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  1. #106
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    Those pages are cute! and reveals some interesting things, but will get into Squirrel Girl next post, so i can post the images, because BC's site sucks when there are a bazillion images

    [QUOTE=Rosebunse;4277016]I maintain that Slott wanted to write classic Loki and the man took his chance. It didn't work and it came out wrong, but he took his chance. [quote]
    Obviously he wanted to write classic Loki. But it doesn't mean he should have done so right then, because this is a shared universe and what other writers do counts and should be respected. Character development had happened, and he wasn't the one in charge of Loki right then, so he should have just gone with what was there, or not write it.

    As for how All Black came back...time travel, my good Raye. And as for how it's survived the flames of the sun, well, symbiotes have a long history of just no-selling fire because they're so strong or whatever the writer is doing.
    Obviously time travel would have to be involved, but why? from when? what does it accomplish? what about the obvious temporal paradox doing that would create? why put it in the sun in the process?

    However, I do concede that the timing does seem wrong and rather, this may tie into that December event, whatever it may be. But I still think that we have way too much symbiote imagery for it to not be connected to the story. I mean, we have Thor going off to seemingly fight Venom on that one cover.
    Because Malekith took control of the Venom symbiote. That's it. Sometimes the simplest option is the right one. From the BC page you just linked to:



    • The Marvel Comics event of the year makes landfall in the world of the wicked web-slinger as Venom gets swept up in Malekith’s campaign to take over the Ten Realms!
    • But Malekith has designs for the sinister symbiote…and they may prove fatal!

    Malekith just wanted a symbiote attack dog.

    I think Knull and stuff is waiting for Absolute Carnage (also, note that Carnage has a spiral mark on his forehead on the cover, so Knull is controlling him, which fits with previous events in Cates' Venom stuff, but Venom lacks the spiral in War of the Realms, so Knull free) and possibly the mystery event that follows that. Either way, it does definitely appear that Wolverine is a consistent thread throughout all the leadup, specifically Phoenix Wolverine, and Loki got mixed up with Wolverine both present and future, so I am guessing we will see Loki participate in the mystery event as well, and we may get more of Loki and Wolverine teaming up. maybe.

    I do like your theory about Loki's time travel and how that could effect what he does, especially since we have a corrupted Loki in the future who might be responsible for getting All Black back to the past.

    The thing about Loki is, while he certainly has changed and changed for the better, what is his limit for this abuse? When does he just decide to give up?

    And we have a new page to add to the ones released previously (and a clearer version of one of the previously shown ones):



    It seems to directly follow the 3 previously shown pages, and really underscores the horror Loki feels at what he is seeing. And the old Loki seems pretty chill about it all. Also clears up some things and raises a few questions. This appears to be after Maalekith is sold, actually, and thinking back on it, I guess this makes sense because yeah, didn't he take bodies from the battlefield after he was sold? I dunno, that was a while back and I am fuzzy on the details. But also, i think that's the sorcerer that took Malekith under his wing next to the pyre. I am wondering now if the sorcerer wasn't as good as he seemed in the first time we saw Malekith's past. I mean, I am sure Loki has seen pyres before, hell, we know he's seen this particular pyre before, because old him is standing right there. So I don't think just the presence of a pyre on a battlefield would prompt that reaction from him, I think there may be more to it than that. Maybe the sorcerer is working some kind of dark magic with the dead. I still think tere's some 'whoops, i done fucked up a couple thousand years ago' going on there too, but there may be more to it as well.

  2. #107
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    Now for Squirrel Girl, has to be a new post because image limits:

    https://mlpnk72yciwc.i.optimole.com/...-draft-137.jpg <- Opening page is a link because can only do 3 images




    Ok, so first of all, lol, special bottom of the page text the preview, and the Avengers... um, creative attempt to fight the giants.

    Second, thanks to Squirrel Girl trying it's hardest to remain standalone while also tying into a big event, it gives an extra thorough recap, with some details clarified. Makes it quite clear Loki was playing double agent, for a start, which is good. But it does seem to point to the page in Thor 11 being a bit more honest than I was hoping, and Loki really did try and fail to stop everything. I still think some of that was an act to trick Malekith, though.

    Also from the other pages, we learn that Thor has been 'exiled' hence his absence from the images showing the Avengers, and why Thori is with Balder, i guess. I mean we knew he was in Jotunheim, but it wasn't clear exactly how or why he was there. and Odin is missing. so that's a couple new details.

  3. #108
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    OK, but what if Malekith isn't planning for Knull, but Knull takes advantage of him getting and using Eddie and Venom to make his first move? And even if he isn't the super Big Bad here, I do think this is a huge setup for him later on, especially if Cates is being given a Thor book or a larger place at Marvel. Not that he doesn't have a pretty big place now. He's being given a ton of freedom and his books are selling even with weird or obscure properties.

    I think what makes the Loki preview significant is that we know Loki has a soft spot for kids now. Or at least he doesn't like seeing them come to harm. I think this by itself might explain some of his horrified expression. But again, as you said, this highlights just how much Loki has changed from the man he used to be, a man who could stand to see a child suffer like that, especially if it helped him reach his goals. But that still feels like it isn't enough.

    As for what it could be, a few guesses:

    1) Loki is the sorcerer.
    2) Loki is Malekith's father/mother and Loki forgot about it.
    3) Loki kickstarted the war that ruined the Dark Elves.

    Poor Loki in Sqirrel Girl. I know it sort of confirms that his plan has been a bit more straight forward than we thought, but dammit, Loki seems very sincere here. Normally when he lies, he makes himself much more composed.

    In the preview for the War of the Realms itself, we do see Odin seemingly die. That seems bad for Loki...

    We know that Odin did love him despite everything.

  4. #109
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rosebunse View Post
    OK, but what if Malekith isn't planning for Knull, but Knull takes advantage of him getting and using Eddie and Venom to make his first move? And even if he isn't the super Big Bad here, I do think this is a huge setup for him later on, especially if Cates is being given a Thor book or a larger place at Marvel. Not that he doesn't have a pretty big place now. He's being given a ton of freedom and his books are selling even with weird or obscure properties.
    There may be some setup for future stuff there, but Malekith still orchestrated everything in this story, there's no reason to take away from that because there's some twist that reveals a big story down the road. There's always a bigger bad down the road.

    I think what makes the Loki preview significant is that we know Loki has a soft spot for kids now. Or at least he doesn't like seeing them come to harm. I think this by itself might explain some of his horrified expression. But again, as you said, this highlights just how much Loki has changed from the man he used to be, a man who could stand to see a child suffer like that, especially if it helped him reach his goals. But that still feels like it isn't enough.
    I mean, while it might be that he does have a soft spot for kids, i dunno if those pages really show that. He was reacting with low key (hah) horror before Kid Malekith ever entered the scene, and it just kinda intensified as it went on. I think it was more the general situation he was reacting to than Kid Malekith pushing a wheelbarrow of corpses specifically. Malekith wasn't really being mistreated there, he was in a sort of bad situation, sure, but mostly he was just doing an unpleasant but necessary job, created by a situation that was just terrible all round for everyone. His real the mistreatment, being discarded by his own mother, occurred before this. I think it's more that Loki's lost his taste for war and destruction, possibly coupled with a realization of the butterfly effect at work.

    As for what it could be, a few guesses:

    1) Loki is the sorcerer.
    2) Loki is Malekith's father/mother and Loki forgot about it.
    3) Loki kickstarted the war that ruined the Dark Elves.
    I don't think Loki can be the sorcerer, or he would be learning nothing here, because he was there in the first place. We also saw Malekith's mother in the original flashback, so I doubt that. I do think it's likely he kickstarted the war between the Dark Elves and the trolls, though, and just wasn't paying attention at the time to the little Dark elf boy on the fringes of the conflict. Unless you know what he becomes, this is just some little boy, so it's entirely likely Loki just was completely oblivious to him the first time round.

    Poor Loki in Sqirrel Girl. I know it sort of confirms that his plan has been a bit more straight forward than we thought, but dammit, Loki seems very sincere here. Normally when he lies, he makes himself much more composed.
    So like, is it just me, or does it seem like Loki maaaay not have actually teleported Doreen here? I mean it’s something well within his capabilities and all, but his initial confusion about what she’s doing there and the ‘huh? but I…’ is suspicious to me, was he about to say it wasn’t him that teleported her, that he just grabbed her out of the street because she was gonna get stepped on by a giant or something? though, if he didn’t who did? why? i dunno. It's little more than a gut feeling right now.

    In the preview for the War of the Realms itself, we do see Odin seemingly die. That seems bad for Loki...

    We know that Odin did love him despite everything.
    Ewing's Odin, sure. Aaron's? enh... I dunno. But it may be that Loki is behind his disappearance or something

  5. #110
    Spectacular Member Fanto.mx's Avatar
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    A few thoughts:
    My immediate reaction to the Squirrel Girl pages was that this was going to possibly really meta. Undoing a big, world-changing event is basically part and parcel of comic book storytelling, and we've gotten some fourth wall breaking, this-is-all-a-story stuff from Loki in the past. Add to the Squirrel Girl and her meta can-beat-everyone-but-only-offscreen power and you can see how this idea sparked. Momentarily, I realized how much I wanted to see a team made up of Loki, Squirrel Girl, Deadpool, Gwenpool, and She-Hulk as the Metavengers, who right past wrongs not through time travel but through mucking with the story fabric, (re)writing wrongs, if you will.

    I don't think that's how this is going to go, but it would be fun.

    In the real-speculation-about-how-this-might-go category, it's pretty clear just from that that there are parallels being drawn between Loki and Malekith. Parental issues, "forced" into certain roles, desperately clinging to those roles and thereby cementing them more deeply, set down a seemingly inevitable set of actions. But Loki broke out of that to become the character he currently is.

    These parallels may just be because of the shape of stories, so that we (and Loki) can see Malekith as a sort of dark mirror version of Loki, lending credence to the idea of Loki as the only one that can really stop/undo the damage being wrought by Malekith. If we take everything seriously, then Loki truly tried and truly failed and his seemingly fatalist attitude in the previews above are less about undoing the story or undoing events and more a strategic retreat and regrouping plan.

    But I think the parallel may be the actual backbone of the story, that there will be undo shenanigans that prevent the war or just the current victory by Loki convincing Malekith/altering his past to make all of this much less inevitable. He did something similar with Cul, but I think this one may go further. I even suspect/fear that this will be the end of chaotic good Loki and a return of the chaotic neutral/evil Loki when he is forced to sacrifice his own ability to break from fate to give it to Malekith.

  6. #111
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    So, while I do think him pulling a stunt similar to what happened with Cul could definitely happen, I don't think it will happen in Squirrel Girl. I mean for a start, it's pretty fringe as far as the event goes, the big stuff will be covered in the main book, and maybe Thor and Avengers. Also, Squirrel Girl I think wants to remain fairly standalone despite tying into the event, and if future solicits are anything to go by, Loki is no longer mentioned past the first issue, seems like he sends her on her quest to Canada, and then goes off to do his own thing. Hopefully he still checks in with her in the recap pages if nothing else though. I think he was kinda speaking a bit generally there, rather than what Doreen in particular would be doing (though i guess it may contribute to the larger plan). If that happens, I think it will occur more in Thor.

    I don't think it would be wise for him to think too big though, undoing Malekith becoming a baddie entirely, thus completely preventing the War from happening, could have unintended consequences that end up being worse than the fix, I also kind of doubt Marvel would just go 'this past few years of comics? irrelevant now, never happened' that would be a very drastic move, especially since a lot of it leaked out into other books, since like, Jane picked up the hammer in a large part due to Malekith's early moves in the war. But we also have to consider there is still the Chekovs Gun of the Naglfar Armada out there, it's got to go off sometime, and it can only really be used in a war situation. So yeah, I doubt he will erase the war, I don't think that's what he meant by 'undo' there, more, as you say, a tactical retreat and then going on the offensive rather than playing defense. But it seems likely that he could do something like with Cul where he creates a weakness that will allow Malekith's defeat, to ensure that offensive can actually work.

    You are right about Malekith being set up as a dark mirror of Loki. And best villains tend to be that to the hero, so yeah, it could definitely be that this is more Loki's story than it first seemed, and his contribution will be key in the end.

  7. #112
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    I don't see how that could really break Loki or make him do something evil, mostly because this Loki has already done some truly bad things already. Also, I don't think his ability to change is a tangible thing, it's more like something he was able to do because he wrote himself out of Hela's book of the dead and that enabled him to change every single time he died. But also, Loki has been allowed to perform heroics acts and, in general, characters don't treat him like the devil himself anymore.

    And Loki changing the past to save Malekith and damn himself might not really be agood either since an evil Loki is a pretty dangerous thing.

  8. #113
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    I think what Silver was getting at was more about how stories tend to be structured, and that Loki going evil again could make story sense because of symmetry with Malekith. It's not really about Loki, exactly, so much as it is about how typical story structure would shape the story, where victory comes with a price. In this case, the price of stopping Malekith would be Loki's own face turn. And given that Malekith is about to conquer not just Earth, but all 10 realms, it's hard to argue, from the perspective of a resident of the MU, that evil Loki would be the worse option of the two. I mean sure, bad guy Loki's done some horrible **** over the years, but not conquer all the realms and murder millions bad.

    As a fan of the current Loki, i would not want this to happen. I also don't think it terribly likely because of what I said above about the editors probably not wanting to invalidate several years worth of stories. Malekith's done so much bad in the leadup, that having him do a last minute face turn won't hold a lot of weight unless they make it so that the War of the Realms is completely erased, never happened, and I just can't see Marvel obliterating several years worth of stories. Also, Loki's change towards being good started well before Malekith got started with the War of the Realms, so all of that should, in theory, remain, and it would have to be more of a he becomes evil thing, and seeing as this is the end of Aaron's run, or close to it, that would be hard to enforce, unless it's an editorial decree to revert Loki kind of deal (which I think would be a mistake). But I can see how it could make sense from a story structure perspective, and if there is a revert Loki decree in place, it would probably be the most palatable way to do it.

    And when Loki wrote himself out of the book of the dead, it wasn't that this allowed him to change when he was reborn, exactly. He was still bound by fate. It's just that each reincarnation has a different fate/personality, but it's not like he has a choice in the matter. He only halfway got around it by trying to cheat the system, with some tragic results. In theory. We have actually only seen this happen once, with Kid Loki, so it's hard to say for sure if this actually is the case, since this is just what Loki is assuming based on one instance, not the best sample size. But in any case, it's not that each reincarnation has Loki making the choice to change, he's just reborn different, with a different fate. It's been a recurring theme that he is still bound by fate, and he's got to fight to stay on the path he wants to be on. Or he was, until the Nornkeep fell, at which point everyone, himself included, was free to shape their own fate, but that had nothing t do with the whole book of the dead thing. It's the conscious vs unconscious change thing again. The change was unconscious, chosen by fate, the fact that some characters (percentage wise, it's not many) treat him better is that doing good-ish things on a more conscious level as a result of that change, is leading them to re-evaluate their opinions of him.

    On a more general note, I was thinking about the possible idea of him introducing a weakness into Malekith's past, as was done with Cul, and how it could maybe seem a bit repetitive, but then i decided I don't care if it is. And here's why. One thing that always kinda bugged be about Fear Itself and JIM is that in JIM, Loki did these big actions that, at least in the pages of JIM, led to the defeat of Cul. It was presented as if without Loki doing these things, they never could have won. ....and it's never mentioned in Fear Itself. It was annoying to never have his contributions be acknowledged. I get it if the characters don't know what he did, i mean in the sense of the story as a whole. But here, his contributions are more central, and if he does a similar thing where he enables the good guys to win in a sort of secret way, the characters may still not know what he did, but the readers will, it's not all being handled in a fringe spinoff
    Last edited by Raye; 03-30-2019 at 07:58 AM.

  9. #114
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    Dear God, Fear Itself is still such a frustrating event for me. Heck, Faction's whole time on Thor is a weird thing. He's such a good writer but he should never, ever be allowed near something like Thor. I mean, we complain about Aaron, but at least he manages to keep things tight and together.

    It feels like Fear Itself was only really meaningful if you were also reading JiM, which was and still is such an amazing book.

    And I get what you're saying about the "price" thing.I guess I just don't see this big push from anywhere for Loki to change. People like him this way, writers seem to have fun with him, and for many new fans, this is the only Loki they have ever known.

    I do think Aaron is suggesting that Loki does need to pay a price, but I don't think that price will be his redemption. For one, Loki has been offering that up every chance he gets so long as it means he can follow his plans and save the earth or whatever good he is trying to do.

  10. #115
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    While Fraction's run had... problems... we do have him to thank for kid Loki, so, just saying, it had some positives. In general though yeah, Thor wasn't really his kind of thing. But,while some complain about Aaron, (I don't think they are the majority they like to claim they are) aside from a few quibbles (tho, the same can be said of any run on any book) I've quite enjoyed it.

    Well, we like him this way. We aren't everyone, and it's really hard to say how many are with us on that. Just like with the fans who like to insist everyone hates Aaron on Thor, and that tens of thousands of people are apparently hate-buying it, a few of us sitting in this thread talking about how much we like the current characterization doesn't equal everyone liking it. And someone who liked him better old school, like, say, Slott, could get control of him at some point. Or Marvel could just decide it's time to restore the status quo. I hope they don't, and I don't think it's super likely right now, but it's always a possibility. I mean I do think it is a fairly popular take on the character, there are lots of letters in the letters pages that support it, and it's talked about positively in other places besides this thread as well. I'm just saying, never assume that because you've found a group of people that agree with you, that it means everyone does. I think that if Cates does get the book next, (and right now he seems like the obvious choice) all will be fine, he seemed to really do well with Loki as an antihero type. A few others would also be fine, but others... I'd be worried.

    I don't think it will be his redemption either, but it's kinda hard to think of what else it could be, unless it's like, his life or something. But I don't think Loki has been 'offering up' his redemption. That makes it sound like morality is something you can just give away if you want. But it is more complex than just actions, that's the point. I mean sure, actions are part of it, and there are certain actions that really have no justification, but I think the point of this story is that the reasons for actions matter more. By doing bad things, but for a greater good, and feeling bad about it, it demonstrates his change of attitute is genuine and not an act. It's the 'feels bad' part and the reasons behind the actions that's important, not the actions themselves, and he can't give that away. I mean, obviously the ideal would be to not do bad things at all, and the bad things for good reason is prone to backfire and cause unintended harm with no good payoff.... but it's still better than doing all that with bad intentions. Loki's still Loki, so he's still going to do things his way, and that means some.... unique and sometimes questionable solutions to problems, but as long as he's acting with good intent, he's still on track. He did move a bit more towards the dark in Aaron's run, but not enough that I'd say he's given up the face turn.

  11. #116
    Kinky Lil' Canine Snoop Dogg's Avatar
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    Fraction didn't have a run. It was an illusion created by the Dread Alonso to provide marketing cover while all the good meals were getting served by Gillen.
    I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate

  12. #117
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    Quote Originally Posted by Snoop Dogg View Post
    Fraction didn't have a run. It was an illusion created by the Dread Alonso to provide marketing cover while all the good meals were getting served by Gillen.
    That's one way to think about it LOL
    Quote Originally Posted by Raye View Post
    While Fraction's run had... problems... we do have him to thank for kid Loki, so, just saying, it had some positives. In general though yeah, Thor wasn't really his kind of thing. But,while some complain about Aaron, (I don't think they are the majority they like to claim they are) aside from a few quibbles (tho, the same can be said of any run on any book) I've quite enjoyed it.

    Well, we like him this way. We aren't everyone, and it's really hard to say how many are with us on that. Just like with the fans who like to insist everyone hates Aaron on Thor, and that tens of thousands of people are apparently hate-buying it, a few of us sitting in this thread talking about how much we like the current characterization doesn't equal everyone liking it. And someone who liked him better old school, like, say, Slott, could get control of him at some point. Or Marvel could just decide it's time to restore the status quo. I hope they don't, and I don't think it's super likely right now, but it's always a possibility. I mean I do think it is a fairly popular take on the character, there are lots of letters in the letters pages that support it, and it's talked about positively in other places besides this thread as well. I'm just saying, never assume that because you've found a group of people that agree with you, that it means everyone does. I think that if Cates does get the book next, (and right now he seems like the obvious choice) all will be fine, he seemed to really do well with Loki as an antihero type. A few others would also be fine, but others... I'd be worried.

    I don't think it will be his redemption either, but it's kinda hard to think of what else it could be, unless it's like, his life or something. But I don't think Loki has been 'offering up' his redemption. That makes it sound like morality is something you can just give away if you want. But it is more complex than just actions, that's the point. I mean sure, actions are part of it, and there are certain actions that really have no justification, but I think the point of this story is that the reasons for actions matter more. By doing bad things, but for a greater good, and feeling bad about it, it demonstrates his change of attitute is genuine and not an act. It's the 'feels bad' part and the reasons behind the actions that's important, not the actions themselves, and he can't give that away. I mean, obviously the ideal would be to not do bad things at all, and the bad things for good reason is prone to backfire and cause unintended harm with no good payoff.... but it's still better than doing all that with bad intentions. Loki's still Loki, so he's still going to do things his way, and that means some.... unique and sometimes questionable solutions to problems, but as long as he's acting with good intent, he's still on track. He did move a bit more towards the dark in Aaron's run, but not enough that I'd say he's given up the face turn.
    I feel like his actions in Avengers probably was him going crazy a little bit. I mean, the poor guy was being thrown into trunks and hit with energy blasts and everything. And he knew he still had to deal with all of his other stuff...sort of like how I start to go crazy at work if I miss my lunch or have to stay late.

    I don't really see Slott getting the reigns. I have a feeling that Cates might...I can't really think of anyone else right now...maybe Ewing? Dear God, I hope we get Ewing.

  13. #118
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    How would his actions be him 'going a bit crazy' because of events that came later? You can't have the cause of an action come after the fact, he's not going through time backwards. I think the Avengers thing was very calculated, you don't enact a plan like that without some careful planning. Hell, we saw him make the first move in the plan back in that Marvel Legacy one shot, months and months before. Loki felt the world wasn't ready for the War of the Realms, he set out to rectify the situation by orchestrating a situation that would bring the Avengers together. He did the Sorcerer Supreme thing to fix magic for the same reason, he couldn't risk Malekith invading while magic, and the Sorcerer Supreme, was broken. Everything in the past several years has been him putting pieces in place, it wasn't some frazzled mind acting crazy.

    and I don't think Slott specifically is in the running, but he was the most recent example of a writer at Marvel that would probably want to write Loki in classic mode. Nevermind the little guest appearance in Spider-Man, look what he's doing with Fantastic Four, where things are being reset to 'classic' left and right, often with no explanation whatsoever, like Doom. But the point is, I guarantee he's not the only one, he's just the one who happened to get his hands on Loki most recently. I think Cates is the most obvious choice from the outside looking in, he's obviously a fan, he has a storyline over in Venom that could work well in the Thor corner of things as well, his style would work well, etc. but for all we know someone totally unexpected has thrown in a pitch the editors loved, i dunno.

  14. #119
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    Quote Originally Posted by A Silver Quickly View Post
    A few thoughts:
    My immediate reaction to the Squirrel Girl pages was that this was going to possibly really meta. Undoing a big, world-changing event is basically part and parcel of comic book storytelling, and we've gotten some fourth wall breaking, this-is-all-a-story stuff from Loki in the past. Add to the Squirrel Girl and her meta can-beat-everyone-but-only-offscreen power and you can see how this idea sparked. Momentarily, I realized how much I wanted to see a team made up of Loki, Squirrel Girl, Deadpool, Gwenpool, and She-Hulk as the Metavengers, who right past wrongs not through time travel but through mucking with the story fabric, (re)writing wrongs, if you will.

    I don't think that's how this is going to go, but it would be fun.

    In the real-speculation-about-how-this-might-go category, it's pretty clear just from that that there are parallels being drawn between Loki and Malekith. Parental issues, "forced" into certain roles, desperately clinging to those roles and thereby cementing them more deeply, set down a seemingly inevitable set of actions. But Loki broke out of that to become the character he currently is.

    These parallels may just be because of the shape of stories, so that we (and Loki) can see Malekith as a sort of dark mirror version of Loki, lending credence to the idea of Loki as the only one that can really stop/undo the damage being wrought by Malekith. If we take everything seriously, then Loki truly tried and truly failed and his seemingly fatalist attitude in the previews above are less about undoing the story or undoing events and more a strategic retreat and regrouping plan.

    But I think the parallel may be the actual backbone of the story, that there will be undo shenanigans that prevent the war or just the current victory by Loki convincing Malekith/altering his past to make all of this much less inevitable. He did something similar with Cul, but I think this one may go further. I even suspect/fear that this will be the end of chaotic good Loki and a return of the chaotic neutral/evil Loki when he is forced to sacrifice his own ability to break from fate to give it to Malekith.
    I definitely agree that there are parallels between Malekith and Loki. There are all the similarities you list (including being adopted by a "kinder" family in the end, if that remains true for Malekith, but still falling to villainy). At first I was going to say that Malekith doesn't have someone he's constantly comparing himself to and fighting against to prove his own worth (like Thor with Loki), but then I remembered Malekith's whole reason for a never-ending war was to validate his own experiences. While not a perfect match, it appears that the goal of proving themselves was a driving factor for both of them (Loki when he was a villain). I recall once reading that Malekith was basically a more-evil version of Loki (traditional Loki), and I think there's some truth to that, especially when it comes to MO. It also makes sense when we see what they're measuring themselves against in their quest for self validation. As for the specifics of their MO, Malekith is a powerful sorcerer and an accomplished physical combatant who is still primarily dangerous because his cleverness and ability for deception allow him to gain the upper hand. Who does that sound like? ;p

    With that said, I'm hoping the rest of your prediction doesn't come to pass. Such a thing can be done well (I've read a series where it was), at which point I'd be more okay with it, but it would be difficult given how convoluted everything's become. Maybe there's a way to do it without time travel (which would make it more palatable to me), but I don't see how atm.

    It's--dare I say--nice to see him look so horrified in the flashback, or whatever it is. It really shows how far he's come. I'm also betting Loki was behind the conflict somehow. I'm just wondering how it could tie into spending time with his father...

    Also, as far as Avengers goes, I'm wondering if the Celestials are actually the help arriving from the skies (or however the solicit put it). Now, whether or not Loki could have foreseen this is another matter (if it does happen). Curing the virus was the most logical and humane course of action -- it also left the Celestials indebted. I've been wondering why Loki would choose such a threat solely to get the Avengers back together when a less dangerous one might have sufficed (risk vs. reward), but if he guessed the Avengers might gain Celestial allies (or temporary allies - if I were writing, I'd have them consider their debt filled after the event was over), the risk becomes worth it when you consider the outlook for Earth in the War of the Realms.

    On a different note, I was reading the free Pre War of the Realms book that's available for free on Comixology, and there was a bit about Loki.

    spoilers:

    Number one, Aaron said that he was on Loki's side when asked about allegiances, but went on to basically state that everything he's done in the past four years or so was his own way of doing his part to prepare for the war. Number 2, he mentioned a bit about Loki trying to see if he could have a relationship with Laufey, which may have been misdirection, but could also have been part of the reason why Loki saved him. Number 3, he said there's a big Loki moment in the first issue of War of the Realms. Fingers crossed for something good!
    end of spoilers

    I'm hoping for a big payoff from all the work Loki's done in this event--out of all the characters, he's arguably put in the most effort, even more than Thor (who was busy with other noble pursuits).

    As far as successors go, I'm also hoping for Cates and think he's the most likely. I find it improbable that Marvel would turn down one of their top sellers from a property he really wants to write. Granted, stranger things have happened, so I wouldn't consider it a done deal.

  15. #120
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    Anyone else just so excited for tomorrow?

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