Seven Times Marvel Appeared on The Simpsons!
Perhaps it’s only natural that America’s favorite animated family and America’s favorite Avengers would find their way to one another sooner or later, or maybe a fascination with comics is inevitable from a TV show by an all-time great cartoonist like Matt Groening. Whatever the secret origin, there’s a bunch of instances of Marvel appearing on the long-running sitcom, The Simpsons!
Stan Lee guest voices as himself in the “Married to the Blob” episode of THE SIMPSONS in 2014. Photo: FOX via Getty Images
Today, we’ve narrowed it down to seven examples of our favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe x Simpsons crossovers! We know there are many (many, many) more examples from the 32 seasons of The Simpsons that have been released so far, so make sure you tell us what your favorite Marvel appearances in Springfield are in the comment section, Marvel Blog True Believers!
The Simpsons Enter the Spider-Verse
First up is a segment from an episode of the current season of The Simpsons, season thirty-two: Treehouse of Horror XXXI! In the anthology episode’s second story, Homer finds out what it means to be at the heart of an inter-dimensional crisis in a parody of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse!
In “Enter the Homer-Verse,” you get to meet several inter-dimensional versions of Homer J. Simpson, which to be fair, might be considered to be a multiverse of madness by some (especially once the Burnsiverse enters the picture)!
J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man)
No matter what dimension you may be in, it seems that J.K. Simmons is channeling J. Jonah Jameson… sometimes literally! In the season eighteen episode “Moe’N’Lisa,” Simmons guest stars as J. Jonah Jameson himself!
J.K. Simmons even played J. Jonah Jameson in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2! Photo: LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 on Nintendo Switch.
He returns again later in the eighteenth season episode “Homerazzi,” but this time, Simmons returned as a tabloid editor. Then in season twenty-nine, Simmons played J.J. Gruff, another newspaper editor.
Photo: 2Paragraphs
Hey, when do we get “Enter the Simmons-Verse”?
Patton Oswalt (M.O.D.O.K.)
Patton Oswalt is becoming an increasingly common fixture in the Marvel multiverse, appearing as Agent Koening(s) in several seasons of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC. Plus, he’ll be starring in the upcoming Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K., arriving in May on Hulu!
The characters that Fred Armisen and I played on "The Day The Earth Stood Cool" episode of @TheSimpsons are on the wall of the Universal Studios Krustyburger. pic.twitter.com/EOFi9DgUC9
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) April 25, 2019
Oswalt has appeared in two episodes of The Simpsons: season twenty-four’s “The Day the Earth Stood Cool” and season twenty-eight’s “The Cad and the Hat.”
Natalie Portman (Thor)
In the season eighteen episode “Little Big Girl,” Natalie Portman (Thor) guest stars as Darcy, an older girl who becomes a love interest for Bart.
Photo: Fox/Today/Alex J. Berliner/ABImages via AP
And what could be more Marvel than a sequel? In the twenty-fourth season episode “Moonshine River,” Portman reprised the role of Darcy in a return to the series.
The Vindicators
In the season thirty-one episode “Bart the Bad Guy,” the entire episode’s plot is based around a movie from “Marble” Studios: Vindicators 2: Crystal War: Resurgence. Just like Avengers: Infinity War, the first Vindicators: Crystal War movie ends on an audience-devastating cliffhanger! However, when the actor who plays Airshot accidentally lets Bart see the movie, he becomes a Springfield supervillain: Spoiler Boy!
The Simpsons: Bart the Bad Guy. Photo: Fox
In addition to having an extended riff on the MCU in this episode, there are plenty of Marvel guest stars: Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, and the man himself, Marvel Studios Chief Creative Office Kevin Feige as the titular Chinnos (see cover image)!
Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Strange)
In the most recent episode of The Simpsons, season thirty-two’s “Panic on the Streets of Springfield,” Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Strange) appears as Quilloughby, a British musician that becomes something of a fixation for Lisa.
Photo: Fox
You’ll especially want to check out this episode for the opportunity to hear Cumberbatch sing. In fact, we get multiple songs over the course of this story, and maybe that’s because the actor’s actually a triple threat: actor, dancer, singer! Check it out!
Stan Lee Meets Comic Book Guy
And the king of Marvel cameos himself, Stan Lee, even appeared in several episodes of The Simpsons. In addition to a few smaller appearances, he played a guest starring role in season eighteen’s “I am Furious (Yellow)” and season twenty-five’s “Married to the Blob.”
But Wait, There’s More!
This is only scratching the surface of the comic book references in The Simpsons. We mean there are literally 30 years of episodes to comb through, after all! But we hope that some of our Marvel Blog True Believers will share their favorites in the comments.
The episodes from the current, thirty-second season of The Simpsons are currently available for streaming on Hulu, while the episodes from all thirty-one previous seasons are available for streaming on Disney+. Get in the mood for your Simpsons family marathon with this dance off!
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