Loki Appreciation 2018

[Raye]

Hard to tell from just the preview. Hopefully, it will be raised in the comic itself by one of the reporters, since it does seem awfully convenient. OTOH, I honestly could see him being amused by the political process and sneaking in just to get a better look and ask some "gotcha" questions (and maybe post the resulting article on buzzfeed, lmao). Or he could have heard rumors of a possible attack and decided to make use of it, which is a lot more morally dubious but not as evil as actually putting together the attack.

Definitely no solid evidence, but I think we're supposed to think he is actually operating mostly non-evilly (or else the question from the later solicit of whether or not he'd destabilize a country on purpose to help his chances because moot).

Yeah, hopefully the pages that follow these first few will shed some light on it, since it isn't entirely clear. Though, if it is from this lady's perspective, we may never get any concrete answers. She may suspect some shenanigans, but if she can never prove them, they will never be anything more than theories. It is true that I think he would find the whole process fascinating, especially as elections are increasingly based on narrative rather than on facts, I just don't know if that interest would translate into him being here, if he did not have a larger plan. Interesting that Loki just began chatting her up out of nowhere, though. Was that part of his plan, too?

[Raye]

OK, so... the British Invasion event started, and it is a Loki event!





Cus, magic, i guess. He appears to be trying to help free Captain Britain and Union Jack by breaking the curse on Black Knight's Ebony Blade, but I do suspect he has some kind of ulterior motive. Probably he wants the Ebony Blade for himself. Then again, maybe not, since they came to him, so not like he could have planned it in advance. It is worth noting that Union Jack is gay, and at this point in time if they added the romance feature tomorrow, Loki is the ONLY character on the campus that is a potential option for him, so that may have had something to do with making Loki the focus here as well. I just kinda uploaded the whole mess of screenshots of the beginning of the event here: http://imgur.com/a/O2p9O

It's also not a terribly difficult event, if you wanted to get in on it. just gotta keep sending Tony, Black Widow and Enchantress through the portal.

[rpmaluki]

I am hoping Loki had nothing to do with the attack. I don't mind him taking full advantage of the situation. Because we don't know what his end game is really, the readers shouldn't be put off by Loki acting completely villainous, one guy did get shot here, and him being involved may work against him. He has his supporters in the story, the writers need to maintain his supporters among the readers just as equally for the book to succeed. He doesn't need to be 100% good but he doesn't need to do awful things at the same time.

[Shura]

The last event had a ridiculous jump on difficulty with the 5th streak (I couldn´t get Bucky) I hope this one to be more short and simple, also it would be nice if we get another Loki costume.

About the preview, it looks interesting and it seems that it won´t too crazy in a noisy way which is fine.
I doubt we´ll know Loki´s exact reason for all that, he seems to find the whole political theme interesting, which is good and I think fit the character in some ways, but if this is supposed to not be "exactly a miniseries" and being adressed in TMT (during a the Lords of Midgard arc btw) I guess he´ll have major reasons, some of the possibilities had been discussed before in this tread and are still perfectly plausible (protection, defeat Roxxon, improve his not-villain image...)

I think he´ll do some shenanigans but nothing specially ...."illegal" to give the heroes a reason to attack him, in fact one of the things I´m waiting for the most is seeing an argument between him and some of the other heroes where they will want to stop him but they can´t do it, kind of what happened with Thor in the "Last days of Midgard" arc but backwards, it will also change the image of Asgardians being awful with the politics of Midgard and one of their weakest points

[Riimi]

After further contemplation, I think it actually fits the idea of "competing stories" if we aren't entirely sure if this is just a setup or if he's what he's portraying himself as. It looks like the heroes may see this as just another trick, and point to his presence at the debate as proof of that, while those who support him will have to believe in his innocence. It's actually a rather excellent meta-narrative of the whole situation. Of course, as a fan of Loki's character, I hope we do get at least hints that it was more one way than the other, even if those come further into the series. Imo, they might actually be playing off of what fans of his current character hope to see vs what someone who hasn't been following his story would expect. It also goes well with his current status in TMT; although I think Aaron has made it pretty clear by this point that he's actually working against Agger (I like to think he in part got tired of all the fan letters, it amuses me and there actually hasn't been a letters section the past two issues), it hasn't been "officially" revealed. So, it would somewhat spoil it if he were clearly non-evil.

That said, given the care they've taken with Loki so far, I don't think they're going to have him be evil. I mean, even though he stabbed his mother, Aaron went to a lot of trouble to make there pretty much be no other options in that scenario. It's kinda funny to say, but he could have chosen to portray him a lot more as a well-intentioned extremist if he had so chosen (even simply by having him not try to resolve it in other ways). Instead, he went out of his way to make it apparent that it was a last resort. Yeah, I know it's a different writer, but I think it would be jarring to have him act otherwise and it's apparent that there's been communication between Hastings and Aaron.

Shura has a good point about (and Raye mentioned in in regards to Thor earlier) about how direct attacks won't work here. That gives it the opportunity to bring up how maybe sometimes they should try to solve things in other ways than just punching them (punching can be totally justified, as well as fun to see, but if you can manage a more indirect route you can probably cut down collateral).

[Raye]

That is a good observation, about the potential meta quality of the story. I know we all, and presumably others who have read his story from JIM through Agent of Asgard, are looking for signs that he's not going to go full on villain again. We want him to stay on the right path. (though, apparently some fail to see the signs that are there.... but that's beside the point) But we have perspective on his actions that fans who have not read it or the other characters in the MU lack. Even some fans who are at least aware of the change don't accept it. Either because they want him to return to villainy, or they just think this is all a long con, or just think Marvel will return to status quo sooner or later, because they usually do. This is something that I am aware of on a logical level, but on an emotional level I just want everyone to give him a chance, because I know he means it this time. But if it was easy, it would be a pretty boring story, and I know logically that it doesn't make sense for everyone to just blindly accept that he's changed. i get that. BUT STILL.

[Raye]

hehehe... he'd do it, too.

[Shura]

ahahha, I kind of feel sorry for Jane, I mean, villain Loki was annoying because he was evil but at least the heroes kind of knew more or less what he was up to, but this one is annoying in a different and confusin way.

Also, I think that meta aspect of the story is very interesting, from the preview they seems to focus in the interpretation and perception of the stories and that fits very well with the situation outside, because around 70% of the comments I´ve read about this series kind of assume that Loki is up to no good and that´s because they´ve chosen to see it like this, maybe because of the lack of information about the current status of the character, because of habit or maybe because the jokes are too easy to make

[kaimaciel]

hehehe... he'd do it, too.

Ah! Ah! I'm enjoying this way too much. Is bad that I kinda want Loki to roast her? It would be fun *maniacal laugh*

[Raye]

ahahha, I kind of feel sorry for Jane, I mean, villain Loki was annoying because he was evil but at least the heroes kind of knew more or less what he was up to, but this one is annoying in a different and confusin way.

Also, I think that meta aspect of the story is very interesting, from the preview they seems to focus in the interpretation and perception of the stories and that fits very well with the situation outside, because around 70% of the comments I´ve read about this series kind of assume that Loki is up to no good and that´s because they´ve chosen to see it like this, maybe because of the lack of information about the current status of the character, because of habit or maybe because the jokes are too easy to make

Yeah, most people do seem to think he's up to something villainous. let's just hope he proves them wrong

A nice dialogue today with Loki and Odin in Avengers Academy (starts with Black Knight, for context):

http://imgur.com/JCExNPg
http://imgur.com/HkcIbdD
http://imgur.com/Nrqd65l
http://imgur.com/58J8RZX
http://imgur.com/FMB3M2b
http://imgur.com/IqwZjue
http://imgur.com/pWRQxPS
http://imgur.com/Qo36io1

[Shura]

haha, I´ve also seen on Tumblr Union Jack flirting with him (and Loki trying to act tough like an anime tsundere) I haven´t unlocked him yet so I don´t know if there were more dialogues between them.

Also... guess who is finally on vacations and just finished this:

LOKI TMT.jpg

My computer screen is ....not the best even when I calibrate it, so probably the pic is darker than it was supossed to be and I have to improve the light and shadows, but I´m too lazy, ans it´s so dark that the worst part will be print it correctly.

[Raye]

That looks nice! And I don't think it looks too dark, though I am just on my tablet at the moment.

And now I had to go look up the bit between Loki and Union Jack

http://avengersacademy-supportgroup....with-loki-pt-1
http://avengersacademy-supportgroup....with-loki-pt-2

And... that's kinda adorable. And it's not so much Union Jack flirting with Loki, as the other way around. Loki's just trying to play it as something else to maintain his aloof image that he uses to keep people from getting too close. While Union Jack can see through his facade easily, Loki will have to drop the act sooner or later if this is going to really go anywhere. But it's nice! Not just because it's Loki, but this is the first same sex pairing available in Avengers Academy. I am less than halfway to getting Union Jack, but this kind of made me want to get him for sure.

[Shura]

Here´s a little preview of the second issue and strangely with another artist, I have to admit that I like this one better but when a book has a lot of artist changes it´s kind of annoying.

http://www.newsarama.com/29715-loki-...medium=twitter

Jane´s there too, talking to... Roz? I´m not sure

[Raye]

Hm, not usually a good sign when they get a different artist for issue 2. Either points to the book being rushed, or the first artist choice falling apart on them. But they did at least get someone with a similar style so it won't be a huge style jump, and he draws the headdress thingy more on-model which was kind of a peeve of mine. Though the colorist made it look bronze rather than gold... oh well, can't win them all i guess

not sure who Jane is talking to, but she does seem to act like Thor dropping by for a visit is no big, so it is probably Roz, could also be an off-duty superhero, maybe Wasp. *edit - or, duh, it's the reporter lady. hair is right length and colour.

[Shura]

Curious, because I think they said that they were waiting for the artist to start with book, maybe that´s the reason of why the first issue was delayed two weeks, they needed more time for the second issue to be ready.

yes, she could be the reporter too, I though that but ... I don´t know, Jane showing up in her house so suddenly...it´s a bit weird, but of course we know nothing about the reporter so it could be (well, if she was the girl of the preview I bet she doesn´t like heroes very much)