A team of Pop Cultured Badasses generates a lot of Shout Outs.
- In a brief attempt to be less conspicuous, Billy transforms the flashy outfits of the team and Magneto into...a rough recreation of one set of the von Trapp's outfits. (The Vision is a nun.)Eli: But I'm also thinking about how much I'm going to miss you when Magneto eventually betrays us — and the Scarlet Witch kills us — and I die wearing an outfit last seen on Rolfe, the Nazi boyfriend.
Kate: Don't be ridiculous...
Kate: ...Teddy's Rolfe. You're Friedrich. - The situation prompts the line, "What are we, the Uncanny von Trapps?
The 2013 run hits critical mass by maintaining Billy and Teddy as geeky staples and adding Earth culture-appreciative Noh-Varr and hit-and-miss Totally Radical Kid Loki.
- Teddy's middle name is Rufus. It is an intentional Shout Out.
- Teddy compares Billy's having Wanda as his "real" mother to being a magical elf child of Galadriel.
- Later, when they fight the giant Laufey in Asgard, Billy comments that "It looks more fun in Fellowship."
- Loki sums up his villainous reputation as "Sauron multiplied by that anti-Dumbledore guynote cubed!"
- This shortly after invoking Not Evil, Just Misunderstood by comparing himself with Tyrion.
- It's even better when one recalls that Tyrion is his father's unfavourite, mirroring Loki's situation with Odin and Thor. Of course, the parallel ends there.
- In issue 3 Billy launches into a partial explanation contrasting Norse Mythology with the Marvel version before Miss America cuts him off.
- Noh-Varr's pose in issue 4 when he breaks out of the club is a shout-out to Terminator.Noh-Varr: Come with me if you want to be awesome.
- The engine of Noh-Varr's ship is named Kirby. It's sparked with belief and runs on imagination.
- Shakespeare:
- Wangst-mocking Hamlet jokes appear in issue 5.
- In issue 11 one of Loki's magical alarms is set off. When it alerts him, he says "Ow" and a small wound on his left thumb starts bleeding. Leah finishes, "Something wicked this way comes," pages later.
- In a Shout-Out to Gillen and McKelvie's work in Phonogram, a Loki dressed as David Kohl appears in the mass of alternate dimension beings summoned by Billy to fight Mother.
- In the same group is alternate Kate in Nazi uniform, possible Shout-Out to Gillen's series at Avatar Press, Über.
- Said group also includes an Archon of the Outer Church.
- Miss America travels to Earth-212. The song itself is one of her character themes according to Gillen.
- The antagonist Leah forms an anti-Young Avengers group consisting of mostly people who used to be romantically involved with the Young Avengers to various extents, a reference to the League of Evil Exes.
- Actually lampshaded in the "Yamblr" recap page with the hashtags: #All of the exes are Noh-Varrs #no surprise there #is this Scott Pilgrim
- And of course in issue #12 Billy and Loki reference Scott Pilgrim and decide the book was better than the movie.
- Also, as a sort of Meta-Foreshadowing of the fact, the variant cover for the #1 issue was drawn by Brian Lee O'Malley himself.
- New story arc involves vengeful villain unleashing bunch of protagonists' evil alternate counterparts on Earth being opposed by massive team up of all available superheroes (in this case, teenage ones). Might be a Whole-Plot Reference to Invincible War.
- The villains the team beats in the Batman Cold Open for issue #11 are a reference to The Sisters of Mercy.
- The spell Billy casts to release Loki from his Kid-Loki body includes all of Loki's past incarnations, including Lady Loki and his live-action incarnation.
- It's also reminiscent of the modern incarnation of regeneration.
- One of the blogs in the final issue has the title "GottaPayTheTrollToll".
- From a previous issue: "EmptyChairzEmptyTablez".
- From Issue #12:
- On "The Worst of All Possible Worlds' Invasion Of Earth":
- The reinforcements of young superheroes is referred to as "The Thin Spandex Line."