Marvel’s TVA First Look Previews a Crossover With What If and Loki Characters

For all times, always. The timeline-monitoring organization known as the Time Variance Authority dates back to 1986’s Thor #372, where a time-traveling cop tracked down the Zaniac to the present-day Marvel Universe to prevent a future where World War VII had already happened. For all the talk of time flux distortions, regional temporal disruptions, and alternate timelines monitored from a place that doesn’t exist and where time has no meaning, the TVA appeared time and time again in issues of Fantastic Four, What If…?, and Despicable Deadpool long before arresting a time-traveling Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Following the TVA’s appearances as protectors of the Sacred Timeline in Marvel Studios’ Loki and Deadpool & Wolverine, Marvel Comics is assembling variants from throughout the multiverse in TVA. The timeline-spanning, MCU-inspired series features versions of fan-favorite characters from Loki — including TVA Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson), O.B. (Ke Huy Quan), B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku), and anthropomorphic clock mascot Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) — and super-soldier Captain Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who was re-imagined as the First Avenger in Marvel’s What If…? animated series and 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Along with Spider-Verse‘s Gwen Stacy/Ghost-Spider (who permanently relocated from her native Earth-65 to Earth-616) and a disgruntled Gambit variant (not unlike Channing Tatum’s card-carrying Void castoff in Deadpool & Wolverine), the TVA is tasking a team of heroes from erased timelines with saving the multiverse.

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The five-issue series — from writer Kathryn Blair (Loki and Daredevil: Born Again) and artist Pere Pérez (Edge of Spider-Verse and Venom War: Carnage) — will blend together the Marvel Comics version of the TVA with its MCU counterpart, which Loki production designer Kasra Farahani described as a blend of “Eastern European, Soviet-influenced Modernism” and a paradoxical mixing of large-scale Brutalism and American mid-century Modern whimsy.

“I love this idea,” Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios and chief creative officer of Marvel, said when the series was announced during San Diego Comic-Con. “It’s just as cool for us to see our work in comics as it is to bring the work of comic book creators to the big screen.”

Marvel has revealed the first pages from TVA #1, which you can see below. The issue goes on sale Dec. 18 from Marvel Comics.

TVA #1

The Time Variance Authority has long watched over the timeline, protecting it from dangerous variations that could cause the end of EVERYTHING. Now, as the organization begins to expand its tolerance of variants, it’s enlisted some new recruits from timelines that have been wiped from existence: Captain Peggy Carter, Super-Soldier of her world; Gambit, despondent and aimless from the loss of his lady love; and…this can’t be right…Spider-Gwen?!? Has her world been destroyed?!?