Publisher Marvel Comics Leader(s) Mr. Alternity | Type of organization Bureaucracy | |
First appearance Thor vol. 1 #372 (October 1986) Created by Walt Simonson
Sal Buscema Agent(s) Mr. Mobius M. Mobius
Professor Justin Alphonse Gamble
Mr. Orobourous
Mr. Paradox
Mr. Tesseract | ||
The Time Variance Authority (or TVA) is a fictional organization, a group of timeline monitors appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They first appeared in Thor vol. 1 #372 (October 1986). Created by Walt Simonson and Sal Buscema, the TVA originally paid homage to long-time Marvel writer/editor, and continuity expert, Mark Gruenwald: the TVA staff were all clones of Gruenwald.
Contents
Fictional background
The TVA claims responsibility for monitoring the multiverse and can prune timelines if they're deemed too dangerous to exist. They also take action to prevent other beings from altering the past or future. They were first seen, allowing Justice Peace, a lawman from the future, to travel to the 20th century in order to stop the killer Zaniac. Peace is able to succeed in his mission thanks to the assistance of Thor.
Despite their claims, the TVA's influence over time is not absolute. The scope of their influence is bordered by Alioth in the distant past as well as Kang the Conqueror, the Delubric Consortium, and Revelation at different eras throughout the timescape. There have also been numerous incidents of time travel or reality tampering where the TVA has failed to interfere.
At the End of Time, the last Director of the TVA creates the Time Keepers, the last three beings who exist in the remaining timeline in the universe; however this process also ends up creating the Time Twisters, a trio of beings who imperiled all realities until stopped by Thor and other members of the Avengers.
The TVA are next seen utilizing the law-firm She-Hulk works for on several instances. Jurors for cases are plucked from time soon before they actually die, this is so the effects on the time-stream are minimal. This also establishes the tendencies for time-travelers to go through genetic scrambling, also to minimize the effect on the time-stream. Notably, the scrambling tends to cause similar looks among differing males who undergo the process. A defendant who is found guilty in one of these trials is executed with a weapon called the Retroactive Cannon, or Ret Can, which erases the victim, deleting their existence from the universe by undoing their birth and entire history. She-Hulk herself was handed this harsh sentence, but it was overturned as a reward when she helped defeat the villain Clockwise. (This weapon is an obvious reference to a retroactive continuity, or "retcon", a practice used by storytellers to add previously unknown material to an event in a previous story.)
Employees
Lower-ranked TVA employees, called chronomonitors, are literally faceless. They are created artificially, using "quantum technology" - the moment a new reality appears, a new faceless agent is created to monitor it, along with the necessary equipment (a personal computer-like device, plus a desk and a chair) to do so.
Cloned managers resemble Mark Gruenwald — and, later, Tom DeFalco — both longtime Marvel Comics writers. The most frequent recurring manager is Mobius M. Mobius, a Gruenwald clone.
On occasion, the TVA hires mercenaries for use in the more dangerous missions, such as Justice Peace and Death's Head. These mercenaries often lose limbs, which the TVA replaces with clunky robotic parts (it is not known why; presumably the TVA would have access to far better technology.) Another example of their seemingly anachronistic technology is a time machine shaped like an old locomotive. Professor Justin Alphonse Gamble, a pastiche of Doctor Who, is a renegade from the TVA.