Love that Loki! Sure, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has three more episodes to go, but Disney wants us to know that there’s more to come. And a new Loki trailer means new things to explain and explore. We’ve already talked about the Time Variance Authority, but there’s another famous Marvel organization that got a nod in the trailer. And if you’re a comic book or MCU TV fan then you might have recognized their name. So let’s talk about RoxxCart, Roxxon, and what their tease here could mean for the MCU.
What is Roxxon?
The nefarious corporation is a multinational conglomerate born out of the pages of Captain America #180. In the Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema issue, we see the Serpent Squad kidnap the “President of the monstrous oil conglomerate” Roxxon. It’s a name drop only, but the group quickly became the go-to evil corporation in the Marvel Universe. The corp has kept its connection to the Serpent Squad and also ties to HYDRA. Ironically, Roxxon was also one of the earliest financial supporters of S.H.I.E.L.D. but was working with HYDRA at the same time. Despite their relatively realistic role as an evil greedy corp, due to their origins they’ve been involved in plenty of supernatural shenanigans, including an ongoing saga with a psychic crown which put them on a collision course with the Secret Avengers.
The company has often come up against heroes like Iron Man and Stark Industries, Daredevil, Deadpool, the Avengers, and even their one time allies, S.H.I.E.L.D. Roxxon has even had a hand in creating superheroes, most notably the Iron Man frenemy, Sunturion. The company also attempted to create their own corporate super-mascot, Stratosfire. And when the new super-powered employee turned on Roxxon, Sunturion was brought back in to help. Basically, your standard corporate wheeling and dealing, just with atomic beings made out of microwave energy. And speaking of atomic creations, let’s move on…
Where have you seen Roxxon before?
Marvel Studios
Roxxon has been an Easter egg in a few major MCU movies. But their biggest role so far has been in the Marvel TV shows. It’s revealed during Agent Carter that Roxxon created the atom bomb after making a Nitramene weapon based on a formula by Howard Stark. The show also had an appearance from comic book Roxxon CEO Hugh Jones. During Cloak and Dagger, Dagger’s dad works at Roxxon. Though never fully realized, it was implied that the corporation was connected to the way the pair got their powers. During Runaways, the group is referenced on a billboard. But more vitally, in the Netflix Daredevil series Foggy and Matt defended the corp against a sick employee. Bad choices all around guys.
What does Roxxon’s appearance in Loki mean for the MCU?
Marvel Studios
It could be that Loki will be following in the MCU movie canon tradition; just using Roxxon as set dressing. The company gets mentions in all three Iron Man movies. But the prevalence of the RoxxCart sign and the fact that there is a “RoxxCart Evac Shuttle” featured in the trailer makes us think that this could be something bigger. After all, he’s clearly going to be jumping through time, timelines, and universes. Perhaps Roxxon runs one of the worlds he ends up in? It would make sense as the store has a “what if Amazon and Walmart teamed up and were more evil?” vibe. And the aesthetic choices—mise en scene, if you’re nasty—lean heavily into Blade Runner territory.
Without Iron Man and Captain America around, there’s definitely an easy path to a power vacuum that could see an evil corporation take control. We’ve also seen throughout WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier that Feige and co. are not afraid of repurposing things that cropped up in Jeff Loeb’s now defunct Marvel TV brand. It’s likely the RoxxCart world will be a “variant” timeline rather than a major new threat. But they could become a key antagonist going forward rather than the implied corporate Easter egg they’ve always been used as in the movies before. Also, with such deep Captain America connections we might see Roxxcorp pop up in the final few episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. That would be a nice way to tie together the currently disparate shows.
Featured Image: Marvel Studios
