Shout-Out/Comic Books

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Attack of the 50 Foot Avenger

This page lists Shout-Outs seen in comic books.

Many, many comics' covers count as Homage Shots, so, without further ado, take a look at this archive for reference.

Web Comics have their own page.

Newspaper Comics also have their own page.

Scott Pilgrim has its own page.

• DC Comics' 1990s Martian Manhunter series included numerous Shout Outs to other Martian fiction, from J'onn being trapped in a form similar to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Green Martians, to the Martian name for Mars being very similar to that in the Old Solar language of CS Lewis' The Space Trilogy, but with more apostrophes.
  • There was also that time the Martian Manhunter met up with Superman and Batman in Japan. His guise was that of a young Japanese woman. His code name was Rei Hino. Batman gets the reference.
• The Snarks, enemies to Marvel Comics' Power Pack, were a Shout Out to Lewis Carroll; in-story, they were so nicknamed by another alien with a fondness for Earth literature.
• The Sonic the Hedgehog comic was full of this, from early (and obvious) cracks at The Little Mermaid to Julie-Su watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer when the comic was in its prime.
  • Rouge "specializes in stealing precious things."
    • Crazy Robotnik is a shout out spamming machine. The most prominent is 2 plus 2 equal 10 ... in base 4 and of course, snooping as usual
• Green Lantern created a small version of Gurren's face, in perhaps just an expression of fanboy'ism from the artist.
  • In another comic, Green Lantern conjured up a green Patlabor. Apparently Kyle Rayner is a Humongous Mecha Otaku.
    • Lampshaded in JLA (vol. 2) #3:

Green Lantern: I'm your worst nightmare, pal. A manga nut with a power ring.

• • • • And this itself is probably in reference to Steve Gerber's infamous "Elf with a gun" subplot during his run on Defenders.
    • Also, Eddie Murphy's "Nigger with a badge" line in Beverly Hills Cop.
  • 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.
• In the DC One Million 80-Page Giant, Rey Misterio can be seen leaping into a large crowd scene.
• Kingdom Come is full of these:
  • "Who Watches the Watchmen?" is written on the wall of a building.
  • Under the Hood can be seen in a bookstore window.
  • Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids are shown running away from a Bat-Bot.
  • Green Lantern's Emerald City incorporates the ELO spaceship as part of its design.
  • The Beatles can be seen at "Planet Krypton"--sort of. From the knees down. There was also an attempt for Sgt. Pepper Humongous Mecha in the final battle scene, but that reference is nearly too subtle, even with annotation.
    • Also the Monkeemen and the Village Warriors.
  • At one point, the Kanji for "Heaven and Earth are Useless" are seen as graffiti. These are commonly read as "Tenchi Muyo!".
  • When a huge number of super-powered people are charging in the gulag rebellion, several tiny Marvel characters can be made out, including Captain America and Thor.
  • Storm can be seen in the bar scenes.
  • The Bjork poster.
  • Columbia and Riff Raff from Rocky Horror also appears at the gulag.
  • The Bat-Bots are modeled on the mecha from Patlabor.
  • When Superman meets Scott Free and Big Barda, the jailers from Monty Python's Life of Brian are in the crowd.
• There's a lovely and rather subtle one in issue 16 of Grant Morrison's "Animal Man", where "quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" ("Who Watches The Watchmen?", in Latin) is graffiti-ed on a toilet wall.
  • That couldn't be moore juvenal.
• Top Ten is a comic series literally made up of Shout Outs, with constant homages to classic geek literature and characters like Doctor Octopus and Z 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 an issue of Justice Society of America, 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.
• Preacher (Comic Book) #21 opens by showing us the brutally murdered crew of the ship San Demetrio, followed by the ever-patient Saint of Killers. This is an obvious shout out to Dracula, wherein the title character sails to England on the Russian ship Demeter, after killing all the crewmen.
• In Joss Whedon's Fray, a flashback page is shown while Earth-before-humans is described as a savage time filled with monsters and demons. The landscape shown is populated with the first few pages of the first edition D&D Monster Manual, including an Anhkheg, a Bullete, and so on.
• As seen in the caption up top, Marvel Adventures had an issue where Giant Girl went berserk; as well as the cover, she went on to climb a tall building while carrying a hairy mutant.
• In the Buffy: Season 8 comics, a scene taking place in London features a small panel showing a palette-swapped Doctor Who and Rose standing in front of a red TARDIS.
• In one panel of The Sandman volume "Brief Lives", Delirium is either conjuring up or drawing on the wall a little beastie that looks an awful lot like Cerebus.
  • 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.
• Neil Gaiman's recent Batman story has someone saying "I don't think death is a person..."
  • Also, Alfred's father's name is revealed to be Jarvis.
    • Alfred's father's name has been Jarvis for a while. This Troper isn't completely sure the Shout-Out doesn't go the other way...
• Issue #27 of Deadpool has a rather obvious one. "You smug little-- Speaking of games. You ever play Street Fighter?"
  • This would later be referenced in an actual Street Fighter comic, where Ryu says "Speaking of comics, you ever read Deadpool?" before hitting Sagat with the very Shoryuken that gave him the scar on his chest.
• In Watchmen itself, 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.
  • 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
• During the first Morlun arc (by J. Michael Straczynski), a couple of workers at a nuclear plant are giving JMS free publicity discussing Babylon 5.
• In the Danish comic Valhalla, based on Norse mythology, Odin has in one story left Valhalla to win a bet with the Valkyries: that he can find the three greatest warriors of Midgard (he thinks they don't bring in any good Einherjar-material any more). His absence causes trouble in Asgard, so Thor, Baldur and Loki disguise themselves as three mortal warriors to trick Odin to come home again. They give their names as Fandral (Baldur), Hogun (Loki) and Volstagg (Thor), and are dressed as the three characters with those names from Marvel Comics' Thor (who aren't from original Norse myth but Lee/Kirby creations).
• Adventures of Superman #634, by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning had the Eradicator and John Henry Irons create a "charged vacuum emboitment" out of "block transfer computations" to prevent the timestorms ravaging Metropolis. And if that sounds familiar to viewers of the Doctor Who serial Logopolis, well, Abnett wrote the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip for a while, and has also done Big Finish Doctor Who dramas and New Series novels.
  • Also, an episode where Superman finds himself in the middle of a battle between a titanic Metallo and a Super Robot. With all the myriad shout outs from other giant monsters that show up to complicate matters (including a rather literal Gorilla-Whale), you'd think the Robot would be based on Mazinger Z, and it is... due to the fact that it bears an even stronger resemblance to G. Kaiser.
  • Paul Cornell's Action Comics run gives Lex Luthor a sidekick who bears a striking resemblance to David Tennant. Lampshaded when the Joker claims (falsely) to have killed him: "He reminded me so much of that actor, I wanted to see if he'd turn into someone else!"
• And going the other way, the Doctor Who Magazine story The First has the Skith speculating that the Doctor might be a Daxamite or Dominator.
• "Bad Wolf" appears as graffiti in an issue of Spider-Man.
• Abnett and Lanning again; now that they're basically in charge of Marvel's cosmic characters, they seem to love playing with the Alternate Company Equivalents they've acquired, whether it's teasing the idea of Ego the Living Planet joining the Nova Corps (in reference to Mogo, the living Green Lantern planet), or Rocket Raccoon using "Brainiac" as a sarcastic term of abuse (like "Einstein" or "Sherlock") to Mentor, the Imperial Guard's Brainiac 5 Expy.
  • And while the Imperial Guard's influence is obvious, there's also smaller references in them. The symbiotic duo Warstar, the Guard's Triplicate Girl/Duo Damsel counterpart, are named B'nee and C'cil after Cecil the Sea Serpent and Benny.
• Judge Dredd often gives Judges the same surnames as various people who work on 2000 AD. It also references various other comics:
  • In the wake of the recent "mutant rights" storyline Dredd fought pro-mutant activist (but non-mutant) Dr Xerxes Clavier and his genetically-altered students, whose monstrous appearances reflect the original X-Men without actually giving them powers.
  • During the "America" story, a common graffito was "Who judges the Judges", done in a similar style to "Who Watches the Watchmen" in Watchmen.
• In Mighty Avengers, Hank Pym has almost become a walking shout-out to the Doctor Who fandom. Multiple identities, personalities, and costumes over the years? Check. Female sidekick? Yep, Jocasta fits that right there. Heck he even has a do anything tool, ie Sonic Screwdriver, thanks to the use of a smart chip and pym particles to store multiple tools in one tiny thing. His base is even so similar to a TARDIS that Amadeus Cho calls him on it.
• In the X-23 series Target X, Laura begins attending high school with her cousin Megan. Due to her, shall we say, abnormal upbringing, Laura thinks nothing of demonstrating her language skills to her French teacher by reciting a litany of ways to bribe and torture government officials, and later lists the exact amount of blood in the average human body and ways to kill someone in another class. The shout out comes from the depictions of the teachers: Jamie and Adam from MythBusters.
• Superman/Batman #75 pays homage to Calvin and Hobbes with their own version, "Joker and Lex Luthor."
  • A previous Superman story showing "What If... Lois and Clark had a kid?" had six-year-old Lara as Calvin and Mr Mxyzptlk as Hobbes.
• The Dec. 18, 2008 edition of Archie Comics had a shout out to, of all things, The Comics Curmudgeon. Josh himself explains the reference here.
• Uncanny X-Men #153 has two shout-outs to Elf Quest: Kitty Pryde wears an Elfquest teeshirt, and in the made-up story she tells there's a sprite named Pini who calls humans "bigthings", like Preservers in Elf Quest.
  • Spanning rather more than one issue is the first name of Rahne Sinclair, who can shapechange into a wolf, apparently a shout out to Rahnee the She-Wolf, the second chief of the Wolfriders. (Rahnee was first mentioned in Elf Quest #4, published in 1979, Rahne's first published appearance was in 1982.)
    • A novel and live-action movie (early 1980's), 'Wolfen', has perhaps influenced Wolfsbane of the New Mutants. The emphasis on both the sensory details of her wolf-form, and the link with native Americans.
• The Gronk in Strontium Dog is from the planet Glas in the Gallego system, a reference to Sci Fi author Blas Gallego.
• In an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, a history teacher gives a lecture about tariffs lifted word for word from Ferris Buellers Day Off
• In one issue of "The Incredible Hulk" there is an extremely obvious shout out to One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
• In one Paperinik story, we are told that two aliens fought over Japan in feudal times, and were remembered as a heroic samurai fighting a demon. Together with other details, it becomes pretty clear that the creators like Tenchi Muyo!...
  • And,in the #4 of Paperinik New Adventures we get a shout-out to Watchmen.In a Disney comic.Using the word die.
• In Asterix, two characters from Tintin appear as cameos - Those Two Guys who report on events, with one of them always mangling whatever the other says.
  • The Pirates are a Shout-Out to a comic that originally appeared in the same magazine as Asterix. That comic is now only remembered because of Asterix.
• The Authority, Vol 5, #15: "This some kind of green eco thing, isn't it?"
  • Jenny is in no mood for jokes, which she lets others know in no uncertain terms: "The comedian is dead!"
• Writer Fred Van Lente likes to do this in his comics, having characters quote or paraphrase classic movies or books. Few examples:

Peter Parker: Latest news from H.A.M.M.E.R. - We have always been at war with Eastasia Machine Man: Greetings, rotting fleshy ones. I have been programmed to eviscerate you repulsive squishy organic bit and chew gum. And I hate gum. Machine Man: God help me! I have no stomach and I must barf!

• The Female's origin in The Boys involves falling into a big canister of synthesized Compund V. The name of the person in charge of the project? Doctor Uderzo.
• 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...
• One issue of Suicide Squad features the appearance of a conspicuously named Dudley DuReiht.
• Two Green Lantern Corps members, Eddore (an amorphous gas cloud) and Arisia (a golden-skinned humanoid female) were named after the Eddorians and Arisians, the immortal warring races in E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series, which largely inspired The Silver Age of Comic Books Green Lantern comic.
• In the Batman story The Long Halloween, the Joker breaks into a family's house on Christmas and steals their presents, while quoting lines from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
• Quite a few in Usagi Yojimbo:
  • Usagi's lord is named Mifune.
  • Usagi is named after Miyamoto Musashi.
  • The Lone Goat and Kid assassins.
  • Red Shirt: "Holy flying furballs, it's BATS, man!"
  • When Usagi is drenched in green dye, Gen tells him to "Stop smiling like some joker."
  • A potter is named Mikasa ^{[dead link]}.
  • Implacable Man Jei-san.
  • Usagi mentions an encounter with a "notorious cheese bandit".
  • This is probably a stretch, but Inazuma is an implacable wandering swordswoman with straight (mostly) black hair and bangs.
  • Space Usagi has too many to list.
• It might be a coincedence, but the Sunday, Feb. 21 2010 "Bizarro" comic was a German Shephard reading ink blots he saw "Bad Dog" in all of them.
• A porn star character named Hot Gates rates a mention and later an appearance in Miller's Batman Graphic Novel The Dark Knight Returns and its sequel The Dark Knight Strikes Again. The Hot Gates -- translated from the Greek Thermopylae -- is the principal location for The 300 Spartans which inspired Miller's graphic novel Three Hundred written inbetween the two former novels.
• 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 Mar-Vell), and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny.
• The title of one short Impulse story is a Shout-Out to The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, one of Dr. Seuss's earliest books.
  • And the story ends with a cameo by Pinky and The Brain.
• Issue #3 of The Muppet Show Comic Book opens with Pops the doorman discussing the Paint Academy films. Apparently there's an actress in them called Lola VaVoom.
• 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 (Comic Book).
• The Cartoon History of the Universe has the Gauls portrayed as Asterix and Obelix. Once they win a battle, they even mention how they're going to go to their own comic.
• The Awesome Slapstick features several of these, to Marvel, DC, WB characters, and basically anything that the creators thought funny, especially in the second issue which took place in a mall.
• In Birds of Prey #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.
• In 1998, Tom DeFalco penned "There Once Was a Spider..!" (Amazing Spider-Man #439), wherein a pair of archaeologists of a Future Imperfect find a webshooter and spend much of the issue explaining how their futuristic society thinks Spider-Man's life was like. Some of the many inaccuracies they believe in are that Spidey had a high-tech hideout with numerous trophies and spider-themed vehicles. Nearly 9 years later, a story of similar premise was used in Season 4, Episode 7 of The Batman called "Artifcats".
• Empowered has a lot of them:
  • Dungeons & Dragons -- with shirts sporting "INT. 19 (supra-genius)" or "STR. 18(00)";
    • Their space station is even called "The d10" (the Dungeons & Dragons method of describing a 10-sided die) and looks the part.
  • Maison Ikkoku: Emp's "Piyo Piyo" apron;
  • Dr. Big McLargeHuge;
  • When Ninjette tells Emp how her suit sprouted wings (which Emp can't remember), Emp pictures herself as a devil. Her mental picture looks quite a bit like she's cosplaying as Etna.
  • ThugBoy wears a t-shirt with the King of All Cosmos on it at one point.
  • The Superhomeys' undisclosed meeting location is room 3B, a reference to the imaginary lecture hall where the wizards of Unseen University in Discworld pretend to have class.
  • It's the goddamn Maidman!
  • A shout-out to 4chan even made its way into one of the books.
• Many many times throughout the years in the various media he's been depicted in, Superman or, sometimes, an Expy has been shown holding a car above his head pointed slightly downward in reference to the image on the cover of Action Comics #1, his first appearance. Most of these shout outs do not show the car being smashed into a hill side with people still in it the way Superman was in that iconic cover.
• In Paperinik New Adventures, a mad scientist is bent on killing millions of people - including the entire population of Duckburg - for the betterment of mankind. Paperinik is determined to stop him before he has a chance to activate the process... but unfortunately he did that 35 hours ago.
• 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.
• Klarion issue 2 has two major shoutouts: A group of teenage wannabe gangstas that befriend Witch Boy are clearly based on Archie Comics 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.
• 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.
• Dirty Frank, a major supporting character in Judge Dredd who later gained his own Spin-Off, was specifically drawn to resemble Alan Moore.
• Dandridge: "Return of the Chap" has a pair of ghosts in a museum named after the hosts of a popular 2000 AD Podcast.
• Quantum and Woody has a Costume Test Montage where the duo are trying on different costumes for their super-hero identities. One of the pair is of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire and Iron Fist, a reference to Heroes For Hire and the inspiration for Quantum And Woody.
• 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 Sin City, there are many shout outs:
  • Marv names his gun, much like Mike Hammer does.
  • Nancy's last name is Callahan, which is the same last name of a certain iconic movie cop. She also refers to her car as "this heap" which is something Mike Hammer would often do.
  • The Hard Goodbye is the name later given to the first Sin City story. Raymond Chandler wrote a novel called The Long Goodbye.
  • In Hell and Back there is a brief narration by Leibowitz's son that is in the style of romance comics from the 50's.
  • Also in Hell and Back, the main character is drugged and we see the only full color sequence in the series. The hero has hallucinations of the following: Captain America (comics), Rambo, Dirty Harry, Hellboy, The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, Lone Wolf and Cub, RoboCop, Sgt. Rock, Raggedy-Ann and Andy, and more.
  • Marv's profile is almost identical to Dick Tracy's famous profile.
• In Captain America (comics)/Thor - The Mighty, Fighting Avengers, both Thor and Cap wind up in Camelot to discover Loki pretending to be Merlin. How does Loki explain away the change in appearance and demeanor to King Arthur?

Arthur: And you, Merlin... You seem now to have completely recovered from your... What did you call it...? Loki: My Regeneration, sire'

• • Made funnier by a comment in the new series that the 11th doctor hates wizards in stories because they always turn out to be him
• In Mega Man, the third issue features a scene where Mega Man is overcome by his new responsibility to fight, becoming wrathful and a little bit deranged (for a ten-year-old, anyway). Dr. Light talks to him about why fighting puts his innocent heart into turmoil. The explanation the good doctor gives is practically a word-for-word transcription of the chorus of The Megas' song, "The Message From Dr. Light": "I made you in my image. I built your heart and gave you eyes. I gave you power and a sense of justice beyond any compare. I gave you hands, a child's face... heh... robot hair. But this burden, this burning in your heart, I did not put there." This troper considers that scene the young series' Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, and a signal that the series is going to be really, really good.
• In Doctor Strange: The Oath, Strange travels to another dimension to face "Otkid the Omnipotent" and retrieve an elixir which he hopes can cure his servant Wong's inoperable cancer. The Corrupt Corporate Executive trying to destroy this medicine (he runs a pharmaceutical company) has a copy of The Fountainhead on his desk. Both are references to Doctor Strange's creator, Steve Ditko.
• The Joker's first appearance has civilians dismissing his threats over radio as a hoax, much like the 1938 The War of the Worlds radio broadcast, mentioning it in all but name.
• In the 90's Morbius comic, a nurse asks "Who's Darkman?" when she see's Morbius covered by bandages when he was escorted to a hospital while trying to keep his identity a secret.
• Wally overhears his wife on the phone discussing how she doesn't want a cheap department store item for Christmas. He then sees the microwave he bought as a bowling ball with Homer inscribed.
• In Daredevil v3#10, Daredevil demands to know what The Moleman plans to do with a body he has stolen - asking if he has discoverd a "Resurrection Bath" in his underground kingdom, a rather obvious nod to the Lazarus Pits of Batman fame.
• In both Young Justice and Teen Titans Go!, the artist for both series tends to cram in tons of references to Mystery Science Theater 3000.

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