Loki Appreciation 2019

[Rosebunse]

I remember when JiM was coming out, there was some discussion on if kidLoki's behavior was really representative of how he actually was as a child or if he was influenced by Thor's overly rosey memories.

But yes, his child has been retconned and it all depends on what sort of Loki they're going for. I can appreciate Kibblesmith going with one characterization and sticking to it.

[Prof. Aegis]

Writers will often choose one aspect they connect with or that their stories connect with rather than take all aspects and make things tie together. Sometimes it becomes so convoluted due to the number of various past storylines, to histories so it's easier to just find one aspect and build from there.

As for kids overall, they aren't often inherently bad. They don't know. They learn by seeing, doing, and having the guidance to grow. If they have parental figures that always talk down to them, or indicate they are bad or wrong, or whatever, they will begin to believe they are and follow that line of thinking and behaviors. Yeah, Loki was different. From his parents, his way of thinking his abilities, and those of Asgard never could understand. Everyone of Asgard followed along the same rules, same way of living, thinking and behaving, so when Loki is doing things and thinking things differently, they don't see it as good they only see it as bad. As a child not following orders and doing what everyone else does. So Loki decided he must be bad and followed through on how he should behave based upon all of Asgard's views and attitudes.

Had they embraced his differences and looked at them as something good that could enhance their world, things could have been different.

[Rosebunse]

I guess I just think that some kids are, well, bad. Maybe that's the PTSD from working at a middle school talking.

[Lambadelta]

I think Loki's childhood being retconned is a good thing because if they still represented that he was just simply an evil child, there would be no hope for this Loki, because it would be in his nature to be evil. With this you have a much more interesting dynamic of whether or not things could change this time or even the next time.

Tbh there's not very many Loki childhood stories. You have The son of Asgard where he's more a teenager than a child really and there's another one but I can't remember what it's called, where we do see Loki and Thor as children. There may be more but I can only thing of those two, prior JIM/Kid-Loki. I never really seen him as an evil spawn though, I mean what was the worst thing he was shown to do as a child, as an actual child? Cut Sif's hair? Made Thor's hammer handle smaller? Like I said I can't remember many childhood comics with Loki before Loki became Kid-Loki though so maybe there's something that I missed.

[Prof. Aegis]

I guess I just think that some kids are, well, bad. Maybe that's the PTSD from working at a middle school talking.

Rosebunse, I totally understand where you're coming from! Been there myself and I know exactly the kids you're referring to.

[Lambadelta]

I guess I just think that some kids are, well, bad. Maybe that's the PTSD from working at a middle school talking.

Let's be honest, kids at that age are at their worst imo. I feel your pain Rosebunse.

[Raye]

Yeah I can't actually think of much when he was a very small child where he was horrible, that mostly started when he started getting into his teenage (well, Asgard equivelant) years though JMS kind of implied he was just kind of playing along, but he didn't actually DO anything. So it may be retconning some stuff away by saying he was a good but inquisitive kid gone bad, but nothing major.

Was thinking about that interview a bit, and suspect that in issue 6 we will see some silver age time travel shenanigans. I mean, we have Kibblesmith saying he read the silver age stuff, not bronze age etc, said silver age specifically, and this is borne out by his Twitter as well when he was posting bizarre panels he came across (cus silver age, it was weird) a while back, plus there is that silver age cover in the Pinterest. Plus we already know Loki will be time traveling because he goes to the old west and gets his cowboy on. Stands to reason that probably won't just be a one off thing, and he will go from old west to the silver age. I wonder if he will be trying to prevent some of his past misdeeds, because that could have a lot of unforeseen consequences in the present. His bad deeds around that time kind of need to happen or the Avengers never form etc. But alternately, he could be trying to fix the damage Nightmare did. Nightmare did alter the past with that woman and her wife, by making it so they never met. In order to make things right with her, her past will need to be altered again to get it back to the original events, or close to it, BTTF style. We can probably assume she wasn't the ONLY person Nightmare messed with, so... Or, alternately, the butterfly effect comes into play and the first meeting between that woman and her wife was the result of a cascade of minor events going back to the old West. That may actually work better with making Loki 'worthy' if he essentially bends over backwards and alters time itself to basically answer one woman's prayer. In a way that she may never be aware of once the timeline is repaired, and he would get no recognition for from anyone else.

But in any case, any trip back to the past, particularly any time where Loki was getting his villain on, would be interesting to have Loki now witness it with his new take on things.

[Raye]

I went looking for a preview, found none. But the cover on Comixology and Marvel's site has a new addition...



so that's encouraging, even though it's not exactly unexpected.

Also, looks like we have a fillin artist or two, so looks like i was right about the art feeling rushed. They may just be for this issue, but if the new artist is, well, there are a few Lopez's around, but I presume it's probably David Lopez, that could be nice. googling Victor Olazaba, i think he's more of an inker, possibly brought in to help get Bazaldua's pages done on time.

[Snoop Dogg]

I wonder why they need Lopez. Olazaba doesn't pencil interiors, he's most likely just inking. An art assist, similar to how I have begun harnessing the power of Doctor Pepper for assistance in my ongoing war against the Cockroach Regiment. Those little buggers. Get it, because they're little and also bu--

[Raye]

Yeah, I think it's just that Bazaldua finally reached his limit, the art was looking a bit rushed right from the start, like he was barely keeping up, a lot of skipped details etc. but 3 was particularly bad in that regard, I think he probably just couldn't keep up, and this issue would have been late without an art assist. Or they needed to switch him to Spider-Man suddenly and Loki fell victim to that. But I'd be totally cool with David Lopez as the new artist, he's cool.

[Rosebunse]

I wonder why they need Lopez. Olazaba doesn't pencil interiors, he's most likely just inking. An art assist, similar to how I have begun harnessing the power of Doctor Pepper for assistance in my ongoing war against the Cockroach Regiment. Those little buggers. Get it, because they're little and also bu--

You can use Doctor Pepper to kill cockroaches?

And yeah, this is encouraging. I wonder if it isn't just a busy time of the year? I mean, even October, and especially November and December are busy months for anyone.

[Raye]

Preview is up: https://graphicpolicy.com/2019/10/03...review-loki-4/

I like that the whole 'biggest fear is that he was still dead' thing was just a fakeout. and glad to see Tony is back in the book, was hoping he would come back into play sooner rather than later. Suspect Nightmare may end up with an ANVL dropped on him. Also little Loki, awww...

Also the credits page reveals that it actually WAS one of the other Lopez's floating around, not David. Damn those common names.

Still think David Lopez would be a cool pick for a new artist tho.

[Rosebunse]

OK, Loki actually using his horn tiara thing was pretty funny.

[Prof. Aegis]

Well according to Bleeding Cool, Loki 5 will have a different artist...

And Loki #5 will have drawn by Andy MacDonald and not the previously solicited Oscar Bazaldua.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/10...-america-loki/

So our discussions of the change were correct.

[Raye]

huh, yep, we were right. And I guess we already know how he'll draw Loki and Wolverine, since he was the artist on Infinity Watch. Kind of a smart move there, since they would know he'd be up to speed on the characters, even tho they will both be dressed differently cus old west (well, dressed period for Wolverine) Now to see if this is just for one issue or if he will be drawing it going forward, or they get someone else.