While we all wait to see how Marvel Studios will resolve that ominous Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania post-credits scene with the Council of Kangs now that Jonathan Majors is gone, another, far more inconspicuous threat has been worming its way into the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse. You barely notice them, but they’re everywhere. Waiting for the opportunity to wreak havoc. And they’ve just popped up again in Disney Plus’ latest, Echo.
The eagle-eyed will have spotted the Roxxon name in the background of a wide shot during Echo‘s finale when Maya drives into a retail park with a gas point, a travel store and a restaurant. This wasn’t just a random choice on Marvel’s part, and, in fact, has been frequently featured similarly in the franchise across the years.
What is Roxxon and why is it everywhere in the MCU?
Roxxon references in the MCU date back to the franchise’s first-ever entry: Iron Man. The name has appeared, unassumingly, in background shots of endless movies and shows, starting with every Iron Man film, and expanding to virtually every corner of the multiverse from Loki (as Roxxcart) and Daredevil to Helstrom and Echo, among many others. The two shows where it had the most relevancy, however, were Cloak & Dagger and Agent Carter where it served as the main antagonist for a large chunk of time.
The Roxxon Corporation is a multinational conglomerate most often associated with the oil business. Most of the time you’ll find it referenced in a gas station, but across the multiverse it has also been featured in oil spillages, oil rigs, oil refineries, oil tankers — you name it. On other occasions, such as in Loki and Echo, the Roxxon brand appears tied to retail, but also robotics (Daredevil‘s Asano is a Roxxon subsidiary), and chemistry labs, usually with the intent of building weapons (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter).
In short, Roxxon is bad news, even when it’s trying to green-wash its business with posters like the one featured in Runaways where it commits to clean up the oceans and beaches, presumably in an attempt to move from fossil fuel to renewable energy.
Roxxon’s comics history
While it has not stepped out of the shadows in the MCU proper as a full-fledged villainous corporation (yet), Roxxon is featured frequently in the Marvel comics as an antagonist, primarily due to its illegal activity in search of profit, including corporate espionage and dealings with supervillains. Evil corporations always have made for the most compelling types of bad guys.
Roxxon first appeared in Captain America #180 in 1974 as Roxxon Oil. Its founder, Hugh Jones, is the man behind the murders of Howard Stark and Maria Stark with the intention of taking over Stark Industries, as shown in the Iron Man: The Iron Age comics. In live-action, he was played by Ray Wise in Agent Carter. The company has also antagonized the Avengers, Black Panther, the Champions (including Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan and Spider-Man/Miles Morales), Captain America, and Thor.
Now that virtually every superhero is being absorbed into the MCU brand, could the latest Roxxon appearance in the background of Echo be an intentional reminder that Kevin Feige and Co. still remember its existence? Or will the megalomaniac corporation remain lurking in the shadows, corrupting the multiverse on a Kang-level scale?