so basically, Loki and Nightmare fight, but Nightmare can not find Loki's biggest fear or use it against him, because he's already living it, because he worries that he is just broken beyond repair, beyond redemption, so Loki says Nightmare should leave because they are at an impasse, neither one able to win. Nightmare instead attacks him with a stop sign, so Loki summons Jarnbjorn from the pocket dimension he keeps it in, and they fight. It looks as though Nightmare may win, but then that woman shoots Nightmare with that shotgun she went to her parents for, but it doesn't do much more than distract him. He goes to attack her, and then Loki says to let her go, but he keeps talking, about how futile this fight is and that they both know how it ends, with 'a proper hero' Dr Strange arriving or Iron Man or whoever else to kick his ass, so he proposes they fight as mortals. Put aside their godly powers and just duke it out, till the death, in a formal duel. winner takes back their original powers plus the others. But Nightmare has to turn the lights back on first. He (stupidly) agrees, and Loki tells him they will begin fighting as the clock (on the side of Stark Tower, counting down to the ANVL going online) reaches 0. so as soon as the counter reaches 0, Loki pulls out the phone he took from Tony, and tells it to start his car for him, the ANVL comes online, flies out the window and squishes Nightmare into a pudlde of goo. Winner takes all. Loki explains to the woman (sorry i forgot her name) how things went, sabotaged the car, stole the phone, etc. (tho how he knew he'd need those things right then is not explained) and he says that as a newly born mortal who had not done anything wrong in his short life, Nightmare went to heaven with the One Above All which is like torture to him, and Nightmare is furious at Loki. she then says that Nightmare had stolen her relationship, and Loki just tells her to go find her again, pick up where they left off. If they are soulmates, then they will fall in love again, and they'll still have the rest of their lives together, losing the time Nightmare stole won't be a huge deal in the end. After she leaves, there is a 'clank clank clank' as tony slow claps. Loki turns around, and Tony is there, all suited up in his armor, beside Thor. Tony says he called Thor on their 'avengers phone' and thor says Loki 'may have one soon enough' which Tony says 'you'll never touch one' but tony does say that Loki did a good thing, and doesn't seem upset that Loki wrecked his fancy new car, and Thor says that he was too hasty to scold him earlier, Loki is 'of value on Midgard.' Loki pushes the Avengers thing again, Tony's like 'no.' but then Loki says 'let's see what you say when i bring you the hammer' and tony says 'Now that i know you'll never touch. Except maybe with your face.' and they just kinda walk off kinda friendly like, which is nice. but then... we get a flash forward to the future, seen in the first issue, which is apparently taking place on a Mars colony, and Loki is not dead, and that little girl runs up to him all happy, and he tells her to run before he gets there, to destroy what's left of Midgard. 'he' turns out to be an Ultronfied Thor, who wants his hammer back. and the final caption says 'to be continued... in the future! A little sad it's Thor that went bad, but at least Ultron is there complicating things so it's not like Thor is just gone bad all on his own. Makes me wonder though if the deal Loki struck may have inadvertently caused this |