By Monique
Fans are excited about Jonathan Majors‘ He Who Remains in Loki, and no one is more excited by Black Marvel fans, who started promoting an alternate way of looking at He Who Remains’ nefarious work with the TVA. What if he’s just a hardworking Black business owner trying to make it?
Fans started joking about He Who Remains’ business ambitions upon his big reveal in the Loki season finale. But they also pulled from the fact that the TVA’s day-to-day manager is Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who holds the highest position in the bureaucracy as judge, and B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) leads the organization’s minutemen. With so many Black people at the top of the hierarchy, it makes sense as to why some fans started creating fake magazine covers highlighting He Who Remains, Renslayer, and B-15.
Fans also riffed on He Who Remains’ official Marvel poster, finding that his pose and the painterly filter put on his picutre reminded them of church iconography. He Who Remains’ face got photoshopped on some stained glass, as well as on church fans and religious candles.
While social media reveled at the thought of a Black man controlling the entire multiverse, others also offered a point of contention. If He Who Remains has the power to change any timeline, why didn’t he create a timeline without human suffering? Especially as a Black man, why didn’t he get rid of slavery from the Sacred Timeline?
It’s a question worth pondering if you like going down rabbit holes. But, it’s also not as if He Who Remains didn’t tell us in the finale that is, in fact, a villain who has done some catastrophic things. His character is less “For Us, By Us” and all the way “For Himself, For No One Else.” He Who Remains left everything in the “Sacred” Timeline simply because it’s the timeline he came from and the timeline he can control. Since that timeline is precious to He Who Remains for those reasons, anyone who differentiates from the timeline, for any reason, gets unceremoniously chopped. Unfortunately, what He Who Remains is after isn’t world peace–it’s multiversal domination at all costs, earning his status as one of the most complex and fearsome villains Marvel has created.
What do you think about He Who Remains? Does the revisionist joke of He Who Remains as a Black business owner tickle your fancy? Or are you wearing your kufi in deep thought over He Who Remains actions? Talk about it below.
Julian 