Marvel Is Bringing Back Loki’s TVA In The Comics, Too

This article contains spoilers for Cable #11.

In addition to the Disney+ show, Marvel is bringing back Loki‘s Time Variance Authority in the comics as well with some telling references in the latest issue of Cable. The Marvel Cinematic Universe began to embrace the idea of time travel in Avengers: Endgame, with Earth’s surviving heroes going on a temporal adventure in an attempt to undo Thanos’ snap and restore half the lives in the universe. They inadvertently allowed one branched timeline to be created in which the trickster god Loki escaped custody with the Tesseract in 2012, and that variant has fallen foul of the Time Variance Authority.

Sometimes called the Timekeepers, the TVA made their official debut in 1979 in a story in which they stripped Thor of his power to travel through time using Mjolnir. Writer Mark Gruenwald felt time travel was too great a power for even the God of Thunder to wield, particularly given that he was trying to figure out how to simplify Marvel’s complex and inconsistent temporal mechanics. It didn’t work and the TVA was soon forgotten. The last few decades of comics have seen Marvel’s temporal rules become ever crazier, with time itself broken in the Age of Ultron event, so the TVA can hardly be considered too successful in the books.

Still, it seems Marvel is bringing the TVA back in the comics as well, with some unexpected references to them in Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto’s Cable #11. Unsurprisingly, it seems they aren’t too enamored with the time-traveling mutant, who’s become something of a Multiversal event in his own right (which is why there are now two Cables – Kid Cable and the original, older incarnation). In one scene, the older Cable cautions Kid Cable they’re still on the TVA’s watch list, and they can’t expect a pass for their crimes. Later, an info-page reveals one of Cable’s War Wagons was impounded by the TVA in the year 2901.

It’s an amusing comment, confirming the TVA does actually still exist in the Marvel Comics universe. Given that’s the case, though,one can’t help but wonder just what they’ve been doing given the mess the various heroes have made of the Sacred Timeline. Age of Ultron alone involved so many rewrites of history that time itself shattered. Additionally, the X-Men’s most powerful student Tempus has literally rewritten history itself with her time jumps – even erasing a beyond-Omega mutant from existence. Fans would really have expected the TVA to step in, but perhaps the late 20th and early 21st centuries have become so chaotic they can’t make any sense of it anymore.

Still, the reference certainly seems like foreshadowing – with the TVA positioned as villains in some sort of upcoming Cable adventure. It will be exciting to see how much Marvel draws inspiration from the MCU in bringing them back.

About The Author

Thomas Bacon
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Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers, as well as a Peer Mentor for new writers and a member of the Care Team, offering support and a listening ear to members of the Comics group. A lifelong fan of major franchises including Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Marvel, Tom is delighted his childhood is back – and this time it’s cool. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon.

A graduate of Edge Hill University, Tom remains strongly connected with his alma mater as a volunteer chaplain. He’s heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he’s into British politics too.

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