Seven Marvel Cinematic Universe Cameos You Might Have Missed

One of the best parts about settling in to watch a new Marvel movie or television show is anticipating what new characters will show up next.From the very first post-credit scene in Iron Man, Marvel has made clear that its Cinematic Universe is as deep and interconnected as its comics counterpart.Over the course of a dozen films (thirteen after Captain America: Civil War comes out), Marvel has introduced dozens of comic characters, although not everyone is as easy to recognize as Captain America or Iron Man.Here’s seven characters you might have missed show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe:

Doc Samson

In The Incredible Hulk, Modern Family actor Ty Burell plays Betty Ross’s boyfriend, a friendly psychotherapist named Leonard.  Most of Burell’s scenes were cut in the theatre release of The Incredible Hulk, but an extended cut makes clear that Leonard is none other than the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of Doc Samson, a gamma-irradiated psychiatrist and ally of the Hulk.  Samson is best known for his long locks of green hair, which originally acted as the source of his powers.  In addition to treating the Hulk, Samson has acted as a psychiatrist to the superhumans, counseling many of Marvel’s heroes and villains. 

The Human Torch

Captain America was Marvel’s best known character during the Golden Age, but he wasn’t Marvel’s first superhero.  That honor belongs to the original Human Torch, a combustible android created by scientist Phineas Horton.  The Human Torch and Captain America, along with Namor the Sub-Mariner, formed Marvel’s first super-team the Invaders.  While Marvel’s movie rights to Namor are murky, the studio did manage to sneak the Human Torch into Captain America: The First Avenger.  He briefly appears at the Stark Expo in an oxygen-deprived display (presumably to keep him from bursting into flames). 

Firepower and Coldblood

AIM and the Mandarin were the two biggest threats to Tony Stark in Iron Man 3, but several of his other comic enemies also made small appearances in the movie.  When Happy Hogan starts investigating Aldrich Killian and the Extremis program, he encounters Jack Taggert and Eric Savin, two Extremis-powered henchmen working for Killian.  Hogan nearly dies after Taggert explodes, and Savin later participates in the failed hijacking of Air Force One at the end of the movie.  Both Taggert and Savin are actually minor supervillains.  In the comics, Taggert is Firepower, an Iron Man enemy with a bulky hi-tech suit of armor, while Savin is the cybernetic mercenary Coldblood.   

Fin Fang Foom

A thirty foot tall alien that looks like a dragon, Fin Fang Foom is one of the Marvel Universe’s weirdest and most recognizable supervillains.  Although the creature is more of a sideshow than a real threat to Marvel’s superheroes, Fin Fang Foom has plagued Iron Man several times and even brought the Makluan rings used by Iron Man’s nemesis, the Mandarin, to Earth.  So how did the Marvel Studios sneak Fin Fang Foom into its universe?  If you look carefully in Iron Man, you might notice a movie poster featuring the dragon alien’s face for a brief second as Iron Man flies by.  

Ellen Brandt

Ellen Brandt is the scarred female Extremis soldier played by Stephanie Szostak who fights an un-armored Tony Stark at a Rose Hill bar.  Brandt’s comic counterpart is the wife of Ted Sallis, the SHIELD scientist who become Man-Thing.  As an agent of AIM, Brandt tried to steal her husband’s research on the Super-Soldier Serum, but he swallowed his only test sample and became the Man-Thing instead.  When Sallis returned to their home, he attacked Brandt and scarred her face with acid.  Brandt and her facial scars aren’t the only references to the Man-Thing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Dr. Selvig’s research contains a reference to the Nexus of All Realities, the cross-dimensional gateway that Man-Thing guards, while Maria Hill references the Man-Thing during an episode of Agents of SHIELD.

Union Jack

All of the Howling Commandos are well known to Marvel comics fans, but one member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s team is actually a superhero in his own right. British spy James Montgomery Falsworth (played by JJ Feild in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) is better known as the original Union Jack, a costumed English equivalent to Captain America.  Wearing an actual Union Jack (the flag of the United Kingdom) for his costume, Falsworth fought principally in World War I, but came out of retirement in World War II to help Captain America and the Invaders fight vampires.

Whiplash

Anton Vanko, the Iron Man 2 version of Whiplash, was actually a new character created by mixing aspects of existing Iron Man villains Whiplash and the Crimson Dynamo.  The original Whiplash, Mark Scarlotti, was a Maggia assassin with hi-tech titanium whips.  The Scarlotti version of Whiplash appeared in an episode of Agents of SHIELD as a Hydra agent armed with a specialized knife tied to a rope.  After murdering several UN delegates and SHIELD agents, Melinda May defeated Scarlotti after an intense hand to hand fight.