Every MCU Easter Egg In Iron Man 2's SHIELD Map Explained

One key scene in Iron Man 2 featured a S.H.I.E.L.D. activity map that was packed with Easter eggs teasing the future of the MCU. By 2010, Marvel Studios had committed to their Avengers strategy, and the Iron Man sequel was seen as a vital stepping-stone on the way to the 2012 blockbuster. As such, it introduced Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, featured a significantly increased presence for S.H.I.E.L.D., and had a lot of teasing Easter eggs.

In one key scene at the end of Iron Man 2, Nick Fury met with Tony Stark to reveal that the Black Widow had been assessing him for participation in the Avengers Initiative. The conversation didn't exactly go the way Stark wanted it to, with Black Widow deciding she couldn't recommend him given he was hardly a team player. But it didn't take eagle-eyed viewers long to realize that the really interesting details were in the background of this scene, offering an unprecedented glimpse into S.H.I.E.L.D. priorities.

During the scene, the camera panned around the two characters and revealed a number of S.H.I.E.L.D. holoscreens. One screen actually showed footage from Bruce Banner's clash with General Ross in Virginia during The Incredible Hulk (in the MCU timeline, the 2008 release happened at the same time as Iron Man 2). But the most important detail was a S.H.I.E.L.D. activity map, which showed areas of interest to the organization. From Captain America's frozen body to teases for Black Panther and Namor, here's what Iron Man 2's S.H.I.E.L.D. map revealed.

This Page: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Key Phase 1 Hotspots
Next Page: Wakanda, Atlantis, and Tønsberg

Tony Stark's Malibu Pad

Let's start with the most obvious S.H.I.E.L.D. hotspot; Malibu, home of Tony Stark. It makes sense that Malibu would appear on this activity map, given Nick Fury had a major operation monitoring Stark, involving some of his highest-level agents. No doubt S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Department of Damage Control was heavily involved in clean-up after Vanko's attack on the Stark Expo as well.

Mjolnir & Thor's Arrival In New Mexico

New Mexico is also marked as an important hotspot, a clear reference to the Mjolnir impact site from Thor. It was teased over the course of Iron Man 2 that S.H.I.E.L.D. satellites had been detecting strange energy surges over New Mexico, with gravitational lensing that suggested it could be an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Though they didn't know it, they were detecting the Bifrost, specifically when Odin cast Mjolnir and Thor to Earth. Iron Man 2's post-credits scene then showed Coulson's arrival at the impact crater.

Hulk vs. Abomination (Or Iron Man vs. Whiplash) In New York City

New York City had seen a lot of superhero conflict long before The Avengers' Battle of New York. First, in The Incredible Hulk, the Green Goliath and Abomination fought in Harlem, the end-result of Thaddeus Ross' mission to apprehend Bruce Banner that saw the General illegally break into S.H.I.E.L.D. secure servers. It's possible that's what the NYC marker on the map means.

However, given the timeline of Iron Man 2 in relation to The Incredible Hulk is unclear, it may be another event: Iron Man and War Machine's fight against Whiplash and the Hammer Drones from earlier in the film. Either way, this marker is less a tease of the future than an acknowledgment of the fights already happening in the world (and a reminder that you really don't want to live in the MCU's Manhattan).

Captain America Frozen In Greenland

There are two markers on the S.H.I.E.L.D. map in Iron Man 2 setting up the next year's Captain America: The First Avenger. The first is located in Greenland and would appear to be an indicator of a search for Steve Rogers himself; it was revealed in The First Avengers that Cap crashed one of the Red Skull's planes into the Greenland ice cap back in 1945, and S.H.I.E.L.D. had never stopped looking for the crash site.

That said, there is one slight continuity issue here; the opening of Captain America: The First Avenger states that the bomber was actually found by a Russian oil team and S.H.I.E.L.D. took over when they called it in. This was retconned in official tie-in comic, Fury's Big Week, which revealed that shortly before the events of Iron Man 2 S.H.I.E.L.D. had recently discovered one of the crashed Hydra drones and went looking for Cap, but due to the dynamic environment, the mission was unsuccessful. In the end, the bomber was actually found by a Russian oil team, and S.H.I.E.L.D. took over when they called it in.

Page 2 of 2: More Iron Man 2 SHIELD Map Teases (From Wakanda To Atlantis)

Norway From Of Both Thor & Captain America

Another hotspot on Iron Man 2's S.H.I.E.L.D. is in Norway, probably the town of Tønsberg. Generally regarded as the oldest town in Norway, Tønsberg was founded by Harald Fairhair in the 9th century. There's some evidence that, in the MCU, the ancient Viking monarchy was strongly associated with the Asgardians; certainly Tønsberg was the site of Odin's battle against the Frost Giants in approx. 1,000AD, as seen in Thor's prologue. Then, during the Second World War, the Red Skull found the Tesseract and the Book of Yggdrasil at the church at Tønsberg, guarded by a Norse cult. According to official tie-ins, the Water of Sight - the pool Thor waded into in Avengers: Age of Ultron in order to receive visions of the future - is also situated on the outskirts of Tønsberg.

While S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't know all of this, they were most likely aware the Tesseract was found there, and may well have discovered other Asgardian artifacts in the area over the decades.

Wakanda (Eight Years Before Black Panther)

One of the other hotspots is located in East Africa, and is clearly the fictional African nation of Wakanda. Marvel had always known they planned to do a Black Panther film; the idea was first suggested back in 2005, when Avi Arad discussed Marvel's proposed first slate. As a result, the studio was already signposting that Wakanda existed, and was an area of interest to S.H.I.E.L.D.

It's impossible to say how much S.H.I.E.L.D. knew about Wakanda. Certainly, they would have wanted to obtain more Vibranium, and they knew that Howard Stark found his first samples of the rare metal in "deepest Africa." Over the years, S.H.I.E.L.D. had managed to acquire a handful of samples; according to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury's Black Box was made of Vibranium, and some of their larger vehicles were equipped with Vibranium-layered cells. But it's unclear whether or not S.H.I.E.L.D. were aware of Wakanda's Vibranium deposits; they could have potentially purchased their Vibranium on the black market, not knowing its true source.

It's also possible that Fury's attention was drawn by events in the Black Panther Prelude comic. Set around the time of Iron Man, this official tie-in comic showed T'Challa's first adventures as the Black Panther. He was involved in a skirmish on the Wakandan border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was seen by a single U.N. peacekeeper. Shortly after, T'Challa headed to Paraguay to rescue Wakandan citizens from a hostage situation, where he was again glimpsed by local police. It could have been enough to cause S.H.I.E.L.D. to begin monitoring Wakanda, with Fury perhaps even assessing this mysterious being as a potential member of his Avengers Initiative.

Atlantis And Namor?

Finally, there's a location on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, clearly intended to signpost the MCU existence of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis. In Marvel lore, the ancient kingdom of Atlantis sank beneath the waves 10,000 years ago, and in the present day is ruled by Namor the Sub-Mariner. Unfortunately, at this stage Marvel doesn't appear to have any real plans for Namor in the MCU thanks to rights complications dating from the early 2000s, when Marvel sold his film rights to Universal. The production rights appear to have reverted to Marvel due to inactivity, but distribution options are believed to still sit with Universal (this is similar to the rights situation with Hulk, who appears in team-up movies but not solo movies). Kevin Feige has said he believes there's "a way to probably figure it out," but even he's admitted that the film rights to Namor are "not as a clean or clear as the majority of the other characters."

So why did Marvel put in an Atlantean Easter egg? Perhaps a better question would be, why not? This Easter egg subtly introduces the concept of Atlantis into the MCU, but it does so without defining it, and without committing Marvel to do anything with it. After all, Atlantis is an underwater kingdom that keeps its very existence a closely-guarded secret from the surface-dwellers. S.H.I.E.L.D. may have known it existed, or perhaps suspected it, but there's no reason the rest of the world should have a clue about it. This Iron Man 2 Easter egg still works perfectly even if Marvel never get around to doing anything with the Sub-Mariner in the MCU.