‘Loki’ Episode 5: What Is Alioth in Marvel Comics?
Episode 5 of Loki introduced the God of Mischief to a brand new villain. So what is Alioth in Marvel comics, and what does its appearance mean for the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for episode 5 of Loki.]
‘Loki’ Episode 5 explores the Void and Alioth
The fifth episode of the Marvel series picks up with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in the Void, surrounded by other pruned variants of himself, including Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant), Kid Loki (Jack Veal), and Boastful Loki (Deobia Oparei).
The trio warns him of Alioth, the dark, smokey, dragon-like figure in the sky. “This is the Void, that’s Alioth, and we’re his lunch,” the elder Variant says, as he urges Loki to run.
In an effort to save Loki, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) prunes herself and lands in the Void face to face with Alioth. She manages to enchant him for a few moments. And in doing so, she realizes that Alioth is the one thing keeping them from finding out who’s behind the Time Variance Authority.
“I think the person we’re after is beyond the Void at the end of time,” Sylvie tells Loki. “And if they are, that thing is just their guard dog protecting the only way in.”
With the help of their Classic version, Loki and Sylvie take on Alioth and enchant it together. The monster begins dissipating, and a mysterious city emerges behind it.
What is Alioth in Marvel Comics?
In Marvel Comics, the monster Loki and Sylvie face is called Alioth the Usurper. The trans-temporal entity first appeared in the 1993 comic book, Avengers: Terminatrix Objective #1.
According to Marvel, Alioth is a destructive cloud that exists across all divergent realities. As it consumes all in its path, the monster causes enormous temporal disturbances in all dimensions.
“It grows in size and power by absorbing time travelers’ bodies into its mass,” Marvel describes its abilities. “Once it occupies a time period, it spreads out to engulf the adjacent realities. Alioth also negates temporal energy, preventing travel through it to a time before it exists. Attempts to travel through Alioth usually result in the traveler’s absorption.”
In the comics, Alioth is independent of any timeline and lives on the edge of Kang the Conqueror’s realm, Chronopolis. Ravonna Renslayer, aka the Terminatrix, inadvertently freed it after Kang went into a coma trying to save her. Eventually, Kang and Renslayer recruited the Avengers to help bring the reality-consuming entity down.
What Alioth’s introduction in ‘Loki’ could mean for the MCU
With Alioth’s appearance in Loki, it’s safe to assume fans are one step closer to meeting Kang the Conqueror and perhaps even seeing his story arc with Ravonna Renslayer. According to one fan theory, Alioth’s Sylvie and Loki’s enchantment of Alioth will set up the appearance of Kang (played by Jonathan Majors) in the upcoming Marvel movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
“In Marvel, there are beings called nexus beings,” the fan wrote on Reddit. “A nexus being is a being that has no variants, meaning only one of them exists in the multiverse. There are like 4-5 main nexus beings, and one is already in the MCU — Scarlet Witch. Kang the Conqueror is also one of these Nexus Beings.”
“If he’s the one trapped in the fortress, it makes sense that Alioth was guarding him and not looking for other variants of him because he is the only version of himself out there,” the Redditor added. “[If] Alioth has been stopped, and TVA will most likely be stopped too. These are the two things that are trapping Kang, and I think he will escape in the Finale and show up in Antman 3, which is a perfect way to set up his backstory.”
Luckily, it won’t be long before fans find out what Alioth is hiding. The season finale of Loki airs Wednesday, July 14, on Disney+.
