LOKI: AGENT OF ASGARD #13 AL EWING (W) LEE GARBETT (a) COVER BY LEE GARBETT • Loki began his third life by annihilating the soul of his second - his better, purer self. Now he pays the price. • King Loki has won the game. Loki is burning. There is no way out. • What lie - or truth - will save him now? 32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
AL EWING (W) • LEE GARBETT (A/C) • He’s Loki’s older, nastier, vastly more powerful future self. His machinations have cost Loki everything… but who IS King Loki? • What kingdom would have him? What dread Asgard is he the Agent of? And what evil scheme has he been brewing all this time? • This issue — King Loki tells all! 32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Loki faces the punishment of the Gods! Have his sins found him out at last? • Featuring: the pain of Volstagg! The verdict of Sif! The fury of Freyja! The strange wisdom of Odin! • And in the midst of all this drama… where’s King Loki?
LOKI: AGENT OF ASGARD #10 AL EWING (W) • LEE GARBETT (A/C) • In the aftermath of AXIS, Loki is the Hero Of Asgard no more. But one change remains: • The God of Lies can only ever tell the truth. • Now, Loki’s brother, the Odinson, visits his apartment, to talk of cabbages, kings… and Kid Loki. • This is it. 32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
I love books that invite you to theorize, and this one is great for that. So I have a new one, ahead are some big spoilers for both Journey Into Mystery and Agent of Asgard, you’ve been warned.
My theory is…. And in hindsight it seems so blatantly obvious that I am shocked it didn’t hit me right away, given how the narrative captions are set up, so maybe this is old news to everyone else and I’m just completely dense, but… Old Loki, King Loki, whatever you want to call him. Loki from the future. I don’t think he actually exists, in the strictest sense. Remember in Journey Into Mystery, Loki wrote Leah into the Serpent’s story, which gave the Serpent a weakness that allowed Thor to whoop his ass?
I think Old Loki is still in the future… writing in a book, and King Loki is just a character he is inserting into his younger self’s story. We know already that Story Leah actually became real, because of the magic involved with the ‘pen’ and all, so that he is physically there in the story is consistent with that. Issue 3 is key, here. It’s probably my favorite of the run, even though I have noticed that is not a popular opinion. (how can you NOT love Loki shooting a giant fish with a bazooka? honestly.) But anyway. Note his method of time travel, he simply walks off panel and then suddenly there’s this page of the World Tree:
Which pretty much just spells it all out for you. Even the TITLE OF THE ISSUE. Once I went back and read this page with the theory in mind I was like ‘oh! of course!’ I really don’t know how i missed it before. I mean, initially when I read that I guess I was thinking the stuff about his story being re-written was metaphorical, and probably didn’t pay attention to the title, but now I think it’s more literal. And then, the next page, poof, he’s thousands of years in the past, simply walking on panel again:
I mean, that’s just a handwave. He time traveled, escaped from Asgard’s most secure dungeon cell in the process (and then later just WENT BACK, because it was needed for the story to work), but details how are not important so whatever, in the past now! He has time traveled before, but it wasn’t this easy, he had to make deals with Hela and stuff like that. Now he just goes for a leisurely stroll? Normally, that would be problematic storytelling, but if you read it with the idea of Loki in the future scribbling changes into a book, it works. Also note those parchment captions, which are the EXACT same style as JiM’s captions. For the most part, Agent of Asgard is ultra-modern looking in terms of the captions and stuff, cus Loki is a modern sort of guy. Ever since he was reincarnated he, unlike most Asgardians, totally embraces new technology, even after (a copy of) his old self took over his young body. His apartment is sleek and modern, he carries a smart phone, plays video games, watches movies, he’s a fan of Game of Thrones, (he says he’s Tyrion, but I think he’s got a good bit of Theon in him…. which probably isn’t a good thing) and so on. He’s not the type to cling to the old ways, and the lettering style of the mostly reflects that. And yet, every once in a while, the book has these parchment style captions among all the modernity. (and in issue 3, it’s nearly ALL the parchment captions) The comic has really good lettering, so I am sure it’s intentional. This is the story that’s being rewritten. So yeah. I think Old Loki is just a character being written by his future self, and has taken a life of his own, like Leah did. And future Loki may not actually be exactly like this. He hasn’t actually time traveled, technically, which explains how he is able to bend or outright break some of the Marvel time travel rules, and paradoxes are no longer a worry. The question that remains is WHY? Why would he torture his past self so? And I’m actually leaning towards a simple reason here: What’s a hero without a villain?
the big hitch though, is this panel:
He’s got Gram sticking through his chest, which should make him unable to lie, but… what he says technically isn’t true, if I’m right. But I’m thinking, if he is a character that the actual Future Loki created, if future Loki is actually writing the story, what he says may absolutely be true from the context of the STORY, so it may get a pass?
So my patrons get 2 exclusive pinups this month instead of just one! I couldn’t decide between fem presenting or masc presenting Loki, so I did both! Their Young Avengers/AoA design will always be my favorite.
I’d just like to say that loving genderfluid Loki in both forms is bi/pan culture and I’m mad it wasn’t implemented in the mcu now. could you IMAGINE?? a fucking iconic lgbt+ GOD
In Marvel comics, Hela, the godess of death, and her wolf Fenris, are in fact the children of Loki. He is able to have these children through his shape shifting abilities. This is in line with actual Norse mythology. In Marvel Studio’s Thor: Ragnarok, Hela is instead his sister. This models itself more after the character Angela, who is the long lost daughter of Odin and sister to Thor and Loki, raised by angels her whole life (As explained in Original Sin: Thor and Loki: The Tenth Realm).
In Avengers and X-men: Axis, Loki becomes worthy enough to lift mjolnir and fight Thor on the moon. Prior to this, the red skull created an inversion spell that turned Thor evil and Loki into an even better hero than the one he was choosing to become leading up to the event in his own series. The scene is recaptured in Loki: Agent of Asguard issue #9.
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