.
Storm
In the film we see a young Ororo living as a street thief in Cairo with a mohawk cut. Storm’s hair turned white when empowered by En Sabah Nur. In the comics, Ororo Munro was the orphan of Americans killed while in Cairo and raised on the streets where she became a thief to survive. Ororo always was born with her long flowing white hair. It was years later that Storm embraced her wild side, cut her locks and went for a punk look. Ororo has her mohawk again and leads the Extraordinary X-Men.
Danger Room
In the film’s finale the young X-Men prepare to fight Sentinels in what’s called the Danger Room in comics – a training room where the students fought robotic and holographic threats in multiple scenarios.
X-Jet
In a homage to the original trilogy, Hank McCoy shows Mystique the X-Jet he’s building and says how the basketball court above is the opening match where the X-Jet (Blackbird in the comics) launches.
Weapon X
Hugh Jackman turns up as Logan while he’s still a captive of the Weapon X Facility where the X-Men are taken after being abducted by Colonel William Stryker (an older version appeared in X2). When young Jean allows Logan to escape he’s wearing the iconic headgear and handcuffs as he appeared in the Weapon X story by the legendary Barry Windsor-Smith.
Essex Corporation
In the post-credits scene, Men in Black from the Essex Corporation take a vial of Wolverine’s blood from the Weapon X facility where Logan escaped. The men put the vial in a case with other vials of various colors. In the comics Nathaniel Essex is Mister Sinister, a scientist from the Victorian era with multiple powers given by Apocalypse and stolen from mutant DNA. Essex is obsessed with theories of evolution, mutations, cloning and tormented the X-Men over the years.
The Wolverine Blood
Could Logan’s blood by used by Essex to create X-23? Laura Kinney is the cloned daughter of Wolverine. X-23 originally appeared on the X-Men animated series but was so popular she joined comics continuity. With the original Logan dead, Laura is now the All-New Wolverine in comics.
What was your favorite “insider” moment from X-Men: Apocalypse we might have missed?
By Editor