Loki Appreciation 2019

[Raye]

Drrf isn't a kid, he's just.... small. But yeah, he's not really equipped to deal with giants who are 10 times his size, and tend towards violence, so in that respect Frosti may be what's called for, except i think it's pretty likely he's going to go all insane AI on Loki. Sure, he's not run by a computer, but the basic idea is still the same. And I dunno if it was just cus he was drunk that he yelled at Drrf, I think he had sobered up a fair bit by then. I think he's just, you know, frustrated, and not very nice sometimes.

And I still think this is the exact same future as sen in Aaron's stuff, i just really, really don't think they would create a different alternate future literally a month before King Thor comes out, wrapping that all up, considering it's the end of Aaron's run. That would just create a lot of unnecessary confusion, when there's a perfectly good (well, not good, but... for our purposes) Asgard focused alt future one book over. I think this will tie into King Thor, and builds on previous teases. And the reason this 'Thor' doesn't quite line up with King Thor is because it's not Thor, it's Loki, but in Thor's role. It all fits with previous teases, how WotR went, and the role musical chairs. Loki in the present day may not realize he just landed in that role, (much to everyone's shock, including his own, I'm sure) but that may be why Thor is showing him this, so he knows what his role actually is right now, and what it will mean for him. I just think Thor probably will see it in a somewhat different light than Loki. Thor probably sees this (dying aside) as a very unambiguously good thing for Loki, but Loki may have problems with it. We'll see. But as we've seen with fans, he really does come across more as Thor there than as Loki, which I have a hard time believing Loki would be ok with.

anyway:


Though previously announced as a boss, they announced today that Loki will indeed be a playable character in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, so that's nice!

[Karabaja]

Drrf's age confuses me. The giant said he's no boy, but he sure has the proportions of a child, and he was announced as "a baby" on twitter, if I remember right. Maybe he is a child, but old enough in frost giant culture to carry a weapon and engage in a battle?

[rpmaluki]

Loki said Drrf beat his record of being small. He must be even smaller in stature that Loki would have been at his age had Odin never taken him to Asgard. I don't think he's a child in the true sense but due to his height disadvantage, he engages in more fun compared to the more aggressive, warring activities of his big counterparts because he is such an outcast.

[Karabaja]

It's not his size or behaviour that makes me see him as a child, it's his head-to-body and face-to-cranium proportions. Ah well, I'm a health care worker, so I'm probably nitpicking on behalf of it.

[Snoop Dogg]

drrf is a millennial, the avocado toast is why he's so smol, HE NEEDS TO EAT

LOKI, BUY YOUR CHIEF OF STAFF A MIDGARD BORGAR

[rpmaluki]

It's not his size or behaviour that makes me see him as a child, it's his head-to-body and face-to-cranium proportions. Ah well, I'm a health care worker, so I'm probably nitpicking on behalf of it.

Chances are being born small for a frost giant is a health issue of sorts. So you may not really be far off, though I doubt it will ever be expounded upon.

[Regular man]

hahaha the two giants will never find a way to use the ax itself to divide it into two parts. But since they like to make Loki's life impossible, I'm sure they'll find the way, it won't be the last time we see those 3, but Frostii could do the magic and ... ops disappeared (eaten) problems for Loki.
this series started well, we feel the care for the character of Loki, I think our fears that Loki is not himself in this role have disappeared. Thor as always amazes me, his insensitivity is really strong, he has undoubtedly taken from Odin, the fact of being eaten alive will not pass easily to Loki, and Thor even knowing for what he has passed does not conceive how mentally unstable Loki is, this new fear of Loki will be seen in the # 3 issue. I like the reference of the snake of mythology, it made me remember this comic free released in the 2018 , where we see the reason why Odin is to be despised.
http://https://mobilestore.marvel.com/Free-Comic-Book-Day-2018-Avengers-Captain-America-1/digital-comic/47543

[Karabaja]

Yes, in that comic Loki says that Odin had him bound to a rock with his dead son's guts, as in myths, but back in the comics he was restrained with regular iron chains, and no child of his was shown to having been harmed. So this is probably a continuity error.

[Rosebunse]

It's not his size or behaviour that makes me see him as a child, it's his head-to-body and face-to-cranium proportions. Ah well, I'm a health care worker, so I'm probably nitpicking on behalf of it.

No, you're absolutely right, he really does have proportions closer to a child, especially with his big head and eyes. Evdn if he isn't supposed to be a child, the creative team knows that we're going to view him as being fairly young because of it.

hahaha the two giants will never find a way to use the ax itself to divide it into two parts. But since they like to make Loki's life impossible, I'm sure they'll find the way, it won't be the last time we see those 3, but Frostii could do the magic and ... ops disappeared (eaten) problems for Loki.
this series started well, we feel the care for the character of Loki, I think our fears that Loki is not himself in this role have disappeared. Thor as always amazes me, his insensitivity is really strong, he has undoubtedly taken from Odin, the fact of being eaten alive will not pass easily to Loki, and Thor even knowing for what he has passed does not conceive how mentally unstable Loki is, this new fear of Loki will be seen in the # 3 issue. I like the reference of the snake of mythology, it made me remember this comic free released in the 2018 , where we see the reason why Odin is to be despised.
http://https://mobilestore.marvel.com/Free-Comic-Book-Day-2018-Avengers-Captain-America-1/digital-comic/47543

I'm not sure the snake and organ punishment is a continuity issue as defined by Marvel. It could have happened in some Ragnorak cycle.

Besides, the punishment still involved Loki being chained up and poison being poured into his eyes. That still sucks.

Thor is insensitive, but part of the issue does come from Loki. Thor gas seen Loki at his worse, so for right now, he may just not really see Loki's current behavior as being that different than how he always is.

[Prof. Aegis]

I agree that Drrf isn't really the right one to be left running the kingdom while Loki was out. I'm not sure how "old" Drrf is supposed to be but yeah, he does appear to be young based upon his behavior. (yeah, I do agree his head to body proportions seems off as well). It really was more of an adult leaving a kid to be in charge, thinking that nothing would go wrong and they'd be able to do what was needed, without thinking about the experience and abilities that the adult has learned and grown with. Being upset at Drrf for telling Thor? That's where Loki was thinking as he was talking to another adult who could cover for him and not to a kid who would be in awe and thinking he's telling a good person that could help. Drrf wasn't trying to get Loki in trouble, but was thinking Thor would be of help. Makes total sense.

Yeah, I so see Frosti going all mad AI and tearing up Jotunheim in the name of protecting the King and his rule. This will turn out to be bad. Speaking of his rule, I'm kind of surprised that Loki hasn't started to want to change the look of Jotunheim. Updating it, modernizing it, I can totally see Loki wanting to do that. It would show him as a big time king and show how he changed them to his style, so to speak. Not saying it would work well, since the people of the realm have always been shown to be very simple and warlike, but I could see Loki trying this.

As for the future Thor, for me, I do see Kibblesmith bringing in a different future, even with Aaron's King Thor storyline in play. As the story goes, it makes the reader question what's going on, and brings a bit of confusion connected to the King Thor developments. Current Thor even states how it's not his future and must be a trick. But maybe it has bigger implications on the overall story. Plus the name UnFather...new title. I'm intrigued by this and can see this being something that develops over several issues. For that matter, where was Future Thor and for that matter, perhaps it is Future Loki trying to get too? Loki? Balder? Angela? And where is Future Thor/Loki that the Richard kids found him? And perhaps this is a connection to the first issue cover and to the Omega issue when Loki talks about being worthy to lift Mjolnir....perhaps in this other future timeline, Loki is the worthy one.

Yeah this first issue threw a variety of things out there in various ways. I like how Kibblesmith is starting out and the art has been great!

[Raye]

As for the proportions on Drrf, i mean he (and Loki, for that matter) essentially has a type of dwarfism. And there are certain types of dwarfism in real life that give a person child-like proportions into adulthood, think of Gary Coleman, for instance, who was able to play a child well into adulthood. So, while real life genetics probably don't strictly apply since giants are at least in part creatures of magic and all, if Loki and Drrf are both dwarfs, they are kind of different types. Loki being a type that makes him smaller than normal, but in a proportionate way, (and also, he uses a magic disguise, so he may be hiding more than just his skin and eye colour) while Drrf has a type that makes him small and also disproportionate, leading to a larger head and child-like proportions etc.

And I am still going with this being the same future as seen in Aaron's Thor stuff. The thing with that future is that it deals with a MASSIVE timescale, one many times longer than the entirety of human history to date, even if you go all the way back to caveman times, and as far as the future goes, we've mostly only seen the very tail end of it. If you mapped it to the span of a day, everything from caveman times to the present MU is like an hour or so, with the entirety of the span of time the comics cover, from FF#1 to the present, taking up a few seconds of that. And the King Thor time that we've seen, even including all the hefty time jumps between God Bomb and Doom attacking, we've maybe seen a minute or so worth. There are still many, many hours in the middle completely unaccounted for. The middle bit, the part we are seeing here, is pretty much only hinted at until now. And this allows for Loki to fill very different roles at different points in that future.

The way I see it, it goes something like this: Things go more or less smoothly for an indeterminate span of time. Sure there may be some bumps and threats to vanquish and all, but they always come out on top. During this time, the person destined for Loki's role begins to show themselves as being in that role. Given the huge time frame, it may be more than one character, it may start out as Malekith, while Balder slowly grows into that role and ends up taking over later on. But in any case, sooner or later Balder does his heel turn. It may be hundreds of years off, or even thousands, (the kids in that final page were not Reed's kids, one of them was called 'Izzy' not Franklin or Val. They might have been Future Foundation many generations off, but I think it more likely that they were just supposed to be wearing generic 'future' clothing) but he turns heel and comes gunning for Loki. In the process, the Earth gets wrecked, and Loki "dies" but in actuality goes into hiding. The final page we saw in Loki #1 is the final confrontation. Many more years pass, millions of years, and Gorr ends up in the future and the whole God Bomb mess happens. But in the years prior to that, there are literally millions of years unaccounted for with Loki. If Loki went though his entire character development from turning heel to face in the span of what, a thousand years? what kind of character development could happen with MILLIONS of years? Literally his entire life up until now times a thousand or more? He could turn heel to face and back a gain hundreds of times over in that time. Then King Thor vanquishes Galactus and Ego ends up with the Necrosword, and Loki goes to get it, which takes another hundred years, during which time new life is started on Earth and Doom attacks etc. and then Loki goes back for Thor, which is I presume the bit we will see in the King Thor book. But Loki's book deals with the middle bit of all that, where the earth got wrecked millions of years prior. so you can have Loki as the villain at the end of time AND as the hero in the middle, and it is still the same future, just different points along the way.

The thing that may throw a wrench in things is Agent of Asgard, where it kind of showed that Loki wrecked the world. But there are two explanations there that I can think of: King Loki was lying. OR, and I think this fits better, is that the broad strokes of fate are fixed, and it's going to end up with the earth wrecked no matter what, but rather than fate being tied to the individuals, and guiding those particular characters towards a certain destination, it is tied to the roles. So the end destination is always the same, with the All-Father alone at the end of time with his granddaughters (who clearly embody the 3 core roles at play here, as well, and I think will end up taking them up after King Thor is gone) and the 'sharpening stone' killed the 'sword' and destroyed the world in the process, leaving the All-Father as the sole survivor. But in King Loki's version he was the 'sharpening stone', and the 'sword' was.... someone else, we don't know who. could have been Thor, could have been Balder, or someone else. But now, Loki has jumped to the 'sword' role, so while the events will still generally play out the same, it's no longer him personally that enacts them, it's whoever takes his place as the 'sharpening stone'. and I think Balder fits that the best.

[Frontier]

anyway:


Though previously announced as a boss, they announced today that Loki will indeed be a playable character in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, so that's nice!

Excited to hear Jason Spisak as Loki .

[Prof. Aegis]

Raye - Yeah, I can see how it could be the same King Thor storyline with Loki somewhere in the middle of the thousands of years and he pops up then to warn. That makes sense on keeping within the time line Aaron set up. I'm looking forward to seeing this story unfold and what this future aspect is about. And it'll be interesting to see if the King Thor series will have any connections here and vice versa.

Me personally, I'm not for Loki being the big bad guy for the sake that it's been his role. It's one of the reasons I have enjoyed the JiM and AoA series so much is that they brought new dimensions and depth to Loki to break him out of that simplistic role and superficial character. So here's hoping that Aaron will take these concepts and expand upon them in the King Thor series and not just revert to simple Thor - Hero, Loki - Villain. But, we'll see.

[Raye]

That's part of the reason I like the idea of the fates being tied to the roles rather than the person. It means Loki isn't doomed to be the villain no matter what, even if that role he occupied and pretty much came to define until recently is that of a villain. It may be difficult to do, but if he can step out of that role an into another, then it means he doesn't need to fight fate itself to not be the villain, he just has to stay away from that role, make sure he doesn't become 'worthy' of it again. But on the downside, it seems the role may shape the character, to an extent. It may be a slow process, I don't think it's like a lightswitch moment of all of a sudden he begins acting/dressing all Thor-ish, but judging by the future, where Thor has become more Odin-like and apparently Loki has become more Thor-like, it does influence them over time. I don't think he'd like that much, I think he'd want to retain what makes him him. But if given a choice, i think he'd still probably choose the Thor role right now.

[Rosebunse]

I guess my fear is the writers. It's always felt like we need a Loki replacement. And to be fair, other characters have been used and used well, but it still feels like we need something more official.

But hin potentially going bad has always been sort of the fun here.

Also, I really want to see Loki in pajamas next.