Starting things off now with perhaps the most heavily referenced superhero NOT to appear physically in game, and that is Captain Marvel.
You can't not tell a Kamala Khan story and ignore Carol Danvers - the superhero who inspired the young Inhuman to take up super-heroics after being exposed to the Terrigen Mists - and so it's understandable why the character's presence is hinted at so heavily throughout the game.
In the A-Day intro, Kamala sports a Captain Marvel T-shirt and later uses a mobile phone case bearing her insignia. Eagle eyed players will notice how one of the many cabinets in the arcade features art from Jamie McKelvie, who redesigned Danvers' costume into the iconic blue and red design that's since become the character's hallmark.
On top of these early references, Captain America even mentions Carol by name, stating that she's currently "off-world". Players can also later spy two posters of Danvers in Kamala's room - one featuring the character in her old Warbird uniform, and another that looks very much like an in-game model waiting to be introduced down the line.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
