So it's not time travel in Loki, or even a power, really, so much as it is that he gets additional story pages to fill, meaning he can fit more time/events into his life. In the House of Ideas, they have books for all the characters, and some have more books than others for various reasons, which allows them to fit more events into a single lifetime. It may in effect appear to be like time traveling if he's filling in story pages that take place in the past, but then again, Loki doesn't seem to remember the meeting. They say no one who has struck this deal (Thor, Wolverine, and Spider-Man mentioned specifically) does. Though apparently Thor never struck a deal, he was just given extra pages 'cus he's Thor. In any case, they give Loki extra pages/time after he wins a trial by chess, (I suspect just a formality to make him think this was legit) so that he can fulfill his duties in Jotunheim and also do adventures on Midgard and be a hero, and send him on his way. Loki seems to realize this is probably not the best idea he's ever had, but he's bored. After he's gone, they mention that he will have his story written as a hero, with a heroes death that 'not even he would dare return from' so it would seem they want him to die, they're just doing it in a way that he gets the death, and life preceding it, that he wants. I don't think they are being malevolent here, or targeting Loki for personal reasons, i think they are just trying to protect the future in the best way they are able, and in the great game of chess of the MU, Loki is a sacrificial pawn. At least they're letting him go out a hero. I suspect this is how it connects with what we see in King Thor, maybe. Like, maybe to prevent him from doing all that bad stuff in the future, just kill him instead. But then again, well... I was hoping this might iron things over there, but... at best it seems it will just ensure it never happens. Also, since it is not actual time travel (at least not yet, the solicit for 5 seems to imply it may end up being that) or even future knowledge, then it doesn't really address the times he's popped up with those odd cryptic hints about the future.
Anyway, Loki gets sent back out into the world, and wakes up in a fountain outside of Stark tower, his memories of events all fuzzy, and the timeline is strange, because he got sucked IN to the house of ideas after his meeting with Thor, and exited after his meeting with tony, so time is definitely wonky there, but i guess that's to be expected. It seems to imply that maybe the meeting with Tony was more their doing than his. Anyway, then the sun goes dark, and Nightmare comes for him, says some things that play to Loki's fears, mostly that he's afraid of people knowing about the fate of Kid Loki (though at this point, I kinda think that ship has sailed, to be honest, Thor and the other Asgardians know, as well as the Young Avengers, so...) and then he convinces Loki that he never escaped Laufey's gut, and the final page is back to WotR, and him being digested. Which we know isn't true, but given the odd dream sequence Loki experienced while that was happening, it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to think that he just slipped into a new dream to escape the trauma.
and then King Thor... honestly this was just disappointing to me, at least as far as Loki was concerned. It seemed like he just wanted this fight at the end of time so that Thor and Loki could die in a way that mirrored Knull and that other god, when Gorr stole the Necrosword in the first place. And it just kind of went all in with Loki being just bad at his core and irredeemable. It may be that the next issue reveals some twist that changes that, (I suspect the next issue is actually going to be a flashback to the end of the world... the first one) but as it stands right now, it just seems to be brushing everything aside that was done with Loki, which is disappointing. |