Loki Appreciation 2019

[Raye]

Hmmm....so Loki has to show up in this series some how right? I mean it's a school of magic.

Here...https://www.cbr.com/marvel-doctor-st...school-teaser/

We'll learn more in the coming weeks.

On the one hand, yeah you'd expect all of Marvel's magic types to at least make an appearance, and any good Hogwarts ripoff needs a Slytherin around, and Loki's the Slytherinest Marvel character out there, right down to his favourite colour. Loki's also actually done more teaching of magic than pretty much anyone else, having taught both Wiccan and Zelma. (who is also likely to appear as the school librarian, which, if Loki is there, much to Strange's chagrin, may rekindle things there, even tho i am still holding out hope for Raz) the motto on the emblem seems to fit Loki well, too. But on the other hand, if Strange is running it, I have trouble seeing him approaching Loki for it after the whole God of Magic deal.

[Regular man]

On the one hand, yeah you'd expect all of Marvel's magic types to at least make an appearance, and any good Hogwarts ripoff needs a Slytherin around, and Loki's the Slytherinest Marvel character out there, right down to his favourite colour. Loki's also actually done more teaching of magic than pretty much anyone else, having taught both Wiccan and Zelma. (who is also likely to appear as the school librarian, which, if Loki is there, much to Strange's chagrin, may rekindle things there, even tho i am still holding out hope for Raz) the motto on the emblem seems to fit Loki well, too. But on the other hand, if Strange is running it, I have trouble seeing him approaching Loki for it after the whole God of Magic deal.

in the book a student is an ice giant, I don't think they don't show a page of Loki. Then there are the Asgardian boys, they seem friendly with the jotun, which also seems positive to me and this means that Asgard is opening up a little in the world.

[Raye]

Where did you see this? Cus if there are frost giant students, even if they did not show Loki directly that is a huge sign that he will likely be in it.

Edit - NM, found it https://www.marvel.com/articles/comi...trange-academy

So yeah, he's not in the pages, nor is he mentioned in the guest teachers, so I think his role will probably be small, but the frost giant student does kinda point to him making at least a cameo appearance, and Loki WAS the one who restored magic as Voodoo mentioned.

[dr4conianlaw]

He could still end up a guest teacher at some point... just not one who was, yknow, invited ;P

[Raye]

yeah, like Regular Man said there is a frost giant and some Asgardians among the cast of characters (who, i would think are the ACTUAL stars of the book rather than the teachers, but you know) so he has to be at least aware of it, since i would assume they had to negotiate some sort of arrangement for the frost giant to go there at all, especially considering what happened during WotR pretty recently. And as king of Jotunheim, Loki would be the one doing the arranging, and I think Loki would have an interest in encouraging magic learning among the giants if they wanted to. Obviously they are capable of doing quite high end magic if they put their mind to it, since Loki is a very powerful sorcerer and is a frost giant, but they were not exactly encouraged to pursue it.

but... like i said above I don't think Strange likes Loki much so... but I do feel better that he will appear in somce capacity for at least an arc, especially if the students do some kind of thing related to the magic of Asgard/Jotunheim/10 realms in an arc or something like that. Also, Zelma is there and she likes Loki, I mean sure she was mad at him for lying, but he did also save her life, and Strange did worse to her and she seems to be over that.

[Regular man]

it's nice to see Loki, but here it seems that they want to put him as bad and I don't like the thing

https://t.co/r94OhzhevU

yeah, like Regular Man said there is a frost giant and some Asgardians among the cast of characters (who, i would think are the ACTUAL stars of the book rather than the teachers, but you know) so he has to be at least aware of it, since i would assume they had to negotiate some sort of arrangement for the frost giant to go there at all, especially considering what happened during WotR pretty recently. And as king of Jotunheim, Loki would be the one doing the arranging, and I think Loki would have an interest in encouraging magic learning among the giants if they wanted to. Obviously they are capable of doing quite high end magic if they put their mind to it, since Loki is a very powerful sorcerer and is a frost giant, but they were not exactly encouraged to pursue it.

but... like i said above I don't think Strange likes Loki much so... but I do feel better that he will appear in somce capacity for at least an arc, especially if the students do some kind of thing related to the magic of Asgard/Jotunheim/10 realms in an arc or something like that. Also, Zelma is there and she likes Loki, I mean sure she was mad at him for lying, but he did also save her life, and Strange did worse to her and she seems to be over that.

it seems strange to see Zelma helping Strange with the school, you know Steven (Doctor Strange # 385) put a spell on Zelma that was about to kill her if it wasn't for Loki ( who also safe Midgard’s magic )
I hope that with this new series they will give more solid foundations for the magic of the world of Marvel, which sometimes bothers me as they try to leave everything too little explained

[Raye]

NICE! and keep in mind Star is a villain, she got her start being a baddie in Captain Marvel, where she tried to kill Carol. So if he's fighting her that's a good thing, he's fighting a bad guy! And Titania has also turned face, she and Creel are working with Gamma Flight, which supports this. Star may be trying to turn over a new leaf, but Loki and Titania may not know that, last we saw her she was locked up in the Raft, from their perspective she's an escaped violent criminal who got ahold of an Infinity Stone. (what is it with the Infinity Stones going after people in prison?) Hell, that may be why Loki was there in issue 5. Also, it appears he is taking the Reality Stone from her, so if it chose her as it's host, and he's still on his Infinity Watch deal... anyway, I am a big fan of Kelly Thompson, so I have faith she'll do him right. She had clearly read at the very least the Loki arc in Dr Strange, based on some stuff in Jessica Jones, and with all she's done with Kate Bishop I think it's a pretty safe bet she read Young Avengers, so I know she's aware of his current status.

and Zelma has popped up a few times in Dr Strange since then, she hasn't quite forgiven Strange, but she did end up going to go help the Ancient One, and since the Ancient One is here, I think she's here more for him than she is for Strange.

[Regular man]

I pray that is a good thing then but Verity is in a worse situation, hell because they canceled the comic just when she reappeared again

[Raye]

I'm sure it will be fine. A major theme running through her Captain Marvel run has been people learning from mistakes/failure, and doing better next time, so I suspect this Star story will continue that. Like, not everyone has that arc, some of the baddies are absolutely unrepentant, but a lot of the characters do have it, including Carol herself. Having Loki, Titania, and Scarlet Witch there could be intended to show Star that she doesn't have to be defined in the future by what she did in the past, if they could change, so could she. Loki may only be there for one issue, he (and Titania) never got mentioned in the solicits, while Scarlet Witch did, so he may only be in it briefly, but even if he only appears for a little bit, the theme still fits for all 3 of them, they've all made mistakes in the past and are trying to do better now. Loki and Titania much more recently than Wanda, but still. My only little worry is that when Kelly Thompson writes Thor, she writes him as more out of touch with modern stuff than a lot of other people do, and his speech is more old fashioned too, and I don't really want that for Loki, but it's a minor thing.

Verity... yeah, we'll just have to wait and see there. But I somehow doubt editorial would have approved that final issue if she was just going to be dropped again, but we'll just have to see if Cates or maybe Ewing picks up that thread. At least now we know she is alive, her status in that regard was iffy for a long time with the way Agent of Asgard ended and her still being all ghost-y.

[Karabaja]

It would be great if Cates had Verity appear at least occasionaly.
I'm not worried about that Star cover. I'm more worried about the way Loki turns out to be in Thor's book. From the look of it, they will continue to get along like cat and dog.

[Raye]

That's in interior page, actually, I am not sure if it means Titania and Loki are working together (i mean he has history with her husband, so never know, Creel may make an appearance as well) or if they just coincidentally both decided to go after her, but either way, it seems like Titania knocked her int the alley and Loki teleports in to magic the stone out of her chest. I'm sure he won't ultimately be successful, or there's not much to do with the remaining 4 issues, but...

And come to think of it, since she does have the Reality stone, it may actually be her that's responsible for Carol's dark turn last issue, and as a consequence of that, Thor's (temporary, obviously) death. I mean, the Vox were the ones behind it in the issue, but... it may still fit. Carol literally beheaded him. It explains how the death of the Avengers can be undone later, and it fits Star's motivation, she resents superheroes, she thinks their presence makes people reliant on them, weak and unable to defend themselves, so thinks they need to be killed. (well, sort of, what she says and what she does don't quite match. her grand plot involved playing the part of a superhero, and that's what she said after the facade dropped, right before she started draining people like a bunch of batteries, and smacked a small child to the ground so... clearly she doesn't actually value regular people that much any more, and wasn't above playing pretend superhero herself, but that seems to be how she started on this path regardless) If Star altered reality, and in that altered reality it means Thor (and the rest of the Avengers, but mostly Thor) are killed, don't you think Loki might have some pretty good motivation to attack her? hell, maybe all the more prominent heroes are dead like she wanted, or at least most of them, so that's why it has to be Loki and Titania to save the day.

And I think Thor's just being grumpy, he seems to just be in a foul mood. At least the hammer didn't actually HIT Loki. I don't think they will ever be bestest friends, there is too much baggage there, and they are too different, I expect they will always argue but I still hope they'll work together.

[Rosebunse]

So I'm a weirdo and I always thought this song from Tangled sort of fit Loki, especially when he's having a sort-of good day.

Star is the villain, isn't she? And Loki has plenty of good reason to want to attack her. And more than that, Loki has been shown to be seemingly immune to the Infinity Stones. Well, not immune-immune, but he can work around them much differently than the other characters. That makes him a legitimate choice for this.

[Rosebunse]

I totally forgot that I already posted that vid.

[Raye]

I've never watched the show before, but yeah, that song seems to fit him pretty well right now!

and yes, Star is a villain, or i mean, she's only been in a few issues, and she started out just an ordinary woman, or at least she appeared to be. And straight up villain stories are kind of hard to do, so my guess is that she will have a change of heart, but last we saw her, she was being a pretty awful person.

TLDR version of events is that she was a reporter named Ripley Ryan, who was going to do a writeup on Carol, and follow her around for a bit. But just as that was starting, Carol is attacked, and Ripley is kidnapped through a portal into an area that's stuck in a time dilation bubble, where time moves waaaay slow compared to outside the bubble. By the time Carol gets in there, months have passed and the baddie has created a dictatorship and like Spider-Woman and some others are a rebellion protecting a bunch of normies. yadayadayada stuff happens, time dilation bubble falls, everyone is free. But while just a day or so passed outside, months passed inside the bubble, and in those months, Ripley snapped. She lived in constant terror for months and months, while the supers dealt with stuff, and it made her feel weak and helpless, and did not like that. So once back in the real world, when given the opportunity to be given super powers (by Carol's old foe Dr Minerva) she jumped at it, so she would not feel weak any more. Then she starts playing hero, while at the same time releasing info about Carol's Kree parentage which really hurts Carol's reputation, while Star herself is the brand new hero in town and is becoming super popular. But unbeknownst to Carol, she is draining Carol's power via a weird Kree virus/device/thing to power herself up, (something Carol particularly hates due to her past with Rogue) yadayada more stuff happens, then Carol finds Dr Minerva attacked and left for dead, but she pulls through with Tony's help. She tells Carol what she had done, that she is the one who gave Star her powers, but Star betrayed her, and that Star is being powered by draining Carol. Carol goes to confront her, the hero facade drops, she says she wants to kill Carol and other superheroes etc. Carol prevents Star from draining her, by removing the device from her own chest, but Star reveals that she has put the virus into the water supply and like everyone in New York has one of those devices in them, and she begins draining from like, the whole city, everyone is collapsing and they're gonna die, so Carol puts the device back to prevent them from dying, and ends things by removing STAR's device, so she's depowered. They cart her off to the raft for attempting to kill Carol and most of the population of New York, and then the Reality stone finds her...

So yeah. After that, it's pretty public knowledge that Star is in fact a bad guy, and Loki would know that, because her reveal was very public. And since the whole Infinity Watch with the Time Gem, I think it makes good sense for him to try and make sure the Reality Stone is in good hands, and that someone who had like just nearly killed hundreds of thousands of people is probably not "good hands". But he also knows well that people can try to change their ways, so it may be that she is able to convince him she wants to turn face and he will let her make the attempt.

Speaking of characters making turns, I was thinking today about what I speculated before about Balder maybe being the next "Loki" and I think that's still likely on the table, considering it was one of the teases Loki dropped at the end of his series, and the fact that Cates does seem to be working with the whole roles that must always be filled thing from Aaron's run. I mean, Thor is still all-father, and he's even giving Thor Hugin and Munin, he set up Sif as filling Heimdall's job (tho yes, I realize that one needs to be filled for practical reasons as well) so i was just thinking of the specifics, given what we have seen from Cates run. I still think Balder makes the most sense, but thinking on it today, I think I would like to see a slow burn reveal for both him and Loki, rather than Thor just kinda giving Loki Thor's old job outright kinda deal. I think it would make more sense, and be more interesting that way, where all of the characters (minus Loki i guess since he's seen the future) kinda slowly realize what is happening, along with the readers. I think Thor clearly is a bit reluctant to give up his old life, so I don't think he'd just kinda hand it over, or even realize that by becoming the All-Father he has to give up his old role. I think it would make more sense for him to want to try and do both, and take him a while to realize that if he's the All-Father, he can't also be the hero of the realms kinda deal, so I don't see him doing anything like, official there. But Loki has clearly abandoned his old role as the god of chaos, hence the 'new god of chaos' from the end of Loki's book being teased. And if he's not in his old role, he needs another one. He's decided on 'god of the outcasts', i know, which I like and I think gives him direction and something to strive for, and can still be what drives him, but I think that's more of a title than it is a role in terms of the Asgard roles kind of thing. Loki has flat out said that he wants to 'do as Thor does' by joining the Avengers, when he said that he may not have thought that would kinda make him the new 'Thor' I think he really was just kinda bored with his happily ever after, and saw it as something to do with his life, but if Thor is off doing All-Father things, and Loki is the one doing the Avengers thing on Midgard... i mean, Loki's kinda doing Thor's old job, right?

But I'm thinking, like maybe Loki helps Thor with the Black Winter, and maybe the Black Winter can be trapped like the Mother Storm was, so Thor gives Loki a weapon or something imbued with it, like Odin gave Thor Mjolnir. More of a gift/reward than a 'take my place' thing, though. And that could still act as a catalyst for Balder getting pissy about Loki being rewarded, if he's just like the third wheel yet again, left on the sidelines, as the brother who has in the past killed him gets rewarded. And he could try and poison Thor against Loki, try convince him he's not deserving of the rewards he's getting, etc. until things snowball, like maybe he tries to strike a deal with a big bad to take Loki down and it leads down a dark path or something, but I think it would just be more interesting if he just seems really justified in what he's doing, right until he goes just a bit too far, and everyone realizes that he's the bad guy, except maybe Balder himself. Basically, I don't think it should be anything official, just something that happens over the course of a few arcs. And Cates did say his second arc goes some dark places and got some shocked reactions from people, it might be that Balder doing a heel turn could do that, if he goes far enough in his actions.

[Rosebunse]

The thing about "the god of outcast" role is how that applies so much to the larger Marvel Universe. Like with being the god of stories, it seems like it could apply to a wide range of things if Cates went far enough.