Mythology Gag / Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

• The scientists of Earth-838 use a designation system that lists the "main" MCU as Earth-616, which in the wider Marvel Franchise is the designation of the main comics universe.
• One poster displays statues of a tiger with wings and a female goddess. These are Hoggoth and Oshtur, who, along with Agamotto, form the trio of gods of magic known as the Vishanti.
• An example involving literal mythology, specifically Greek. When Strange uses a Hydra spell against Wanda, she defeats it by destroying the heads and burning the stumps.
• Professor X moves around in the classic bright yellow hoverchair popularly associated with X-Men: The Animated Series, as well as a green suit similar to the one he wore on the show. Danny Elfman's score even invokes that nostalgia with a brief reprisal of Ron Wasserman's iconic Nineties X-Men theme. We also get the concentric circles effect when he uses his powers.
• Professor X — as opposed to his fellow Illuminati members — is the only one who's willing to at least give 616-Strange a chance to prove that he isn't the greatest threat to the multiverse as every other Strange does. He justifies this with the very same quote one of his variants used to motivate his younger self to try and save their future.
  Professor X: Just because someone stumbles and loses their way, doesn't mean they are lost forever.
• "Defender Strange" is a reference to Dr Strange traditionally being a member of The Defenders. His red and black costume is based on his outfit as part of the 2011 team.
• Tying the Scarlet Witch to Chthon and Mount Wundagore is a reference to the Nights of Wundagore storyline in The Avengers, which reveals that the Maximoff siblings were born at the base of the mountain and Wanda was infused with some of Chthon's power.
• The demon guards of Chthon's fortress are visually based on Chthon's recent appearances in the comics.
• The scene with the Scarlet Witch in the Mirror Dimension is a visual reference to ''Avengers'' #171, where she is trapped in a room full of mirrors and can't figure out how to cast a hex without reflecting it back on herself.
• Reed Richards makes his entrance using a time platform, which was a common weapon of Doctor Doom's in the comics before it was taken, studied, and duplicated by Richards. Additionally, while not mentioning them by name, Reed alludes to his wife Susan and their children Franklin and Valeria during his ill-fated confrontation with Wanda.
• The Strange of the Illuminati's world wore a blue cloak rather than a red one, much like the comic incarnation of Strange did during his earliest Silver Age appearances.
• The talk of Incursions is very similar to the ones that led to the Secret Wars (2015).
• Maria Rambeau is Captain Marvel in the alternate universe. In the comics, her daughter Monica Rambeau was called "Captain Marvel" for a time, despite having no connection to the character who previously went by that name^note Marvel Comics constantly maintaining some character under the name "Captain Marvel" was a legal strategy to prevent DC from gaining that trademark for their own Captain Marvel.
• Wanda defeats Black Bolt by wiping his mouth in a very similar fashion to the way Thanos neutralized Starfox's Compelling Voice in The Infinity Gauntlet. It also mirrors a similar scene during the climax of House of M, where Wanda's comic book counterpart casts an identical spell on Magneto to silence him and stop his rampage.
• At one point in the climax, when Stephen is casting the Dreamwalking spell, the Souls of the Damned appear to engulf him in the shape of a substance composed of black tendrils crawling all over him, bearing a striking resemblance to the Venom Symbiote in Spider-Man 3.
• At the end of the movie, Doctor Strange gains a third eye on his forehead as a side effect of using the Darkhold. In the comics, invoking the power of the Eye of Agamotto often caused a similar visual effect on its user.