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How Mark Gruenwald changed the Marvel Universe (and inspired a central Loki character)

On Mark Gruenwald, Marvel's continuity cop

The late, great Mark Gruenwald at a Marvel Comics office party in 1992 — Image credit: Marvel Comics

Features by Matt Brady, Contributing writer

Published on Tue Dec 26 2023

There’s one person primarily responsible for the storytelling and architecture of the modern Marvel Universe — and perhaps all of modern comics: Loki’s Mobius M. Mobius.

Wait - sorry. That’s the fictional version.

Every minute piece of multiversal trivia, every rule of character and variant interactions, and alternate reality arcana that comes out of Owen Wilson’s mouth as he plays Mobius in Disney+'s Loki series. That’s all based on…

Okay, it’s still a fictional version. Wilson’s character is based on the comic book version of Mobius M. Mobius, who first appeared in 1991’s Fantastic Four #353. Created by Walter Simonson, Mobius was a loving tribute to his friend and Marvel's then-executive editor, Mark Gruenwald.

While individual superheroes may be the legacies of various creators for

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Matt Brady: Matt Brady was the co-founder of Newsarama.com and wrote constantly about pop culture for ten years. These days you can find him at the intersection of pop culture and science. He’s a high school science teacher, science writer and communicator and author of The Science of Rick and Morty. He keeps his toes in the pop culture pool by blending science with pop culture at thescienceof.org, and debating all those who think Star Wars is better than Star Trek. His dog, Jack, is constantly unimpressed by him.