Easter Eggs You Missed In Spider-Man Far From Home

After the emotionally draining epic that was Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home swung into theaters to offer some sweet relief to the legions of Marvel fans looking for a superhero fix with slightly smaller stakes. Far From Home delivered all the heart, thrills, and goofiness we've come to expect since Tom Holland took over the webs in 2016's Captain America: Civil War. But, in all of the excitement, there are a lot of little touches in Far From Home you probably missed.

Why does the shouty guy in the mid-credits scene look so familiar? Who's this Crusher Hogan guy? Why does the "Stark Relief Foundation" sound so familiar? Who's "BFP," and why does Peter have his luggage? Read on for answers to these questions and more as we explore some of the biggest Easter eggs you might've overlooked in Spider-Man: Far From Home. 

Warning: major spoilers for Far From Home and the rest of the MCU ahead!

A mighty Earth Elemental wreaks some serious havoc in Mexico during the cold opening of Far From Home, so we don't blame you if didn't catch the super-nerdy clue the filmmakers briefly put on screen to herald its arrival. A license plate with only "463" visible appears for a second near Nick Fury and Maria Hill when the Elemental pops up. This is likely a nod to Amazing Spider-Man #4 from September 1963, the issue that introduced the world to the Earth-based villain Sandman.

Sound like a stretch? Well, Marvel already snuck a few license-plate-based Easter eggs into the Far From Home trailers that didn't make the theatrical cut of the film. Before the water Elemental attack is teased in the first "Official Teaser Trailer" from January 2019, for example, there was a boat in the background with "ASM 212" on the side. It's almost certainly a reference to Amazing Spider-Man #212, the issue that introduced Spidey's "wet threat": Hydro-Man. Flash Thompson even tells his classmates about a guy who got water powers named "Morris Bench" that he read about on the Internet — another clear reference to the comic book alter-ego of Hydro-Man.

But that's not all! In a London-based clip seen in the "Official Trailer" from May 2019, a car with the license plate "2865 SEP" appears. This probably refers to Amazing Spider-Man #28 from September 1965, which marked the debut of the fire villain Molten Man. This particular UK plate was cut from the final film, but a similar plate number pops up in Prague in the theatrical cut: ASM 28965.

There's at least one license-plate based Easter egg in Far From Home that has nothing to do with the Elementals: MTU 83779, spotted on Nick Fury's license plate in Berlin. It may look like just another random string of letters and numbers, but we're guessing it's a reference to Marvel Team-Up #83 from July 1979, which featured a team-up between Spider-Man and — you guessed it — Nick Fury.

The story of MTU #83 begins, or so the text tells us, with a "murdered" Spider-Man on a Manhattan rooftop. But wait! He awakens and begins to remember the events of the night before, which culminated in Nick Fury shooting Spider-Man and a woman who appeared to be Black Widow with a barrage of "anaesthetic bullets" (i.e., he used non-lethal ammo that appeared real). 

So, like in the events of the Berlin sequence of Far From Home, MTU #83 features Fury seemingly at odds with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. In Far From Home, fake Nick Fury is an illusion used to trick (and incapacitate) Spider-Man. In MTU #83, Nick Fury's fake bullets are an illusion used to trick (and incapacitate) Spider-Man. Neat!

The rest of the plot of MTU #83, which involves Silver Samurai and the teleportation ring he obtained from Saturday Night Live's John Belushi (no, seriously), is probably irrelevant. It does, however, feature a seemingly dead Black Widow appearing alive and well in a S.H.I.E.L.D. lab, but we're not even touching that one.

To test his newfound powers in his 1962 Amazing Fantasy #15 debut, Peter Parker takes on a musclebound wrestler named Crusher Hogan, who promises $100 to anyone who can stay in the ring with him for three minutes. Hogan taunts Parker, calling him "a little masked marvel" and "shorty," but our Spider-Man-in-the-making, of course, easily bests Hogan. He also tells Hogan mid-fight precisely why he was able to take him down, boasting, "I have the speed, the agility, the very strength of a gigantic spider!"

After Aunt May's "Homeless Support" fundraiser in Far From Home, if you look closely behind Happy Hogan, you'll see a Crusher Hogan poster with that same $100 offer. There's also a ring bell nearby, so it looks like this building (the real-life Urban Sports & Cultural Center in Brooklyn) is where Crusher made the offer. We never got to see the MCU's Peter Parker take Crusher down, but this poster is a decent consolation prize, as well as confirmation that MCU Spidey likely had a similar origin story as his comics counterpart.

Benjamin Franklin Parker, aka orphan Peter's father figure "Uncle Ben," has yet to appear in the MCU, but his memory looms large. In the original Amazing Fantasy #15 origin story, Uncle Ben is killed by an unnamed burglar — the same burglar Peter could have apprehended following a TV appearance, had he not been so caught up in his newfound fame. Peter later tracks the burglar to a warehouse, where he captures him and leaves him for the police to deal with. Peter realizes in the final panel, famously, that "with great power there must also come — great responsibility!" Most Spider-Man origin stories since have seen Ben suffer a similar fate.

Spider-Man: Homecoming writer John Francis Daley told Entertainment Weekly in 2017 that Uncle Ben was almost referenced directly in the MCU, but plans changed. "It was when [Peter] was getting ready for homecoming and the wardrobe [Ben's widow Aunt May] was giving Peter was all Uncle Ben's clothes," Daley told the magazine. "It was a nice moment, but we also knew that it veered away from his arc. If you're going to talk about someone's death, you don't want it to be a throwaway."

In Far From Home, it's revealed that Peter is using Ben's old luggage, but the connection goes unmentioned on screen. If you look closely, however, the monogram "BFP" is featured on the suitcase in the scene in which Peter is packing for his summer vacation.

Blink and you'll miss it — and even if you catch it, you'll have to squint! — but the giant novelty check Happy Hogan carries into the back room after the "Homeless Support" fundraiser in Far From Home is signed by none other than Pepper Potts. Potts is listed here as the co-founder and chair of the "Stark Relief Foundation," which probably sounds familiar if you've rewatched Avengers: Age of Ultron recently.

In Age of Ultron, Tony Stark mentions The Stark Relief Foundation following the so-called "Duel of Johannesburg," in which a spellbound Hulk and a Hulkbuster-suited Tony Stark caused massive collateral damage to South Africa's largest city. The foundation's purpose, it appears, is to provide aid to populations impacted by the messy work the Avengers have historically engaged in. In Far From Home, viewers can assume that Pepper has donated such a large sum to help the homeless population of Queens recovering after "the blip."

The brief-but-welcome return of Daily Bugle head honcho J. Jonah Jameson, played once again by J.K. Simmons, is one of the many highlights of Far From Home, coming during the mid-credits sequence which appears to set up the next MCU Spider-Man flick. Simmons played the cantankerous journalist in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, but Far From Home's incarnation is a little bit different.

In Far From Home, JJJ is more unstable than ever, and his desire to smear Spider-Man is cranked up to 11. Befitting of the times, the Daily Bugle now appears to be an online conspiracy-mongering tabloid news program, clearly styled to resemble The O'Reilly Factor, or even the MCU's version of InfoWars. This darker take on JJJ then outs Spider-Man as Peter Parker, leading Parker, in Far From Home's final line, to echo the final interrupted line of Homecoming, uttered by Aunt May when she discovers Peter's secret: "What the f — " 

Considering that ex-Stark Industries scientist-turned-Mysterio lackey William Ginter Riva preserved Mysterio's high-tech handiwork for later use, meaning even more crazily realistic illusions could be on the way in Far From Home's follow-up, having a paranoid conspiracy-monger like Jonah eager to smear a now-outed Peter Parker is a recipe for disaster. WTF, indeed.

In a running subplot throughout Far From Home, Peter's man in the chair and all around best buddy Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) has a whirlwind relationship with Betty Brant (Angourie Rice), one of the other students on their school trip to Europe. They fall for each other on the flight across the Atlantic, become a couple, and then break up on the return trip. It's funny and cute.

Funny and cute, though, are two adjectives fans never would have applied to the relationship between Ned and Betty in the comics. Originally one of Peter's love interests, Betty Brant ended up marrying Ned Leeds, who in the comics was an older reporter at the Daily Bugle where the two worked. The marriage was difficult, with multiple separations and affairs. 

Like their movie counterparts, the relationship ended in Europe, but under very different circumstances: set up as a scapegoat for the crimes of the supervillain known as The Hobgoblin, Ned was murdered by assassins in Berlin, leaving Betty a widow. Yikes! 

One of the main plotlines in Far From Home is Peter Parker's crush on fellow student MJ (played by Zendaya). He has a whole plan laid out to tell her how he feels, only things keep getting in the way — things like, for instance, supervillain attacks.

But there's one other stumbling block: Brad Davis, another schoolmate who also is romantically interested in MJ, and who will do anything in his power to stop his rival. 

So it will come as no surprise that Brad is actually straight out of the comics. Well, one comic anyway: Amazing Spider-Man #188. During a period where Peter and MJ were on a break from their on-again-off-again relationship, MJ brought star college quarterback Brad as her date to a group outing, leading to a lot of awkwardness. It didn't last, though: after that one story, Brad was never seen or heard from again. Until now, that is.

Spider-man's original black costume is famous among comic book fans and moviegoers alike, as the alien symbiote suit was featured in both Sam Raimi's 2007 film Spider-Man 3 and the 2018 smash hit Venom. Needless to say, the outfit that inspires Ned to rename Spider-Man "Night Monkey" in Prague is not that outfit.

But the non-alien black suit Spidey wears in Far From Home does, in fact, have its own secret past in the comics as well. In Far From Home, worried that his usual costume was too distinctive and would give away his secret identity if he wore it in Europe, Peter accepts a new black stealth costume from Nick Fury so he can covertly assist SHIELD on a secret mission. 

That plot point is ripped right out of the 2004 series Secret War, where, you guessed it, Nick Fury recruits Spider-Man for a top secret mission in Europe — and in the process, presents Spidey with a new black stealth costume. 

Now if only we can get that eagerly awaited Night Monkey spinoff movie...

During Peter's initial meeting with Jake Gyllenhaal's Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio, the supposed superhero spins a story claiming to be from an alternate reality — one where Earth's heroes failed and the world was destroyed by Elemental monsters. In what initially seems like a random word salad, Mysterio says that the MCU version of Earth we know and love is actually designated Earth-616, while his alternate reality has the designation Earth-833.

Fans of DC's Arrowverse shows on the CW may recognize this as a joke about all the various alternate Earths in the DC Multiverse, which are given designations like Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-37, and so forth.

That's totally true, but this particular joke actually originated in the comics, courtesy of Watchmen writer Alan Moore himself. During a brief run on Marvel's Captain Britain series in the 1980's, Moore introduced the concept of a Marvel multiverse, and in a wink towards the DC Universe, he gave the regular MCU the random designation Earth-616 to show it was no more significant than any other possible reality. 

And the 833 designation is far from random either. In the comics, Earth-833 was indeed destroyed, and the only survivor was... an alternate-reality version of Spider-Man, specifically one from the UK, where Spidey has his final showdown with Mysterio in Far From Home. Hmm!

At the beginning of Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spidey joins Aunt May for a charity event aimed at helping people who've been displaced after returning to existence during the events of Avengers: Endgame. Spidey has an awkward press conference, there's a cute exchange between Aunt May, Happy Hogan, and a gigantic novelty check.

In the comics, the charity Aunt May runs is called FEAST, which stands for Food, Emergency Aid, Shelter and Training. FEAST first appeared in the comics in 2008's Amazing Spider-Man #546. It soon became a vital part of Aunt May's life, as she dedicated herself to helping those in need.

Sadly, FEAST turned out to be a front for a supervillain named Mister Negative, and it shut down. But FEAST made an appearance in the 2018 PS4 video game Marvel's Spider-Man, and in recent issues of the comic, Aunt May has decided to start up FEAST again — just in time for the movie shout out. What a coincidence!

At the very end of Far From Home, the final post-credits scene contained a multitude of mind-blowing moments, as fans discovered that the Nick Fury Peter had been working for though the entire film wasn't actually Nick Fury at all, but rather a Skrull. And not just any Skrull, either, but Talos himself — the leader of the refugee Skrulls that Fury had met and eventually befriended two decades ago in the events of Captain Marvel.

We then see the real Nick Fury apparently lounging on a beach, only to discover that's it's just some kind of holographic projection — and he's seemingly in space with more Skrulls.

The real easter egg here, though, isn't the Skrull stuff at all, but Fury's fake vacation spot. Fans of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD may recognize this sequence as a nod to Project TAHITI. In the show's first season, beloved Agent Coulson, who was killed in the first Avengers film, is brought back from the dead using the blood of a dead Kree — the sworn enemies of the Skrulls. Coulson then had fake memories programmed into his brain leading him to believe that he never died at all, but just spent a long time recovering from his wounds via an extended beach vacation on the tropical island of Tahiti. Tahiti, space aliens, secret SHIELD goings-on...it all fits. Well played, Marvel.