It’s All Connected: Corporations in the MCU

With dozens of movies, television shows, short films and web series, the Marvel Cinematic Universe  is simply too big for everything to be referenced all the time. Sure, it would be nice for The Defenders to show up in Avengers: Infinity War, but look at all the main characters that already got very little screen-time! Us fans have learned to make do with the little things. Luckily, there are a lot of those.

For example, did you know that Marvel likes to re-use fictional companies across their works? Take a look at these:

Cybertek

Cybertek plays a large role in the first and fifth seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – as both one of the HYDRA-affiliated companies behind the super-soldier program known as the Centipede Project and the creator of Project Deathlok, which resulted in Deathlok cyborgs such as John Garrett and Mike Peterson.

Cybertek also makes a cameo in the first season of Daredevil, where reporter Ben Urich’s framed article detailing their fall from grace in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is seen in the background of his office.

Cybertek has a short comic history as the company behind Deathlok in his 1990 solo run.

Transia Corporation

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s Transia is one of the corporations co-owned by the HYDRA head and World Security Council member Gideon Malick (seen in both The Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). They created the technology behind Phil Coulson’s robotic hand and the Transia Exoskeleton, a power armor that seems vaguely similar to the technology used by other ex-HYDRA member Crossbones in Captain America: Civil War, before his gauntlets were salvaged and re-designed by The Tinkerer for the Shocker in Spider-Man: Homecoming. 

In addition to their subsidiary GT Agrochemical later appearing in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a former workplace of Dr. Holden Radcliffe, the corporation was also mentioned in an episode of the web series WHiH Newsfront.

The name Transia will also be known to comic book fans as the original name for the MCU’s Sokovia – the fictional European country where Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were born.

Metropolitan General Hospital

New York City’s Metropolitan General Hospital (often referred to as the Metro-General) is the name of a franchise of New York hospitals in the MCU. First seen in Daredevil as the hospital where Claire Temple worked before it was attacked by Hand ninjas, it also appears (as most “Defenders” companies do) in Jessica Jones and Iron Fist, earning a mention in Luke Cage.

The Metro-General made history, however, as the first element in the MCU created for a television show to appear in a movie when Doctor Strange shows it as the workplace of surgeons Stephen Strange, Christine Palmer and Nicodemus West.

Damage Control

Damage Control was a department of S.H.I.E.L.D. that was later purchased by Tony Stark and folded into the U.S. government as the United States Department of Damage Control, specializing in cleaning up after superhero fights. First mentioned in an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Damage Control next appears in Spider-Man: Homecoming as the competitor that put Adrian Toomes’ clean-up crew out of business.

Damage Control was also announced as an upcoming MCU comedy television show on ABC in 2015, following the disgruntled construction workers trying to solve unusual superhero-related problems. There has been no word on the production since it’s original announcement.

Damage Control enjoys a long comic history stemming from a light-hearted solo comic in 1989.

Hammer Industries

You may remember Hammer Industries as Stark Industries’ rival weapons manufacturing company from Iron Man 2, run by the incompetent Justin Hammer. The imprisoned CEO himself later shows up in the short All Hail the King.

Hammer Industries doesn’t make an appearance again until the first season of Luke Cage, where the company re-surges in popularity after designing the Judas Bullet, an alien technology-based weapon that can take down super-powered individuals such as Luke Cage. (They also designed Diamondback’s force-absorbing suit and power gauntlets, but we don’t need to mention those). Judas Bullets later appear again in the fourth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., when a would-be assassin attempts to kill The Patriot with one at a public speech.

Though the character has been re-imagined greatly for the screen, Justin Hammer and his corporation are constant foes of Iron Man in the comics.

New York Bulletin

The New York Bulletin is the workplace of Karen Page, Ben Urich and Mitchell Ellison. Despite it’s strong ties to the Netflix shows, appearing in all Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders and The Punisher, the Bulletin actually made it’s debut in a first season episode of Agent Carter. It is later seen in the third season finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as well.

The Bulletin sounds like a real paper, and in fact does have a real website – as well as video interviews with members of the Rand Corporation to promote Iron Fist. The fictional newspaper has proven so popular it has since been adopted by the comics themselves, first appearing in the 2015 Secret Wars event.

VistaCorp

Security company and former employer of Scott Lang VistaCorp actually only appears in Ant-Man and the WHiH Newsfront web-series – however, their subsidiary WHiH World News is the primary news organization in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The most popular thing to debut in The Incredible Hulk,  WHiH World News later appears in Iron Man 2 before getting it’s own web-series WHiH Newsfront and subsequently appearing in virtually every MCU TV show, making multiple on-screen appearances in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Inhumans, The Punisher and Runaways.

You can even follow and interact with WHiH through their real-life Twitter and Google+ accounts!

Roxxon Oil Corporation

If you are currently watching and loving Cloak & Dagger, Roxxon Oil is definitely no stranger to you. However, you may not know that Roxxon is actually one of the most oft-mentioned companies across the entire MCU (and the comics, too!).

Roxxon Oil appears in all three Iron Man movies, even sponsoring Tony Stark at the Grand Prix in Iron Man 2 and becoming a target of the Mandarin’s wrath in Iron Man 3. Roxxon gas stations appear in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the short film A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer. We become well acquainted with Roxxon’s former CEO Hugh Jones in both seasons of Agent Carter after a nitramene implosion at a Roxxon facility and his seat on the Council of Nine. It is also mentioned in both Daredevil and Iron Fist.

Even it’s subsidiaries appear across the MCU, with Isodyne Energy playing a large role in the second season of Agent Carter, StatiCorp appearing in the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Elektra infiltrating Asano Robotics in Daredevil. Even Momentum Labs – the workplace of Ghost Rider’s corrupt uncle Eli Morrow in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – is hinted to have some relationship with Roxxon, taking up residence in an abandoned Roxxon facility.

Stark Industries

Of course Stark Industries made the list! The large corporation appeared in the MCU’s first property, Iron Man, and has appeared in virtually everything since: Every Iron Man film, every Avengers film, every Captain America film, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Iron Fist, WHiH Newsfront and even the short The Consultant.

Stark Industries even has many subsidiaries, some of whom we see in Iron Man 2: America’s AccuTech, Japan’s Stark-Fujikawa, Australia’s Cordco.

Baskin-Robbins

Baskin-Robbins is very real, and they always find out.