In Loki, the dead body of a major Marvel entity was found in the MCU, and its Avengers comic book death was a big part of Secret Wars’ set-up.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Loki Episode 5, “Journey Into Mystery,” now streaming on Disney+.
Disney+’s Loki series has quietly brought a wealth of new cosmic beings into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And in the Void at the end of time, one of Marvel’s most historically powerful beings just joined the MCU as a corpse. As one of if not the most important figures in Marvel’s cosmology, the Living Tribunal joining the MCU would be a big deal in almost any circumstance. However, their first appearance may very well be their last, considering their seemingly deceased state.
It might not be clear what brought them down in the MCU, but the Living Tribunal’s comic book death was a big part of the lead-in to Marvel’s Secret Wars.
First introduced in “The End of the Ancient One!” by Stan Lee and Marie Severin in 1967’s Strange Tales #157, the Living Tribunal has been one of the most imposing figures in the Marvel Universe for decades. Standing tall as a massive, golden god with three faces each in varying states of being veiled, the Living Tribunal is the last line of defense for the Multiverse itself. It acts as a safeguard against nefarious mystical forces which threaten all of existence and as judge and jury in matters of multiversal importance. The most famous of these stands taken by the Living Tribunal was almost certainly when it ruled against both Adam Warlock and Eternity during the trial of the former in 1992’s Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1 by Jim Starlin and Angel Medina.
However, the Living Tribunal suffered a brutal demise in the lead-up to 2015’s Secret Wars. In 2015’s New Avengers #30, by Jonathan Hickman and Dalibor Talajic, the Marvel Multiverse was collapsing in on itself. While investigating the Incursions that were driving realities into each other, Hank Pym encountered a threat that he couldn’t fully comprehend. In the space between realities, Pym witnessed the Beyonders, a race of ivory aliens from beyond the Omniverse, wage war against the Celestials of various realities across the Multiverse without breaking a sweat. The Beyonders and their unimaginable, unlimited power swept through the Multiverse, pushing Pym’s sanity to the edge before his mind fell in tune with the Beyonders’ perception. When that happened, he saw Living Tribunal standing as the living embodiment of the Multiverse.
As Pym explained it, he witnessed the same battle taking place across all realities simultaneously. However, the Living Tribunal was killed in the end, with its body falling into pieces across every universe in which it had been slain. Of course, the threat of the Beyonders would eventually be undone and give way to Secret Wars, but in killing the Living Tribunal they cemented their place among the most powerful beings to ever step foot inside the Marvel Universe.
Since the effects of this battle were felt around the Multiverse, it’s not clear if the Living Tribunal’s body in Loki appears as a result of their multiverse-spanning battle with the Beyonders. Alternatively, there’s a chance that this could be an early warning sign of a Secret Wars-esque event in the MCU. Although they might be a dead body right now, the Living Tribunal is important enough to Marvel cosmology that they may very well show up again in the MCU later on. And hopefully, their story will have a happier ending if they do.
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