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  1. #631
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    I always assumed he would get more than a page, by the looks of things it has more pages than most issues, so if we assume each of the 3 spinoff books gets equal time, they could get a max of around 10 pages each. But you also have to account for the Thor bits which I assume will act as a framing device for the 3 stories introducing the new books, so subtract some pages for that, and as we just saw the WotR, they sometimes use those extra pages for fluff like character designs, and they may do that again, with preview pages for Thor, Loki, Jane, and Punisher's books. So I'd say each of the 3 books will get between 5 and 8 pages to set things up for their central character, plus another 5 to 8 pages to act as a framing device and set things up for Thor and Asgard as a whole, depending on how much useless fluff there is at the back of the issue.

  2. #632
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    Marvel adjusted the overship for Loki's book, so now retailers get an additional 50% over the number they ordered, rather than double: https://www.newsarama.com/45802-marv...-for-free.html

    So there will be fewer copies in the wild, and when Diamond estimates come in it won't be a flat doubling of the amount that were actually ordered, so just to keep that in mind, reduce it by a third rather than a half to get the true number actually ordered. Not sure if this is a or bad good thing. Like, it may be that they felt it was going to do better with actual orders than they initially thought, so more extra copies weren't necessary... or they are cutting their losses on a book that failed to get off to a good start.

  3. #633
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    Quote Originally Posted by Raye View Post
    Marvel adjusted the overship for Loki's book, so now retailers get an additional 50% over the number they ordered, rather than double: https://www.newsarama.com/45802-marv...-for-free.html

    So there will be fewer copies in the wild, and when Diamond estimates come in it won't be a flat doubling of the amount that were actually ordered, so just to keep that in mind, reduce it by a third rather than a half to get the true number actually ordered. Not sure if this is a or bad good thing. Like, it may be that they felt it was going to do better with actual orders than they initially thought, so more extra copies weren't necessary... or they are cutting their losses on a book that failed to get off to a good start.
    I think this is a thing. It isn't good or bad. Marvel has been overshipping in the past to boost their own numbers, while leaving stores with tons of copies they simply can't sell. Marvel may also realize that this is a book that will have more online or trade sales than direct floppies.

  4. #634
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    Well yes, they have overshipped before, it's a thing they do, but it's not something they do for no reason beyond boosting numbers in the charts. They are not going to pay the kind of money it takes to print and ship tens of thousands of extra copies for fleeting bragging rights. Usually it is to help a book that is underperforming, so the fact that Loki got this treatment in the first place is actually a bit worrying. It could mean his #1 orders were just not what they were hoping for. But it may also mean that they think there is something in there (or maybe in Omega) that may create higher demand. We won't know for sure which it is until the estimates for July come in... But in the past, it's usually been to help books with poor sales. But it does seem to help some. Like, Ms Marvel is a recent one that comes to mind, where they doubled the orders for #2.

    Issue 1: 27,706 (pretty poor for a #1, even though yes, I know Ms Marvel usually does better in digital and trades)

    Issue 2: 26,173 (so it was actually at about 13k. ouch, not good for an issue 2.)

    Issue 3: 18,386 (so it went up from issue 2's actual order numbers, if not a lot, meaning retailers were able to sell some of the extra issues and thought people would be back for more)

    oh, guess who is a hero in city now, as of this morning:

    Last edited by Raye; 07-09-2019 at 06:44 AM.

  5. #635
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    So Omega was 8 pages for each story, what did i tell you ?

    spoilers:
    So to just focus on the Loki bit, being the Loki thread and all, and we see Drrf, stealing the lid off a pot to go sledding, and crashes into Loki, they chat, and loki's actually really nice to him. Also, Loki has Jarnbjorn. Says he borrowed it from Thor. Anyway, Drrf and Loki chat for a bit, Loki is very kind towards him, actually, until the other giants come and find them and demand that Loki hand over Drrf.... so they can eat him. So Loki's all like 'have at thee' (literally, he says that) and goes to defend Drrf, and is casting a spell to embiggen himself ("go big or go home." he seems to be back to Young Avengers speaking in runes for spells.) to even the playing field, (so apparently I was right that he would maybe want to increase his size, but Pym Particles not required) but Drrf grabs his arm and gets embiggened instead, along with the pot cover, which he uses as a shield to protect both himself and Loki. Giants leave, and Loki says he has a proposition for Drrf. From the captions and following dialogue from the giants, it seems he has anointed Drrf and has protected him with a magic shield. Captions also say that 'the smallest of the giants' which i presume means Drrf would sit at the right hand of the throne, so i think Loki made him his assistant/advisor. It also says that he would be a 'New kind of king. a new kind of god. One who rules not by the blade. But by the shield.' so it seems like Loki's main focus is less about attacking and more about defending.

    And there was some weeeeeird hints here, which I presume has to do with that House of Ideas thing in issue 3. Loki seems to be.... detached from time? Some time weirdness is happening in any case, he says 'time is about to get a bit fuzzy' for him. He also mentions a 'she' that owed him a favour. So I wonder what that's all about. As I said, the House of Ideas thing seems the most likely explanation here, but I can't say for certain what exactly it means. and I mean i guess that's the idea, it's a tease, not an explanation.

    Also, he made mention of Giant-Man, so there's that.
    end of spoilers

    Also read Thor. And though i do still think Balder could fit, and this may be a red herring, it appears they went with the more obvious choice for the new "Loki".

    spoilers:
    Malekith. So he arrives in Hel, and is greeted by Hela and Karnilla, and they have some special plans for him. They trot out the portion of his soul that remains uncorrupted, taking the form of a child version of himself, as we saw in Loki's afterlife issue, complete with wheelbarrow full of body parts. They lash the older version up, stitch he eyes open, and make him watch t as they unleash his own hounds and winged tiger on that part of his soul.... to play with him for eternity. Much to Malekith's horror, naturally. So though it has a twist, this is so obviously his bound in a cave with a snake punishment, and to top it off, they even gave him his own Kid Malekith. so many Loki boxes checked. So i don't think we've seen the last of Malekith, and once the dust has settled and everything looks like it's going well, I am betting he will escape and come gunning for Asgard. The one thing he lacks is a familial connection, but as I thhink on it, since it was Loki that created the war that shaped Malekith, there is still a personal connection of sorts between him and Loki specifically, which could kind of fulfill that requirement.

    Or as i said, this may be a red herring, and Balder may end up being the brother that burns the earth. We'll see which it is, both kinda seem equally likely to me now.

    Loki only had 2 panels in the issue, but we did see Freyja rush to Laufey's corpse, relieved that Loki is alive, wanting to see him, but he'd already gone back to Jotunheim. Balder was there though, and told her that Loki had saved Midgard, he seemed to be in some shock about this. Freyja did call Loki "hero of the realms" which adds another point to the 'new Thor' evidence.
    end of spoilers

    Overall while nothing in either issue was anything bad in regards to Loki, i still am kind of disappointed that we haven't seen any of Loki interacting with his family. We know Freyja is at least relieved he is alive and WANTS to see him, but I actually want to SEE that happen.

    Also, minor thing, i note that the scales were not drawn on his armor in the Omega issue, which wouldn't me a huge deal, except the colourist filled in the area as if it were cloth rather than scales, but they are drawn in the issue #1 preview pages, so i guess that is a side benefit of doing an issue like this which isn't technically part of the book, but is done by the creators, in that it gives them a bit of time to work out the kinks on getting the details of the art right or the character voice. I also felt Kibblesmith's Loki was a little bland compared to Aaron or Ewing's take, but that may just take him a little while to find his voice, but there was nothing bad there either, it just lacked that hint of playful snark to an extent.
    Last edited by Raye; 07-10-2019 at 03:16 AM.

  6. #636
    Spectacular Member Karabaja's Avatar
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    I liked Thor better than Omega, as in whole issue and Loki-wise. Somehow, the characters are more...in character. And I loved Freya's reaction, even if they didn't interact.
    spoilers:

    I have the feeling that the end of Loki's story in Omega foreshadows Drrf to become the next king ov Jotunheim after Loki, and quite soon to that. But I might be misinterpreting it.
    end of spoilers

  7. #637
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    Like i said, maybe it will just take a little time for Kibblesmith to find his voice. Also, while there should be an effort made to keep characters, you know, in character, every writer has their own voice for a character, and after having Aaron's Loki (and Duggan to a lesser extent) being our primary voice for the character for the past few years, it will probably be a bit of an adjustment. Ewing's Loki was different from Gillen's, Aaron's was different from Ewing's, and Kibblesmith will likewise have his own take. My problems wit it are fairly minor, just as i said a little bland and maybe a bit too nice, but I am willing to give it a few issues for him to find the voice. Duggan found it by the end there, and he started off way more off the mark.

    And you may be right, though I think Drrf really counts as the 'smallest' frost giant, he's way smaller than Loki is, i think the 'shield there' is referring to Loki shielding Drrf from harm, rather than the fact that Drrf has a shield. Though it would be a way for Loki to not end up tied to Jotunheim permanently.

    edited to add - one thing i found interesting is the captions, though. While his dialogue i mostly normal, the captions break the fourth wall pretty heavily. It's like he's reading the page and commenting on it. he did this a bit in Agent of Asgard, too, but it seems kinda more heavy handed here.

    BTW. Loki's comment about needing a blade, and yeah Jarnbjorn is cool and all, and I do like what it says in terms of Thor trusting him with it, and also more 'new Thor' points, but I think a sword suits him better, and it may finally be an opportunity to have an actual Norse style sword in the hands of one of the Asgardians. a minor pet peeve of mine is that every time they have a sword, it's a generic fantasy or high medieval southern style broad or longsword, when the Norse had rather distinctive and beautifully crafted swords. I personally would love to see something like this:



    or (for a modern recreation in the same style, but less ornate)



    with a blade like this (though minus the unfortunate blotches on the outside edge where the darker metal ended up showing through):



    Gram had a cool pattern welded blade (though something more like this rather than the serpent pattern above) but the hilt and pommel were more southern style. I just want a full on Norse sword in the books, just once.
    Last edited by Raye; 07-10-2019 at 11:15 AM.

  8. #638
    Kinky Lil' Canine Snoop Dogg's Avatar
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    That Malekith story is my favorite thing. My faaaaaaaaavorite thing. But Luigi was tight, too. I like how he got the axe! Excited for young Drrf to join the executive cabinet and help Loki figure out foreign policy.
    I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate

  9. #639
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    The giants trying to interact with the dwarves would be especially amusing, I think. or the light elves just because they embody everything the Frost giants hate.

  10. #640
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    btw. we must discuss this cover for next issue of Thor. specifically the happy family gathering to the right



    like, at first you're like awwww, they're finally a happy family.... and Loki's with them and they're a family and it's nice. And then you notice... NO BALDER. he's not even off to the side with Angela or something. Throg and Screwbeard made the cut, but no Balder. Odin's holding a picture of Tyr.... but no Balder.

    poor Balder. Left on the sidelines again

    (I do get the impression this may be a gatefold cover, so he may actually be to the right of Loki and just got cut off on the preview of the cover.... but still. that still means he never made the main group of the family on the section of the cover that's on the front of the issue)
    Last edited by Raye; 07-10-2019 at 03:21 PM.

  11. #641
    Uncanny Member Digifiend's Avatar
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    Whoops. 12 pages from Loki #1 were in some copies of Age of X-Man: Apocalypse and the X-Tracts #5.
    https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/...f_the/etgwe7a/
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  12. #642
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    Quote Originally Posted by Digifiend View Post
    Whoops. 12 pages from Loki #1 were in some copies of Age of X-Man: Apocalypse and the X-Tracts #5.
    https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/...f_the/etgwe7a/
    Has anyone found any scans of these?

    That is a weird book for that to happen with.

  13. #643
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    It's a printing error, it's essentially random which books it happens with. I bet Marvel is not pleased, they had over half an issue spoiled for some readers, it will probably leak, (though at least it is not the whole issue) and will need to have them reprinted.

  14. #644
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    Quote Originally Posted by Raye View Post
    It's a printing error, it's essentially random which books it happens with. I bet Marvel is not pleased, they had over half an issue spoiled for some readers, it will probably leak, (though at least it is not the whole issue) and will need to have them reprinted.
    It's a really weird printing hour. All I can guess was that someone was reading them both at once and mustbhave accidentally saved it wrong.

  15. #645
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    I read some of his lines with a very (very) dry humor, mostly the parts about being a hero (though that may well be reader's interpretation, dry humor is especially hard to convey well in writing). Mostly because suddenly becoming a hero like this and saying "yup, I'm a hero now" seems a bit funny, but hey, it's working! And I imagine Loki would be in on that joke. We'll see if that's the case, though.

    The nice thing is bugging me. I've been pretty much on board for Loki being a hero, but I somehow didn't expect him to be all nice. Part of my problem is how sudden the shift seems. I keep having to remind myself it's a different writer and thus a different person's vision, not a case of character development done offscreen. Maybe Kibblesmith did want to manage expectations and show that this is a changed Loki, it just seems very jarring in contrast to Aaron's Loki.

    Loki came out of that issue "reading" very heroic (Heroic, with a capital, even!). That I'm fine with (you don't have to be nice to be a hero imo, so these two points aren't in conflict according to my own internal logic). spoilers:

    He saved Drrf from the other Frost Giants (it seemed to me like he somehow knew where he had to be and what he had to do, which adds additional ammo to the time shenanigan question). Then, there was the symbolism of ruling not by the sword but by the shield. Note: I liked this part, I thought it was a cool twist to an old concept that conveyed its message to the audience while making a nice soundbite. (By which I mean, I really liked it!) The whole concept of protecting and defending instead of ruling through aggression and fear is very heroic and an interesting look for Loki.
    end of spoilers

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