Loki Appreciation 2018

[cosmicjoke21]

yeah, he would RATHER use his wits, but that doesn't stop him from being super durable and strong by human standards, or being able to handle things in a more direct manner should the need arise. The point is he wasn't actually in any danger. He could take an explosion like that with little issue. Or he could magic up a forcefield to contain the explosion, or levitate the guy in the air. LOKI didn't need Angela, the STORY did. They wanted the bit where Angela spilled the beans on him, so she had to be there and do that no matter how little sense it made.

I mean. for all it's other continuity problems, Gambit v Deadpool at least got that right. Gambit exploded him and he was FINE. He got right back up and flirted with Gambit. He also fought Iron Fisted Deadpool hand to hand. (other than that though, so much wrong, there is absolutely no way it can fit into current continuity)

Yeah, that part of the issue irritated me the most. The end was pretty cool, Loki's intention obviously never to actually win the election (why would he want to be president of a single country on Earth?), but us still not quite sure what his intention actually was. Though I tend to lean towards him actually wanting to help Nisa. But yeah, Loki in reality would just flick that fire dude off like an annoying fly.

[cosmicjoke21]

I thought he was just bs'ing at the end of it. He says something along the lines of "yeah, that'll work". Though he very well might have pulled the strings to get her the job once he lost, I don't think his intention was to lose. Once he did, he had to find a way to wrap it up all nicely, hence his comment about "not being a moral parable" when he went to phone the politician. He's trying to reshape his mythos, so it had to be some sort of story.

Overall, I'd say I was underwhelmed (though part of that may have been due to my disappointment with Thor, which I read first). I still think that the methods he used were at least borderline evil, even if his intentions were good. For instance, since no one else was revealed to have killed the hydra agents, I'd say it's safe to assume he arranged that. Which I think is kind of extreme. They were already in custody.




Thor gets turned into a dumb brute and Loki into a wimp. Based on plenty examples from continuity, I'd say neither of these is strictly true, but it still happens.

Insert bitching about TMT that I didn't want to do on the official thread, because it is mostly me crying about it being the hammer and not Loki. (I think I mentioned it but didn't complain much, it feels more appropriate to this thread). I'd say I'm not sure why Aaron chose to use the hammer when Loki's already established (unless he really does want him to be evil or more 'morally grey' as Raye kinda mentioned earlier), but I'm so biased it's ridiculous. I guess maybe to highlight the importance, but the whole thing felt somewhat convoluted, especially as it was explained by a power that can only be used every millenia or so. Isn't that convenient. Yeah, that does make it so we're not always asking why it doesn't show up, but I'm not sure it adds anything to the underlying mythology either. We already had it strongly implied that the hammer was sentient. I guess this confirms it, but I'm still not sure it was necessary.


It does make it possible that the December issue is the next Loki interacts with Thor, although I hope we continue to see him here and there in his own arc as Aaron has been doing thus far.

Edit: It was nice to see him concerned about the citizenry and defending their right to vote for someone else. And also trying to get them to stop rioting (in Vote Loki, I switched topics again )

Yeah man, I was bummed too that it wasn't Loki who was helping Jane in "Thor". I thought for sure it was him the whole time reading it and then it turns out to be... Mjolnir. That was anti-climactic, to say the least. But hopefully we'll get to see Loki soon in the book. We know he's trying to help now, but the waiting is still painful.

[Raye]

Well, now his motivations are much less ambiguous, (at least to the reader) so i am hoping to see things more from his perspective to learn what exactly he is trying to accomplish. I also want to see more of him and Laufey. Basically, if we are getting a Mjolnir focus issue, I want a Loki focus issue, with narration boxes in his voice and everything from his perspective. In present day, though, not story time with Loki.

Yeah, that part of the issue irritated me the most. The end was pretty cool, Loki's intention obviously never to actually win the election (why would he want to be president of a single country on Earth?), but us still not quite sure what his intention actually was. Though I tend to lean towards him actually wanting to help Nisa. But yeah, Loki in reality would just flick that fire dude off like an annoying fly.

Right. I know that having Loki be super strong/durable AND a sorcerer makes it difficult to legitimately threaten him, but.... still... I mean, thinking about it i guess it could be argued that it was part of his plan. But he could not have known what Angela would ask for in return for saving his life. She could have asked if he could pretty please give her a puppy for all he knew. (one that breathes fire, like she had heard he gave out left and right before, because a fire breathing dog is badass and Leah ran off with Thori. As an aside, anyone else sad we never see any of those hell hounds around any more? Aside from Thori, recently. and I kinda hope they drop THAT Leah, because that's just... so confusing... When Warlock turned up in X-Factor, no dog. Heimdall, no dog. Does Tyr still have his? I guess Hilde is our last hope there.)

And yeah. I dunno if he started everything with her in mind, but at minimum from the moment she mentioned to him that he had destroyed her building I am pretty sure he was trying to make up for that in some way. There was no reason to include that little detail otherwise, really. If it was mostly for him to get the future president's ear by helping swing the election, there would have been a different focus, I think. I think everything mentioned in the final issue played some part though. He didn't stage this whole thing JUST for any one thing. It was a little bit existential crisis, it was a bit for the lulz, it was a bit for power, it was a bit to help Nisa, it was a bit to get a favor from the future president. (what specifically, we do not yet know, if we ever will) but I think helping Nisa edged out the other things at the end, even if it wasn't the main thing at the beginning.

[Shura]

A bit late, but finally read the issues.

First TMT, I would have prefer Loki too, but I kind of understand why it was Mjolnir, that explanation about the thematic of the story, the differents kinds of morality... it´s nice I never thought about that, but the explanation of how the hammer can do all that wasn´t enough, I hope the next issue to have a very good explanation, I have no problem with Mjolnir being sentient (in fact, I like the idea) but the way it was represented was a bit over the top, with a power too different from what we knew it was illusions+driving itself+ read minds? idk too many things, but the issue itself was good, and yes, I hope we get an issue with the focus on Loki, soon or later it will be necessary.

About Vote Loki, it was a nice miniseries overall, but it needed more issues it didn´t used half of the potencial of the concept, and I would prefer Loki´s POV instead of Nisa´s, but still... the ending was nice but very open to interpretations (which is not necessarily bad) but I agree that his motivations were a mix of things.
My interpretation was that he wanted to be president in order to reshape his image (a probably bit of power), but he didn´t wanted to be president THAT much, so he didn´t care about the "boring aspects" of politics, just the show (a bit like the Loki from Avac with his "lawyering" ) also when he saw how his followers were acting he change his plans because that was not the image he wanted to give, so he choose to expose himself more (it would have being much more easy for him to win if he didn´t choose to make that live appearance, but needed to do that in order to change the behaviour of his followers), help Nisa was something that happened later (if he has to do something like that for everyone whose house was destroyed because of him it would takes forever) and the favor of the future president could be his ace in the sleeve in the case he doesn´t win.
He should be more concerned about the his overall image, and how the world would see him, honestly, even if he didn´t end winning and being loved by everyone, I don´t think he could be seen as the "God of evil", more like someone that is not qualified to be president because of his own baggage (existential crisis, tendecy to cheat...) but not like a super villain.

P.D: just took a look to Hasting twitter to see if someone asked something about the ending (specially the favor of the other candidate, I´m very curious about that), but there´s nothing,
but he said to a tweet asking if it was a miniseries that it could have been longer with an early start, but they wanted to trade to be out by election, which even if I see as the logical option (Marvel is a bussiness after all) is a shame to not let a story be told properly because of that.

[Raye]

A bit late, but finally read the issues.

First TMT, I would have prefer Loki too, but I kind of understand why it was Mjolnir, that explanation about the thematic of the story, the differents kinds of morality... it´s nice I never thought about that, but the explanation of how the hammer can do all that wasn´t enough, I hope the next issue to have a very good explanation, I have no problem with Mjolnir being sentient (in fact, I like the idea) but the way it was represented was a bit over the top, with a power too different from what we knew it was illusions+driving itself+ read minds? idk too many things, but the issue itself was good, and yes, I hope we get an issue with the focus on Loki, soon or later it will be necessary.

to be fair, while the taking on human form is completely out of the blue, telepathy is kind of necessary for the enchantment to work, and always has been. It wouldn't be able to tell who was worthy or not without being able to read minds.

About Vote Loki, it was a nice miniseries overall, but it needed more issues it didn´t used half of the potencial of the concept, and I would prefer Loki´s POV instead of Nisa´s, but still... the ending was nice but very open to interpretations (which is not necessarily bad) but I agree that his motivations were a mix of things.
My interpretation was that he wanted to be president in order to reshape his image (a probably bit of power), but he didn´t wanted to be president THAT much, so he didn´t care about the "boring aspects" of politics, just the show (a bit like the Loki from Avac with his "lawyering" ) also when he saw how his followers were acting he change his plans because that was not the image he wanted to give, so he choose to expose himself more (it would have being much more easy for him to win if he didn´t choose to make that live appearance, but needed to do that in order to change the behaviour of his followers), help Nisa was something that happened later (if he has to do something like that for everyone whose house was destroyed because of him it would takes forever) and the favor of the future president could be his ace in the sleeve in the case he doesn´t win.
He should be more concerned about the his overall image, and how the world would see him, honestly, even if he didn´t end winning and being loved by everyone, I don´t think he could be seen as the "God of evil", more like someone that is not qualified to be president because of his own baggage (existential crisis, tendecy to cheat...) but not like a super villain.

My take on it is that he went in to it treating it as a game, maybe because he had made a deal with that other candidate (but you'd think they'd have fleshed them out a bit if it was going to end up being a big deal later) but ended up taking it more seriously as it progressed, and then lost because he got a bit too interested in reassuring people he wasn't out to hurt anyone rather than just winning. When everyone started questioning him, he could have come up with good sounding answers that pleased his biggest supporters. Everything indicated that he could have won the election without winning over the people who were afraid of him. With the vote split 3 ways, he only had to get a bit over a third of the people to like him enough to vote for him, so he didn't HAVE to reassure the rest he wasn't going to abuse the power. But no, he wanted to win them over as well, convince them there was nothing to be afraid of. Whether this was due to him being more concerned with stamping out the ' evil super-villain' label in the minds of as many people as possible, whether he didn't like people viewing him as something he wasn't, (he quite reasonably seemed to get annoyed when people attributed stances/opinions to him that he never held) whether he was actually trying to lose at that point because he had made a deal with another candidate, or whether he actually wanted to be as fair to as many people as possible is up for debate. But when put on the spot he tried to be fair to everyone, (something i'm not sure he realized he wanted to do until that very moment) which meant he pleased no one. And because he went into things treating it as a game in the beginning, he hadn't actually put a lot of thought into the specifics, which hurt him further. This is of course a commentary on politics in general, but still. When politicians end up taking middle of the road positions they maybe won't actively anger as many people, but don't get people excited or make big changes. People want dramatic changes for what they perceive to be better, even if it means making half the country furious.

As for helping Nisa, and how long it would take to help everyone he's ever hurt. I am not sure if he knew he was going to help her until he had it pointed out to him that he had even hurt her. He was probably telling the truth when he said he didn't even remember destroying her building. He's destroyed a LOT of buildings. And then there's the whole death/rebirth shenanigans which probably cloud his memory a fair bit. So I don't think he is going to be going on a quest to help everyone he's ever hurt or anything like that. But he may seek out and try to make amends for some of the bigger things he's done, or to those more close to him, but not like, every single person.

P.D: just took a look to Hasting twitter to see if someone asked something about the ending (specially the favor of the other candidate, I´m very curious about that), but there´s nothing,
but he said to a tweet asking if it was a miniseries that it could have been longer with an early start, but they wanted to trade to be out by election, which even if I see as the logical option (Marvel is a bussiness after all) is a shame to not let a story be told properly because of that.

that is a shame because it really could have used a few more issues.

[Shura]

Yes, I don´t think he has in mind help everyone, but I saw comments of people thinking that his main reason for the elections was Nisa and... just no, there tons of better options if he wants to help someone he previously hurt.

About Mjolnir´s power, I messed up there, of course telepathy is necessary to tell who is worthy, what I mean is that the whole picture "the hammer is proyecting an copy of Jane that is talking, acting completely normal and reading her mind to know how to extract a bullet" was a bit too WTF and I would have prefer a more subtle method, very close to jump the shark imo (and if the next story is way too stupid or twisted it may end up jumping it but I feel it will be good, the preview at least looks cool) but now that I think about it Mjolnir could have use a kind of similar power when it was used to transform Thor in Donald Blake, could the hammer just cast the spell on itself?

About the elections, well, that works as a political commentary it´s true that nobody can please everyone, specially in politics, I think that when he saw that part of his followers wanted something that he didn´t wanted to give and the others were afraid of him or having a violent behaviour, he doubt more about his position so he took the risk to change that, and didn´t work. and as you said taking the middle road never works, specially it he was very noisy and a bit extreme at the beginning, his supporters were dissapointed when he slowed down and the others didn´t bought his speech because they already had a negative opinion about him, some of them would have ended up being neutral at best. probably his overall image at the end of the day was "well, that was weird" which is not the best result but it´s not the worst either.

[Raye]

I do think helping Nisa was an important part of it. Having her be the focus of the story, having Loki (and the Avengers) destroy her home when she was a kid as part of her backstory, having him go out of his way to involve her, and him paying her a visit at the end when he really didn't have to, with no one else watching and when it would no longer help him, that all of that points to helping her as being important, and probably what ended up being his main takeaway on a personal level. And it may inspire him to do similar for other people he's hurt (though probably not on such a grand scale, and ALL of them just isn't feasible. I mean, he was a very bad boy for a long time). I just don't think it's his SOLE motivation, and quite possibly not one of his original motivations. But it is a bit of a departure for him. Up until this, and he even says it again in this very story when Nisa is confronting him about when her apartment was wrecked, he's completely divorced himself from his actions prior to his death during Siege. That was the old Loki that did those things, not his problem any more. This seems to have him acknowledge that maybe he is actually responsible for the actions of the 'old Loki' as well, even if he is different now.

Mjolnir - I don't think it's ALWAYS been able to do this. I think something has happened that's altered the enchantment, which is illustrated by Odin being unable to lift it. It's just a question of how. I have seen people speculate that the time Dr. Strange repaired it using a piece of Thor's own essence is what did it. It would make sense, but it may be too reliant on old continuity. People unfamiliar with that story would have no investment in that explanation, so I think it may be something else entirely, something more recent.

Not sure if he was particularly vocal about anything in the beginning. I think he purposely kept quiet about any ACTUAL opinions he may have, because he knew people who were upset with the establishment would make their OWN reasons why he was better, simply because he was about as anti-establishment as you could possibly get, and very flashy big personality who they assumed was going to tear down the old system and change everything drastically (and they just ASSUMED it would be in a way they liked) because of who he was more than anything he had said. It's the one thing he does have in common with Trump. A lot of people that support him do so simply because he's from outside the system, which they think is corrupt or otherwise needs shaking up, and they think he will do that. But Trump is also much more vocal in some absolutely horrible ways, which makes his popularity almost more strange. I kinda wish Loki had actually stated some of his opinions at the end there though, maybe after he got fed up with everyone being stupid.

[Raye]

http://marvel.com/news/video_games/2...engers_academy

Halloween event has started! and Loki is leading the charge on saving the day again. Everyone else is all like 'CANDY!!' and he's the only one that's choosing to do anything about the GIANT HELL PORTAL. so that costume is the first you unlock, and he's your single solitary demon fighter at the start. A lot of premium stuff this time. yeah, i'm not gonna pay nearly a thousand shards for a haunted park... But it does appear we are getting some proto-dating features since they've added a 'hangout' feature where you can raise relationship levels by pairing characters up for special actions tied to this event to get prizes.

[Shura]

hahaha, the costume! I guess that for each cool Loki costume we´ll get one stupid anyway I really want to read the dialogues that comes with that.
Also my game works again, I haven´t done anything new so I don´t know how it was fixed ...ugh technology

The hangout feature sounds like the one from Fire Emblem, and that would actually be a good opcion for the dating where you could level up the relationship between characters pairing them in battle to see cutscenes but only access to level S with one of them (which means marriage and children, but that´s not necessary here)

[rpmaluki]

I like Loki's costume, it shows his cheeky side. Can I assume that Loki is officially a hero in this game despite trust issues with the other characters and Loki history as a villain? I ask because I don't play the game.

[Raye]

he doesn't like the others much, aside from Black Widow and Union Jack, and he's arrogant and constantly belittling a lot of the other students, and most of the others find him.... difficult to work with. But especially lately he's been a pretty good boy, though he usually is motivated by selfish reasons, and he had a couple episodes early on where he kinda acted out. He doesn't have a history as a villain in this game, none of the bad things he's done in either the main MU or the MCU have happened. So this is just him being kind of a jerk but not like, evil.

[Raye]

The dialogue surrounding the Thor costume is super cute and funny. And Loki is being a pretty good boy so far. And looks like the day will be saved by The Power of Friendship, so he's gonna be making some friends whether he likes it or not. Specifically Wasp, Misty and Ghost Rider (at least in my game, since i got him) and presumably some others later on. Here's screencaps. Fair warning, there are a LOT so this will be a bit of a pain to load: https://imgur.com/a/TIdTf I know some people on Tumblr have posted bits and pieces of that, but that's ALL of it from the beginning of the costume quest on.

Also, I suspect the hangout feature will be sticking around post event. Note that it's icon does not match the halloween event icons, it has the same blue-grey colour as the regular ones. So hopefully we will be able to get him hanging out with Union Jack and some of the other characters he's kinda connected with after the event ends.

[Kieran_Frost]

Playing it right now, LOVING it, loving having Loki as a main player again. And I think the costume is super cute.

[lalalei2001]

[Raye]

a bit of minor news from NYCC involving Loki:

"Lane broke the news that Marvel and Funko have collaborated to create three brand-new animated shorts that will be released later this year. The animated short Spellbound featuring Spider-Man and Iron Man facing off against the trickster Loki and his mind-controlling scepter, debuted to an enthusiastic crowd during the panel. The two other shorts include Chimichangas featuring Deadpool facing-off against Venom and Rescue where Rocket breaks into the Collector’s museum to try and set his buddy, Groot, free."

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/10/...nimation-news/

so, we will have to keep an eye out for this short. It was only a matter of time before Funko turned their versions of the characters into cartoons, i guess.

in somewhat related news, i got the NYCC exclusive Kitty Pryde from EB Games (Canada's Gamestop) and she is adorable. And they had Jane Thor at a different store in the mall, she was marked up due to being an exclusive from elsewhere, but i still got her and she's great. Weird that i found Jane before getting regular Thor tho. looks like i will have to suck it up and order him online.

*edit - lookit them being all adorable: