12 Most Fan-Pleasing MCU Movie Moments

9. Howard The Duck - Guardians Of The Galaxy

Let's be honest, the whole culture of Easter Eggs in the MCU exists solely to get easy reactions out of fans of the comic book source material. If you drop an incidental character in whose name has been stolen from a recognisable figure in the comics, you'll get a pop. If you dress someone in a costume from the comics, you'll get a pop. If you reference a story from the comics, you'll get a pop. It's how this all works.

James Gunn knew the value of Easter Eggs more than most MCU film-makers, which is why we're all still searching for the final hidden references in his movies. Not that we'll ever find them now he's gone... Anyway, that's not for here. He knew how to get a reaction out of his audience with Easter Eggs, fundamentally.

And the crowning glory of his Guardians Of The Galaxy - which in itself is a swaggering, unexpected joy - is the audacity with which he dropped in a cameo by Howard The Duck. Long derided as the joke of the Marvel movie universe, Gunn gave him his moment ts shine and it worked precisely because it was so provocatively anti-fan-bait.