25 Best Easter Eggs & References In The MCU So Far
25. Samuel Sterns' Leader Mutation Hint (The Incredible Hulk)
In the Incredible Hulk movie, we meet Samuel Sterns an eccentric cellular biologist and Grayburn College professor who was, initially, helping Bruce Banner to find a cure for the condition that caused him to turn in to the Hulk. However, it came to light that he had been experimenting with Banners blood without Banner knowing using it on animal test subjects to see if he could harness its power - as he was fascinated by the whole thing to an unhealthy degree.
After having seen Banner himself go through the transformation in to the Hulk first-hand, his fascination with that power seemed to increase and, after having been responsible for injecting Emil Blonsky who had already received a double dose of the super soldier serum with some of the blood, the resulting melee saw some of Banners blood drip in to an open wound on Sterns head, causing a mutation to occur.
This was a clear hint towards the fact that Samuel Sterns is the villainous Leader in the comics - a man who became impossibly intelligent and telepathic through exposure to the same gamma as Bruce Banner. Although we haven't yet seen Leader in a movie, he has appeared in the comic books that are linked to the movies.