As with other MCU spinoffs,
Loki draws extensively from Marvel Comics canon. Episode 1 introduces the Time Variance Authority (TVA), an organization that will clearly have a central role in the the story. But what is the TVA, and how does
Loki‘s version relate to the TVA of the comics? (This post includes some minor spoilers for
Loki episode 1.)
The TVA is a kind of quasi-governmental agency that exists outside of space and time, policing dangerous “varients” in the multiverse’s timelines. In turn, they’re governed by three mysterious and powerful beings known as the Time-Keepers. It’s a kind of meta-commentary on Marvel comics continuity, which is famously elaborate and difficult to untangle. The comics involve a sprawling multiverse of rebooted and overlapping universes, whereas until recently, the MCU had a straightforward single-strand timeline. So there was simply no reason for the TVA to show up in the MCU before now.