Guide to Loki (Early Access for Pledgeonauts and up) (Patreon)

Today I have the final guide of my month-long countdown to Thor: Love & Thunder. Because, if we have a guide to Thor, we also need a…

Guide to Loki

As a reminder, you no longer need a special CK login to access guides! When you visit a Patreon guide you should be prompted to log in to CK using your Patreon login. If you aren't prompted when visiting a guide page, try visiting the CK login page directly.

##

This Guide to Loki represents the first time I have ever tackled building a guide to a full-fledged villain.

That means I was dealing with a character who for over 40 years was never an ongoing star of a run nor a member of a team. That included hundreds of appearances… of which I planned to read every single one.

What I realized very early in my reading is that Loki is no Magneto or Doctor Doom.

What I mean by that is that Loki never truly developed as a character from the Silver to the Bronze Age the way Marvel’s other two massively popular villains did. Magneto’s villainy was repetitive in the Silver Age, but once Chris Claremont took him over in the late 70s he began an extended arc of character development that stretched across decades. And, while many of Doctor Doom’s plots are similar, over the years he grew from a recurring antagonist to the mastermind behind some of Marvel’s most signature stories – including a pair of Secret Wars!

Loki was never that. At least, not from his debut in Journey Into Mystery (1952) #85 in 1962 to the fall of Asgard in Thor (1998) #84-85 in 2004.

In that period, Loki cycled through a trio of plots over and over again. He would try to thwart or flummox Thor on Earth (which occasionally extended to include The Avengers). He would try to replace, impersonate, or usurp Odin. And, he would try to start Ragnarok (often as a direct result of the prior two).

Really, that’s all he did!

You can follow the first 45 years of stories in this Guide to Loki and you’ll be reading those three things over and over again.

Not only that, but even in the midst of one of his own plots Loki didn’t tend to be present as a main character for an extended run of issues. He tends to instigate, fade into the background, and then show up for the climax. That’s even the case in his own Marvel Event, Acts of Vengeance!

That means that – unlike Magneto or Doom – there is no singular classic Loki story. He comes close in Thor (1966) #147-157 and Thor (1966) #261-267, but in both cases he wanders away from the action for several issues. Similarly, in Walt Simonson’s run on Thor, Loki has an interesting ongoing subplot that only pokes through the narrative in fits and starts.

I’m not saying any of those stories are bad stories. Some of them are delightful! It’s just that none of them are a cohesive Loki epic.

That started to change in 2007, when J. Michael Straczynski was charged with bringing back all of Asgard after their 2004 Ragnarok. When he reintroduced Loki in Thor (2007) #5, it was unlike any Loki we had seen before.

That was not only because Straczynski swapped Loki’s gender, but because he finally broke our trickster out of her eternal prison of being a guest-star whose plots quickly climaxed and fizzled. Straczynski’s Loki was a planner - never outright fomenting rebellion, but consistently whispering behind the scenes.

Ultimately, J. Michael Straczynski never finished his run on Thor – but, that was to Loki’s eternal benefit. That’s because a then mostly-unknown indie writer took over: Kieron Gillen.

Gillen penned the finale to JMS's run leading into Marvel’s Siege. Not only did Gillen and Brian Bendis team up write one of the most memorable cadences in Loki’s history in Siege, but in the process Gillen fell in love with the character.

In 2011, Gillen would return to tell the tragedy comedy of Kid Loki in Journey Into Mystery, a stunning, singular, self-contained epic spanning 32 issues in just 18 months. It was an immediate cult hit, especially with very online younger fans. Gillen would continue steering Loki for another year in his ground-breakingly queer Young Avengers with Jamie McKelvie in 2013-2014.

Not entirely coincidentally, during that same period Loki was also the featured villain in Marvel’s first Avengers film in 2012, as played with irresistible charisma by Tom Hiddleston.

From that point forward, Loki was finally the sort of villainous main character Magneto and Doom had been for decades. Al Ewing gave us another completely self-contained Loki tale with Agent of Asgard, Jason Aaron threaded him through his multi-year Thor epic through the climax in War of the Realms, Gerry Duggan adopted him for a major event in Infinity Wars, and he scored three more mini-series in 2016 and 2019.

If you only know Loki from 2007 and after, I’m not so sure it’s worth delving deeply into his first 45 years. If you read one or two of the stories I’ve picked as greatest hits in this new guide, you’ve read them all.

However, if you’re not familiar with his full arc from 2007 to present, you’ve got plenty of great reading ahead of you!

##

What's up next for comic guides?

First, I need a breather this week and next!

This Guide to Loki took me 2-3x the time I originally hoped because he is villain who spent 45 years making hundreds of guest appearances. That led to a truly definitive guide I'm proud to have built, so no complaints! But, it also means I am behind on prepping my next guides - a delve back into DC.

Also, through his past month of creating guides for characters that don't have a single home title (which means a lot of reading), I haven't yet found the time to continue updating my existing guides. I'm sure it's as frustrating for you as it is for me to click an old guide and realize it hasn't been updated in 2-4yrs. I'd like to get on pace with making those improvements this week, even if it means dropping back to a slightly slower schedule of new guides.

That said, I'm now confident enough in my new process and schedule that I can give you a general heads up of what's to come - even if things slow down slightly to allow me to update older guides:

On the DC side... I'd like to wrap-up my series of Lantern-related guides. I have them thoroughly outlined from when I started launching them during New Zealand's original pandemic lockdown in 2020. Then, I need to build Black Adam guides far enough ahead of the October release of the film to give you a window of exclusivity. Black Adam is not the only DC character appearing in his film, and two of those supporting guides are going to be a big challenge!

On the Marvel side... I'd like to do a miniature version of my Asgard push on a few Captain America supporting guides. It's no mystery that Winter Soldier is a massive gap in my guide coverage, but there are a couple of other small guides I'd love to knock out alongside him. I'd also like to tackle a few 70s heroes who didn't score their own series until the 90s and 00s, like Patsy Walker and Misty Knight (though, those might turn into big reading projects). With that wrapped up, I think I'd like to begin digging into the massive world of Spider-Man supporting guides... there are so many, including Morbius and Black Cat.

In Indie guides... I have two goals. One is to begin to slowly-but-sure cover all of the 1990s Image launch titles. This year is their 30th anniversary! Aside from the Image Fandom wiki, I've never seen a site tackle them all comprehensively outside of Weathering Wildstorm. Second, I'd like to cover a few big indie properties that have strong collection lines of their own the way I did with Conan (including G. I. Joe).

Several of those guides must launch on certain dates in order for me to have time to make them exclusive to you before they go public. Sometime in the next month I'll do a Patron's Choice poll for the guides that aren't scheduled for a specific date.

Hopefully that list includes a few things that you're interested in! If not, please sound off below in the comments. Loki was a commented request from way back, and I already know G.I. Joe is a standing request from a few folks.

##

Meanwhile, on Crushing Krisis...

I continued my new Dungeons & Dragons TTRPG coverage with a look at 18 5e-Compatible Kickstarter campaigns. I am really loving writing this series of posts, so I'm hoping they can catch on with readers while I continue to pilot them this month and next.

I launched the Jane Foster Guide to the general public! Thank you all for making it possible!

I highlighted my favorite new R&B song this year, "Bliss" by Amber Mark.

And, my Drag Race coverage continued with more All-Winners season recaps and Power Rankings Drag Race France.

##

Current Exclusives for Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 26 Guides!

DC Guides (6): Batman – Index of Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: Hal Jordan, Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner, Omega Men

Marvel Guides (20): Alpha Flight, Angela, Beta Ray Bill, Blade, Captain Britain, Dazzler, Domino, Dracula, Elsa Bloodstone, The Eternals, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Mister Sinister, Sabretooth, Spider-Ham, Thunderstrike, Valkyrie, Vision, Weapon X, X-Man – Nate Grey

Current Exclusives For Pledgeonauts ($1.99+/month): 54 Guides!

All of the 26 guides above, plus…

DC Guides (15): Animal Man, Aquaman, Books of Magic, Catwoman, Flash, Harley Quinn, Houses & Horrors, Legion of Super-Heroes, Justice League, Lucifer, Mister Miracle, Nightwing, Outsiders, Suicide Squad, Swamp Thing

Marvel Guides (13): Ant-Man & Giant-Man, Champions, Darkhawk, Falcon, Gwenpool, Loki, Moon Boy / Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Power Pack, Sentry, Silk, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Venom

Indie & Licensed Comics: None right now