MOBIUS M. MOBIUS

Real Name: Mobius M. Mobius

Identity/Class: Humanoid clone

Occupation: Senior executive middle management of the Time Variance Authority

Group Membership: Time Variance Authority (Chronomonitors, Minutemen, (Mr. Alternity, Mr. Oborus, Mr. Orobourous, Mr. Paradox, Mr. Tesseract; formerly Justin Alphonse Gamble; possibly He Who Remains, Incinerators)

Affiliations: Justice Love, Justice Peace, Kang the Conqueror (Nathaniel Richards of Earth-6311);
    (somewhat grudgingly) Fantastic Four (Ant-Man/Scott Lang, Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Woman/Sue Richards, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Ms. Marvel/Sharon Ventura, Thing/Ben Grimm), She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters)

Enemies: Ramades;
    presumably Alioth;
    formerly Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Woman/Sue Richards, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Ms. Marvel/Sharon Ventura, Thing/Ben Grimm)

Known Relatives: Mr. Orobourous, Mr. Paradox, Mr. Tesseract (clone "brothers")

Aliases: "Moby"

Base of Operations: Time Variance Authority Headquarters, Null-Time Zone

First Appearance: (Unidentified, see comments) Fantastic Four I#346 (November, 1990);
    (identified) Fantastic Four I#353 (June, 1991)

Powers/Abilities: Mr. Mobius had an extremely obsessive personality, which made him suited to the infinite task of observing every aspect of time. He had access to a variety of specialized Time Variance Authority technology. On one occasion, he wore a personal force field device to protect himself from injury.

Height: 5'10" (by approximation)
Weight: 160 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

History: (Fantastic Four I#353 (fb) - BTS) - Mobius M. Mobius is one of several "managerial class" clones grown by the Time Variance Authority to assist in management tasks related to their organization.

(Fantastic Four Annual I#27 (fb) - BTS) - Mobius started out in junior management then rose to middle management through perseverance and attention to detail. He didn't simply pay attention to detail - he loved details, caressed details, sweated details and embraced details.

(Fantastic Four I#346) - Speaking to some of the Time Variance Authority's Chronomonitors, Mobius informed them that the Fantastic Four had been "remanded" back to their home timeline, following an extensive series of temporal distortions related to their adventure involving the Time Bubble. One of the Chronomonitors remarked that if Mobius' department had been paying attention, none of those events would have happened.

(Fantastic Four Annual I#24) - When Chronomonitors saw that Galactus was firing the Ultimate Nullifier, they reacted with horror, realizing how much work it would create for them. When they suggested to Mr. Mobius that they stop Galactus from firing the device, Mobius wondered "who's going to tell Galactus, you?" The Chronomonitors went back to work.

(Fantastic Four I#352) - Chronomonitor ZM-73 informed Mobius that timeline 0257/9023-A was experiencing time jumps, caused by a contest between Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Doom. Mobius recognized that timeline from the earlier Time Bubble incident and ordered Justice Peace and the Minutemen to be sent to that reality, extract the malefactors and bring them to the Null-Time Zone.

(Fantastic Four I#353) - Mobius served as chairman for the hearing over the five malefactors apprehended by Justice Peace and the Minutemen: the Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Mr. Fantastic, Ms. Marvel and the Thing. Sitting on a panel with 8 of his fellow clones, Mobius explained that the Time Variance Authority sought to prevent them from causing any further interruptions in the timeline. He explained that their timeline was supposed to be destroyed by the Time Bubble event and their actions nullified it. When Mr. Fantastic asked how long they expected the hearing to last, Mobius replied 5 years. This upset the Thing, who threw a chair at the panel, but a subspace shield around the panel's table prevented them from being harmed. Mr. Fantastic responded by noting that their home timeline had various other similar incursions which the Time Variance Authority had not acted on, such as Kang the Conqueror's battles with the Avengers or the X-Men's "Days of Future Past." Mobius ordered all five remanded to custody pending further investigations.

    Mr. Fantastic later summoned Mobius to their cell and complimented the Time Variance Authority for their efficiency and then requested a tour of their headquarters. Mobius was reluctant to honor this request until Ms. Marvel flirted with him. Smitten, Mobius led the heroes on a guided tour aboard a vehicle with Sharon seated at his left hand. Mobius explained his background as a clone and how the Minutemen were equipped. He also showed them the departure gate, where rehabilitated refugees were returned to their original timelines. Mobius mentioned that he had been trying to convince upper management to expand their facility. He also showed them the hall of discontinued universes. Mobius indicated that the Fantastic Four would likely be ejected from this spot but that he would try to put in a good word for Ms. Marvel. As Mobius showed them the Hall of Chronometry, where the Chronomonitors were employed, the Thing pretended to accidentally break a desk, causing a distraction so that Mr. Fantastic could steal some TVA software. Mobius allowed Ms. Marvel to remain out of the cell but the other four were sent back. However, they quickly broke out of their cell. As the Human Torch and the Thing began wrecking the base's power station, Mr. Mobius told them if they surrendered, he would arrange matters so that the accident which gave them their powers had never happened, hoping to tempt the Thing.

(Fantastic Four I#354) - The Thing seriously considered Mobius' offer but pointed out that without the Fantastic Four, there would be many challenges left unsolved, such as the Time Bubble. The Thing correctly surmised that Mobius made the offer because in any timeline where they had not become the Fantastic Four, the Time Bubble would have wiped them from existence. Mobius sent his Minutemen to attack the Thing and the Torch, but Mr. Fantastic installed a virus into the TVA's systems which caused the TVA's own timeline to fracture. Ms. Marvel then escaped from Mobius with a judo throw and rejoined the Thing and the Torch. Mr. Fantastic's virus ultimately erased all of the TVA's information on their home timeline.

(Fantastic Four Annual I#27) - Mr. Alternity ordered Mr. Mobius to retrieve all of the data from the missing file. With Mr. Fantastic gone and believed dead, he arranged for the other members of the Fantastic Four (Human Torch, Invisible Woman and the Thing) to be apprehended by Justice Love and brought to the Null-Time Zone. However, the trio's ally Ant-Man secretly traveled with Justice Love and Mr. Mobius to the Null-Time Zone. Mr. Mobius had the Invisible Woman brought to his office where he explained what he wanted. The Invisible Woman told Mobius that only Mr. Fantastic could possibly retrieve the file so the only way she could help him would be if he brought Mr. Fantastic back. Mobius refused to do that because of TVA guidelines and intended to incarcerate her until the end of time, but she struck him with one of her force constructs and escaped his office. Mobius went to the cell where the Thing and Human Torch were detained and explained his problem to them, but the Invisible Woman and Ant-Man, disguised as Justices, ambushed Mobius and took him hostage.

    Mobius observed that the Fantastic Four escaped the Null-Time Zone previously on the Cross-Time Express but because Reed erased their reality's file, they couldn't make such a trip a second time. The Thing tried to threaten Mobius into providing an alternate escape, but Mobius informed them he would just as soon die, believing that he had no future at the TVA as he was certain to be demoted and couldn't deal with the loss of status. Ant-Man suggested Mobius get a job somewhere else but Mobius protested that he was cloned to work for the TVA and could not work for a competitor. Ant-Man noted that if he received a better job offer from a competitor, the TVA would then be challenged to match it.

    Taken with Ant-Man's suggestion, Mobius led the Fantastic Four to the Cross-Time Express and rode it to Chronopolis, the headquarters of Kang the Conqueror. Kang made Mobius a job offer, but the Fantastic Four caused a minor altercation when they tried to get information on Mr. Fantastic's whereabouts from Kang. Mobius returned the Fantastic Four to the moment when he had snatched them from Earth.

    Returning to Mr. Alternity, Mobius announced his resignation and informed him of Kang's job offer. Mr. Alternity asked what it would take for him to stay; Mobius requested he match Kang's salary and benefits and leave his last task unfulfilled. Mr. Alternity agreed and gave the task of finding the file to Mr. Tesseract. Returning to his office to record his memoirs "Memoirs of a Middle Manager," Mobius realized that in a roundabout way, he owed a debt of gratitude to the Fantastic Four -- "all except that blasted Reed Richards!"

(Unlimited Access I#2) - Mobius looked on as a subordinate manager tracked a temporal distortion involving the hero Access.

(Marvel Knights 4 I#15) - Mr. Mobius reached out to Mr. Fantastic, sending a transmission to his home to inform him his Earth was at the epicenter of a series of chronal anomalies that were destabilizing timelines throughout the multiverse. Mobius sent Mr. Fantastic on the path to discover what was happening by investigating eight minutes which had gone missing in Boulder, Colorado at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

(Marvel Knights 4 I#18) - Mr. Mobius and Mr. Alternity observed the defeat of Ramades, who had been responsible for the anomalies.

(She-Hulk II#3) - Mr. Mobius, Mr. Paradox and Mr. Orobourous sat in judgment of the She-Hulk, who had attempted to alter the timeline to prevent the death of her friend Hawkeye. A variety of friends from throughout her life testified on her behalf and ultimately swayed the judges into ruling that She-Hulk should continue to exist. Mr. Mobius determined She-Hulk's punishment would be to take into custody one of the TVA's prisoners; She-Hulk chose to assume responsibility for the Two-Gun Kid.

(She-Hulk II#4) - Mr. Mobius had She-Hulk fill out the paperwork for the Two-Gun Kid's release. During this task, he asked her about why she hadn't been active as the She-Hulk following the Red Skull's "Red Zone" terror attack and She-Hulk related her activities from that period. When the paperwork was completed, Mr. Mobius released the Two-Gun Kid.

(She-Hulk II#5) - Mr. Mobius sent the She-Hulk and Two-Gun Kid back to She-Hulk's home time, noting that if Two-Gun Kid were sent back to his own time, he would attempt to change the timeline.

Comments: Created by Walter Simonson.

    Mr. Mobius and his fellow managers were designed by Simonson as an homage to editor Mark Gruenwald. Gruenwald was not only the editor on Simonson's original Time Bubble story in the Avengers but wrote Marvel's official time travel rules (printed in Marvel Age #117). In Fantastic Four Annual I#24 (the first time the TVA were used by someone other than Simonson), a footnote by Ralph Macchio called the TVA "sort of the Mark Gruenwalds of time continuity."

    The executive in Fantastic Four I#346 was not identified. It could have been any TVA executive from Mobius' clonal series but it's safe to assume he's meant to be the same man who would be fleshed out a few months later.

    For that matter, it's often hard to tell which TVA executives are Mobius and which are not, even in stories where one of has been identified as Mobius! I think a good rule of thumb is to assume the most prominent executive is always Mobius.

    A footnote in Fantastic Four Annual I#24 explained that the story took place right before Fantastic Four I#350.

    What If II#39 has various clones appear, but the highest-ranked one was called "timezone manager" and his subordinate "deputy secretary" with various other "assistant deputy secretaries." They were definitely more of Mobius' clonal family but none of them seem to be Mobius.

    His first name and initial were revealed in Fantastic Four Annual I#27. His middle initial is almost certainly "Mobius."
Just like Harold H. Harold--Snood

    Gruenwald came to the attention of Marvel Comics through his publication Omniverse, which he self-published as "Alternity Enterprises." When he wrote his own Time Variance Authority story in Fantastic Four Annual I#27, he identified the TVA's leader as Mr. Alternity. That story can also be seen as a personal commentary on Gruenwald's career - he undoubtedly did feel unsatisfied at the state of Marvel in the mid-1990s yet considered himself unsuitable for any other kind of employment.

    This profile was completed 07/20/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Prime Eternal.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Mobius M. Mobius should not be confused with:

images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four Annual I#27, page 2, panel 4 (main)
Fantastic Four I#354, page 9, panel 2 (headshot)

Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#346 (November, 1990) - Walter Simonson (writer/pencils/inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Fantastic Four Annual I#24 (1991) - Al Milgrom (writer/pencils/inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Fantastic Four I#352-354 (May-July, 1991) - Walter Simonson (writer/pencils/inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Fantastic Four Annual I#27 (1994) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike Gustovich (pencils), Don Hudson (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Unlimited Access I#2 (January, 1998) - Karl Kesel (writer), Patrick Oliffe (pencils), Al Williamson (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Marvel Knights 4 I#15 (April, 2005) - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer), Jim Muniz (pencils), Jim Royal (inks), Warren Simons (editor)
Marvel Knights 4 I#18 (July, 2005) - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer), Jim Muniz (pencils), Derek Fridolfs (inks), Warren Simons (editor)
She-Hulk II#3 (February, 2006) - Dan Slott (writer), Juan Bobillo, Paul Pelletier, Scott Kolins, Mike Vosburg, Amanda Conner, Ron Frenz, Mike Mayhew, Don Simpson, Lee Weeks, Eric Powell (pencils), Marcelo Sosa, Rick Magyar, Scott Kolins, Mike Vosburg, Jimmy Palmiotti, Joe Sinnott, Sal Buscema, Mike Mayhew, Don Simpson, Lee Weeks, Eric Powell (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
She-Hulk II#4 (March, 2006) - Dan Slott (writer), Scott Kolins (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
She-Hulk II#5 (February, 2006) - Dan Slott (writer), Juan Bobillo (pencils), Marcelo Sosa (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First posted: 09/04/2021
Last updated: 09/01/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to http://www.g-mart.com/ for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters