Gwen needs a place to hide out for a while and it just so happens that the Time Variance Agency is in need of new recruits.  Your Major Spoilers review of TVA #1 awaits!

TVA #1

Writer: Katharyn Blair
Artist: Pere Perez
Colorist:Guru-eFX
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
Editor: Jordan D. White
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: December 18th, 2024

Previously in TVA: After the actions of a version of Loki, the TVA has found themselves in a new era with a new type of mission, and desperately understaffed.  After an issue in her timeline, Gwen Stacy, also known as Ghost-Spider, has joined up to hide for a bit.

BE VERY AFRAID

TVA #1 starts with Gwen giving a brief introduction before she forgets her line, and it’s revealed she’s filming a promotional video to recruit people to TVA.  She manages to trick Mobius and Miss Minutes into arguing with each other so she can sneak away to the cafeteria.  There, she runs into someone named Jimmy Hudson, who might be a Wolverine variant, and another TVA employee named Ingrid.  Later, they meet up with Peggy Carter’s variant, Captain Britain.  They are informed that people across various timelines are experiencing horrific images of their greatest fear, but also scenes inside the TVA offices.  They then recruit a version of Gambit and head to the last place reported to experience the visions.  Very quickly, the team is attacked by their fears, and it turns out they might be more than hallucinations.

NOT SURE WHAT IT WANTS TO BE

There’s nothing about TVA #1 that screams out as bad or poorly done.  But there’s also not much about it that feels exceptional or compelling.  This is primarily due to this tone permeating everything, where it just doesn’t know what it wants to be.  The issue references events from the show Loki multiple times but refuses to acknowledge or explain them; instead, it waves it away as a “story for another time.”  But, at the same time, it tries to capture the same tone as the Loki show by bouncing between time-traveling drama and subversive workplace humor but doesn’t really establish an engaging or coherent reason for the time-traveling or the relationships needed for the humor. What this results in is a run-of-the-mill adventure that could be tackled by any team out there.  This isn’t a bad comic, but it does practically nothing to set itself apart in a substantial way. That might be the biggest sin of this issue: the lack of anything to make this feel like a book that needs to utilize the TVA. The best way I can say it is that naming this series TVA feels like an afterthought.

AN EYE FOR ACTION SEQUENCES

The big action sequence towards the end of TVA #1 is the highlight of the issue.  Not only do things flow nicely from panel to panel, there’s also a lot of great details to be found in the background, that then become focused later on. It makes the whole sequence feel like it’s all happening in a shared space, even though multiple characters are having their skirmishes.  The rest of the issue looks just fine, although there’s a distinct lack of the stylized ’50s and ’60s aesthetic that The TVA had in the Loki series.  There are hints of it, but like the rest of the TVA stuff, it feels like an afterthought.

BOTTOM LINE: A GOOD SETTING WASTED ON A MEDIOCRE COMIC

Even with its multiple appearances in MCU properties, The TVA remains an interesting entity and setting, one that this issue failed to utilize in any meaningful way.  The issue’s main characters spend their time split between a well-scripted action sequence against a generic threat and engaging in workplace banter that requires some sort of established relationship that isn’t here. While there isn’t one thing here that I can point to and say was poorly done, there also isn’t anything here that I can point to and say that justifies this comic existing in its current form.  3 out of 5 stars.

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TVA #1

60%

60%

Prune It

TVA #1 goes out of its way to not connect itself to the tv show the organization comes from and in doing so delivers something devoid of charm and appeal.

• Writing

  4
• Art

  8
• Coloring

  6
• User Ratings (0 Votes)
  0