Loki (1x05) “Journey Into Mystery”

A mess of comic book timelines to investigate

Phillip Palmer

Published in

Relativity in Fiction

5 min readMay 16, 2024

Some people say that they are their own worst company.

Preamble

None of the events in this episode take place on the timeline, instead moving back and forth between the Void at the end of time, and the TVA. Since one exists at the end of time, events there won’t branch the timeline. And the TVA exists outside of time, also meaning the timeline won’t branch when people come and go.

For this episode, therefore, I decided to look at the remnants recognisable and distinctive from the Void and try to identify what timelines they come from.

Thankfully, there are websites that have done this already, so I’ll be relying on them for identifying what comic books the pruned objects are from. Every resource I reference will be linked to at the end of the article.

Timelines

The Loki Variants

Boastful Loki’s claim is that he killed Captain America and Iron Man, and had collected all six Infinity Stones. The other Loki’s didn’t believe this story, and it would be almost certain that the TVA would intervene immediately after he did just one of those things. It is probable, then, that his boasts are lies and didn’t actually happen.

Kid Loki had been arrested by the TVA for killing his brother, Thor.

Alligator Loki had been arrested by the TVA for eating the wrong neighbour’s cat.

Classic Loki had branched the timeline when he didn’t attempt to stab Thanos on the Asgardian refugee spacecraft Statesman. Instead, he hid as space debris and drifted until he reached a remote planet. There, he lived in solitude for many years until he made arrangements to meet Thor. As soon as he began planning to leave the planet, the TVA showed and arrested him.

There are numerous other Loki’s, most of whom I couldn’t find a backstory for. I decided to identify them using an image:

Each of the other Loki variants. (Copyright Disney)

Pruned Artifacts

Frog Thor: Briefly spotted inside a jar, this is from a timeline where Thor was transformed into a frog by Loki.

USS Elridge: This is the ship that is popularly believed to be involved in the “Philadelphia Experiment”, a test of a technology that would render the destroyer invisible. I speculate that this Elridge comes from a timeline where such an experiment was actually attempted, perhaps initiated by another time traveller.

Great Sphinx of Giza: This massive structure isn’t missing its nose, thus it’s reasonable to conclude that it comes from a timeline where the nose was not vandalised.

Thanos Helicopter: It is uncertain what timeline this vehicle could have come from, for there is no other indication in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that Thanos ever possessed and used such a primitive (relative to the other technology he had access to) vehicle. It is possible that somebody named it after Thanos, for some reason. I won’t be included it as a separate universe because of the lack of details.

Chrysler TV-8: This tank was designed but never built in the main timeline, but this rusting relic indicates that it comes from a timeline where at least one — probably the prototype — was built.

Hydra Helicarrier: It’s hard to spot, but there is a red Hydra logo on this airborne vehicle. This would have been pruned from a timeline where Hydra had built and launched at least 42 of them.

The Dark Aster: This ship, commanded by Ronan the Destroyer from Guardians of the Galaxy, is seen crashed. It’s uncertain from its appearance as to why it would have been pruned, but perhaps it comes from a timeline where Ronan had changed his plans regarding the purple Power Stone.

There are a variety of other recognisable objects, but I can’t see anything about them that renders them unique, so it is possible that they were pruned as part of one of the above timelines (e.g., the Great Pyramid of Giza may have been pruned from the same timeline as the Great Sphinx of Giza).

In all, I can recognise 14 timelines involving Loki variants, and another 8 timelines involving artifacts on the landscape.

Analysis and Ranking

There isn’t any time travel along the main timeline, with all depicted travel occurring between the TVA and the Void. Thus, there are no timelines created in this episode.

However, the Void contains numerous references to other timelines that had been pruned by the TVA. The number of timelines would, realistically, be incalculable — but some can be identified.

Renslayer also gives more information on how pruning and reset charges work.

RENSLAYER: When we prune a branched reality, it’s impossible to destroy all its matter. So we move it to a place on the timeline where it won’t continue growing. Basically, the branched timeline isn’t reset, it’s transferred.
SYLVIE: To where?
RENSLAYER: A void at the end of time. Where every instance of existence collides at the same point and simply… stops.

This seems to track with my First Theory of Time.

Temporally, there isn’t much wrong with this episode that I was able to determine, as all the events occur between the TVA and the Void, both of which essentially exist outside of time. Therefore, this episode gets a ranking of:

Timescape

References

Afternotes

Accuracy: Reasonable efforts have been taken to maintain the accuracy of any information presented, mainly by relying primarily on the source material. However, for the sake of brevity and fair use, quotations from the movie that I have included have been edited to only include the relevant sections of dialogue. Also, I’ve added dithering to screenshots to both reduce bandwidth and for visual effect, so don’t conclude that the episode itself has a dithered image.

Effective Theories of Time: I base this temporal analysis on my “theories of time”, which at the time of publishing (21 June 2024) there are presently three (3).

Copyright Disclaimer: This article and any attached images are claimed as acceptable uses of the copyrighted source content. I consider this as permissible, without requiring prior authorisation, under the following laws: the United States Copyright Act, Section 107, for purposes of criticism or comment; and the Australian Copyright Act of 1968, Section 41, for purposes of criticism or review.