Page 5 of 48 FirstFirst 12345678915 ... LastLast
Results 61 to 75 of 714
  1. #61
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    5,095

    Default

    yeah that's why i was frustrated by his absence the past few issues. I knew he was capable of healing himself up from worse than a broken arm. (I mean if he could put himself back together after Laufey ate him, this is nothing) It seemed logical that he would take the pieces of the cane, which he could probably use those to help Thor. It seemed likely that he was still in Asgard when they all got shunted off to Dimension Blood, so he was probably there. (but it was also possible he had teleported away back to Jotunheim or Midgard) Maybe it was even him that told Sif about Blake, hoping she and the others would be able to take care of it while he fixed himself up, (sure, he knew Blake had kicked his ass, but he had been taken by surprise, how would he have known Blake was a one man army?) And it seemed like he would probably have a part to play in the resolution, given how the story opened with his involvement. But that was all speculation and conjecture. While my guesses on what happened do seem to be paying off now, to have none of that actually shown, until now, was frustrating. I just wanted to know what had happened after the fight with Blake, rather than have to speculate on what was most likely.

    I get the temptation to make his motivations here unclear, because a lot of readers still think of him as a bad guy. Just go read the intro text to that preview, where it says Strange will have to make a 'dark alliance' in reference to Loki, clearly taking the position that Loki is probably doing something bad here. But we have been doing the 'is he really trying to be good, or is this all a trick?' thing for YEARS now, and I am just kinda tired of it. If he's going to turn face, just go with it. I'm not saying he has to be a saint, and I get that the characters will be suspicious of him, just not play every appearance as 'is he here do do something good, or bad?' to the readers. Maybe tho, since this arc of Thor is selling really well and is so high profile, it's got the eyeballs of 100,000 readers on it just in North America, nevermind the rest of the world, if Loki comes through in the end, they'll have a harder time playing that game going forward.

    And yeah, I think Loki is the only one who knows, unless he's told them. But if he has told them, as mentioned before, they may not believe him. Well, Ratatoskr knows, but i don't think she has a way to tell anyone else just now. Maybe once they get back to Asgard she can act as a go-between though.

  2. #62
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    5,095

    Default

    So, Loki was not actually in the issue beyond the pages shown in the preview, unfortunately, though I am sure he will be returning in the next issue. There was some dialogue in there that reinforced that Thor's body can only be freed with the cane, and there was that panel which clearly showed Loki had the pieces of the cane. It's not hard to put 2 and 2 together. So I do think Loki will end up coming through in the end with a "surprise" save, and it will probably be him that frees Thor, by banging the cane on the ground, maybe tricking Blake into doing so, somehow. At the very least, he can give the pieces to Destroyer-Thor. Or maybe they both have a piece. Though, as I was going on about above, I do still wish they'd have just shown all that, rather than have it as a end of arc reveal. I think it's time to stop trying to have it both ways with Loki, when he appears in Thor, or other books besides his own. At least as far as the readers are concerned, I'm fine with the characters continuing to distrust him, I'm just tired of this thing where the writers obscure as much of what he is doing as possible in order to keep his motives unclear to the reader. I don't think his motives need to be unclear. Hopefully the next arc, if it goes as I suspect it might, will be more clear with his motives.

    But, had a thought about the cane. It's broken into two pieces, right? So what does that mean for Mjolnir? I mean Blake is Thor's counterpart, but the cane is Mjolnir's. If Blake's cane is in two pieces, does that mean Mjolnir will be split into two when it gets pulled back out of Blake's pocket realm? Could this be a way for both Thor AND Loki to have part of it? I mean I'd say Bill as well, but we've seen from solicits for his mini that he is in search of a weapon to replace Stormbreaker, so it appears he is not going to be be getting Mjolnir, or a piece of it. If so it could mean Loki could have a weapon that better fits his personality than a hammer, too.

    Anyway, this came across my news feed today: https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/03/dc-...mate-superhero so, you know, go give Loki a vote. he's in a pretty good starting matchup (spoiler, he is handily beating Robin) but he may end up paired against his brother soon. Supposedly the voting should be closed by now, but the polls are still up so whatever.
    Last edited by Raye; 03-17-2021 at 02:35 AM.

  3. #63
    Spectacular Member Yoruno's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2021
    Location
    A cursed place
    Posts
    202

    Default

    Raye, thank you for the synopsis! I haven't seen the issue yet, but I suppose we still have to wait for the resolution. I hope it won't be the "maybe I did it because of this... or rather because of that"... No, I get it that Loki is a gambler and he usually makes quick decisions depending on the outcome of each situation, but still.
    Thanks for the link! This was a real-life chance to vote Loki!

  4. #64
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    5,095

    Default

    I man, there was more to it than that, I just touched on the Loki bits... which, as mentioned, there wasn't a lot of. But basically:

    spoilers:
    we learn that Odin and Freyja have broken up, largely due to Odin being emotionally unavailable, and then he went off ot a bar at the edge of the galaxy to drink away his woes, (curious where Freyja's at) which is where Jane finds him. After trying to knock some sense into him, and she wonders why he's so weak, (he gave his power to Thor) she instead just tells him what's happened and he gets his armor and heads back to Asgard to deal with Blake. Meanwhile, Blake is hacking away at Yggdrasil, as both Odin and the Dimension Blood squad arrive on the scene. Throg knocks Jarnbjorn from Blake's hands, and we see a fairly deliberate looking set of panels showing it bouncing off the Bifrost and off into space, so i guess that is the setup for the new/old Valkyrie getting it later. Odin tells Blake that the sap bleeding from Yggdrasil is just leaking down to Thor, who is using it to power up. Thor calls on his ravens, they tell him his body can only return when the cane is banged on the ground, but he sends his SPIRIT to the Destroyer armor, which then shows up to whoop Blake's ass, right before Odin is about to un-make Blake.
    end of spoilers

    So basically, everyone's approach to the situation, as has been a theme throughout Cates' run, is violence, trying to be tougher than the other guy and beating them into submission. Par for course for Asgardians, really. So i have been thinking since the beginning that the real key will be to outsmart Blake, to trick him, or talk him into submission somehow. Both because Blake has already demonstrated that he is too powerful to just overpower, and because this is a new generation, with Thor as king, and they need to update their attitudes and methods accordingly, rather than just repeat what came before. I still think that's looking likely.

    But yeah, I get that Loki can be... flexible, and will often try to turn a situation to his benefit in some way. And that's fine. I like him being kinda gray area (tho my preference is a lighter shade of gray) with complicated motivations. I just don't think we need to keep playing this game where we guess at his motivations, because they want people to be unsure if he's good or bad. I think we can see his motivations and it will be just as interesting, if not moreso.

  5. #65
    Fantastic Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Posts
    336

    Default

    I'm disappointed that he only showed up in the page that was in the preview. I do agree that Cates is at the very least leaving his motives vague -- why wasn't he in the splash with the other Asgardians and Strange, for instance? Where is he? However, his absence makes me think he is aiming to take Blake by surprise. I'll be disappointed if he doesn't show up in the fight somewhere. I also agree that there's a reason Cates showed him with the broken staff and that he will play a part in getting Thor back to his body and restoring Mjolnir. I'm still wondering if his comment about Blake's story being boring and Cates keeping him as the god of stories will mean he somehow uses stories to help resolve things.

    Edit: Maybe he's skipping the fight in order to fix things, going along with Raye's theory that this will be solved by cleverness instead of might. I think Thor needs to play a large role in this, but maybe Loki is able to use what Thor is doing to fuel the story.

  6. #66
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    5,095

    Default

    yeah, Thor should have a big part to play in the resolution, but I don't necessarily think Thor's usual tactics (overpowering his opponent) have to be what ends up working. I think what makes most sense to me, is that he makes an attempt in his usual way, in the Destroyer armor, and it fails, and then either Loki steps in and solves it with his tactics, using the cane, or Thor and Loki work together using tactics that outwit him. But Loki is almost certainly going to be involved, because of the cane.

    I know Thor doesn't ALWAYS use force to solve his problems, and even with the Destroyer, there is some cleverness involved there... though it is still geared towards getting him to a position where he can engage with Blake in a straight up fight. But it has definitely been a trend in Cates run to have Thor tending to deal with things with violence, or threats of violence. Very first scene, smashes a monster's head in, while simultaneously sending implicit threats across the 9 realms to stay in line. Then when Loki talked to him, the second he decided he didn't like how the conversation was going, threw Mjolnir at his face. Yeah he stopped it at the last second, but it was still a threat that involved violence and asserting his power. Then the whole deal with Galactus. First of all, his first move was to power up Galactus so they could overpower the Black Winter, and that meant the destruction of several planets. They were able to evacuate all but one of them, but they still lost their homes, because it was decided that the solution to the problem was overpowering it. When Bill and Sif tried to stop him, he responds with violence, beating one of his closest allies close to death and destroying Stormbreaker, and was about to do the same with Sif, until she used clever tactics against him to disarm him, and talked him down. And then it ended up the Black Winter wasn't even there to destroy anything, it was just there to collect Galactus, so all of that destruction and death was for NOTHING. Then Thor killed Galactus, putting his head at the gates of Asgard as some kind of grotesque trophy, which again serves as an implicit threat. 'I killed Galactus, don't mess with me, I'm the biggest badass in the galaxy' kinda thing. And I know there are plenty of readers who LOVE this, love seeing him being strong and dominant, and think it's a good thing. But I think all these types of tactics are gonna backfire on him. Maybe not in big ways, and maybe not right away, but I think him choosing to deal with things in that manner as his first choice is going to have consequences. They already have, Asgard is full of millions if not billions of refugees, and he has badly damaged relationships with friends and family because of all this. I'm not saying he's a bad person, I know he has a genuine desire to help people and is usually a pretty good guy. I just think his tactics are outdated. And I think this thing with Blake may be the turning point where he actually realizes that.

  7. #67
    Spectacular Member Fanto.mx's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    211

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Riimi View Post
    I'm disappointed that he only showed up in the page that was in the preview. I do agree that Cates is at the very least leaving his motives vague -- why wasn't he in the splash with the other Asgardians and Strange, for instance? Where is he? However, his absence makes me think he is aiming to take Blake by surprise. I'll be disappointed if he doesn't show up in the fight somewhere. I also agree that there's a reason Cates showed him with the broken staff and that he will play a part in getting Thor back to his body and restoring Mjolnir. I'm still wondering if his comment about Blake's story being boring and Cates keeping him as the god of stories will mean he somehow uses stories to help resolve things.

    Edit: Maybe he's skipping the fight in order to fix things, going along with Raye's theory that this will be solved by cleverness instead of might. I think Thor needs to play a large role in this, but maybe Loki is able to use what Thor is doing to fuel the story.
    HI Riimi! Glad to have you back!

    Quote Originally Posted by Raye View Post
    yeah, Thor should have a big part to play in the resolution, but I don't necessarily think Thor's usual tactics (overpowering his opponent) have to be what ends up working. I think what makes most sense to me, is that he makes an attempt in his usual way, in the Destroyer armor, and it fails, and then either Loki steps in and solves it with his tactics, using the cane, or Thor and Loki work together using tactics that outwit him. But Loki is almost certainly going to be involved, because of the cane.

    I know Thor doesn't ALWAYS use force to solve his problems, and even with the Destroyer, there is some cleverness involved there... though it is still geared towards getting him to a position where he can engage with Blake in a straight up fight. But it has definitely been a trend in Cates run to have Thor tending to deal with things with violence, or threats of violence. Very first scene, smashes a monster's head in, while simultaneously sending implicit threats across the 9 realms to stay in line. Then when Loki talked to him, the second he decided he didn't like how the conversation was going, threw Mjolnir at his face. Yeah he stopped it at the last second, but it was still a threat that involved violence and asserting his power. Then the whole deal with Galactus. First of all, his first move was to power up Galactus so they could overpower the Black Winter, and that meant the destruction of several planets. They were able to evacuate all but one of them, but they still lost their homes, because it was decided that the solution to the problem was overpowering it. When Bill and Sif tried to stop him, he responds with violence, beating one of his closest allies close to death and destroying Stormbreaker, and was about to do the same with Sif, until she used clever tactics against him to disarm him, and talked him down. And then it ended up the Black Winter wasn't even there to destroy anything, it was just there to collect Galactus, so all of that destruction and death was for NOTHING. Then Thor killed Galactus, putting his head at the gates of Asgard as some kind of grotesque trophy, which again serves as an implicit threat. 'I killed Galactus, don't mess with me, I'm the biggest badass in the galaxy' kinda thing. And I know there are plenty of readers who LOVE this, love seeing him being strong and dominant, and think it's a good thing. But I think all these types of tactics are gonna backfire on him. Maybe not in big ways, and maybe not right away, but I think him choosing to deal with things in that manner as his first choice is going to have consequences. They already have, Asgard is full of millions if not billions of refugees, and he has badly damaged relationships with friends and family because of all this. I'm not saying he's a bad person, I know he has a genuine desire to help people and is usually a pretty good guy. I just think his tactics are outdated. And I think this thing with Blake may be the turning point where he actually realizes that.
    I really do think that this piling on of power, both to Thor and to Blake, is setting them both up for a fall. There's also the obvious parallels between the two, and I think Cates is leveraging that to set up for the next thing, where Thor actually heads for a fall after failing to learn a lesson with Blake: That might isn't everything and not every tool is a hammer.

    On the other hand, I expected that fall to come earlier. I thought that the OVER NINE THOUSAND! moment when he used Galactus's head as decoration was going to be the hubris crisis and start to his fall. Which maybe it still is, but I think the Blake saga, where I expect Thor to only defeat him due to the work of others (Team Magic over there are probably going to be the ones to make him defeatable), and the King in Black, where Thor's gonna smash real good, is double and triple underlining the Thor is not learning and not changing because he thinks he doesn't have to point of these stories. Blake might be the current big bad...but I think the next big bad will be Thor himself.
    Last edited by Fanto.mx; 03-18-2021 at 03:10 PM.

  8. #68
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    5,095

    Default

    Official Loki poster just released:




    https://www.ign.com/articles/loki-ne...-show-released

    Interesting, how the clock face gives him a sort of halo...

    Also, sounds like it will be very popular, i guess they are tracking online interest, and it's tracking higher than any other Disney+ show.

    Anyway, yeah, I just can't see them keeping up this whole 'I must get MOAR POWER!!' thing for every arc, I mean, this isn't Dragon Ball Z. So yeah, I think this is to set Thor up for a fall, or at least a lesson learned. His tactics were perfectly fine for the Viking age, and for some time after that. But not so much today, maybe. But Thor has frequently been shown to be slow to adapt to changing times, so....But I'm not sure if i would go as far as to say Thor will be a big bad, but it may be that his actions lead to the big bad being possible. y'know, like maybe Thanos with Mjolnir.

  9. #69
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    5,095

    Default

    oh, and solicits are out, i thought that was next week, so wasn't really looking for them, but ok!
    https://www.gamesradar.com/marvel-co...solicitations/

    not a ton of new stuff for Loki, but this cover got my hopes up:



    But... then saw it's just collecting the Loki miniseries from like 10 years ago. Which is kind of an odd choice. and the text of the solicit is... ominous. so...

    this cover, not so encouraging:



    But he's not mentioned in the solicit text at all.

    I hope they are not reverting him to villain.

    and Thor is back, with a new artist, but again, no mention of Loki.

  10. #70
    Protector of Mortals Prof. Aegis's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    CA
    Posts
    517

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Raye View Post
    oh, and solicits are out, i thought that was next week, so wasn't really looking for them, but ok!
    https://www.gamesradar.com/marvel-co...solicitations/

    not a ton of new stuff for Loki, but this cover got my hopes up:



    But... then saw it's just collecting the Loki miniseries from like 10 years ago. Which is kind of an odd choice. and the text of the solicit is... ominous. so...

    this cover, not so encouraging:



    But he's not mentioned in the solicit text at all.

    I hope they are not reverting him to villain.

    and Thor is back, with a new artist, but again, no mention of Loki.
    Yeah, I was excited to see the Marvel Tales and curious to see what issues were going to be reprinted. I was surprised to see that Loki mini in its complete form. I liked that series and it had a great connection to Norse Mythology and the tales of Loki, however, I was surprised they were reprinting that story and in its entirety as opposed to presenting 4 or 5 other single issue moments. Cover is great though!

    And I noticed the same thing with the Valkyrie issue as well, Loki looks to be the villain "pulling the strings" yet there is no mention of him in the issue. So I wonder if it's just for sales, where Loki is barely in it if at all.

    Plus with his Disney+ series starting I was hoping we'd be getting some actual Loki series and one-issues, but I guess we have to wait for another month to see if there are any new series to come. Rather disappointing though.
    The Doors of Wisdom are never shut! - Benjamin Franklin

  11. #71
    Spectacular Member Yoruno's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2021
    Location
    A cursed place
    Posts
    202

    Default

    As to pulling the strings, those who played Avengers Academy will probably remember that Loki's poster there was pretty much the same, yet he didn't actually manipulate other students. I wonder if they're picking up the story from the cancelled Valkyrie series or doing something entirely new. Were the previous solicits with Loki, Jane Foster and Fenris (?) from the Mighty Valkyries issue? Then he's in it, I guess.
    It’s good they're reprinting the 2010 series, I liked it a lot, both the story and the art.

  12. #72
    Spectacular Member Karabaja's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2017
    Posts
    165

    Default

    So he finally started popping up
    Strange Academy: was I the only one who was getting the vibe that Emily's mom and Loki will share a kiss in the heat of the fight and cause some major drama, poor Emily's dad?
    Double Trouble: so cute I have no words. I'm going to order the paper print for my kid, she's going to love it, and I am going to pretend I'm reading it only for her, not for me. My only regret is that it's obviously not in the main continuity.
    Thor: still didn't read. Still anxious about how things will continue for him.
    Valkyrie solicit: I have no doubt he will manipulate everybody, let's just hope it won't be as malicious as it appears to be on the cover. Thankfully covers often don't reflect the story. More anxiety.

  13. #73
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    5,095

    Default

    Yeah, nothing wrong with that series, but it already exists as a TPB, so... Also, i would have liked to see some issues from more recently, JIM onward. If they are trying to hook some viewers from the show, that mini doesn't give a very good picture of where Loki is at now. Though i guess there was a TPB from the previous batch of solicits that did that.

    And yeah i was hoping for a new series, though I guess neither Scarlet Witch nor Vision got anything new for WandaVision, or Falcon and Bucky. But apparently House of M and Vision trades were selling like crazy, and guessing like Spencer's Falcap or Bubaker's stuff with Bucky will as well, so, i mean... they probably should have, for all of them, not just Loki. but still have fingers crossed for a solo, and maybe they are just waiting on it so it won't spoil the end of Prey.

    And yeah, covers often lie, especially with Loki, but it's still a bit worrying to me, and again points to them kinda wanting it both ways with Loki. Just pick a lane. I dunno, it just feels like he can't really progress any further until they stop playing that game where they play him up as a villain for covers and stuff, when he's not that in the books themselves. When he has his own solo, it's fine, it's just when he's a secondary character that this seems to happen.

  14. #74

    Default

    I'm going to go with 'looks worse then it is', but that doesn't mean I'm not exhausted with Jason Aaron pulling this 'but what if...?' nonsense Again. C'mon, guy, you had your whole way too long fun with that already and landed on the side of 'no he was fine.' Just leave Loki to other writers.

  15. #75
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    5,095

    Default

    I didn't really have a problem with them doing the 'is he good or bad? thing in Aaron's run, but that's because the turn was relatively recent. And by the end, it felt like it had reached a fairly definitive stance on where he stood, so to continue doing that just feels kinda pointless now. At least for a while. We've done it really recently, let the status either progress forward some more, or at least let it stay there for a bit, explore that status a bit, before you start playing the old games of making the readers second guess his motives again. As i said, characters not liking/trusting him, that's fine, I can totally understand if it might take a long time for them to buy that the change is genuine, because they can't read his mind (well, ok, i guess a few of them could, but...) and he has a long history of dishonesty. And I think you could have some fun interactions, like with Strange, where they only begrudgingly accept his help, but not really trust him. I'm just talking from how he's presented to the readers. And yeah, it does feel like Aaron's not really letting Cates do his thing, and I kinda worry he could be jacking up Cates' plans because he keeps playing with these characters, because this doesn't feel like an extension of what Cates is doing, more a continuation of what Aaron was doing.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •