The Incredible Hulk had many Easter Eggs and plot threads that relate to crossovers in other Marvel Cinematic Universe films, some subtle and some not so subtle. As for the subtle ones, in the opening credits we view plans for the sonic beam trucks created by Stark Industries, as well as a few documents with Nick Fury’s name on them. Another subtle Easter egg is during the Culver University scene that can be seen at the end of
Iron Man 2, the reporter states the names of the two students who captured the video of the Hulk, the names being Jack McGee and Jim Wilson. Jack McGee for those of you who don’t know was the reporter in the ABC series in the 70’s, no big deal another cute reference to the show. Jim Wilson however, is the nephew of Sam Wilson, The Falcon himself. Could this be Kevin Feige trying to slip a future cameo/film under our noses without thinking about it, or just a coincidence? I tend to believe the former, as it’s not every day you see a black kid with the same name as the nephew of a black superhero, so will we see the Falcon anytime soon? Perhaps not, but this is promising that Marvel Studios is trying to expand the MCU with more characters that aren’t exactly considered “A-list” characters. It brings great promise that this may be the case, perhaps we can see Beta Ray Bill in a future Thor movie?!
The biggest egg in
TIH is the repaired version of the Super Soldier serum. The serum is blue, much like in
Captain America: The First Avenger and it also worked as seen with Blonksy during the Culver university sequence. The comparisons with
TFA can be seen as the speed with which both Blonsky and Rogers move and execute attacks is uncanny. Also the speed at which Blonsky recovered after having all of his bones “crushed [into] gravel” helps better understand how Cap survived 70 years in frozen terrain, as well as hinting that the Red Skull could survive living in another realm, that being that the Serum has a self repairing side effect.
I feel if I don’t address the lightning scene someone will be angry, and I would rather not deal with anyone while they’re angry. So did Thor “size up” Hulk? No, although considering that this scene followed the Culver university scene, it would have followed the debriefing of Tony by Fury. Therefore, this could have been around the time that Thor was taking care of business over in New Mexico, there is a two or three hour difference so it could be the same moment that Thor was taking out the Destroyer, which could cause atmospheric disturbances and change weather patterns throughout the nation. So outside of a theory with absolutely no meteorology experience this really could be no more than a simple coincidence or reference to
Thor.
Speaking of everyone's favorite God of Thunder,
Thor is similar to
TIH, it has many subtle eggs, and a few things that could be explained further explored with another scene from an MCU film. On with the subtleties, Dr. Erik Selvig references Banner when talking about SHIELD, and also hints at knowing someone that has dealt with “these people before.” Now having read the script, this colleague is known to be Ant-Man himself, Henry “Hank” Pym. Now this
could solidify the “theory” that Hank Pym is in Africa searching/studying Vibranium, all it actually says is that Hank has been involved with Shield in some capacity prior to
Thor, which with Marvel Math you can assume is before
IM2 if not the original
Iron Man. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Of course you are! This means we should definitely be seeing a Hank Pym reference in
The Avengers discussing his involvement, and perhaps a post credits cameo(Fingers crossed!). Around the 34 minute mark of
Thor is the end Credits scene to
IM2, now does this mean that this part of
Thor falls is chronologically following the debriefing scene in
IM2? I'm not sure, although we should just petition Kevin Feige to tell us the chronology of the films, with dates and times included.
The biggest egg in my eyes is a simple phrase Loki says to Heimdall, “There are secret paths between the worlds to which even you with all your gifts are blind.” This phrase set up the route to which Loki arrives on Earth for
The Avengers. Yet after seeing
TFA we know that the Cosmic Cube is a path between worlds, whether or not Heimdall can see these paths does not matter. What does matter, is the fact that now we have a way for Thor to get back to Earth in
The Avengers. When the Skull was sucked into the World Tree, the cosmic universe looked very similar to a scene in
Thor, meaning he could have ended up close to Asgard. At the end of
Thor we see that Shield has the Cube in custody with the idea that it has unlimited power and it is hinted that Shield may know that the Cube is a gateway to another dimension. Now with Cap unfrozen, he will be able to explain what happened to the Skull, which could lead to someone using it to get Thor back on Earth. Although, I would assume that Loki will have obtained the Cube somehow before Thor is brought back to Earth which would become the day unlike any other.