Loki explains how the timeline works in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but does the fact that it works differently in Marvel Comics suggest that all is not what it seems?
The first episode of Loki didn’t disappoint. In fact, some might say the Marvel Cinematic Universe series exceeded expectations – seeing as they were already high, that’s a lot of praise. It gave us everything we loved about Loki, Owen Wilson rocked, and Wunmi Mosaku was fantastic as Hunter b-15. And that’s on top of setting the stage for the rest of what looks like a very interesting season. Who is this mysterious Loki that’s running amok? And what do they want? And also, is it Lady Loki?
Then there’s the Timekeepers. We’re told that there aren’t timeline anomalies because they protect against them. However, the Marvel Comics universe works a little bit different and, in a way, this could falsify MCU Timekeepers’ claims.
Comic book fans know how annoying the concept of time travel can be. It can be confusing and sometimes the stories contradict everything that’s happening in the series or issue. For example, everything that happens after X-Men: Days of Future Past.
The funny thing is we usually just shrug and say, “That’s comic book time travel for you.” One of the easiest ways to explain time travel are alternate timelines. It shows where the temporal anomaly happened and what it leads to. According to Loki, however, these alternate timelines are stopped by the Timekeepers and the TVA. Allow this writer to show a couple of examples of how that’s not the case in the comics.
How the Loki timeline theory doesn’t work
Here’s a fun fact for you, the Marvel Cinematic Universe exists on an alternate Earth in the Marvel Comics’ universe. The Marvel Comics Earth is 616 while the events of the MCU supposedly take place on Earth 199999. That alone suggests that the Timekeepers’ claims are not true. We also have the fact there were multiple Infinity Stones in the TVA headquarters.
Another fun fact, Infinity Stones don’t work outside of their designated reality (check out Contest of Champions No. 9). Granted, this could just prove that they stopped multiple realities from happening. The Infinity Stones in Loki could just be evidence that they took from the time-crime scene. However, we’ve seen a few Marvel Comics arcs that reveal how the timeline is messed up.
According to Tony Stark and Reed Richards, time is like a living being. The more they abuse it, the more it’s damaged. And Marvel Comics loves abusing the timeline. Days of Future Past, Beast retrieving his younger X-Men from the past, and Cable’s constant time jumps are all examples of Marvel messing with the timeline. Maybe the most obvious abuse came during the comic book series Age of Ultron – a moment where they almost broke time itself. The Timekeepers couldn’t have been okay with this.
The Exiles
Okay, let’s say all of that still proves nothing. The Timekeepers could still say, “This was meant to happen” – an excuse used when Loki asked about the Avengers time jumping. But that doesn’t explain the reality-hopping Exiles or their ruthless counterpart Weapon X in the comics.
The Exiles were brought together to fix broken timelines. The other team, Weapon X, was created to repair the one that needed a brutal touch. They originally thought they were recruited by the multiverse to repair anomalies but later find out that a group of bug-like beings were the ones that caused the ripple sent throughout reality. They were also the things that recruited them.
It wasn’t an easy job physically or emotionally. Both the Exiles and Weapon X had to kill people they loved and help beings they hated (that also resembled beings from their home realities). Nonetheless, they completed their missions. Along the way, they lost loved ones, some of them got to go to their home realities and others were killed during missions. Where were the Timekeepers when all of this was going on? They could have stopped the bugs and prevented all of this from happening.
In conclusion
This is only Loki‘s first episode. However, it’s hard to believe that the Timekeepers are who they say they are in this series. Something nefarious is going on and perhaps even Mobius M. Mobius is the one causing the issues. For now, just know that the Timekeepers aren’t doing the fantastic job of protecting the timeline in Marvel Comics. And yet, this writer fully expects to see more of them in in the future.
What do you think? Is something evil going on with the Timekeepers in Loki? What are your thoughts on them protecting the time-stream? Let us know in the comments below.