The great and powerful wizard of the Time Variance Authority isn’t hiding behind a curtain. That mysterious figure is hiding behind a gigantic cloud monster. But what exactly is Loki‘s Alioth? It’s a deadly creature whose comic book history is far more terrifying than that of the universe’s biggest guard dog. And it’s future in the MCU could live up to the past.
Alioth and The Void
Variants can’t just be erased. They need to be sent somewhere they can’t create any branches to the Sacred Timeline. In Loki, that place is the Void, “where the TVA dumps its rubbish, everything they prune.” The Void exists at the end of time itself. Any nexus event that might happen there is inconsequential. It’s the ultimate apocalypse event, the type of situation that kept Sylvie hidden for years. But Variants could escape the Void, if not for the seemingly indestructible force that protects the true ruler of the TVA, a being who lives in a castle past the end of time.
That force is Alioth, “a living tempest, that consumes matter and energy.” It can devour entire branched realities “in an instant.” It’s job is to ensure no Variants ever return to the TVA or the timelines they came from. Or to the place beyond the end of time. Until Sylvie and Loki arrived, approaching Alioth was a “death sentence.” The only option was to hide from it. But even though Alioth is a storm serving the TVA true ruler, it’s still a living thing with a mind susceptible to enchantment. Loki and Sylvie combined their powers to subdue the monster and leave the Void. A fate far better than they might have had if they encountered the Alioth found in Marvel’s comics.
A Force Free From Time
Alioth made his debut in Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1, released in July 1993. Like on Loki, the comic version’s manifests as a giant cloud who destroys anything it touches. But the “ trans-temporal entity” was not a security guard. Instead, Alioth was the first creature to escape the constraints of time itself. Also known as “The Supreme Time Being,” it ruled its own temporal kingdom stretching billions of years. Alioth’s domain was massive, much bigger than Kang the Conqueror’s own realm over time. Kang had to build a temporal barrier to keep Alioth out of his own kingdom of Chronopolis.
But when Ravonna Renslayer took over Kang’s realm when he went into a coma, she accidentally unleashed Alioth when she destroyed the barrier that kept the tempest locked away behind the year 2,000 BCE. Renslayer, also known as the Terminatrix, revived Kang to stop Alioth’s destruction of the Chronopolis. With the help of the Avengers, the cloud monster was safely put behind a time barrier again. Kang later claimed he orchestrated the whole thing for his own personal gain. And he later helped Alioth escape so it could cause mayhem at the TVA. Alioth wasn’t a guard dog, but despite being a dangerous threat, he was Kang’s powerful patsy.
Alioth’s Future in the MCU
Kang the Conqueror is coming to the MCU. Whether we see him before Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania remains unknown. Kang, “ a menace throughout time, on a journey to become the ruler of the universe” could be the one living in that castle beyond the Void. The possible secret ruler of the TVA may have used Alioth for his own means, just in a different way than he did in the comics. The MCU often reshapes comic book plots for its own purposes. If Kang manipulated Alioth on the page, he’s certainly capable of doing so on screen.
But even if Kang is not ruling the Time Variance Authority, he may still have to deal with Alioth. Sylvie and Loki didn’t kill the monster; they merely enchanted it. It might just be the most dangerous thing they could have done. Alioth served as the guard dog for the TVA, an agency secretly controlling all of its agents and hunters. Sylvie freed those Variants from their mental prisons when she enchanted them. If she did the same to Alioth, she might have destroyed the barrier keeping him safely behind a barrier, just as Renslayer did in the comics. The Void didn’t just keep Variant there, it also kept a beast at bay.
A mindless Alioth was terrifying. One capable of thinking for itself could be a storm that rages throughout all of time.
Featured Image: Marvel Studios
