Tolkien References Project: Marvel

I would love to extend my thanks to both Mercury Natis (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Tim Bolton (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for their chat (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) over on Bluesky (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), referencing Tolkien mentions with Marvel comics, and for reminding me I needed to put this together! 😇

Community (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Chicago Fire (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Firefly Lane (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Scrubs (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Gilmore Girls (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Minions & More, volumes 1 + 2 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Brooklyn 99 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [publicly available] | Loudermilk (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Lucifer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

A couple of years ago (2021) a short scene made for a laugh and a few appreciatively raised eyebrows when Bucky Barnes exclaimed in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier:

"I read the Hobbit in 1937 when it first came out"

Obviously with an underlying tone of arrogance because he knows his Tolkien from before the time people turned it into a hype… 🤪

And that definition: “A sorcerer is a wizard without a hat!” 😂

So, with the Marvel Database (a Fandom wiki) you’ll find this page:

The main page (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) does include a few fun facts.

“For instance, when Karl Lykos (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) became a humanoid Pterodon, he took the name "Sauron (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)" after the villain of the books…”

or…

“Tony Stark (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) hates Tolkien¹.”

The best thing, though?

We do have an excellent piece on Early Tolkien References in Marvel and DC Comic Books (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) published with the Tolkien Guide, written by Dale Nelson, and originally published with Beyond Bree (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Let’s not forget Numenor (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (the emperor of Bensaylum), and Aragorn (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (a winged horse), and the fact that Captain America actually once (presumably) read The Lord of the Rings in a comic, stating²:

I always was a sucker for far-out fantasy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)!

So, yeah, Tolkien & Marvel, it’s a thing. 🤩

1. Iron Man (Vol 5) #4 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

2. Thanks to Tolkien Gateway and its ‘Tolkien’s works in popular media/ comics (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)’ page. ↩