Miles Morales Used Doctor Who To Explain Time Travel
While fans already know that Miles Morales is intelligent and capable of carrying the Spider-Man legacy, as well as being an Avenger, Miles couldn’t resist showing his nerd card by using Doctor Who to explain time travel logic. Miles uses the Tenth Doctor’s memorable “timey-wimey” explanation to explain time, time loops and potential paradoxes to his teammate the Mighty Thor after their battle with the time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror left behind two Mjolnirs, one from the past and one Jane Foster had picked up from the future.
In the All-New, All-Different Avengers #6 - by Mark Waid, Mahmud Asrar, Dave McCaig, and Cory Petit - the recently formed Avengers are making do with their reduced budget and status while events conspire against them. Orchestrated attacks against the team are being orchestrated by Mr. Gryphon, a businessman who'd previously bought Avengers Tower. Gryphon is revealed to be part of the old Avengers foe Kang the Conqueror that has been stuck in the modern-day. His collaborations with the alien Warbringer and other criminals like the Absorbing Man and Cyclone are part of his attempts to return to the future while still manipulating the timeline to his advantage.
The latest villain in Gryphon's employ is Equinox - who's reinforced with future versions of himself emerging from time portals - Kang traps Captain America and the Mighty Thor in the future while revealing he'd been manipulating Vision, which explains the longtime Avenger’s strange and alienating behavior in the previous issues. Separated from Mjolnir, Thor transforms back to Jane Foster and she and Sam Wilson dodge Equinoxes while their teammates begin to lose the battle. Realizing that Kang’s hopes to siphon off Mjolnir’s magic mean he’d still be unable to lift the iconic hammer, Sam instructs Jane to look for Mjolnir in the same place she left it in the past (their present). Lo and behold, Mjolnir remained in place and Thor and Cap were able to return to the present just as the battle began to turn. Even with Equinox defeated, Kang refused to stand down until Thor, armed with the Mjolnir’s of the present and future, slams both hammers together and banished Kang… for now.
In Doctor Who, the “timey-wimey” phrase is most famously remembered as being a description of time from the Tenth Doctor, portrayed by David Tenant. Although it was assumed to have been coined during Tenant’s run, the reference itself may have originated with the Fifth Doctor, or Third Doctor (specifically, one of his companions). Other Doctors, such as the War Doctor or the Ninth Doctor have been rather dismissive of the phrase, equating it to childish pandering, and technically, the phrase was used more frequently during Matt Smith’s run as the Eleventh Doctor. It was last referenced during Peter Capaldi’s time as the Twelfth Doctor, when Santa Claus of all people mocked the Doctor for his simple way of explaining advanced scientific principles. Clearly, Saint Nick has forgotten his focus group and how parents have been explaining his job for years.
In the comics, Miles tries to explain this to Thor, who has never seen the show nor has much experience in time travel. Using the "timey-wimey" phrase as a reference, Miles explains that Jane must leave one of the versions of Mjolnir here so it can remain undisturbed until she and Sam re-discover it in the future. Although the logistics of time travel are as confusing as the number of Marvel characters who’ve time traveled, the fact that Miles used Doctor Who to essentially explain how a time loop works is hilarious and not at all out of character for a Spider-Man.
Mark Waid uses the phrase to show Miles' youth compared to the older and more seasoned Avengers. This popular yet short-lived Avengers team featured a mix of classic (though different) Avengers alongside a younger generation and this short exchange was just another example of culture clash and team bonding the Avengers have seen time and time again. A steady dose of pop culture references mixed in with science-fiction knowledge and exposition is a Peter Parker trademark, so it would appear the Spider-Man name is not the only legacy of Peter’s that Miles Morales carries.