Laura: But the world will watch hero fight hero, and people will get just a little more disillusioned, a little less trusting, a little more cynical.
Ever since Brian Michael Bendis got his hands on X-23, his All-New X-Men started taking jabs at the last comic she was in, Avengers Arena. First Jean Grey reads from Laura's mind what happened to her and says "it's awful". Then a member of Purrifers decides to show that Even Evil Has Standards by calling Arcade's game "popcorn for morons".
Ares, God of war comments on how much he hated Troy, after explaining that he fought in the actual battle alongside Achilles.note He actually fought alongside the Trojans in the real thing, but considering that Achilles also remembers fighting alongside him, he probably fought for the other team in the Marvel Universe. He also has once took a jab at Spartans, saying they never failed to annoy him and that he favored Athens. Spartans having a statue of him in chains, and their kids claiming to be Hercules' descendants may have something to do with it.
During Roger Stern's run on The Avengers, a construction worker asked why heroes don't use phone booths to change or shout "Up, Up and Away!" anymore. She-Hulk coyly responded by saying such things went out of style in The '60s. The same run had an issue where Monica Rambeau, while reading mail from various politicians requesting that the Avengers relocate to their city, stated "Detroit? They've gotta be kidding!" This was a dig at the reviled Detroit-era Justice League of America that was still being published at the time.
In Jason Aaron's Avengers, the Squadron Supreme of Earth-616 is a US government-backed Super Team. Nighthawk suspects that the other members of the team (but not himself, obviously) are having their personalities manipulated, noting that the romantic relationship between Hyperion and Power Princess (the Superman Substitute and Wonder Woman Wannabe) feels forced and artifical. This reflects common criticism of the actual Clark/Diana relationship in the New 52, which DC had already realized wasn't working and retconned away. This is taken further in the Free Comic Book Day Special, where Iron Man criticizes Washington D.C. (the city the Squadron operates out of) in such a blatant manner that any pretense the book isn't making fun of DC Comics completely vanishes.
Iron Man: No matter the regime, they've always had people there who do great work. It's in all of our best interests that they do great work. But it's always seemed to me they spend too much time worried about us, and annoyed we spend so little time worried about them.
The final issue of AvX Versus had two strips that mocked the entire premise. One had Squirrel Girl and Pixie find figurines of the two teams and play with them, only for The Thing to walk in and take them away, mentioning that they were Puppet Master's dolls.
Comics from A+X series (about team-ups between members of Avengers and X-Men) had Wonder Man and Beast pointing how horribly out of character other's recent actions, that all happened under writing of Brian Michael Bendis, are.
In issue #17, Christopher Priest took a dig at Steve Englehart's controversial retcon of The Falcon's origin, which established that the character had been a pimp prior to becoming a superhero. Specifically, he pointed out the implausibility of this revelation:
In issue #29, Ross says that if he had Klaw's sonic abilities, he'd use use them to make Eminem shut up.
An issue of the Reginald Hudlin run has a team-up with Shang-Chi, and features some digs at Iron Fist, Marvel's other big martial arts superhero. It's implied that Shang-Chi is the better fighter of the two, and that Iron Fist is so insecure about this that he never even mentions Shang to his friends.
In the Carnage 5-part series that ran from 2010 to 2011, one of the main characters, who brings Cletus Kasady and the Carnage symbiote back to Earth, and subsequently uses both for experimentation, is named Michael Hall. Now maybe it's a coincidence, but actor Michael C. Hall does play a red-haired serial killer on Dexter and Cletus Kasady is a serial killer with short red hair. The series ended with Cletus taking Hall hostage to torture him for personal amusement.
Damage Control:In the second issue, comptroller Albert Cleary confronts Doctor Doom regarding an outstanding bill. Doom agrees to pay the bill, stating "Doom always pays his debts," and even fires his majordomo for refusing to pay Damage Control in the first place. According to writer Dwayne McDuffie, this was a direct Take That against a classic story from Luke Cage: Hero for Hire when Doom hired Luke Cage for a job and left town without paying him, and Luke had to follow Doom all the way to Latveria to get paid. McDuffie didn't think that Doom's refusal to pay Cage went against his more common "Doom's word is his bond" treatment.
Daredevil: When Matt Murdock needs to make everyone forget he's been publicly outed as Daredevil (...again), he goes to Doctor Strange, and Stephen point blank says he can't help. Then Damien Hellstorm offers to contact Mephisto, but Matt decides he's not that desperate. These are, of course, jabs at Spider-Man's Deal with the Devil in One More Day and the resulting retcon in One Moment in Time.
Deadpool/GLI Summer Special has a Squirrel Girl subplot, which is a massive jab at the trend of making all comics Darker and Edgier. It starts with her outright saying she misses times comics worlds were "places to escape to, not from", then she goes to convince Speedball to stop being Penance, which ends with him smashing his head against the wall and yelling he's deep now.
Deadpool: People whose mothers have the same name shouldn't fight.
In The Despicable Deadpool #298, Deadpool sarcastically tells Taskmaster and a wheelchair-bound man that they should make a play for the cancelled Inhumans TV show's time slot.
Glorian, the main villain of Defenders: Beyond, seeks to fix the current multiverse by rebooting it, vowing to do so as many times as it takes to finally get things right. Taaia criticizes his plan in a manner that clearly doubles as a shot at DC's history of Continuity Reboots, complete with imagery of multiple Earths as a visual callback to Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Taaia: And what then—when your new timeline doesn't "make the grade"?! "Reboot after reboot," you said!! And each sooner than the last—always hunting for the "perfect fix"—until not even we know if we're the "true story"—or maybe your latest "Maybe-Verse"!!
As a part of The Avengers (Jason Aaron), it continues the aforementioned jabs at DC: in this case, DC's (ab)use of Insane Equals Violent (most notably with the majority of Batman's villains) by having the reality-warping aspects of the plot turn many heroes and villains into expies of DC villains.
The Blur in this version of the Squadron is one for The Flash — more specifically, post-Final Crisis Barry Allen. While a Token Good Teammate, the Blur also caused a time catastrophe that destroyed his relationship with Mary Jane Watson in the altered timeline, no doubt a reference to Barry's actions in Flashpoint ultimately wiping out his marriage to Iris West and ruined billions of lives, including Wally West's. Once things are returned to normal, he laments how reality's changed back and wishes to go back to how they were during the story, referring to how DC tried to hype up Barry again, even though they also had him take actions that turned him into a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and selfish dickhead in a worldaltered thankstoDr. Manhattan. Also, given the use of Mary Jane as an Iris expy, it could also partially count as another bit of Self-Deprecation of One More Day.
The Incredible Hulk: During the nineties period, somebody gave the Hulk a fin to wear on his head that resembled The Savage Dragon's. Hulk pointed out that despite this "ingenious disguise" everyone who saw him would think, "Hey there goes Hulk with a fin on his head."
There was also the ongoing feud between Peter David and Erik Larsen. In the 90's, Larsen wrote a Sinister Six story where Doctor Octopusbeat the fuck out of the Hulk without even trying, which pissed off David. David responded by writing a story where the Hulk subjected Doc Ock to a Curb-Stomp Battle and effortlessly humiliated him without even trying. Hulk then explained that last time they fought, he only lost because he was holding back. The issue also mocked Larsen and the other Marvel creators who left to form Image Comics.
Hulk: Last time we met, Doctor, I feel I was robbed. Petty larceny, as it were.
One issue featured Jarvis resigning. His letter of resignation is actually the same letter Dave Cockrum wrote when resigning from Marvel. In case people didn't get it, the writer explicitly mentioned this three issues later.
Writer David Michelinie started writing Iron Man after resigning from DC when he found out that Rich Buckler, his artist on Star Hunters, had stolen a starship design from the cartoon Space Sentinels. Michelinie wound up doing a storyline featuring a crooked S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Buck Richlen, who, when arrested, tried to blame the whole thing on his assistants (much like Buckler did when his plagiarism was discovered).
The Marvel Adventures line of comics, featuring traditional Marvel heroes with stories aimed at a younger audience, has been known to take what can only be seen as deliberate snubs at the main line of Marvel Comics. Sadly, it is because of this that Executive Meddling got involved and canceled the comic.
During the height of World War Hulk, where almost all of Marvel's superheroes were defeated by the Hulk, Marvel Adventures released an issue where the Avengers, including Bruce Banner and Iron Man, need to go into space. After considering the dangers of turning into the Hulk and killing the crew by accident Banner tells them that they have permission to eject him into space if he becomes a danger. Iron Man and the Avengers share a good-hearted laugh and Tony smiles at Banner and says, "Don't be silly. We'd never shoot the Hulk into space." Wolverine then shot Hulk into space...
Lately in the main line continuity, Tigra has been repeatedly crapped on by writer Brian Michael Bendis, who writes the two Avengers titles. Marvel Adventures: Avengers had Tigra join the team.
Henry Pym and Janet van Dyne, one of the main continuity writers' favorite pairings to screw over, are a happy, if sometimes awkward couple, much closer to what they were before True Art Is Angsty set in the original comics. This even gets a lampshading, with Spider-Man kidding that "it would never work" when they first hook up.
Doc Samson's notes on Spider-Man during psychoanalysis: "...Needs a wife."
In issue #35 of Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man, Venom offers to help Spidey and become his sidekick, proclaiming that they'll be known as Venom: Lethal Protector! Spider-Man calls it the dumbest idea ever. (Though he technically was reacting to sidekick idea.)
During a brief team-up, Wolverine asks Alex Power of Power Pack if he's ever considered "movin' up to the big leagues". Alex replies that he has once or twice, but "it turns out I'm pretty happy with the team I'm on." This is likely a reference to the change the character underwent in the '90s when he stole his siblings' powers not once but twice so he could fight without his siblings as one of the New Warriors.
The Avengers poked fun at the infamous Captain America direct to video movie (where Cap wore rubber ears on his mask) by having Wolverine sarcastically ask him "Are those ears real?!"
One of the supporting characters in Mark Millar's Marvel 1985 is an obnoxious Hipster who keeps talking about how stupid people who like superhero comics are, and how the only good comics are indie fare like Cerebus and Love and Rockets. Accordingly, you can imagine how humiliated he is when Iron Man saves his ass near the end of the book.
Marville was a diss towards Smallville and the Superman mythos, as well as comic book culture in general. At least before it went from bad to bizarrely bad.
Marville wound up on the receiving end in the 2009 edition of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z, where an entry on its protagonist says his world is Earth-3131, which the writer confessed to be because changing the letters to numbers leads to "CACA"...
Similarly, jabs were taken at about the concept of The Sentry, with both Wolverine and Deadpool not remembering him (the former telling him to shut up after Sentry says he wasn't tied to Weapon X and the latter saying he can't remember everyone he beat up.)
The second issue of Kurt Busiek's Avengers run has a similar gag, where Hawkeye mocks the brown costume he wore during the maligned Heroes Reborn reboot.
The very first issue of the original series featured a bystander claiming the titular heroine made "Lynda Carter look like Olive Oyl!" For those who don't get the joke, Lynda Carter was the actress who played DC's Wonder Woman in her popular live-action show.
Issue #4 of the 2006 run by Brian Reed had Carol's publicist book her a hotel room under the alias "Linda Danvers," saying "nobody would be interested in that name."
In Nova, Ego the Living Planet was lobotomized and turned into the base of Nova Corps. Ben Grimm said that it's good he's not a member, because nobody would be stupid enough to recruit a planet to the Corps.
Nova's third volume includes a jab at superhero movies from the 80s and 90s in which Nova, who is trying to become a more publicly known hero, discusses a movie deal with executives from Marvel Comics who bring up such "classics" as the 1980s Captain America movies, the 1990s Fantastic 4 movie, the first Punisher movie, and Howard the Duck.
Mark Waid's work on a The Punisher / Daredevil crossover included a speech by Daredevil that was widely interpreted as an attack on writers who think that "superheros should never have happy lives" note It's highly possible it's a major jab at Dan DiDio'sTrue Art Is Angsty mandate over at DC, something that has turned off many fans there.:
Rachel: You know what gives me strength? My loss. We're alike that way, I imagine. Admit it: nobody who's a stranger to that particular pain could ever be as driven as us. Matt:Never... *throws one of his sticks at a wall so hard behind her it plants in it*... Don't you ever say that to me again. That is a repellent statement. It is a vomitous insult to every cop — every fireman — every soldier alive who steps up to fight for those who can't! I am sorry for your loss! But if you genuinely believe that only the death of a loved one can motivate a human being to take up a cause... then get your pathetic, cynical ass out of my way so I can do my job!
The Punisher and Wolverine occasionally traded jabs. Garth Ennis repeatedly wrote Punisher issues where Frank dealt Wolverine horrible injuries. Wolverine's writers responded by writing an issue where Logan defeats Frank and then implies that Frank is gay. Ennis responded by writing a Punisher comic where Frank shoots Logan in half with a rocket. It goes on like this.
In another story, Mister Fantastic mentions how he's almost never wrong. When Nick Fury asks him why he's almost never wrong, Mr. Fantastic replies by saying he thought Smallville would be a better show.
A Punisher issue from Nathan Edmonson's run had a scene where three of the actors from the Fantastic Four reboot (Miles Teller, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell) were apparently killed in an explosion. Ironically, the most controversial member of the cast, Michael B. Jordan, was spared (due to being late to the meeting the others were attending). They also mention that "Trang" is making the sequel, a play on the movie's director Josh Trank. Marvel was insistent this wasn't intentional, but few believed it.
Ennis really, reallyhates the IRA. And he wants you to hate them too. Kitchen Irish is basically one long tract of Ennis venting out his hatred of the IRA by having characters talk about how stupid and cowardly the group really is, as well as bashing Irish-Americans (who he derisively refers to as "narrow backs") who unquestionably support the IRA without knowing all the facts behind the Troubles.
Around the time that real world police officers pepper spayed a pair of college students. Writer Jason Aaron, had Nick Fury verbally lash out at a pair of NYPD officers, cathartically venting out his outrage over the incident.
Nick Fury: He was still out there... every night... doing for free what you guys get paid to do. Waging a fucking war, all on his goddamn lonesome, taking on the absolute worst this city had to offer... While you shitbirds were busy ass-raping immigrants and pepper spraying college girls and calling it fucking police work, whining all the while about overtime and your goddamn pension like a bunch of fucking candy-ass pogues.
Quasar: The first issue featured a pretty blatant Captain Ersatz of Hal Jordan as a test pilot who S.H.I.E.L.D. assigned to wear the Cosmic Bracelets. The poor guy ended up being vaporized as soon as he put the damn things on, allowing the title character to use them instead. Another issue featured a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo from The Flash, who had died in Crisis on Infinite Earths just a few years earlier. Marvel got around trademark issues by claiming he couldn't remember his name, but thought it was something like "Buried Alien" (a play on "Barry Allen"). Buried Alien showed up in a later issue, where he stated he had no desire to return to his old universe since his comrades had all becomedarkperversions of their former selves.
The Runner: Well, Buried, how does it feel to be the fastest man alive? "Buried": It feels... right.
At the time Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California, a few comic took jabs at him. An issue of Runaways called him "musclebound mullox", who was only elected thanks to dark magic and implied he was in The Pride's pocket. And when Exiles visited Earth-616, they read about his election in newspaper and immediately decided this Earth is another Crapsack World.
Joss WhedonhatesThe Punisher, and has said he considers him to be nothing more than a mass-murdering fascist. It should come as no surprise that while writing Runaways, Whedon intentionally depicted the Punisher in a very unflattering manner, including a scene where Frank casually admitted to having shot underage criminals in the past. Whedon then had the Punisher dispatched in a humiliating manner by 11-year-old Molly Hayes, who took him out with a single punch.
A caption in Secret Avengers vol. 3 #5 refers to Hawkeye as "Sort of like that green guyon TV, but more fun." Along those same lines, there's an episode of Marvel's official web-series, Marvel Super Heroes: What The—?!, where Hawkeye asks Santa (actually Thanosin disguise) for numerous Trick Arrows, but immediately dismisses the idea of a boxing glove arrow (Green Arrow's trademark weapon) as too stupid.
Dan Slott's last issue of She-Hulk dealt with alternate universe doppelgangers of Marvel characters from "Earth A" being responsible for various Out of Character moments. Ostensibly, the dialogue is Jen getting angry at the duplicates for committing identity theft, but it was also Slott's response to continuity errors that could easily be avoided if writers stopped ignoring character history and editors paid more attention.
She-Hulk: So if you ever see a hero acting completely out of character, assume it's just some jerk who couldn't be bothered to read their handbook and the A-Hole*Dimensional portal to Earth-A that let them through.
Spider-Girl's creator Tom DeFalco does it from time to time in his MC2-continuity comics. For example:
Silikong: This is where I make the donuts. Or, more appropriately, my unstoppable crystal warriors. Ion Man: You make those guys? Silikong: Did you think we were some kind of Secret Invasion from another planet? Don't be ridiculous.
The first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) is one massive jab at The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott), particularly everything after Superior Spider Man when Peter admits he should never have had taken anything Otto had built up while he was running around in his body (he even admits that the subject that Otto did his thesis on that Peter got caught "plagiarizing" with was something he knew about), thus he wasn't taking responsibility for the great power he had that he never should have had in the first place. He later comes crawling back to Mary Jane, admits how stupid he's been and that he needs her, bringing the two together again for the first time since One More Day, something Slott constantly teased, but never did.
Speaking of OMD, the issue also takes a jab at it with a woman mentioning a story about a student at ESU selling his soul to Mephisto for a passing grade, calling it "the saddest story of all".
Spider Man's Tangled Web #13 has the Vulture thinking of getting some armor like The Falcon. Kraven and Green Goblin criticize the idea, with Goblin in particular commenting that 'armor is a little much' and he's not a fan of it, in a possible jab at his look in the Sam Raimi trilogy. Ironically enough, the movie Vulture himself would wear a suit of armor much like Sam Raimi's Green Goblin did.
Almost every Spider-Man writer since 1996 thinks making at least one joke about The Clone Saga (sometimes really funny, more often not) to be his holy duty.
In The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott) #649, Spider-Man found himself up against the Hobgoblin not so long ago, and was at a disadvantage due to the villain's mind-scrambling laughter attack. Spidey's salvation came when a co-worker played "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga from her phone over the lab's speakers, cancelling out the laughter's vibration. Spider-Man responded with:
Spider-Man: Did I just get saved by Lady Gaga? Actually, can we go back to the ear-piercing laughing?
They then take a jab at X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Amazing Spider-Man by Spidey saying they'll keep rebooting the same idea over and over til they get the characters right (especially with the former's version of Deadpool.)
During Spider-Verse, there was one story where Spider-Girl is trying to be consoled by an alternate universe Uncle Ben after the Inheritors kidnapped her brother, the culmination of a Trauma Conga Line for her. Despite this, Mayday calls out Ben's hypocrisy and declares that there's probably a universe where she woke up that morning everything went to hell and just had her wheatcakes breakfast with her parents and brother, a jab at Dan Slott, who ended up taking a crap over May's happy ending just so she can participate in the storyline.
One issue of the 2019 Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man run had the webhead run to Strange begging to help heal up a kid whose arm he accidentally broke. While he's there, he admits that he also wants him to save his Aunt May, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Strange calmly tells Spidey that there are things he just can't do and to spend what time they have left together just in case. Strange does mention summoning a demon, but both agree that that's a really bad idea.
The Superior Foes of Spider-Man: Following being double-crossed by Boomerang and escaping the Owl, the three remaining members of the Sinister Six go over their options. Speed Demon suggests getting another member and calling themselves the Frightful Four. Beetle rejects the idea, saying "That's just a name for guys who had their widdle feewings hurt by Reed Richards."
Spider-Man (then Doctor Octopus): A giant beacon in the sky, announcing to all my enemies where they can find me. Only an idiot would put that into effect.
"Maybe it's just me, but I'm not crazy about super hero stories where everything's all dark and moody. Personally, I like the ones where good guys fight giant apes on the moon and stuff. Remember those? I do. That was back when comic book worlds were places you wanted to escape to... not from."
When John Byrne took over Star Brand back in the '80s, he proceeded to launch one Take That! after another at the departing figure of ousted Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. Star Brand was one of the Shooter-initiated "New Universe" titles, and was the one that Shooter himself wrote personally. Byrne not only took ad hominem shots at Shooter personally, but had exposition characters hang some on how implausible the events of Shooter's run was, and how stupid the hero had been. Early on in Byrne's run, the hero's girlfriend got Stuffed in the Fridge; the hero later broke down and passed the titular Brand onto some other poor schmuck, destroying Pittsburgh in the process". Not coincidentally, the book's original hero bore a physical resemblance to Shooter.
The Author Avatar of Byrne died horrifically in the Pittburgh explosion. So did about ten thousand comic book con-goers. Such is life. Pretend life.
Star Wars Poe Dameron 11 takes a shot at Captain Phasma for her overall lack of presence in The Force Awakens, parroting fan criticisms about how the character did very little in the film:
Agent Terex: You really are a First Order commander through and through, Phasma. You threaten, and whine, and wail, but you never do anything.
Another Star Wars comic, "The Emperor's Court", has Emperor Palpatine raging about the Special Editions, and the artificial unavailability of the originals in which Han Solo shot first, when pronouncing sentence.
Palpatine: Captain Solo, I've got a bad feeling about this. You expect this court to believe that the Rodian fired upon you from a mere meter away and somehow managed to miss? What was he, a Stormtrooper? However, I feel it is completely within the nefarious character of a smuggler, such as yourself, to talk with your trigger finger. What kind of space pirate would wait for a bounty hunter, whose weapon is drawn and is threatening to kill you, to fire first? And you have the audacity to come into my courtroom and try to pull some shenanigans with this blatantly doctored evidence. What kind of fool do you take this court for? No one should have the power to rewrite history! (Well... except me, that is...)
The Mighty Thor: During the 90's, Thor started wearing a new costume after becoming part of a team known as the Godpack. Warren Ellis (like many people) thought the new look was stupid, so one of the first things he did when he started writing the book was have Thor stop wearing a costume altogether (instead opting for a shirtless look).
Enchantress: I thought it a mild improvement over rags and steel leggings.
This one line by Ultimate Captain America: "Surrender? SURRENDER?! You think this letter on my forehead stands for France?" This led to a more subtle take that by Ed Brubaker in the pages of 616-verse Captain America, where Cap reflects on his time fighting with the French Resistance and chides the folks who dismiss the French as "cowards." To which another shout out was made in the pages of Nextwave — When Elsa Bloodstone is assaulted by a Captain America-imitation, and he claims she is just a victim, she blows him ten ways to Sunday, then points at the Euro-symbol on her T-shirt, and exclaims: "Victim? You think this letter on my chest stands for America?!"
After Mark Millar left Ultimate Comics, a continuation of his title The Ultimates was given to Jeph Loeb, who created the terrible Ultimates 3 and the even worse Ultimatum. After that Millar returned to writing comics in the Ultimate Universe. The very first page of his Ultimate Avengers starts with Nick Fury looking at the mess caused by Ultimatum and saying "What the #$%^&? I leave for ten minutes and everything goes to hell." He gives another one towards Loeb (and possibly towards mainstream Marvel) in issue four of Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates. Tony Stark gives ten million dollars to charity in exchange for Thor promising to talk like a normal person again. He started using the whole "Faux Shakespearean" thing during Loeb's run.
An issue of Ultimate Comics: Avengers 3 features a dream sequence where Bladekills Edward Cullen in front of Bella Swan while quipping about how nauseating he finds the two of them:
Blade: God, I hate you people. I've hated you since your first damn trailer.
During Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates, Millar both took a jab and phased out of continuity Orson Scott Card's Ultimate Iron Man mini-series in which as part of Tony Stark's origin, his flesh was mutated into neural tissue while in womb due to an accident, and also gained regenerative abilities. In Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates #2, the Ultimate Iron Man version of Iron Man is presented as a cartoon being watched by Nick Fury.
Nick Fury: I'm loving Tony's weird new powers. The ability to regrow arms and legs? That's awesome, man. Was this for an action figure line?
Brian Michael Bendisreally likes to dress up female lunatics in the costumes of whatever super-heroine is making Crisis Crossover trouble for the Marvel Universe today and drag them by police officers screaming their new catch-phrase. It's mostly Self-Deprecation as the series had a girl dressed as Scarlet Witch screaming "I'M NOT CRAZY! I'M NOT!" and one dressed as Spider-Woman yelling "EMBRACE CHANGE! EMBRACE CHANGE!" and Brian Michael Bendis writes both USM and the cross-overs involved. However, one exception was the guy in the Speedball costume yelling "NOT LIKE THIS! NOT LIKE THIS!" The actual Ultimate versions of Wanda and Jessica look completely different, so we know it wasn't meant to be them. Another issue had an obese prostitute dressed like Power Girl being dragged into the station. Make of that what you will. When the book was relaunched as Spider-Man, the joke continued:
Prostitute: What does Rebirth even mean? How can you be rebirthed?!
Issue #15 has a scene where J. Jonah Jameson claims that Ben Urich's theory about Doctor Octopus "has more holes in it than a Michael Bay movie."
Uncanny Avengers itself received an epic diss in an issue of All-New X-Men, where the team discussed Havok's now infamous speech where he claimed that using words like "mutant" was divisive, and that society would be much better off without labels. Kitty Pryde stated that her Jewish ethnicity is something she's proud of, and that it's the fault of racists, not minorities, if ignorant people can't handle marginalized groups taking pride in their heritage.
And to make it a full circle, All-New X-Men received a diss in one of Hickman's series, New Avengers. During his What the Hell, Hero? rant, Beast from the past tells his older counterpart exactly how stupid and petty it was to bring past versions of original five X-Men to the present (in other words, the entire premise of All-New X-Men) just to spite Cyclops.
In issue #11 of Uncanny X-Men, it transpires that S.H.I.E.L.D. don't have a base in Michigan.
"Why not?" (beat) "Because it's Michigan, ma'am."
Uncanny Avengers also has another scene where Rogue and Hank Pym have a short conversation after the latter returns from outer space.
Hank Pym: I'm grateful that intelligent apes haven't taken over since I've been off in space. Rogue: Well, don't celebrate prematurely — you haven't caught up on the presidential election yet.
Uncanny X-Men #168 features a somewhat obscure (to modern readers at least) one: Kitty Pryde's bedroom has a poster that reads "The Legion eats quiche," which is both a shot at DC's Legion of Super-Heroes and a reference to the title of the popular 80s book Real Men Don't Eat Quiche.
Marvel's Wha... Huh? features take thats against DC and people complaining about comics on the Internet.
DC was hit with an Identity Crisis (2004) parody with Impossible Man turning evil and murdering Aunt Petunia for being a character without a movie deal and then being killed by Identity Girl — "a new character you've never heard of that's just watered down version of a bunch of characters you have heard of." It was also featuring What if DC would let us do Batman/Daredevil by Brian Bendis and David Mack, which was a picture of frozen Hell.
There was also "What if Internet existed in" segment, showing posts which would be written if Internet was around in The '60s, The70sandThe '80s. Here's few of them:
Who the hell does Jack Kirby think he is? Why can't he let someone else drawn a damn comics book? Who died and made him king? The new X-Menteam sucks! Why are they coming up with "great" new characters like Storm (white-haired black woman — give me a break) and Colossus (like Thing but Russian) when we all know they're all going to fail. The only cool one was Thunderbird, so of course they killed him off! It's an insult to the fans of real X-Men, Stan Lee's X-Men, that we're forced to endure those pretenders! All of sudden Matt Murdock is a ninja?? You gotta be kidding me?! Bring back Gene Colan and stop giving your books to these crazy people who clearly have never read a comics book before.
In anotherPeter David example, an issue of the first volume of X-Factor had someone telling Strong Guy his name sounded stupid. Strong Guy then retorted by asking how it sounded any stupider than something like oh, let's say, "Super Man".
Also, after Liefeld complained about how Peter David revealed that Shatterstar is bisexual in X-Factor because it was against his vision and that he was supposed to be like a Spartan warrior and Russell Crowe in Gladiator, David promised he would add dialogue to that effect in the new issue. Which, he did:
Guido: Tell me, Shatterstar, do you like... gladiator movies? Shatterstar: Apparently. Guido: Figures.
In the middle of X-Factor #200, Jamie Madrox is narrating:
Everybody else was filled with questions: Where had I been? How did I come back? Did I know about Rictor and Shatterstar? That last one, I don't get. Did anyone not know about Rictor and Shatterstar?
Evidently Liefeld was the only one who didn't see it coming.
Sometimes other characters mention how Shatterstar's original costume, which was designed by Liefeld, was... kinda gay.
In Kyle Higgins' The Winter Soldier, Bucky is suggesting new names for RJ. Bucky suggests the name 'Ric' to replace the 'R', and RJ gives Bucky a look like he'd just made the stupidest comment ever and asks how nobody has killed him yet. This issue came out around the time Nightwing was going through a very disliked story arc where he was going by 'Ric Grayson' rather than Dick Grayson, and Kyle Higgins' had previously written Nightwing in a run that was filled with Executive Meddling and that was cut short, so it's pretty obvious he was taking a jab at DC.
An issue of X-Men features a guy reading a newspaper that says, "Cruz Swipes Again". This was made by Joe Madureira who had accused fellow artist Roger Cruz of swiping (making pages nearly identical to that of) his material.
The X-Men: BlackVillain EpisodeMojo one-shot, written by Scott Aukerman, delivered a Take That to the Comicsgate movement in comics by putting completely unaltered Comicsgate slogans in Mojo's mouth, and even having him suddenly start affecting a fedora hat, associated at the time in US pop culture with pick-up artists and anti-feminist activists.
In the X-Men storyline X-Cutioner's Song, Jubilee rants at the captured X-Force, calling them "head-padded, hyper-thyroid, pig-headded, spoiled brat, poorly dressed, overly accessorized, delusionaly disadvantaged X-Men wannabes who are in need of a major 'tude adjustment!" As this story came out just after Rob Liefeld left Marvel in a huff to form Image, it's quite clear some people didn't like the direction X-Force had taken.
Marvel marketed its Young Allies revival by mentioning the complaints about the decline in quality over in DC's Teen Titans series.
spends the entirety of his part in the story detailing the Continuity Snarls brought about by the Clone Saga, then Tom DeFalco threatens the Marvel writing staff with being sent to a Place Worse Than Death: DC! Finally, there's a dig at the (shockingly similar) Kudzu Plots that have happened with the X-Men:Peter: Whew! Thank god! I thought Traveller was gonna say he was an alternate future version of my unborn mutant child, or something REALLY demented!
