Loki season 2: How Victor Timely's new origin fits with the comic history of Kang

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Loki season 2 makes some changes to Victor Timely, but the new story has a strange comic book connection

Victor Timely in Loki S2E3
(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Loki season 2 episode 3 deals with Victor Timely, the 1800's Kang Variant seen in the stinger for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania which set up the current Loki season. Played by Jonathan Majors (like all the other Kang Variants we've met so far), Timely is an eccentric and enigmatic figure with direct ties to He Who Remains that set up a particularly interesting possible origin for the now-dead Kang Variant who lived at the end of time. 

Weirdly, though that newly told origin story couldn't be more different from who Victor Timely is in comic books, it does have a strange connection to the most recent comic book telling of the origin of Kang the Conqueror.

We'll explain what went down and how it connects to comics, but first, now's your chance to turn back if you don't want Loki season 2 episode 3 spoilers!

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At the start of Loki season 2 episode 3, Ravonna Renslayer finally reappears alongside Miss Minutes, visiting the childhood home of Victor Timely, who they identify as a Variant of He Who Remains. Ravonna sneakily drops a copy of the TVA Handbook on young Victor's windowsill, giving him knowledge of the Time Variance Authority and its otherworldly technology.

Later, Ravonna, Loki and Mobius, and Sylvie all converge on the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, all trying to capture, cajole, or even kill the now adult Kang Variant as he shows off a smaller, more primitive version of the Time Loom that preserves the TVA's "Sacred Timeline" and holds reality together.

Sylvie wants to kill Victor Timely to prevent him from ever growing into a version of He Who Remains, while Ravonna wants to partner with him to rule the TVA. And finally, Loki and Mobius simply want him to return to the TVA to help them fix the Time Loom. In the end, he goes with Loki and Mobius to the TVA, hopefully to fix the Time Loom and save reality.

So… At least when it comes to this Variant of Kang/He Who Remains, he first gets his ideas for his time travel technology from the TVA manual written by Ouroboros, who based it on the practices and technology of the TVA which were created by He Who Remains. In other words, it's a time loop.

This is markedly different from Victor Timely's comic book origins. In comics, Victor Timely is not technically a separate Kang variant, but an alias used by Kang himself (whose real name is Nathaniel Richards) while conducting time experiments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

It's unclear how or if the MCU Victor Timely will become Kang, as he's been described as a Variant of He Who Remains.

However, the time loop aspect of Timely's new MCU origin has an interesting tie to the latest version of the origin of Kang the Conqueror himself in comics.

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

In that story, told in the 2022 Kang the Conqueror limited series by writers Colin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing and artist Carlos Magno, the adult Kang the Conqueror visits a version of his younger self, providing him the time travel technology he needs to transform himself from Nathaniel Richards to Kang the Conqueror, even bringing his own younger self under his wing to teach him the ways of being a time conqueror.

In the end, the younger Kang actually kills his older self, fully becoming Kang the Conqueror. It's an odd time loop, and raises the question of whether the current Kang in the Marvel Universe is actually the first Variant of Nathaniel Richards to use the name.

That's reflected in the MCU, where Victor Timely is now in a position to potentially become He Who Remains, either the original version who is now on a different path, or a fully separate Variant who will forge his own destiny. And that's saying nothing of his potential connection to the main Kang - who we may or may not have even seen in the MCU yet.

We'll likely find out more as Loki season 2 continues, with new episodes streaming every Friday on Disney Plus.

George Marston
George Marston
Entertainment Writer

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011, and now I'm the Entertainment Writer at GamesRadar+. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)