Loki Appreciation 2019

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Strange Tales #123 Aug 1964
"The Challenge of Loki!"
Dr. Strange practices the art of levitation; Meanwhile, in faraway Asgard, home of the Norse Gods, Loki, God of Mischief, plots as always;

He contacts Doctor Strange and tries to convince him that he is a prisoner of Thor, who is evil and deceiving his father;

Strange uses a spell to take Thor's hammer.

Script by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (co-plot), pencils by Steve Ditko, inks by George Roussos (as George Bell)

[Prof. Aegis]

Preview for issue 2 for next week. Loki is already looking stylin'. "Low Key" And he references himself when he goes femme. Lol Nice touches already.
https://www.cbr.com/exclusive-loki-t...-bond-villain/

[Raye]

Well, Tony's not kidding around, is he? though I doubt Loki will spend the whole issue tied up, so i presume he will be escaping momentarily. which will probably just piss Tony off more. I mean I get it, but, this still seems like overkill. Maybe Loki can tell him to give Squirrel Girl a call.

Anyway, tonight in city, I was judging our weekly costume contest, we give out 100 million inf to the winner every thursday, if you wanted to join the fun, i mean, easy money. Tonight's theme was couples and group nite so we decided to go with a theme ourselves, so had a lovely family gathering:







Thor there is A Silver Quickly, who sometimes posts here. That is more a placeholder, cus he couldn't get a good name, all the good Thor names have been taken, it seems. Anyone here have ideas for him so he can re-roll and make it for real and we can have adventures together? (he went with a Ragnarok look here but says he will do a comic costume too) there is one trick with city that may make some names possible in that upper case I's and lowercase L's look identical, so could use that to our advantage, maybe. Like, Hela there is actually HeIa. We used to run a whole team back in the beforetimes, called the Parallel Illusion that used this trick to make a horde of characters with what appeared to be the same name (and costume). So. yeah, since Thor and all usual variations on it are taken, any ideas for a clever name that will fit?

[Prof. Aegis]

Great family gathering! Wow, if all the Thor names are taken, I'm not sure what to use. Odinson? Probably taken.

[Raye]

Yeah, It's really hard to think of a name. But sure we'll come up with something. I think i was pretty lucky to snap up Loki's name when i did. He also hasn't quite decided on powersets. for attacks, He's got it narrowed down to Battle Axe for Stormbreaker or Jarnbjorn, Mace for Mjolnir, but mace is one of the more lackluster sets in the game in terms of both effectiveness and fun, Elec for full on thunder god, or Titan Weapons for a REALLY BIG Stormbreaker or Mjolnir. and defenses will be either electric armor for more thundery goodness or willpower, which is a very low key non-flashy set that just provides very good defenses.

I wonder if Loki will win over Tony in the next issue, or if he will have to leave in defeat. Also curious what exactly it is he wants to ask Tony.

btw. prepare to d'awwww...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfd7UumDEwg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sBRXEbi22Y

[Prof. Aegis]

That was f'n cute!!!!! Had me smiling and laughing the whole time. So awesome!

[rpmaluki]

Truly the cutest thing I have see Loki do. And the squeaky shoes, lol.

[Raye]

The little squeaky shoes kill me. Way too cute.

Random tangent/ramble.... came across this video about MCU Thor, and his character arc over all the movies. It's really good. I watched it twice. I thought it was an excellent breakdown of his arc, and exploration of how other people's expectations, even if they are good and well meaning ones, can impact and shape who we are into something we don't choose, especially if we fail to live up to those expectations.

Relevant to Loki, though this is something I had noticed before, on a more superficial level, (royalty neglecting his duties to go gallivanting on Earth, arrogant and disinterested in the responsibilities his royal duties hold. Loki is currently about here in his development on the arc. It's just that he goes to casinos rather than mead halls these days, and Thor came and got him personally rather than sending ravens. in other words, he's got a long way to go.) and that he had expectations placed on him in the aftermath of WotR. But it kinda hit me with this video how that will affect him on a more emotional level, when i was just kind of thinking the shape of the events before. And well, that kinda turned out badly for Thor, at least in the movies. And then I got to thinking about the roles and how we were speculating about how it might shape the character... and I mean, I do think there are actually cosmic forces and fate at work, because gods, but this made me think of it in a bit of a different way, and got to thinking it may be more of a metaphor about how the expectations placed on us shape who we become, for good or ill. But with Loki, he's been placed in this position where Thor and I presume at least Freyja and maybe Odin, seem to be like, 'oh, he saved the world, he's a hero now, that means he's got to do things this way' and it places him in a situation where he either doesn't do things the way they want, and feels like he is a disappointment to them (....again. After just being given a second chance to prove himself after being a disappointment the first time round), or he does live up to their expectations and they are proud of him.... but he loses himself to what they expect from him. That made the choice between the two options way more difficult and emotionally resonant in my mind. And it makes the situation a lot murkier. When you are thinking of it in terms of broad concepts and the individual in isolation, yes, it seems obvious that you would want to fight fate and be your own self. But throw in expectations from loved ones and (imagined or not) disappointment should you fail to live up to them.... then it becomes harder. It may also go a long way to explain why Loki is going to Tony Stark for advice, even though he has to know Tony doesn't exactly like him, rather than is own brother. Going to Thor and expressing these kinds of doubts may feel like failing to Loki, even though, given everything Thor has gone through to get to where he is today, he'd probably totally understand, because he walked the same path, which is the tragedy of the situation there.

this video also really cemented in my mind that they really are placing Loki in early Thor's shoes intentionally. Though Loki has an added bit of complexity in that his natural tendencies could lead him down a bad path, he has some very bad instincts to overcome that Thor never had to deal with. And those expectations, should he live up to them, could keep him from going bad again. So while it would be totally understandable that he wouldn't want to lose himself to the role, he does have that to consider.

[Prof. Aegis]

Oh I clearly see Loki as how you described him...What's to be himself, carve his own path and do things his way. He's not one for tradition or on how things have been done in the past. But by doing so, others are disappointed in him as he doesn't do things as they want him too. And yes, then Loki feels like he's a disappointment to them. But when he does do things that they are proud of him for, where he's happy for that moment, he struggles within himself, worrying that he is not being himself and just following what they want and is no longer Loki. There is a lot of internal struggle within him. Lots of self-conflict.

Yes, I see Loki going to Stark for advice, because Stark is a leader, but he doesn't follow the norm and tradition. Yet he's is more appreciated and accepted for his actions than Loki is. So he maybe trying to figure out how to be himself, yet gain the acceptance. I really think this can be a great series if they explore this internal conflict and growth dimension of Loki.

[Raye]

Yeah, this has always been a part of his characterization, i just hadn't quite applied it to his current situation until i saw it applied to Thor in that video. I guess it just seemed for a while there that he was trying to stop caring what others thought, but maybe not so much. And as i said, i was thinking of him more in isolation. It's just that before, the expectations were different. At some point they gave up on him, decided he was always going to be the black sheep, the bad guy, the disappointment, and he internalized that and went all in with it. Now they are expecting good from him, and like, it's what he thought he always wanted, but it turns out it's not all it was cracked up to be. And I really do suspect that he will see the future an realize that if he is what his family wants/expects, he will cease to be himself. And that's kind of a tough pill to swallow.

[Digifiend]

Bleeding Cool is suggesting the book will be a mini. The TPB solicit doesn't mention a volume number.
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08...volume-number/

[Raye]

Kibblesmith has insisted, repeatedly, in interviews and in his tweets that it is an ongoing (dependent on sales, of course) so...

*edited to add - also, the solicit for issue 4 seems to be ramping things up, not down. Still fighting Nightmare, says a Frost Giant rebellion is brewing, he gets a new power... it seems like an awful lot to wrap up by the end of issue 5, is all. it just feels wrong. Unless they are pulling something sneaky with the new volume of Thor, which ought to be starting like a month or two after issue 5 of Loki's book hits, depending if they launch it a month after King Thor ends, or something more immediate. But I am not thinking that's very likely. For one, I think they'd have to be careful about doing that so soon after Jane took over the Thor book, not to mention the title would be a weird fit for Loki (maybe rebranded as Journey Into Mystery again?). Also, no disrespect to Kibblesmith intended, I thought issue one was great, but I can't see them handing the Thor title to a relative no-name like him, you'd think they'd want to give it to someone whose name could create some buzz.

[Riimi]

Sales numbers for the top 100 comics are in for July: https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08...9-card-covers/.

Loki was #25 (the page didn't give numbers, just relative rankings). I honestly don't follow sales well enough to know how that is for a first issue. For comparison, (the current issues of) Immortal Hulk was at 23 and Avengers was at 27, and Thor was at 43. I expect some drop off for Loki because that just happens following the first issue, but if it falls 20 places in the rankings before stabilizing it will still be selling at about where Thor is. I know that they overshipped, but that the issue also got a second printing, so I don't think that in and of itself counts for the numbers.

[Prof. Aegis]

Just because Amazon doesn't indicate a volume number on something that still 6 months away isn't something to be concerned with. Things get altered and updated all the time. I find it difficult Marvel would already have changed the series as it has gotten good strong reviews and seems to have done well, plus there has been constant talk about the Disney+ series which should help to support sales somewhat.

True, this could be a lead in for something else with Thor, but I'm going to remain patient and see how it all plays out, before being concerned or jumping to conclusions based on Amazon info.

[Raye]

Well, if we go by the June estimates that ought to place it somewhere in the 45 to 50k mark, if we guesstimate based on Avengers numbers. But keep in mind that it got it's orders increased by 50% so maybe closer to 30kish before that (which isn't great for a #1, that would normally have it likely dropping to the 15k deathzone in a few issues) BUT it also got a second printing, which indicates that at least some retailers sold out of the extra copies. So apparently Marvel was right, and the retailers underestimated initial orders, and I think it will do better issue 2 onward than it would have without the extras. Hard to say how much better though. Also, Loki is a character that I do think will have a bit more traction digitally and in trades relative to its single issue print numbers than some other characters, which probably won't add a ton, but maybe enough to keep it going.

And yeah, I think the sneaky Thor thing is a very remote possibility, but just throwing it out there on the off chance. I am definitely more inclined to trust Daniel Kibblesmith and how he talks about it as if it were an ongoing (dependent on sales, like any other book) than I am Bleeding Cool and Amazon listings.