Who is Ravonna Renslayer? When we’re dealing with characters from across the multiverse, that becomes a very difficult question to answer.
At the end of Loki‘s first season, Loki and Sylvie discovered that the judges of the TVA were not always functionaries designed to protect the sacred timeline. Rather, they were Variants captured from pruned timelines and forced to work at the TVA. That included Judge Ravonna Renslayer, who was, in another life, Rebecca Tourminet, a vice principal at an Ohio high school. During a Nexus Event, He Who Remains took Rebecca, christened her Ravonna Renslayer, and made her part of his army before installing her as a Judge in the TVA.
After Mobius told Ravonna about this secret history, she pruned him (he got better) and then left the organization to find out more about herself. Ravonna remains missing across the first two episodes of Loki‘s second season, but she does get referenced in a mysterious message. As Loki searches a TVA office for clues about He Who Remains, he uncovers a message from the deposed head of the TVA to Ravonna. He Who Remains expresses admiration and maybe even love for Ravonna, describing her as a mighty warrior, something we haven’t really seen in the show thus far.
While that description may not match the fastidious functionary of the MCU, it does recall the imperious character from the pages of Marvel Comics. Ravonna Renslayer first appeared in Avengers #23 (1965), written by Stan Lee and penciled by Don Heck. In a story that continues through Avengers #24, Kang the Conqueror seeks to destroy the Avengers by transporting them to 40th Century, where he’ll have an advantage. During the battle, Kang meets the ruler of Earth, King Carelius, and his daughter Ravonna Renslayer.
Initially, Kang threatened to destroy Carelius’s kingdom unless Ravonna married him, but that gambit ended with her death (she got better). However, Kang found variants of Ravonna across the Multiverse, eventually winning her love — at least, when she doesn’t fall for his variants Immortus or Scarlet Centurion first — and transforming her into the warrior called the Terminatrix.
As the Terminatrix, Ravonna has both fought against Kang and stood alongside him. She’s taken on the identity of Kang the Conqueror, battled the Council of Cross-Time Kangs, and even become a space pirate called Nebula. In the year 9999, she took the name Ravonna and helped the Avengers destroy Kang (he got better).
Given what we know from the post-credit scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Ravonna’s most interesting alias is not Terminatrix but the one we saw in Loki: Rebecca Tourminet. At the end of the 1993 miniseries Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective, written by Mark Gruenwald (the inspiration for Mobius M. Mobius) and drawn by Mike Gustovich, Renslayer takes the name Rebecca Tourminet and heads to the past. More specifically, she goes to 1903 Timely, Wisconsin to be with Victor Timely, a scientist who is actually Kang in disguise.
We know that Loki and Mobius will travel to the past to encounter Victor Timely in season two. Could Ravonna be there as well? And if so, does that mean that the Terminatrix will be close behind? Only time will tell!