Loki Appreciation 2019

[Karabaja]

I'm cool with this change. I liked Loki's depiction in Infinity Watch a lot. I hope the artist keeps the same direction and doesn't "soften" Loki.

[Lambadelta]

The preview looks good, had to laugh when Loki used his "head" against Nightmare lol and of course Loki was lying .......or was he? You can never tell with Loki. Loki as a child! I really hope we see more of Loki as a child, to get a better idea of his childhood which from Kibblesmith's interviews and comments, we might be getting just that.

So it was a new artist, although it might only be for that one issue, who knows. I do like Andy Macdonald's art. He kind of strikes a somewhat perfect balance. He doesn't make Loki look old but quite young but also gives him an edge but not too rough of an edge. I also liked the panel he did with Loki and Wolverine where Wolverine is half cut off because he's so much shorter than Loki

[Raye]

I think he should be a little prettier than MacDonald drew him, I just think the original design and how he is talked about in the text reflects that, but I wouldn't have any complaints if he was a permanent addition, really, they could do a lot worse, as evidenced by Vote Loki.

And yeah, really hoping we see more of Loki as a child (I keep wanting to say kid Loki, but that would be confusing) nail down what he was like as a kid, show how he ended up going bad.

Also, Cates was announced as the new Thor writer, as was speculated, no mention of Loki in the announcement or any of the art shown. To be fair, Kibblesmith was not there because he had to work his day job, so maybe tomorrow or Sunday we will hear more from him. But it does make mention of the 'Black Winter' and given that Loki is king of Jotunheim, famous for its wintery climate, that has me wondering if they are related. Hopefully not in a bad way for Loki, if it is. But given the new costume, there is clearly something more going on, astral plane, or something, maybe? Because the interior art shows Thor as he is now, but with longer hair. But does look like my guess of Sif taking over from Heimdall was correct.

*edit - spoke too soon. Some more interior art was shown, and Loki is in it, with Thor throwing Mjolnir at him but it's a psych out. Or Mjolnir doesn't want to hit him. Suspect it may not be Thor that threw Mjolnir at that monster.



https://mobile.twitter.com/TheMarvel...22166853402624

[Riimi]

My guess from those pictures would be that Thor is laying down the law. Loki just did some good but he's also done a lot of bad, which leaves Thor in a bit of a difficult position as King. He doesn't want to punish him (we assume), but he needs to make sure Loki toes the line -- he is, in fact, letting him off with a warning.

Not sure if Loki will see it that way.

Re: The Black Winter, I was also wondering about Loki. We haven't seen any more of the Casket of Ancient Winters yet. Seems strange like they'd only bring it up once, so I wonder if it will be coming into play, as well. I'd love to see more of how Asgard and Jotunheim are cooperating against a threat (the geo-political implications), but that may be unlikely.

[Raye]

It depends on what's causing Mjolnir to stop mid flight. is it Thor willing it, or the hammer itself? If Thor, then yeah it may be him kinda issuing Loki a warning (but for what? he was cool with him in Loki's book not long ago) If it's Mjolnir, then Thor throwing it at Loki may have been more of a test. Can Mjolnir actually hit someone it considers worthy? Either way Loki doesn't seem overly upset, he seems more curious/confused about why it stopped than anything, after the initial 'ohshitnotagain' moment.

The Avengers page, I can't decide if it comes before the other pages, or after, inside the comic itself. It's just that it seems odd that it only shows Mjolnir, it just makes me think that they may have a surprise about who threw it there. Like the Avengers are like 'oh Thor arrived' because Mjolnir wasted the monster, even tho that seems a bit.... hardcore for Thor, and then they see who threw it and are like 'waaaaa...?' but that only makes sense if it comes after all the other pages, since Thor has Mjolnir in the two coloured ones and he seems to be calling for it in the uncoloured page... but it's maybe not coming. I think it may be that the last 2 pages on the slide come first, then the page with Thor and Sif on the Bifrost, then the Avengers page, but with other pages in between all of them, one of them possibly being Loki picking up Mjolnir. but even there, it could still go either way with who threw the hammer.

And the cosmic costume, I dunno, the Mjolnir there it looks like it's actually made of energy rather than being physically there, it may be that Thor is using his powers to create a hammer literally made of lightning. but I am not even sure if that's something that happens in reality the whole costume is strange in how different he looks, with his arm and eye restored, the super long hair, stars on the costume etc. especially after seeing the interior pages where he's still much like he was at the end of WotR, aside from the longer hair.

And yeah, it seems strange that the Casket of ancient Winters was brought in as Laufey's doomsday weapon, but then not mentioned again after that. At the time, with all the talk of 'the Thor makes the hammer' it seemed like it would be so fitting for Loki to make his own weapon powered by the Casket. Thor had his weapon with a lightning storm trapped inside, Loki has a snow storm. But they seem to have not gone that way so far. But it may still come up.

[Lambadelta]

So it's confirmed that Donny Cates is writing Thor which is good to see, although I'm not too sure about the art though. It's not bad but I'm unsure if I like how they do Loki.

Yeah, it will be good to see if Thor willed the hammer to stop or if the hammer chose to stop itself since it now sees Loki worthy.

[Raye]

It's a little hard to make out a lot of details, but i think it should be fine. The new Thor costume takes a bit of getting used to, tho a lot of that will also depend on context. But I think Loki looks pretty similar in terms of like facial structure to how Bazaldua draws him, sort of a long narrow face, which I am cool with. And I mean, Cates did say he was going for a 'Norwegian black metal' vibe, so I think a rougher style of art will help get that feel across. when reading Cates' Thor, this is the soundtrack that should be going through your head, I'm thinking:


Even tho this is more death metal, and they are Swedish, black metal, especially Norwegian stuff, is typically harsher.... but.... Thor! and there are exceptions to super harsh black metal some is more atmospheric and kinda pretty (ok, that's actually Danish, but...) and some are willing to poke fun at themselves (Finnish) but I'm thinking he's picturing the more standard fare. Ragnarok seems particularly fitting. (these are actually Norwegian)

So it should be rough and brutal feeling, if that is what he's going for. I think it could even stand to be a bit rougher... can you tell I am super excited he dropped the black metal reference? even tho black metal isn't my fave, i lean more proggy/folky, but fuck yeah, obviously Thor should be metal as fuck.

[Rosebunse]

I thought the long haired old looking Thor from that page for the upcoming murder mystery was an artist mistake, vut it looks like that's Thor.

This does make me wonder if the theories about him taking on Odin's role is correct. I mean, his hair is even whitening out. Unless this takes place in the future, then why is it doing that?

[Raye]

I mean it's not really a theory any more. It happened, he is the King of Asgard. I know it's not the first time someone besides Odin has sat on the throne, including Thor himself, but this feels a lot more.... permanent and weighty. But, him taking the role doesn't mean he has to become a clone of Odin. I know he kinda did with the King Thor stuff, but they don't have to actually work towards that like it is inevitable, they can go a different direction, and the costume design with the extremely long hair seems to indicate they will be. And even if they do go with the idea that King Thor is his fixed future, it doesn't have to happen right away.

If you're talking the Campbell cover, I think that's still a mistake because he's in the wrong costume, as are a bunch of other characters, including Loki. Thor was on the main cover as well, but his hair was covered, though he did have a large beard.

Still looks blonde to me, though, especially in the interior art pages. A bit paler than some depictions, but it's also it's got bright lighting, which creates a lot of whitish highlights, but I don't think his actual hair is white. I think it's still within the variance that is still blond. Mostly it's just a more natural shade of blonde than he sometimes has. He (and other blond characters) got really bright yellow hair in the old days because of a limited colour palette, and it kinda stuck around in a lot of depictions even after the printing got more refined, even tho blond hair really isn't that yellow. Tho, it might be the future, for the cosmic costume stuff, it would help explain how his hair got so damn long, and the restored eye and arm.

[Rosebunse]

I meant the theory that thr Asgardians would really begin to assimilate into their new roles.

I mean, yes, Thor is always blond, but we have kept that real gold blond on him gor decades. It seems very odd for a colorist to change it now, especially to something so light. And it isn't just his hair color, but the length too.

https://www.cbr.com/incoming-murder-...-universe/amp/

And I meant this cover, not the Campbell cover. I mean, I like Campell, but that cover was all over the place.

[Rosebunse]

https://www.cbr.com/thor-character-designs-new-costume/

I didn't see this, but now he has the black ravens.

Also, damn is this a fine cover.

[Raye]

Well, again, we don't know he will. He looks like King Thor (and thus kinda Odinish) on one cover that's not his own book, and may be a mistake. And while the horned helmet, ravens and beard evoke a bit of Odin in these interior pages, he's also clearly still blond, so it's not insta-aging even if the role is influencing him. But on the other hand, the costume design seems to imply that won't stick. Or it may be how he sees himself in his mind's eye, implying that while the outward cosmetic details may begin to fit a certain mold, he's still him on the inside. I'm just saying, it's too early to say. I know I am a big champion of that theory but I don't think anything here proves it either, I also don't envision it being something that happens overnight, Jane was an exception.

I do think some time has passed between WotR and what is shown there, possibly several months, possibly as much as a year. it may be that we see another time-skip with the new year (Marvel seems to be maybe trying to move past the sliding timescale to an extent over the past few years, there have been a few time-skips) but i still don't think it's a case of them making him old overnight, especially when you look at the cosmic costume where he is still clearly young.

and yeah that's the cover I was thinking of. but his hair is covered there, we can't tell how long it is. His beard is longer, and he is in the King Thor helmet, which gives the impression of King Thor, so I think there is some wires being crossed there still, maybe the new design was not yet finalized or something, but it still reads as blond to me in the colouring. It's a little lighter than Carol's hair but about the same colour as Sue's on the same cover, and they're not going white. Look up in the upper corners for true white hair on Rogue and Black Cat, there is a big difference. Also, compare to Jubilee's coat, the lightingbolt on Ms Marvel, Rogue's costume, or Carol's star, all things that have usually been fairly solidly in the 'yellow' camp, and they aren't that far off from Thor's beard. I think the whole cover is just coloured with less intense colours, but particularly the yellows, because the whole thing has a cool/bluish cast to it, so the blues really pop, the reds tend towards cool (purply) shades, and the yellows are muted, with the exception of characters who are literally on fire.

[Rosebunse]

Looking at these covers, I don't think there's a disconnect so much as there is something Marvel isn't telling us. Why is this cover so different from the interiors?

I agree about the timeline. There has clearly been some aging going on, even if Marvel doesn't want to admit it. Here, I think if we use WotR as a point, you have Absolute Carnage, which is probably a few weeks after. The X-Men stuff is at least a month and a few weeks from it, so this Thor stuff could be several months from it.

[Raye]

I presume there is an explanation, as Donny Cates said, but it's hard to say right now what it is. The first thing that came to my mind was some form of astral projection or some other kind of mental thing, but knowing Cates it's probably a lot weirder than that. But I have my doubts that this change of costume is something that the other characters will come into contact with in the present day, but that's only a hunch.

another point in favor of a line wide time skip is Doctor Strange where he is a surgeon again, also starting in January. Even if his hands are healed next issue, he can't just go back to being a doctor the next day, he has to get certified again and blah blah. It was pointed out in Cates' Strange run that what he was doing as a vet was super illegal because of that. I doubt that they will have him operating on human patients without a license, so that needs a time skip as well. Yeah, it's beginning to feel like January is going to be a line wide time jump, it's possible Incoming may be the official in universe reason for it, or the X-Men stuff, or maybe something at the end of Absolute Carnage, which would mean that obviously Cates would know about it for Thor.

[Raye]

Donny Cates shared clear versions of those pages: https://twitter.com/Doncates/status/1180492760203370498

Here is the Loki page:



Can see a lot more of the emotions on their faces, there, which is nice, a depressing number of comics artists are so bad at that.