If you stayed for the post-credit scenes in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, then you saw the debut of Victor Timely (Jonathan Majors), a multiversal variant of the villainous Kang the Conqueror. Now that Loki season 2 is streaming on Disney+, we’ve finally gotten a proper introduction to Victor—and he has some tricks up his sleeve.
So who is Victor Timely, exactly? What is he up to in Loki season 2? Does he have a history in the comics? Here’s what you need to know.
Warning: major spoilers ahead for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Loki season 2.
Who is Victor Timely in Marvel comics?
In the original comics, the time-traveling supervillain Kang the Conqueror shows up in present-day Washington D.C., where he takes on the Avengers. After a long fight, he’s defeated, but he hatches another plan for world domination.
Kang goes back to 1901 Wisconsin, where he takes on the alter-ego Victor Timely. As Timely, Kang establishes the town of Timely and becomes its mayor. He also creates a company called Timely Industries, which specializes in robotics and other futuristic tech. From his base in Wisconsin, Kang slowly amasses power in a bid to take on the Avengers again in the present day.
In the comics, you may see references to Victor Timely Jr. and Victor Timely III. These are all the same Kang variant. Since he exists outside of normal time, he has to periodically pretend to die of old age, but he comes back as his own son, and later his grandson.
Who is Victor Timely in the MCU?
Like most characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Timely’s onscreen counterpart is only loosely adapted from the source material.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania establishes that there are an infinite number of Kang variants roaming the multiverse—and they’re all ready to do some conquering. But even with guys like Immortus running around, Victor Timely may be the most interesting Kang yet.
Like his comics counterpart, Timely lives in Wisconsin around the turn of the century. But as we learn in Loki season 2, episode 3, “1893,” he doesn’t seem to come from the future. Instead, he was genuinely born and raised in the Victorian midwest.
In “1893,” Loki and Mobius follow Ravonna Renslayer’s TemPad to the Chicago World’s Fair to see if they can get Miss Minutes to give them access to the Temporal Loom. While they’re there, they stumble upon an ad for “Victor Timely and his Temporal Marvels.” Sure enough, the man onstage is a variant of He Who Remains, the slain Kang variant who started the TVA. Timely demonstrates to the audience how to work what looks like an early version of the Temporal Loom, claiming that he can turn time into energy and use it to power the entire planet. As Loki and Mobius quietly decide to bring him to the TVA so that his temporal aura can grant access to the loom, Timely wows the audience with a spectacular electrical show.
So Victor Timely is a super genius, then? Well, sort of. Maybe? It’s complicated.
See, the episode begins with an interesting plot twist: Renslayer and Miss Minutes visit Timely when he’s still a child. He Who Remains has instructed the two of them to give Timely a copy of the TVA handbook, and they secretly drop it in his window while he’s conducting a science experiment. Later, Timely tells Renslayer that he learned everything he knows about time from the handbook. However, he’s also been adding his own notes and ideas, in what he considers a “conversation” between himself and TVA tech wizard Ouroboros. It seems like both Timely and O.B. are responsible for the creation of the TVA.
Not only that, but Timely is quickly revealed to be somewhat of a fraud. After his presentation, a man offers Timely $500 for his loom prototype. That sets off a bidding war, winning Timely $1,000 from another buyer. However, we then see Timely slip the first guy some cash, indicating that the $500 offer was part of Timely’s scam. We then learn that both the loom and a pair of mechanical trousers Timely invented don’t actually work. Loki’s impressed calling Timely “a confident trickster.”
What’s clear, though, is that Timely doesn’t seem like much of a villain. He’s not a great person, but he spends most of the episode too scared and confused to be much of a threat to anyone.
Is Victor Timely the same character as He Who Remains?
When Sylvie shows up to kill Timely, she says something very interesting: she accuses Loki of “waltzing [Timely] right back into the TVA.” Is Timely more than just a variant of He Who Remains? Could he be He Who Remains himself?
It’s hard to say. On one hand, he seems like a completely different person. On the other hand, Miss Minutes treats Timely and He Who Remains as the same individual, talking about how they spent eons playing chess every night and talking. Plus, Timely is the one that He Who Remains entrusted with the TVA handbook.
What does the future hold for Timely in Loki season 2, now that Loki and Mobius have taken him to the TVA? And how will Marvel handle Timely’s character going forward, given the assault allegations that have come out against Jonathan Majors? Only time will tell.
(featured image: Disney+)
