Loki Appreciation 2018

[Shura]

Happy for a new Loki series but dreading the art.

I think the chosen artist is pretty good, he has some very detailed backgrounds with a lot of people so that fits very well with a book about politics, and he also has some crazy magic stuff that fits with Loki and the tone of the book (which seems to have a lot of humor, even if things probably will get more serious as the book progresses)

About Civil War... I think that if Loki chooses a side (maybe he doesn´t choose any side, who know?) he´ll chose Carol´s (Also there´s the fact that Thor is with Iron man and we all know how Marvel works with this kind of things) the end goal being more important that the ways used looks like something he´ll do and even if he doesn´t like the idea of being punnished for something that he has not done yet that doesn´t mean he can´t do something to make sure that the hypothetical future doesn´t happen, but it´s a tricky situation and I think that with a good reasoning he can fit in any side (or both...or none), maybe once more details are revealed about the Civil War plot it could be easy to put Loki in one of the sides.

But honestly I hope the series doesn´t start tied to an event, well... at least not completely tied so you feel the need of read the main event like JiM with Fear Itself (Even if after read both you realizes that the event is better if you only read the JiM tie in)

[Shura]

Ok, here´s the solicits for Vote Loki first issue

VOTE LOKI #1
CHRISTOPHER HASTINGS (W) • LANGDON FOSS (A)
Cover by TRADD MOORE
Variant Cover by VALERIO SCHITI
Loki is many things -- god, trickster, brother, liar, son, villain, even hero. Now he wants to add one more thing to the list: President of the United States. That's right, the God of Lies has set his sights on becoming the ruler of the free world, but is this just another scheme? One thing's for certain -- with Loki's winning smile and silver tongue on the campaign trail, this election just got a lot more interesting...
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$3.99

Nothing that we didn´t know (but I don´t like that they call him God of lies, I prefer God of Mischief if they don´t want to use the God of stories title, which can confuse new readers idk)

Also there´s two Loki in TMT 8 variant cover

variantcover.jpg

Don´t know why is Lady Loki there, maybe the artist just wanted to draw her (can´t blame her, is a very cool design)
I hoped this issues continues with Loki´s part of the story to prepare the field for his solo book, but it seems it´s going to be about SHIELD.
What´s interesting is that the name of the new arc is "Lords of Midgard" and there´s a lot of chances to see him for obvious reasons.

[Raye]

Heh, yeah I dunno why Lady Loki is there either, prolly just because she was one of the more prominent illusions Loki summoned.

From what I've seen, (pretty much just his website, and the Gwenpool special) Langdon Foss is not so great at typical superhero stuff, he just doesn't do the hyper idealized heroic proportions and exaggerated poses etc. we associate with superheroes. But this isn't typical superhero stuff, most everyone in here will be in suits and ties and all that. No, we probably won't be getting supermodel Loki to fawn over, but I really don't think that's the point of the book. But he can do weird and trippy really well, and judging by the interviews, they will be taking advantage of that with Loki's magic.

Civil War, while normally Loki would be in a position where he could stay neutral, I don't think that's possible right now, he will be expected to take a position for the campaign. But yeah, that Thor is with Tony, as well as Sam, both of whom are against Loki in the new book kinda does point to him being with Carol... which I am personally a bit sad about cus personally, I agree with Tony's side, at least from what we know so far...

Avengers Academy, I am starting to regret recruiting Red Hulk, all he ever does is try and get people to help him kill Bruce, he tried to get Loki to help, Loki didn't do it, but... he wasn't happy about it.





Looks like he came like *this close* to going all 'puny god' on Loki.

Also, apparently Loki wears apple scented cologne:



anyway, he did eventually find help, with Enchantress of course. He's going to help her free hulk so she can use him to attack the school, and then he can put Hulk down. So i guess he is part of her little club now. I am beginning to wonder if after the Hulk level is unlocked that the next 'area' won't be the raft to stick Enchantress, Tasky, Zemo for those who got him, and Rulk on there and kinda spawn a spinoff game of evil. Loki does not seem to be with Enchantress and is on all the promo art for Avengers Academy, so I think he will stay with the original school, tho.

[Shura]

haha,I have the Red Hulk quests stopped thanks to the new event with Pepper (I need to live!!! a bit of mercy, TinyCo!), by the way, am I the only one who is not getting Red Hulk missions (beside the story quest)?

I´m curious to see how Foss will draw Loki, I hope we don´t have to wait till the first issue to see that and we get a sneak peek, anyway I´ve always love overlaborated backgrounds and trippy art so even if there´s not a lot of eye candy it would be interesting to look at, and speaking of eye candy Loki, how is your drawing, Raye? I finally scanned mine but I´m still in the basic youtube tutorial level so it´s going to take a long time to look decent

[Raye]

I hit a point where Rulk needs the hangar for 8 hours, so it's on hold for now since the hangar is needed to get Pepper. I get the feeling people kinda burned through the content faster than TinyCo was expecting so now they're throwing out events as a stopgap while they work on the new characters and buildings for when they raise the level cap and unlock the Gamma zone. I mean, the Pepper model was already in the game, so she was easy to add as a stopgap from their end. And yeah, I am not getting mission board quests for Rulk either. it would be helpful since 6 characters are currently tied up with Pepper..

We have seen one drawing by Foss, but it was just a sketch. Judging by the covers, they made a few changes since then. Gave him a vest, the magic staff tie clip, and changed his hairstyle.

oh and since i was in a rush before, missed replying to the Lords of Midgard bit. That does sound interesting, and seems like something Loki could be deeply involved with for sure. We had already speculated that he may be doing this to get at Dario Agger, but it seems that aspect will become a lot more widespread, and Loki as president could be part of that. hopefully so he can stop them.

I am still stalled on Loki's background. in the meantime i have been working on these:



Believe it or not, I actually really hate drawing feathers and scales, it's just so mind numbingly monotonous, yet i keep finding myself drawing them... But I live for drawing hair and shiny metal. I have not decided on a colour for the dragon. Initially it was going to be a sort of Koi pattern, with black, white and orange. but I dunno, thinking maybe red or gold will be better... so it's just the shading for now, he's not actually going to be solid gray. Wanna see Loki's shading layer? they always end up looking kind of cool and it's a shame people don't see them:



I have not finished shading his staff or legs yet, obv. All it is, is you take your flat colours, and fill it in solid 50% gray. then I have these swatches which I arrived at through some experimentation to do the shading and highlights with, set the layer to 'hard light', and bam, shaded, preserving the texture underneath, such as the pegasus' fur. Sometimes you need to duplicate the layer to make the shadows a bit darker, like i may do with Loki and the pegasus, since the pegasus' coat pattern kind of overwhelms more subtle shading, but only just started shading on that one, mostly been playing with brushes to get the texture and pattern of it's fur right. In Loki's case (and most likely eventually the dragon and pegasus) there is another layer above that with a green tint and some glinty bits for the metal and his eyes.

If you need help with Photoshop, just ask, I am pretty good with it. I can send you some of my brushes even, if you like.

[Shura]

wow, so many things.

-It´s good that they are adding new material frequetly, specially if there´re new characters, but I need a few days just to farm credits and buy flower, trees and that kind of stuff, because right now my campus is a mess.

- yeah, but that concept art was a bit blurry, right now from what we´ve seen I prefer the Valerio Schiti design, mostly because of the waistcoat and tie clip.

- Those look great! about the color of the dragon... I don´t know, usually those are golden and red (or green) but maybe the koi pattern would be more original...maybe a colour palette similar to this one?

tumblr_ncqhdbqjMh1qhttpto6_500.jpg


- Thanks! I´ll probably ask you later because the highlights and the metal pieces are precisely what I´m afraid the most, and yours looks very good, well right now I´m practising with the skin and the scepter´s ball . I tried with the head piece before but it looked or very dirty or too flat (I´ll post a pic later once the skin is finished)

[Raye]

yeah, the back to back events are kind of tiring. I would have been tempted to just sit this one out but Pepper is adorable, and it gives me someone to set Tony up with. It looked like she may be next to impossible to get for free, but then they lowered the requirements, so she is within reach for me again. And according to some people on Reddit who have already unlocked her she has some VERY important quests relating to the timefog. they didn't give specifics but said she was kind of a big deal to get if you are following the story and want to know how we ended up with a college campus full of de-aged characters.

And I think the Schiti design is what will appear in the comic, and that the sketch they showed was just an initial one that saw some revisions. Or at least I hope that's the case, because the waistcoat and long swept back hair are much more appealing to me than the more plain suit and the weird faux-poilitician hair. Also, that magic staff tie clip is cute. But I can't really see them commissioning a variant cover and the Tradd Moore covers and then have him look totally different inside the book.

I was reading New Avengers last night, and the POTUS was up to some SERIOUSLY shady shit there... He looks like Obama, but I don't think it actually is, or if it is that's a bit... concerning. I am beginning to see why Marvel may want to get away from the 'dude who kinda looks like the current president' thing, because between the president siccing a giant monster on the Avengers and what Maria Hill is doing with Pleasant Hill, it looks as though the government/SHIELD has become so increasingly corrupt that they can't really ignore it any longer. They either need someone they can allow to go full on evil and have a super corrupt government that the heroes have to fight against at times, this is how things went in Wildstorm generally, and is how the Authority ended staging a coup d'etat to take over the White House. Or they need someone on the inside who they can use to explore the corruption from within, and root it out, and that someone needs to be able to have more character to them than a generic president standin if we are going to get any interesting stories out of that. Obviously I am hoping for the latter with Loki.

another interesting bit from New Avengers as it relates to Loki is that the team split, and one team consists of Squirrel Girl, Wiccan and Hulkling. so, like, basically the only Avengers who would potentially trust Loki (though it will likely still take some convincing, but they'd at least give him a chance to prove himself rather than just assume he's up to no good) and vice versa. And it's Al Ewing writing. So, i dunno, a long shot, but may be something there, given that Loki's book is only a couple months away now.

[Chrysalis_Changling]

i can't help but feel like the insanity from the current political race inspired "Vote Loki" because right now we're dealing with the possibility of a real life supervillain running the united states(Donald Trump) who somehow has oodles of supporters despite the fact every time he opens his mouth something offensive comes out

i don't want to get into a heated debate with anyone but i really find it hard to believe that they just came up with this on their own and never thought about what's on going right now in the united states as far as politics go

[Raye]

i can't help but feel like the insanity from the current political race inspired "Vote Loki" because right now we're dealing with the possibility of a real life supervillain running the united states(Donald Trump) who somehow has oodles of supporters despite the fact every time he opens his mouth something offensive comes out

i don't want to get into a heated debate with anyone but i really find it hard to believe that they just came up with this on their own and never thought about what's on going right now in the united states as far as politics go

I think it's plainly obvious that the current political race inspired it, the writer has even said as much. But I don't see how drawing from real life events is anything new with fiction, (in fact, I'd say that MOST fiction is a commentary on something in real life to some degree) nor do i see how it's something bad. Especially for a character like Loki who has made a habit of leaning on the fourth wall in the past few years.

[Chrysalis_Changling]

it's not bad it's just weird....politics are the one thing that people never shut the hell up about and when writing political themed comics you are always this close to getting some negative press from the wrong kind of people because Politicians can be rather sketchy people and their supporters can be even worse i cannot stand politics for the most because it's just another thing for people to get into a fist fight over and sometimes it can severely wound a friendship when you realize that buddy of yours is voting for someone whom you believe to be a power hungry madman out to ruin the country

the concept right now sounds interesting enough don't get me wrong but A Full Monthly Series Where Loki's trying to become president just seems like something You'd throw together during a game of cards against humanity

not because it's loki mind you(though i do question the sanity of the marvel universe citizens that do vote for him)it's because it's so drenched in politics that our main character is a (for the moment)Nameless journalist trying to dig up the truth about loki's campaign and why he wishes to become president so much

which risks making the series seem pretty boring and stupid if the main character is just an amateur journalist with crap opinions on politics or some conspiracy theorist nutjob who fell off the fox news bandwagon

it's all about not making the book into some deranged profile of a loki stalker or just another day at The Trump Factory

nobody wants to read the opinions and thoughts of some paranoid blogger who thinks loki wants to eat all babies or something stupid like that

[Raye]

You're making a whole lot of assumptions here based on very little. Why not wait and see what actually happens before judging, instead of making assumptions and judging based on those?

Marvel has a long history of commenting on political issues, going back to when Cap punched Hitler before America entered the war. This isn't even the first character they've had run for office, Howard the Duck did that back in the 70's. If you don't like reading about politics, then this book probably isn't for you, but not like it's something new for Marvel that's coming out of nowhere.

[Chrysalis_Changling]

because it's the most interesting thing i can discuss right now and there just isn't a lot of topics that draw up as much attention as The god of lies running for united states president

It'd be like if dc comics announced a monthly series where alfred's a magical ninja butler with swords that double as machine guns and his partner is a two headed weenie dog that has dragon wings and can shoot fire out it's butt

you can try waiting but at the end of the day nothing else can touch it in terms of WTF

even if it's just assumptions it's better than me just saying what everyone else has already said about something that's already been read like a dozen times

i keep coming back to this in my mind because its weird and for that reason it fascinates me because i wish to dive deeper into it and see if i can't make up my own theories on why this is even happening

for example there's An Anime called dagashi kashi that's basically one giant advertisement for Japanese Snack foods and i thought that idea sounded stupid as hell but it intrigued me enough to go watch it and I've been hooked ever since not just because it's good but because it's so weird that even if i didn't like the first episode I'd still keep watching it and talking about it because there's nothing like it

i can't comprehend stuff like that or explain why they exist even though i really want to....and it frustrates me because such things make me feel like I'm not in this super secret group that gets the bigger picture leaving me to ask stupid questions that only have stupid answers

[Raye]

You know, when I don't have anything to discuss, I just kinda... don't discuss anything. No harm in not having something to say.

And this is nowhere NEAR as ludicrous and random as your Alfred example, not even in the same ballpark. It makes as much sense as anything else he could be doing, and is in character for him. Let's just see where it goes and what it means for him as the story unfolds. We don't have all the answers yet, and THAT'S OK. We're not SUPPOSED to have all the answers about this yet. Speculation is fine, but judging based on that speculation is not.

[Chrysalis_Changling]

*sighs*comics are weird it feels like the world's upside down when in the world of comics Optimus Prime is being a complete insane tyrant and steve rogers sides with the civil war II team that thinks it's totally okay to imprison people before they commit a crime while guys like starscream and loki the forever treacherous liars are now the heroes

[God of Chaos]

So, hey everybody! Haven't been on here in 3 weeks or so. School and life have been super hectic, but my spring break started on Wednesday so I'm just relaxing right now. But, anyways, In my time away from here, I've read Weirdworld, Weirdworld - Secret Wars, Dr. Strange, and Scarlet Witch (which I HIGHLY recommend you guys read). Also, my shipment of The Wicked + The Divine will be coming in tomorrow. Unfortunately, I'm leaving for Texas and my flight leaves at 5 in the morning . I won't be able to read it until I come back on Wednesday.

Anyways, I really enjoyed Queen of Hel #6 this month for some reason. I was okay with the blatant breaking of the fourth wall (which I'm usually frustrated by). I don't know if it's sympathy for the fact that #7 is the last issue or what, but I felt content reading this. Plus, New Avengers and ANAD Avengers were pretty solid this month.

Hope everybody is having a wonderful spring break!