Powerless: Easter Eggs and Things You Might Have Missed In “Pilot”

Welcome to Earth-P!

In the world of Powerless, fans are getting to see a version of the DC Universe they’ve never seen before: one played for laughs.

That means we’re seeing a lot of the things that populates quieter corners of the DCU — fictional cities and brands, Z-list heroes — and fewer world-changing battles.

So far, it’s been a lot of fun. Who’s to say that it will continue past the pilot? But even if it doesn’t, there’s a pretty decent list here of stuff to keep your eyes peeled for when you watch again.

So…what did we spot? What did we miss?

Read on, and comment below.

MORE: New Powerless Promo Reveals Problem With Kryptonite / Joker Reference in Wayne Security Commercial for NBC’s Powerless / Alan Tudyk Explains Why Batman’s Cousin Admires Lex Luthor / New Powerless Trailer Features Starro / Showrunner Explains How Powerless Connects To DCEU / New Powerless Promo Reveals Alan Tudyk is Playing Batman’s Cousin / New Powerless Promo Drops Superman Joke / NBC Debuts New Powerless Teaser / New Powerless Image Contains Batman Easter Egg

Powerless premieres this Thursday, February 2 at 8:30/7:30c on NBC.

CHARM CITY

The city itself doesn’t exist in the comics, but it’s worth noting that in the grand DC Comics tradition, they’ve created a fake city to tell their story in.

Worth noting that you will probably recognize plenty of Arrowverse landmarks here, as well as stuff you might know from Smallville. That’s because parts of the series were filmed in Vancouver, where those series are also shot.

PRESIDENT-ELECT LUTHOR

Lex Luthor has apparently been elected President in this version of the DC Universe…and yes, there is of course a Donald Trump joke.

In the comics, Lex Luthor was elected President in 2000. The storyline played out over the course of a couple of years before he was finally taken down int he first arc of Superman/Batman.

…And, of course, since writers have said for years that “businessman Lex” of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths era was heavily influenced by Donald Trump, it’s no surprise that when Trump started his bid for President, all the Lex Luthor for President material started to take on a new meaning.

You can see more on this here.

GLOBAL GUARDIANS

We get to see Crimson Fox squaring off with Jack O’Lantern.

You can see bios of both characters — here for Crimson Fox and here for Jack O’Lantern. In any event, the characters were heavily featured together in Justice League Europe and Global Guardians stories in the early ’90s.

SODER COLA

Soder Cola is one of the most frequently-recurring fake brands in the DC Universe. You can see the sign there. In the comics, it’s been endorsed by Booster Gold in the past.

SIEGEL & SHUSTER

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the co-creators of Superman, apparently run a coffee shop in the world of Powerless.

RETCON INSURANCE

Retcon Insurance is a couple of things all at once.

First of all, a “retcon” is short for “retroactive continuity,” and it’s basically a patch used to “fix” problems with continuity or insert stories or backstory into a place where it didn’t used to exist.

Retcon Insurance is also the name of the company where Powerless originally took place: an insurance company that dealt with superhero-related claims. When they reworked the pilot to make it about Wayne Security, they apparently kept some of the Retcon-related footage, and incorporated it into Emily’s backstory…

…like a retcon.

MARC McCLURE

Who’s that we see playing Emily’s father? Ah, it’s Marc McClure, who played Jimmy Olsen in the first four Superman movies (and the Supergirl movie), and then returned to Smallville to play Dax-Ur!

You might also recognize him from Back to the Future, where he played Marty’s brother Dave.

STARRO (and GREEN LANTERN?)

Starro the Conqueror, the first foe to face the Justice League and one of DC’s most menacing (and visually distinctive) supervillains, shows up briefly…

…only to be quickly obliterated and splattered all over Emily’s window by what looks like a Green Lantern ring’s blast.

BATMAN AND THE JOKER

Bruce Wayne and The Joker both get name-dropped plenty in this pilot episode.

Bruce’s book is pretty much the most frequently-used prop in the show, and The Joker not only gets mentioned because Wayne Security created a Joker antivenom but also because at the end of the episode, Batman uses the Jack-Alert to catch the Clown Prince of Crime.

VAN WAYNE

Vanderveer “Van” Wayne, played in Powerless by Firefly and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘s Alan Tudyk, made a single appearance in Batman #148, published in June of 1962.

Self-described as a “rich, over-educated globetrotting wastrel,” his comic book counterpart is, as it turns out in this issue, equally as precocious.

You can read up on Vanderveer Wayne here.

LEXCORP

Not only is Lex Luthor the President-Elect, but he’s apparently still in charge of one of the biggest corporations in the world.

That’d be LexCorp, which is a direct competitor for Wayne Security.

SHAZAM!

“Let me just summon a wizard. SHAZAM!” jokes Teddy.

That, of course, is the name of both the wizard who gives Captain Marvel (Billy Batson) his powers, and the magic word he shouts to get them.

Apparently this is well known in the world of Powerless.

LOCAL BUSINESSES?

When Jack O’Lantern takes over all the screens in town, we get a look at downtown Charm City, complete with signs for Big Belly Burger and Blackhawk Airways.

Big Belly Burger — a staple on Arrow, The Flash, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — is a fast food chain in the DC Universe, introduced during the Superman books of the ’80s. 

Blackhawks were an elite fighter pilot unit in DC Comics — although there’s also a Blackhawk Security, which handles things like armored cars and bodyguard services — in Arrow.

KANE AND FINGER’S

So now that we got the nod to Superman’s co-creators out of the way, let’s get Batman down, too.

While the Big Blue Boyscout’s creators peddle coffee in Charm City, the men responsible for Gotham’s Dark Knight sell something a little harder: that’s their pub where Emily and the team share a beer toward the end of the episode, apparently.

You can see the sign at the top right.

MARV WOLFMAN

…Wait, what’s the name of that newscaster?

That’s right, it’s Marv Wolfman, named for the writer of The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths (among many other things).