*THIS BLOG CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM EPISODE ONE OF LOKI*
I’ve always been fascinated by the portrayal of time travel and the multiverse in movies, tv shows, novels, and comic books. The idea of the multiverse now seems more prevalent within both Marvel and DC Comics, now more so with the debut of Marvel’s Loki on Disney+. The trailers for the new series really caught my curiosity, but the first episode grabbed my attention. Let’s chat about that…
The episode opened to the year 2015, after Loki is defeated by the Avengers, which also happens to be when the “Endgame” Avengers traveled back in time to steal the space stone and mind stone. Like in the movie, we saw the “Endgame” Avengers fail to acquire the space stone, and Loki escaped with it. Our story truly begins after that escape, when Loki lands in Mongolia to catch his breath, but there ain’t no rest for the wicked god of mischief when shortly after his arrival, Loki is arrested by the TVA (Time Variance Authority) for altering the timeline. For the next few scenes, Loki, like the viewers, is in a state of confusion trying to make sense of what’s happening.
He’s brought to the TVA HQ to stand trial for his crimes against altering the timeline (the whole introduction of TVA HQ is a joke on bureaucracy), and it’s there where we get some backstory on the Marvel Multiverse (from the movie’s perspective). We learn that there used to be multiple timelines that existed, but they were all at war with each other. It wasn’t until some time gods sort of rebooted the multiverse, and combined all the universes into one timeline. The TVA was formed to make sure the proper flow of time is kept so new timelines won’t be created, and anybody who alters the timeline (like Loki) will be put on trial and then sentenced to be reset.
When the show first stated that, my first question was “Why aren’t the Avengers there?!” since I’m pretty sure time travel might get you arressted by a couple of time cops. This ofcourse was covered when the TVA claimed that the Avengers “time heist” was meant to happen, but Loki was still in trouble. It wasn’t until the TVA agent, Mobius, pulled Loki aside to ask him a few questions. His questions gave some deeper insight on Loki’s character, asking him who he really is, and does he enjoy what he does, all of which Loki avoids answering. Eventually Loki espcapes from Mobius, explores the TVA, and he eventaully finds an entire stash of Infinity Stones (most of them duplicates from other timelines), but they are all rendered powerless in the TVA HQ. This moment acts as a wake-up call for Loki, and he realizes that despite being a god, he is just as small and confused as every other mortal he’s tried to conquer.
He returns to Mobius to answer his questions, which helps him come to terms with who he is, and then Mobius tells him that he needs Loki’s help in tracking a time traveler who is killing TVA agents. Mobius tells Loki that this rogue time traveler is another version of Loki, and the final scene shows that Loki murdering a bunch of TVA agents. This Loki is wearing a large cloak with their face covered, which leads many people to believe that this Loki could be the Lady Loki (who has been confirmed to make her debut in this series).
This episode opens up new terriotories for the MCU to explore, such as the “Multivserse”. The TVA main’s goal is the prevent new timelines from being created, but comic fans are more than aware that the multiverse still exists. Now before you say that “This is the MCU, it’s not like the comic books”, my response to you is that MCU exists in the “comic multiverse” as Earth 199999 (check the Marvel Wiki), so this leads to the theory that this Earth hasn’t perfected multiversal travel yet, but this might change when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness comes out.
Continuing on the multiverse, this episode might have teased the next big cosmic-level event, which could be the Secret Wars (2015), a comic event where heroes and villains from different Earths were pinned into a battle for survival, and the fallout of that war changed the fabric of the multiverse (such as Miles Morales being brought from Earth 1610 to Earth 616). This event is very likely to happen since Loki will be exploring the idea of multiple timelines, Spider-Man No Way Home is said to re-introduce actors who have starred in previous SONY Spider-Man films as the same characters from those films (Alfred Molina who played Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 will play as the same Doc Ock in Spider-Man No Way Home), WandaVision revealing that Wanda has reality-warping powers, and the sequel title for Doctor Strange’s movie literally has the word “multiverse” in it.
I am all for a live-action Secret Wars movie, but I still have my worries about the execution of that. The idea sounds great on paper (just read the comic), but to film something on that kind of scale is a daunting task that could prove to become a bad idea. I still have faith that Marvel will do something good with this new phase, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing what happens next to Loki in his new show.
Hall of Mercs 