Playdom seems to just love making trendy shout outs to memes and pop culture, so many that they needed their own page.
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Heroes
- Agent Venom has three moves and a debuff which reference American football terms, due to Flash Thompson being a former football hero.
- Angel's final 2 moves, 'Aspersio' and 'Impositio Manus', bring to mind the Priest class from Ragnarok Online.
- Ares, unsurprisingly, has attacks and passives related to war media:
- A buff called God of War which grants the team passive called War Never Changes.
- His personal passive is Thousand Yard Stare
with appropriate effects. - His attacks are: The Art of War, Modern Warfare, Personal War and Crush Your Enemies.
- All of Beast's attacks (and his innate passives) are named after titles of famous novels. His recruitment information in the news feed was a paraphrasing of the famous opening words for Pride and Prejudice.
- The other titles referenced in his moves are: Catch-22, Bleak House, The Jungle, War and Peace, Point Counter Point, The Grapes of Wrath, The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms.
- Beast's Horseman outfit adds even more literary references, all some stripe of classic horror story: Heart of Darkness, At the Mountains of Madness, Masque of the Red Death, and Jekyll and Hyde.
- The other titles referenced in his moves are: Catch-22, Bleak House, The Jungle, War and Peace, Point Counter Point
- Black Bolt's Level 9 ability "Power Word" is likely named after the series of spells from Dungeons & Dragons.
- Black Knight's news feed announcement features the line "'Tis but a scratch!", uttered by a character of the same name in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- When he joins your team, he declares "You have my sword, Agent. Come on, you knew I was going to say it.". Fittingly enough, his steed was named Valinor in tribute to LOTR as well.
- Captain Britain's news feed announcement invokes Winston Churchill's famous "We shall fight on the beaches" speech:"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender"
- Deadpool himself will randomly "Like" characters (villain or hero, himself included), which confers the "Pretty Cool Guy" buff.
- Another Deadpool-related buff: One of the random buffs he can proc from his Laptop passive is called "Level 16 Ranger", with the tooltip text "I only roll 20s".
- Deadpool had previously claimed to specifically be a "Sixteenth Level Ranger" in Uncanny X-Force #20 before entering Otherworld, a land of magic.
- One of Deadpool's random attacks involving him attacking with the Life Bar.
- Deadpool's abilities to "Whine on the Forumns" and "1337 hacking skills" which will result in him getting "Banned from PVP" is a Shout-Out to Avengers Alliance themselves, in reference to the fact that people who try to hack the game will be kicked off PVP.
- Another Deadpool-related buff: One of the random buffs he can proc from his Laptop passive is called "Level 16 Ranger", with the tooltip text "I only roll 20s".
- Three of Domino's moves and both her passives are named after Daft Punk songs.
- And like with Deadpool, one of her passives has the text "I roll Twenties."
- Drax's L9 move is named Daggerfall.
- Fantomex's L2 move is named 'Allons-y', after a certain good Doctor's catchphrase.
- Fantomex's L1 move is named Diabolique, which is fitting since he is essentially a white-trenched version of Italian comic book character Diabolik, along with his sentient techno-organic ship E.V.A. being named after the eponymous protagonist's lover.
- Fantomex's L6 move is named Fantôme, again referencing his roots as a partial homage to the classic character Fantômas.
- Gamora's attacks are all named after Warrior class moves in World of Warcraft.
- Hawkeye's passive, Hawkeye's Initiative, is a shout-out to this Tumblr.
- Hercules's news feed announcement, "Cool Story Bro!", referenced a meme originating from his comic book.
- Hercules has five references to the Twelve Labors of the mythological Heracles in his attacks and debuffs (the Stymphalian Birds, Ceryneian Hind, Nemean Lion, Cretan Bull, and Cerberus were creatures he was sent to capture or kill). He also jokes in Spec Ops 4 that the task he was set (holding up a building for a while) was less boring than cleaning out the Augean Stables (another of his Labors). Another attack, "Rock of Ages," is a phrase from the Bible (though perhaps better known as a song title).
- Iceman's L6 attack has "Let It Go" as descriptor text.
- His Horseman outfit has moves that all form sentences with "Hell" in them somehow and relating to (of course) ice and cold in Hell: Snowball's Chance [in Hell], Cold Day [in Hell], [When Hell] Freezes Over, and Ninth Circle [of Hell].
- Juggernaut's news feed features the memetic line "Don't you know who I am? I'm the Juggernaut, Agent!" (yes, for the Moral Guardians they had to swap out the 'Bitch')
- When using his 3rd attack ("I'm the Juggernaut!"), he'll also start up with "Don't you know who I am!?", once again referring to the meme.
- Karnak's Shatter Strike is labeled "You are already dead..."
- Molly Hayes' final move Go Catch! whips all enemies with a van, referencing her character artwork◊.
- Moon Knight's recruitment news message reads "Fighting Evil by...Moon Knight".
- Among Nico Minoru's spells is a debuff that places random damage over time effects on enemies, called...More Dots.
- 2 of Red Hulk's passives are titled "He's Heating Up" and "He's On Fire!" respectively, in reference to NBA Jam.
- And his Empowered Iso-8's passive is called "Boomshakalaka!" which is another reference to NBA Jam.
- Rogue's Pestilence costume is a shout out to her more gothic character design in X-Men: Evolution, down to the white skin and colour palette.
- Sandman as a Lockbox reward note on the same Operation that Anti-Venom (Eddie Brock) is released? That can't be a coincidence...
- Sandman's passive properties include True Grit and Dust in the Wind.
- Sandman's passive properties include True Grit
- One of the possible positive buffs you can receive from the Scarlet Witch is also "Pretty Cool Guy", noting that Deadpool and 31,337 others agree.
- The flavor text for Shatterstar - a former gladiator - last move is "Are you not entertained?".
- It's also in reference to this panel from X-Factor◊, which makes it a shout-out to a shout-out (since Shatterstar is obsessed with popular culture and media, as he hails from Mojoworld).
- It's also in reference to this panel from X-Factor
- When She-Hulk's "Rebuttal" passive triggers, she uses a move called "Hold It!", the animation of which shows her shouting.
- Spiral has several dance-themed moves and buffs:
- Her main passive is called "Dancing Queen".
- One of her moves grants a buff called "Babe with the Power", which changes another of her moves to "Dance Magic Dance".
- Spider Girl's moveset is named heavily after Eminem lyrics.
- Squirrel Girl's 4th attack, Wrath of the Raging Squirrel, is a shout out to Akuma's Ultra in Street Fighter IV, Wrath of the Raging Demon, with the blackout and a barrage of attacks on the target.
- Star-Lord's L6 rocket boots skill is named Quantum Leap.
- His L1 skill Spray and Pray is a First-Person Shooter term of recklessly firing in the target's vicinity in the hopes of killing or destroying that target.
- One of Taskmaster's abilities as a Bruiser is "Attack of Opportunity", which is a common Dungeons & Dragons term.
- When Tigra uses her Tiger's Fury ability, she adopts the same posture as Felicia from Darkstalkers does during the latter's taunt in Vampire Savior. Her Swipe ability animation looks a lot like Felicia's Rolling Buckler special move, namely the finishers (a sliding kick in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and the uppercut Felicia has since DS).
- Union Jack's news feed announcement, "Once more unto the breach, dear friends", is lifted directly from a famous speech in Henry V. It's doubly fitting since the line is about trying again, and Union Jack's entire moveset is based on extra attacks from preempts and follow-ups.
- X-23's L6 Move is called "Made for Walking", in a tribute to Nancy Sinatra's hit. To make the point extra obvious, the flavour text "One of these days..." (part of the chorus) is added under the move's description.
- Chase Stein's L9 move is "Team Rocket".
- Using Chase Stein's X-Ray Goggles move on a female opponent causes Chase to gain the status effect "Nice!". It's a reference when he used them on Nico and Karolina◊ in the comic.
- Quake (Daisy Johnson's) recruitment message has her saying "Little pro-tip? If anyone asks you if you want a vacation, don't go to Tahiti, okay?"
Mooks/Villains
- To Super Smash Bros.: One of the Prison Escapee Mook's attacks is labeled "Felon Punch!", with an appropriate attack animation.
- The Yardbird Scrapper and Brute Bruiser mooks have a slam attack called "No Touching!"
- The black jacketted Knuckles mook has the buff "Sting Like a Brood".
- The yellow uniform Marauder has the buff "Drunken Master".
- The first time you face the Exoskeleton Battletank, the Battletank says "Nothing can stop the Battletank! Nothing can stop A.I.M.!"
- Flavor text for Deadpool and Bob's Passive ability in the Heroic Battle for 2.2.4. "It's too dangerous to go alone! Take this!"
- One of the last hacks for Bob is "It's Morphing Time!"
- Two of Blizzard's attacks, "Arctic Attack" and "Ice Beam" are direct references to Iceman's attacks from X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Blizzard's 'Arctic Attack' is also very similar to Iceman's ice slide from the comics.
- Arcade's moves and passives are mostly general gaming terms (particularly Pinball terms), but a couple specific ones also crop up: "Whammy" and "The Cake is a Lie".
- During the Crimson Cowl's heroic battle with Captain Britain, one of her passives that increases her evasion is titled Instant Transmission. Anyone with a working knowledge of DBZ will instantly recognize this as the english name of Goku's teleport move.
- Skulker has an attack which is called as "Clever Girl". Its design is even an homage to the "Raptors" (Deinonychus) in the film.
- One of Dracula's abilities it's called "What is a Man...?"
- Two of Kraven's moves are "The Most Dangerous Game" and "Be Prepared".
- The Ultron Sentries have a laser attack called Breaker Beam.
Team-Up Bonuses
- Havok, Cyclops and Cable (aka Alex, Scott and Nathan Summers) have "Boys of Summer" as a team-up bonus. "Girls of Summer" is the bonus for Jean Grey and Emma Frost, Scott's love interests.
- Before, bringing two mutants along (specifically, members of the X-Men) awarded the bonus of X-Force. It was later renamed Children of the Atom (also a novel of the same name involving mutants), while X-Force became a separate bonus, specifically for bringing in members of that team.
- The team-up bonus Red In the Ledger is a reference to The Avengers.
- "You Have My Sword" is the name of one of the team-up bonuses, involving, unsurprisingly, every character who uses a sword as their main weapon.
- The team-up bonus for using Juggernaut and Valkyrie is called Spear and Magic Helmet.
- The Hulk and Loki get a bonus solely because of what happened between them in The Avengers. "Puny god."
- It has more to do with them being children of Thanos, but c'mon! Gamora and Thane's bonus is called A Death in the Family.
- The team up bonus for bringing in two dour character (Like Cable, Hogun etc.) is called Debbie Downers
- Bringing in a pair of "feral" characters like Wolverine or Sabretooth will get you Savages, Savages.
- Molly Hayes' team-ups with Wolverine (Wolverine is a Jerk!◊) and Punisher (Punisher gets Punished◊) reference Molly's encounter with each of them in the comics.
- Bringing in two characters with animal companions (like Chase Stein and Kazar) gets you I Wanna Be the Very Best.
- Bringing in two heroes that travel through time gets you Wibbly Wobbly.
Spec Ops
- The title of Spec Ops 1, where you recruit Mockingbird, is called "Don't Say a Word".
- In the Avengers vs. X-Men Special Ops mission, Stark comments, "Welcome to San Francisco. S.H.I.E.L.D. policy prohibits wearing flowers in your hair."
- In Spec Ops 5, one of the deployment missions mentions investigating A Troll in Central Park.
- The last mission is titled "Götterdämmerung". Appropriately, the last act of The Ring of the Nibelung is this.
- At the end of Spec Ops 6.3, Stark quips "Double the Summers brothers, double the fun," likely a reference to Doublemint Gum's classic slogan.
- One of the tasks for Spec Ops 7 is named "Made for Walking" much like X-23's L6 move.
- Another task is called "I Can Fix It!".
- Mission 3, where infamous timetravelling villain Kang the Conqueror appears, is titled A Wrinkle in Time.
- Ultron's dialogue at the end is basically just a shorter version of his End of the World as We Know It speech from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
- If you lose to Bowman in mission 3, he quips "As a famous archer once said: Watch as I put a clothyard shaft through his wishbone!" said famous archer is Robin Hood Daffy.
- Spec Ops 8's task 3 is called Mechanical Animals.
- Another task was called "Kills Grunts Dead" (i.e. dispatching a certain number of R.A.I.D. soldiers). Raid is an insect-killing spray whose slogan is "Kills Bugs Dead."
- Another task is called "Attack of the Clones".
- The third mission is called "Ultron Violence": likely a nod to "ultraviolence," aka murder, in A Clockwork Orange.
- Another task was called "Kills Grunts Dead" (i.e. dispatching a certain number of R.A.I.D. soldiers). Raid
- SpecOps 9 can be a loose adaptation of Iron Man 3, since it features Extremis, the release of alt. skins the Mark 42 and Iron Patriot, and Pepper in a prominent role (although the movie doesn't feature her actual alter-ego Rescue). Adding to the references is the new PVP bonus, the prominently pink "Limited Edition Watch".
- The Spec Ops 10 title, "So Shall Ye Reap" is from Galatians 6:7.
- Mission 3 of Spec Ops 11 is titled "Heart of Darkness".
- Two of the Spec Ops 12 task names are "I Have The Power" and "What is Best in Life?".
- Spec Ops 13:
- Task names "Hammer out Danger" and "Hammer out a Warning" are both lyrics from "If I Had a Hammer" by Pete Seeger.
- In Mission 2 the Hood calls Black Bolt "Silent Sam", which has a number of possible references.
- Task names "Hammer out Danger" and "Hammer out a Warning" are both lyrics from "If I Had a Hammer
- Spec Ops 15, "Game On!"
- Obviously, the chapters are named after games: Street Fighter, Mutant League and The Gathering.
- The task names are also references to video games. Mostly general gaming terms, but a few specific ones as well: "Finish Him!", "Battle Toads", and "Bad Dudes".
- The battle background in Murderworld is also reminiscent of the Carnival areas in Marvel Ultimate Alliance, while Arcade's attack animations are reminiscent from the same game's Pinball arena.
- Spec Ops 16 features a similar plot from X-Men Legends 2 where Apocalypse starts abducting and brainwashing members of the X-Men as his Four Horsemen.
- One of Death!Iceman's passives is Death and Taxes.
- This might also be a reference to Iceman sometimes having a career as an accountant.
- One of Death!Iceman's passives is Death and Taxes.
- Spec Ops 17 has "Captain Rogers' Neighborhood", and "Gorillas in the Midst".
- Spec ops 18 has "He's got the touch"
- Eddie Brock teaming up with Spidey and Flash!Venom to hunt down Scream and Carnage is reminiscent of Maximum Carnage and Separation Anxiety. The other four symbiotes that were wiped out are replaced by the new symbiote Hybrid.
- Eddie Brock teaming up with Spidey and Flash!Venom to hunt down Scream and Carnage is reminiscent of Maximum Carnage
- Spec Ops 24: The name of the first task? "Shoot Her!"
- Molly Hayes is a little pre-teen girl that belongs to the Runaways. Special Operation 25 was focused on them. The fourth task, focused on her moveset, is called "She's a little runaway"
- In Spec Ops 30, the pre Spec Ops dialogue where Umar, Hela and Morgan le Fey discuss their plans is a nod to the three witches plotting their spell in Hocus Pocus.
- In Spec Ops 31, after Boomerang said he was apparently brainwashed by Purple Man and wishes to kill him, Jessica Jones responded to him with "Get in line". In The Avengers (2012), Hawkeye, who was also brainwashed by Loki in the movie, also said the same line to Thor who wishes to be the one to capture Loki.
Regular Missions
- In Season 1 Mission 3.4 one deployment mission has you fending off Sentinels at the Times Square Disney Store.
- In Season 1 Mission 7.4 we get Stark's quip, "Hear that? Even the Destroyer is occupying Wall Street."
- When Nightcrawler faces Baron Zemo for the first time in Season 1 Mission 11.3, he alludes to Martin Luther's "here I stand" speech before the Diet of Worms. From Zemo's reaction, he either doesn't get the reference or just doesn't care.
- Magneto opens up the boss fight of Season 1 Mission 11.5 with the greeting "Welcome to die, X-Chicken!" As it turns out, this Magneto is actually Mystique in disguise. The homage is even driven further with...Cyclops: Alas, that was Mystique, not Magneto.
- Season 1 Chapter 12 is titled Titanomachia.
- The first mission is titled "Lokasenna", referencing a old poem of the same name found in the compilation of Norse poems known as the Poetic Edda, is the beginning of the end for the various Syndicate villains' plan. Fitting, as the events of the original poem were said to have brought about the onset of Ragnarok, the end of the gods.
- Hammerhead's pre-fight banter is "It's hammer time! Heh, I've Always Wanted to Say That."
- One of the battle themes introduced in Season 2 is a remixed version of "The Avengers Theme" from The Avengers.
- The task names in Season 2 Chapter 1 have several:
- Master and Hellfire Commanders
- St George and the Dragoness
- When Worlds Collide
- Hero's Journey
- How to Train your Dragoness
- Dúnedain (Bonus points for also being a pun on the Black Knight's name, Dane Whitman.)
- It appears that they're trying to outdo themselves with the shoutouts in the task names of Chapter eight. Here you have a few:
- In Season 2 Mission 1.5 Stark makes fun of the Black Knight's poetic way of speaking by repeating his "Shakespeare in the Park" snark phrase from The Avengers.
- Upon seeing Agent Coulson during Deadpool's Heroic Battle in Season 2 Mission 1.6, Deadpool is surprised that he is alive. He then asks if Coulson is going to get revenge for what Loki did to him.
- Tasks in Season 2, Chapter 4: "They're in the Jungle Baby", "Flight of..." for a task which requires using Valkyrie, and "It Came from Outer Space".
- In Season 2 Chapter 7, during the fight between the Black Knight and Bullseye, the latter says "This is just a flesh wound" and "None shall pass!", thought Black Knight didn't get the reference.
- One of the tasks in Season 2, Chapter 11, Mission 6 is called "Make Madripoor Great Again", which should sound familiar.
Miscellaneous
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance. The roster of Marvel's best superheroes is further expanded given this game is always being updated compared to the finalized games in the PC and home consoles. Save for Silver Surfer, most of the heroes from MUA are playable, while a whole bunch of familiar Masters of Evil villains from MUA showed up as well as members of the Syndicate.
- It goes right down to the Heroic Battles hero-exclusive Empowered Iso-8 which corresponds to X-Men Legends and Ultimate Alliance's training discs and their Hero-unique equipment rewards.
- Shawarma as a giftable item (it restores health and stamina and gives a "Well Fed" buff). In addition to being a cute reference to The Stinger of The Avengers, it just happened to come out on the same day How It Should Have Ended released their Avengers parody, which made heavy use of Shawarma.
- One of the Agent's ranged weapons is a Rocket Pistol.
- "Das Boot", a shoe-based weapon for the Agent, is named after...well...
- One of the new messages in the loading screen is "Scrappers, remember the basics of CQC!"
- It turns out that the oft-cited Circle of Eight in-game is a direct name lift of a powerful wizard coven from Dungeon & Dragon's Greyhawk setting.
- The "holographic hand link" resembles Al's link to Ziggy on Quantum Leap.
- One of the Agent's equippable weapons is Item 47.
- Probably unintentional, but if Hawkeye attacked a flying character, sometimes his arrow attacks that character in the knee.
