Characters / Marvel Comics: Loki

WARNING: There are unmarked spoilers on these sheets for all but the most recent comics.

Loki

Alter Ego: Loki Laufeyson

Notable Aliases: Loki Odinson, God of Mischief, God of Stories, Scarlet Witch, Lady Loki, Serrure, Ikol, Loren Olson, William Lawson

Team Affiliations: Astonishing Avengers, Cosmic Avengers

First Appearance: Journey into Mystery #85 (October, 1962)

"No. Mischief is a small thing, a toy I've well used and discarded. This isn't mischief. This is mayhem. Just watch."

— Loki, Siege: Loki Vol. 1 #1

Loki is the adoptive brother and Arch-Enemy of Thor. He is based on the being of the same name from Norse Mythology. The character first appeared in Journey into Mystery #85 (October, 1962). The character was created by writer Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and penciller Jack Kirby.

Loki was born of Laufey, King of the Frost Giants. Laufey was a brute of a father, ashamed of his son's comparatively non-giant size, but as luck — and Loki's own hand — would have it, Laufey would be slain in battle with the All-Father Odin, Lord of Asgard. Out of pity, Odin took the boy from Jottunheim and raised him as his own son alongside his biological son Thor.

Throughout their childhood and into adolescence, Loki was resentful of the differences in which he and Thor were treated by the citizens of Asgard. The Asgardians, a race of proud warrior deities, loved Thor for his courage, his might, tenacity, and bravery in battle, and Loki was clearly inferior to his foster brother Thor in those areas. What he lacked in size and strength, however, he made up for in intelligence and skill, particularly as a sorcerer. And thus Loki came to detest Thor.

He arranged for Thor to be exiled to Earth in mortal form, and plotted his death, unleashing scores of monsters and mayhem upon him and the world in pursuit of that goal, whilst in Asgard he schemed on many occasions to seize rulership of Asgard. His plots against Thor were thwarted time and again, and when he pitted him against the Hulk, he made new mortal enemies when The Avengers united for the first time to oppose him.

But Loki couldn't be humbled. He bartered with other mortals and gave them power to fight this new team; he schemed with other villains and sought to defeat Thor and his allies with their aid; while still working towards one day claim Odin's crown.

And after decades and centuries of planning and plots, he finally achieved his goal -– and for his troubles, Thor brought about Ragnarok.

Loki was shaken, as he did not seek something so terrible as the destruction of Asgard, but Thor's actions freed them from the tyranny of the Shadow gods, and they were reborn.

Loki returned as a woman, (though she later chose to return to a more masculine form,) and once again worked towards taking over Asgard and the defeat of Thor. But Loki paid a heavy price for his actions and he died once again, only to rise once more, this time as a child; as he had schemed to manipulate Hela into having his name removed from the Book of Hel, thus when he died, he would be reborn instead of truly dying. Kid Loki was innocent and trusting, but still as wily as the God of Mischief was.

Thor found Kid Loki on Earth, restored part of his identity (though he remained in the form of a child and lost almost all his memories and powers) and brought him back to Asgard, where he found an echo of his elder self, whom Kid Loki reduced into the form of a magpie, condemned to a lifetime as "Ikol," his opposite. Determined not to become like his past self, Kid Loki went on several adventures to gain Thor's and everyone else's trust and affection, but eventually found himself in a situation that required his mind to be destroyed by letting Ikol overwrite it and take his body. So, the Loki seen now is a bit of a copy of himself, but while he did end up nearly causing the meltdown of reality as we know it during his stint with the Young Avengers, he discovered that his heart just wasn't in it anymore - the fact that Kid Loki's memory functioned as a sort of conscience ("I am the crime that will not be forgiven") and his absorption of Kid Loki's memories and, to an extent, his nature, didn't hurt.

Loki became more appreciative of his brother Thor, who still (rocky periods aside) treats him with trust and love. Now he puts his mind towards more benevolent ends, and has assisted Thor and his friends in their hours of need — even if he's still as cunning as before. He even worked for the good of Asgard, too, in the All-Mother's secret service, if partly to expunge one crime, one story, from his past so he wouldn't be bound by it and turn back into his old evil self. Then, after a stint as the All-Mother's spy on Malekith's Dark Council, he appeared to betray her by stabbing Freyja in the back with a poison blade. However, as Cul, Odin's currently semi-evil older brother and right-hand, accurately noted, failing to kill Freyja with a poisoned knife from that range would make Loki either "a very bad poisoner, or a very, very good one."

It turned out to be the latter, both to get him in closer to the Dark Council, and to protect Freyja (if he hadn't done it, Malekith would have sent someone who would have succeeded). During this time, he also arranged the reformation of the Avengers because, as he put it in Young Avengers, "Assembling the Avengers - it's Loki's greatest trick". This time, it was sincere motives, as he pretended to be the herald of the corrupted Celestials, leading to the formation of the 2018 Avengers team by playing the villain (which Black Panther - and possibly Thor - noticed, even if no one else did). However, the Dark Council didn't trust him, and the resurrected Laufey killed him by eating him in War of the Realms... or rather, he tried.

Thanks to Matt Murdock as 'the God Without Fear' knowing he was alive and pulling off an impossible ricochet throw of Heimdall's sword down Laufey's throat, Loki cut his way out, and claimed the throne of Jotunheim, of which he is now the somewhat reluctant King.

Read in his own voice here.

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Comic Books

• Journey into Mystery
• Loki Vol. 1 (2004)
• Loki Vol. 2 (2010–2011)
• Siege
• Journey into Mystery (Gillen)
• Young Avengers Vol. 2
• Loki: Agent of Asgard
• Vote Loki
• Loki Vol. 3 (2019-2020)
• Loki Vol. 4 (2023)

Anime and Manga

• Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers
• Marvel Future Avengers
• Deadpool: Samurai

Film – Animation

• Hulk Vs., voiced by Graham McTavish
• Thor: Tales of Asgard, voiced by Rick Gomez

Literature

• Loki: Where Mischief Lies

Live-Action

• Marvel Cinematic Universe, played by Tom Hiddleston (see also his character page and his main variant's character page)
  • Thor
  • The Avengers
  • Thor: The Dark World
  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Avengers: Endgame
  • Loki ^note Multiple variants of Loki

Video Games

• Marvel Ultimate Alliance
• Marvel: Avengers Alliance
• Super Hero Squad Online
• LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
• Marvel Heroes
• Marvel Future Fight
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order
• Marvel's Avengers, in a sidequest where he is disguised as Thor

Web Animation

• Marvel Rising Ultimate Comics, voiced by JP Karliak

Webcomics

• Alligator Loki (Infinity Comic), written by Alyssa Wong with art by Bob Quinn.

Western Animation

• The Marvel Super Heroes
• Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, voiced by John Stephenson
• The Super Hero Squad Show, voiced by Ted Biaselli
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, voiced by Graham McTavish
• Ultimate Spider-Man, voiced by Troy Baker
• Avengers Assemble, voiced by Troy Baker
• Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., voiced by Troy Baker
• Guardians of the Galaxy, voiced by Troy Baker
• What If...?, voiced by Tom Hiddleston

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Tropes associated with Loki and their various incarnations:

In General

• Abusive Parents:
  • Laufey was not a good father. As a time-travelling adult, Loki took revenge on his wounded progenitor with a sword, screaming "YOU WILL NEVER STRIKE ME AGAIN!"
  • Laufey briefly came back to life during Loki's misadventures with the Young Avengers. Let it be known their reunion was anything but happy - he literally tried to eat him!
  • During the War of the Realms, Laufey tolerates Loki's presence since they're allies, but clearly does not like his son in the slightest. After Loki betrays Malekith, Laufey states that the frost giants consume their shame and eats Loki, who proceeds to carve his way out of his father's stomach, killing him.
• Aborted Arc: Subverted. Spider-Man once aided him in subduing his wayward daughter, leaving Loki with a debt to pay.◊ Due to the Siege, and other events, it seemed doubtful he'd ever have the chance, but in Amazing Spider-Man #795 (Feb. 2018) Loki finally pays it.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: While the myths never mention Loki's hair color, many depictions portray him with red hair, whereas here he is a brunette.
• Always Someone Better: Because of Frost Giant heritage, in Asgard Loki was always compared unfavorably to his adoptive brother, Thor. This, coupled with Abusive Parents above, seems to have played a role in his nature.
• Amplifier Artifact: The Norn Stones are his most prominent, though he has a collection of these. Though the Stones' properties vary depending on the writer, they tend to have the power to give the bearer whatever they desire, which is generally manifested in a massive boost to Loki's innate magical abilities.
• Anti-Anti-Christ: Ancient prophecies tell that it's Loki's destiny to bring forth Ragnarök, but even at his most vile, Loki's main determination is only to rule the Nine (or Ten) Realms, not destroy them. (Yes, in the countless repetitions of the cycle he always did so at the end, but it was rarely his original intention.)
• Arch-Enemy: He's Thor's greatest and most personal enemy.
• Badass Bookworm: His intelligence is without question and he's an unusually scholarly Asgardian, but he's also still a Norse god, and one does not grow up amongst the Aesir without learning how to fight, nor have a blood feud with The Mighty Thor without being good at it.
• Batman Gambit: He has been playing Thor, the Avengers and all of Asgard like a fiddle with a high success rate since time immemorial.
• Becoming the Mask: Loki may insist that Loki is always Loki (and only fights for Loki), but which can be quite the question. For example, after Kid Loki merged with Ikol, is the young Loki that resulted the kid version, whose body he inhabits, and part he plays; or the old, whose memories and personality he possesses, but part tries to avoid; or maybe somehow in-between? For what it's worth Loki himself is hoping for a solution that makes him less predictable. But the house almost always wins. And it won. But too late for Loki's tastes, which prompted him, well, the King!Loki him, to Make Wrong What Once Went Right (or was it the other way around?). What happened? Let's just say Loki must really hate butterflies.
• Being Evil Sucks: He has been plagued by a guilty conscience, taking the form of the so-called "Kid Loki", whose soul he destroyed when he took over his body as part of his ploy to make his comeback. Hamlet figures prominently in his accusations.
• Big Bad:
  • Of many Thor stories, as well as both the first Avengers story. He's also the true villain of Journey into Mystery and Loki: Agent of Asgard, despite being the hero of both; Loki is truly complicated.
  • Of the Dark Reign and its finale event Siege. Norman Osborn, as director of HAMMER, is the new face of the Superhero Registration Act that has been an obstacle for Earth's heroes since Civil War (2006). However, Loki began engineering events such as re-establishing the Mighty Avengers to undermine Osborn's authority and thus his already-fragile sanity, winning The Hood to his side by giving him the Norn Stones after the latter had been stripped from Dormammu's control, and colluding with Doctor Doom to house the Asgardians in Latveria in exchange for the secrets to the Asgardians' immortality so he could ingratiate himself with Asgard's new king Balder. Loki then plays on Osborn's Sanity Slippage to convince him to invade Asgard.
  • He's also, surprisingly enough, the villain of Young Avengers, as he struck an alliance with Mother in order to gain control of Wiccan and his powers. Well, until he changed his mind at least.
• Big Brother Worship:
  • As much as Loki seems to detest Thor, he might begrudgingly admit there are some things he might admire about him, at least after he forgot that he ever hated him in the first place. Even if his dad doesn't like it.
  • As "Kid Loki" at least, he's justified with this line of thought, as Thor is currently the only person who likes him at all and is nice to him.
  • How deep does his love for his brother go? When young Loki faced a Sadistic Choice of dying or becoming like his past self, young Loki and his past self solved it by destroying themselves almost completely so that Loki could remake himself, but what they chose to hang on to was their only friendship, their self-determination, and their love for Thor.
• Black Magic: One of the many branches of power available to him and another contrast with his muscle bound brother.
• Brains Evil, Brawn Good: Loki is intellectual and evil, whereas Thor has physical might and is good.
• Cain and Abel: Well, duh. He's in the role of Cain while his brother is the Abel.
• Characterization Marches On: His original incarnation was evil, hated Thor and wanted nothing more than to rule Asgard. Since his subsequent rebirths, they're more neutral than evil, are on semi-good terms with Thor and doesn't have any interest in ruling Asgard.
• Characters as Device: Since he's explicitly a chaotic evil character Loki can be of use to authors as an out to undo any retcons to a character's legacy as some lie he concocted to mess with them. The revelation that the Beaubier twins are half-elf and that Hank Pym is the Scientist Supreme are both prime examples.
• Character Exaggeration: Ever since his surge in popularity in The Avengers (2012), Loki in the comics and other media will rarely portray him without his glaive (the chitauri sceptre containing the Mind Stone in the movie) and treat it as his weapon. This is despite the fact that Loki only uses said sceptre in one movie and uses knives from then on, and that the sceptre wasn't even his to begin with (it was given to him by Thanos).
• Chick Magnet: While one would think this only applied to him after the success of the movies, in his very first appearance◊ he wooed his brother's lover, Jane Foster, just by challenging Thor to a fight. He also apparently had a lot of human lovers in the past.
• Child of Two Worlds: Born as son of the Frost Giant King, but adopted and raised by the Asgardian royal family, he can truly say he's one. Not that he ever really felt he belonged to either society, as both equally loathe him, albeit for different reasons.
• Chronic Villainy: Right before allowing himself to be overwritten by his memories, his child self called him out on it. The later Lokis are a bit better about this; their motivations are usually a bit better than sticking it to Thor or Odin.
• Clever Crows: Ikol, the magpie containing the memories of what Loki was before he died. Since then his new incarnation developed quite an association with these birds... some might even suggest for some other reasons.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: For his adventures performing tasks in Midgard for the All-Mother (tales told in his own series, Loki: Agent of Asgard) and also when later troll... visiting his brother's... um replacement's book, Thor (2014), upon seeing the reaction Mr. Tom Hiddleston got in films, artists have modeled his new face◊ on his likeness. It isn't without its difficulties, however, as he had to move his apartment once after being repeatedly confused◊ for some Midgardian named Harry Styles.
• Consummate Liar: As the God of Lies, he's extremely skilled at lying.
• Cool Sword: He was, for a time, owner of Gram, sword of Sigurd (the Ever-Glorious), a sword that forces all injured by it to face the truth. Time-travel plays no small part in its complicated origins. Alas, his brother destroyed it.
• Crown of Horns: Loki has more or less always worn a crown, helmet, or headdress with two horns projecting at the front. In early appearances, the horns were quite implausibly huge; later artists were usually more restrained, though more flamboyant treatments have periodically reverted to the "infeasibly large horns" version.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His early childhood was littered with neglect and physical abuse. Also, the fact that he's a runt by Frost Giants' standards (1/5 the size of his kindred) led his father to abandon him in the ice, although if he hadn't done so, Odin would not have taken him in and he might not have evolved into the Physical God he is.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Got a four-issue miniseries in 2004, another in 2010, and a one-shot during Siege.
  • As of #622, Loki - in his younger form - has taken over the main Thor books as the protagonist (Thor is the protagonist in another one) and they have been renamed Journey into Mystery, to great critical acclaim. Along with his solo adventures, as of October 2012 he's also a member of the Young Avengers.
  • In 2014, he got another new solo series, Loki: Agent of Asgard.
  • Loki's plans for 2016 include running for president of the US, so don't forget to Vote Loki!

• Do Not Adjust Your Set: He pulled this once on Apocalypse, appearing on one of his television monitoring screens and then having a chat with him from it, then popping out of it to have a proper conversation. It was fun until he took him prisoner with his Anti-Magic tech...

• Easily Forgiven: Zig-zagged. Thor always forgives him in the end and gives him another chance, but he refuses to accept their mercy. Odin used to do the same, but after Loki's return as a child, Odin has run out of patience, with Thor being the only reason he has not been banished or killed. The only person who has forgiven him is Thor. Everyone else wants to kill him.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He has dark hair and pale skin and is definitely eerie.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Surtur once attempted to destroy Asgard. Odin and Thor stood in his way. Loki temporarily put aside his differences with his father and brother to fight Surtur at their side.
  • He once tried to manipulate Mr. Sinister into stealing his genetic material from Doctor Doom, whose Anti-Magic prevented him from doing it himself. Circumstances forced them to fight their way out together.
  • He once teamed up with Spider-Man. Loki wanted to save one of his children from being possessed by Morwen, and Spider-Man wanted to save the world and to get Morwen to stop hitting on him.
• Enemy Without: Leah of Hel and the former lovers of the Young Avengers, who joined Mother's side, all turned out to be creations of his guilty conscience that he subconsciously brought to life to punish himself for killing Kid Loki.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Loki will always make clear that he seeks to rule Asgard, not to destroy it.
  • When the time came for his younger self to make an inspiring speech to the Angels of the Tenth Realm, he felt it prudent to address the pressing fact that they would be killing babies. At length, at that.
• Evil Chancellor: Prince Balder chose him as an adviser after becoming the ruler of Asgard, believing that Loki had turned over a new leaf. In reality, Loki was manipulating him in a scheme to banish Thor, claim Asgard and separate the city from Midgard.
• Evil Is Petty: The other main motivation of Loki, besides ruling Asgard, is showing up his brother by any means necessary.
• The Evil Prince: He's the Prince of Asgard and Jotunheim and very good at being evil.
• Evil Plan: He sets his sights on Odin's throne or otherwise sees how he can make Thor suffer.
• Evil Sorcerer: His knowledge of the mystic arts is unparalleled in all of Asgard, even though many mighty sorcerers and sorceresses make it their home.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: He has stated as much his aim is conquest, not destruction. He stated this during a fight with Surtur: there is no point in his ruling all that he surveys if all he surveys is burned to a cinder.
• The Fighting Narcissist: He maintains a perfectly healthy and realistic awareness of his own handsomeness, and he can certainly fight. His fighting style is in fact far more based on grace and agility than brute strength.
• Forced Transformation: Amongst other things, he has transmogrified Thor into a frog and his own grandfather into the snow - yes, the snow, as in, all snow everywhere.
• For the Evulz: Norman Osborn was an amusing toy for him... for a while.
• Gender Bender: He has been known to take on feminine form, in particular that of his brother's lover, Lady Sif. Why Sif? To torment him, of course. Not that that actually affected his gender (he still referred to himself as Odin's son, Thor's brother, generally he and so forth).
• God of Evil: God of Mischief and Evil. Albeit it was later changed and he became the God of Mischief and Lies instead for a while, at which point his destiny split: Either go back to the previous title, because "lies are evil, right?", or push it more and become the God of Mischief and Stories.
• Good Old Fisticuffs:
  • While plotting out his far-reaching plans before the Siege event, he realized he needed control of the Dsir, the dreaded undead Valkyries that eat souls. So naturally the best option was to beat them into submission with his bare hands.
  • He also has slapped◊ Eric Masterson to the brink of unconsciousness.

• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: His Agents of Asgard incarnation seems to be developing an attachment to a certain Miss Verity Willis because she can see through any sort of lies and illusions, and is therefore very hard for him to fool.
• The Heavy: Every incarnation of Loki had mastermind many plots over the years.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Sometimes he's a haughty sorcerer who thinks Asgard rightfully belongs to him...and sometimes he's The Unfavorite brother of the Mighty Thor who can never be an adequate Jotunn or Aesir.
• It's All About Me: Odin fights for Asgard, Thor fights for Midgard, and Loki fights for himself.
• Killed Off for Real: As revealed in Agent of Asgard, any Loki that came after him is a different Loki, meaning that the original Loki who died in Siege was gone for good.
• Kneel Before Zod: Loki will often demand to whom he considers lesser beings to bow to him.
• Lack of Empathy: He thinks himself above any others and will be ready to admit it.
• Large Ham: He seems to enjoy himself while displaying his superiority to those pathetic Midgardians!
• Lean and Mean: Loki is probably the skinniest male in Asgard. He is also one of Thor's meanest villains.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Since becoming the god of stories, he's started doing this rather frequently. He often references his own character arc and what role he's supposed to play in relation to a plot line, whether he's the villain, hero or something else.
• Magic Knight: He much prefers to manipulate things from afar or use magic than to resort to what he considers barbarian methods... but if he needs to fight, he will fight. The Disir learned the hard way what happens to those who underestimate his battle prowess.
• The Man Behind the Man: On several occasions, the villains Thor defeats were Loki's stooges.
• Manipulative Bastard: And an excellent one at that.
  • He has manipulated everyone in Asgard at some time or another. Fitting, given that he is the god of deception. Oh and in this case, "bastard" is meant literally. He insists that he's not really the "God of Lies", just mischief. Of course, he's such a good liar anyway, who could ever tell?
  • He's so good that even when people know not to trust him (which has been Status Quo for fifteen real time years), he still ends up manipulating them anyway.
  • His younger self needs to be this since he doesn't have any magic, only his brains and his silver tongue.
  • He's not above manipulating incarnations of himself either.
  • Loki is known for his manipulative tendencies and even spins this reputation in his favor to get people to do what he wants. Later incarnations of him often have more benign goals, but given his schemes have a tendency to cause a lot of harm regardless of the intentions, he is not well-liked.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: When he travels to the mortal realm, at least in the good old days, he dresses his best - he looks good in a suit, after all.
• Master of Illusion: His film incarnation in particular is fond of this, but the Loki of Earth-616 is more than his equal in his own right.
• Memory Gambit: "Kid" Loki was a scheme to let him return from death with a new lease on life and a better reputation. It did not go entirely according to plan, but Loki is nothing if not adaptable.
• Me's a Crowd: In his most serialised adventures, there are no less than [[spoiler:four distinctly separate versions of him; his original self, the younger version of himself's ghost or spirit, the current version, taking traits from both while being distinctly separate from either, with notions of redemption and... heroism, and an older version of that one, who has gone back to standard villainy.
• Mother of a Thousand Young: As Spider-Man was once surprised to learn, Norse gods have a lot of time on their hands. While most of Loki's children are normal enough and mortal, he does have a few that are either immortal, such as Hela and Vali Halfling, or have... not inherited his handsome looks, such as Fenrir and the Midgard Serpent.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Knowing he would in all likelihood die at some point, he planned ahead. Which came in useful when he did eventually die.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Frost Giants are very big, very stupid, and typically Dumb Muscle. Loki is a brilliant schemer, a powerful sorcerer, and slightly shorter than Thor (the horns on Loki's helmet notwithstanding) and very slender. While Loki is still very strong and durable, that is primarily in comparison to the superheroes and villains of Earth, not Asgardians or other Frost Giants.
• Never Bareheaded: Some runs of The Mighty Thor have depicted Loki this way, though as with many comic book characters it's Depending on the Artist (it's fairly established that his hair is short — shorter than in the film version, black, and pomaded back). The J. Michael Straczynski/Kieron Gillen era took this trope to heart, however, by depicting a Loki who wore his horned helmet and cowl even when shirtless and hammering at a sword à la The Blacksmith. Loki currently averts the trope, he pretty much only wears a circlet thingy, and even that only on missions; however his (possible) evil, future self was shown to wear the classic helmet.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: As is common for characters whose skill lies in magic, he's often capable of doing whatever the plot needs him to with it, though not to the level of Doctor Strange since the writers still need Thor to be able to defeat him.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He once schemed to pit Thor in a deadly battle against the Hulk, but some other heroes showed up as well. His plot was soon uncovered, and - much to Loki's later irritation - he ended up inadvertently bringing the Avengers together. Indeed, this incident is his single greatest regret in life, or at least was until he killed his better self.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: As a small Frost Giant he is as durable and strong as any average Aesir, though he is not naturally as durable as the muscle-bound Thor. Fortunately, as a sorcerer, he has supernatural durability, as he has granted himself a range of advantages no other Aesir has; most Asgardians would be more bothered than him at the prospect of decapitation, for a start.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: In terms of physical strength, Loki doesn't stand out in a world of Proud Warrior Race Guys, with the most powerful among them capable of lifting literal millions of tons. But on Earth, it's a completely different story. He's capable of reducing buildings to rubble with just his bare hands, grapple with the Silver Surfer to a stalemate, and No-Sell punches from Spider-Man who, mind you, is strong enough to lift tanks.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: He is not so easily swayed by a pretty face and body, but on occasion he has been distracted by both Lorelei and her sister Amora the Enchantress. Story Loki also once flirted with Fandral the Dashing.
• Odd Friendship: Spider-Man and he had a short lived one during their brief team-up. It was certainly entertaining, everyone can agree on that, given their wit. By the end he was grateful enough that Loki told Spidey he could get a favor from him in the future, which he eventually did in 2018, although despite the number of fans wishing for Spider-Man to use it to get Loki to undo One More Day he used it for something else.
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: His younger self and also his later God(dess) of Stories incarnate would change gender for no reason other that they could (and he only could like he was thanks to some limitations placed on his shapeshifting those days), and would also identify accordingly. Yes. That's Goddess, or Mistress or generally she when Loki is a woman. Thank you very much. By The Immortal Thor, Thor and Loki use "they / them" when referring to Loki.
• Patricide: Laufey violently eats Loki for betraying Malekith's army, proclaiming that frost giants eat their shame and weakness. Unfortunately for Laufey, Loki takes the opportunity to cut his way out of his father's stomach, killing him and subsequently making Loki the new king of Jotunheim.
• Pet the Dog: When he becomes king of Jotunheim, he comes across another runt frost giant about to be killed by some of his kin for stealing the lid to a pot. Loki empathizes with the giant and protects him, even giving him a special position so the other giants will not harm him.
• Physical God: As he is of Asgard/Jotunheim, his power, his age, and his strength are all godlike.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Loki can safely say that this is not the case. It looks like assimilating his child self has given him knowledge of Internet culture and popular media such as Game of Thrones, despite being of a species and from a culture vastly different from that of Midgard.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: Though for much of his history he had a disdain for anything mortal, he became this after he was resurrected in the body of a child and discovered the internet. He's now one of the very few Asgardians who carry a cell phone (he even boosts the reception with magic), will use the internet to accomplish his goals, play video games, and constantly make pop culture references, having apparently become quite the fan of many movies and TV shows which he gets via "torrents of bits".
• Progressively Prettier:
  • While Loki has always maintained a certain "je ne sais quoi," there is no arguing that, as Kid Loki, his design grew from "eyebrowless goblin child◊" to "handsome young lad◊."
  • Having now been granted an older body through Wiccan's magic, he now has the appearance of a young adult in their late teens/early twenties. The reaction from the internet seems to be, "Oh no he's hot."◊
• Psychopathic Manchild: He's an ages-old Physical God with incredible intellect, cunning, magical might... and the emotional maturity of a spoiled toddler. His entire motivation for everything he has ever done is that his Dad likes big brother Thor more than him and lashing out in response. In a conversation between his child incarnation and a copy of his former self, the child Loki actually comes across as the wiser and more mature of the two. Loki also has a bit more maturity due to his guilt over replacing child Loki. It's sort of inevitable that a self-proclaimed God of Mischief isn't a paragon of maturity.
• Psychic Powers: He can enter the minds of hapless victims, such as the Hulk to turn him on Thor.
• Rage Against the Author: It's hard not to read the entirety of his younger self's sacrifice without seeing a touch of... aggravation at the fact that, because of the Editors and his newfound popularity as the villain of The Avengers, no matter what, this was only a temporary arrangement. He even looks at the viewer while describing how it's beyond either of them's power to make the story have a happy ending. (He even declares that an unspecified "they" won't let him change.) The only way for the new Loki to be allowed to change without being forced to become evil at some point in the future under a new writer is for his younger self to be entirely erased from existence. This is admittedly something that can be undone if someone has the gall to.
  Leah: Better to die as good fiction than live as bad.
• Redemption Demotion: After his death in Siege, the subsequent Lokis that came after the original have been far less capable in their sorcery than the original. However, it's justified for both Kid and Teen Loki. For the former, being reborn meant that his young body is incapable of handling of such magicks. As for the latter, it's simply because he's too lazy to bother himself from learning the advanced stuff, instead relying on his guile and manipulative nature to get ahead, and it works. Story Loki is partially hamstrung by narrative convention; if they just snapped their fingers and solve everything, that wouldn't make for a very interesting story, now would it?
• Redemption Equals Death: In Siege, he took responsibility for his deeds and sided with the heroes, but got torn apart by an eldritch horror as a result.
• Retcanon: Loki was redesigned to be much more conventionally attractive thanks to the popularity of Tom Hiddleston's portrayal of him in the movies.
• Reluctant Ruler: After becoming king of Jotunheim, Loki is not exactly happy about his new position. His people -the frost giants- hate him, and the job is so boring he often sneaks out to have some action. To be fair, he wasn't really aiming for the throne to begin with.
• Sadly Mythtaken:
  • Originally in the Norse myth, Laufey was his mother, and he was the blood-brother of Odin, meaning that he's Thor's adopted uncle, not his adopted brother.
  • In Blood Brothers, he seems unaware that he is the father of Hela.
• Say My Name: He once commanded a legion of fans to do so in the "Hall H" of the San Diego Comic-Con.
• Screw Destiny:
  • His core motivation approximately since the events of Siege, when he realized that his role as the God of Evil clashes with his role as the God of Mischief and Chaos by making his actions... a little more predictable than he'd prefer.
  • This became more difficult in the Autumn 2014 event AXIS, due to the Red Skull tampering with the brain of Charles Xavier and letting himself be possessed by Onslaught. Not to mention Doctor Doom trying to kill him to prevent him from what he'll become afterward. Loki simply broke the timeline and freed himself from that particular future for good.

• Squishy Wizard: Downplayed in that he's this only in comparison to Thor and other beings of incalculable strength. To any normal human, he's a Kung-Fu Wizard.
• Status Quo Is God: Deep down he will always be Loki. And he wouldn't have it any other way. But he would totally rules lawyer what and/or who Loki is when given a chance, and he would die and/or kill for that chance. You've been warned.
• Super-Strength: While not on the level of Thor, he still is a Frost Giant, and much stronger than humans by far. During a magic brawl with Strange, Zelma Stanton tries breaking them up by nullifying Loki and Strange's magic. Unfortunately, the spell only cancels their magic, leaving Strange a mere human and Loki with his inherent Frost Giant strength, which he proceeds to use to send Strange flying with his fist.
• Theory of Narrative Causality: Not that he was ever averse to playing with the fourth wall occasionally, but his young incarnations are especially strong believers in the power of the narrative. Not only have they something against the authors, but they also had at least three plans involving rewriting the story, be it their own or that of his uncle, Cul Borson. It's no wonder they became the God of Stories.
• Theseus' Ship Paradox: Applied to all the Lokis following on from the original. Are they the same people, and should they be treated as such? Is Teen Loki required to shoulder the blame for original Loki's crimes, or merely their own? Thor, for his part, sees them all as the same person for good and bad.
• Third-Person Person: Loki has a habit of doing this in various comics.
• Time Travel: He can do this more or less at will; it gives him a distinct advantage when carrying out his plans. Even he cannot guess how much of Asgardian history was shaped by him until he decides to go back and affect it - the disappearance of his foster grandfather, his own adoption and the death of Laufey, and who knows what else? All him, and he didn't even know it!
• The Unfavorite: He considers himself Odin's least-favourite son and wants to make him regret what he considers as having underestimated him by making all of Asgard bow at him feet. Or, as his God of Stories incarnation decided, screw them; they won't sacrifice themselves for their acceptance anymore. They refused Odin's "So Proud of You" and mocked his King!Loki incarnation for wanting it in the first place. Well yes. It was the end of the world.
• The Unfettered: Whether he's opposed to Thor or working towards some mutual end, he's always willing to go further than his brother.
• Villain Teleportation: He'd be a poor master of Black Magic if he could not teleport at will.

• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He considers most of his plans regarding Asgard as being for the good of Asgard, and the universe on occasion, and he considers himself to often see the answers more clearly than the heroes because they are held back by too many ethics.
• Which Me?: Loki can confuse even himself by talking about himself, like how it took a long time for little Loki to realize who old Loki's spirit talked about, when mentioning Loki only dying for Loki. In theory, when he says Loki that can mean any iteration of Loki mentioned under Me's a Crowd, or abstracts like the story, Trickster God, general role or ideal of Loki. When Loki says "I" that means explicitly him personally, if you were wondering.
• Would Hurt a Child: He admits to never having cared much for other people's children, and gladly uses them to gain advantage over their parents.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: At least once his teen incarnation came around. Turns out existentially scarring himself by destroying and assimilating his child self got them slightly fond of them, so he's at least against child murder, as the Angels of Heven can attest. Wiccan owes his life to their unwillingness to complete the plan of tricking him into committing suicide, even if he endangered the world by doing so.
• You Can't Fight Fate: As long as the tales of his prior activities exist, Loki shall be drawn back to his old habits. Given that he would rather die than be predictable, efforts are underway to erase them.

The Original Loki

Loki

^{Loki's female form} 

Notable Aliases: The God of Mischief

First Appearance: Venus (vol. 1) #6 (Golden Age), Journey Into Mystery (vol. 1) #85 (Silver Age)

Loki is the biological son of Frost Giant chieftain Laufey. After Odin killed Laufey in battle, he adopted Loki and raised him as his own son. It was revealed that Loki engineered his own adoption through means of a Stable Time Loop as part of his plan to destroy the Aesir.

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• Abusive Parents: Laufey was not a good father. A time-travelling adult Loki took revenge on a wounded Laufey with a sword, screaming "YOU WILL NEVER STRIKE ME AGAIN!"
• Affably Evil: Depending on his mood, but just because he's a ruthless manipulator doesn't mean he can't be civil about it.

• Ambition Is Evil: He wants to rule Asgard no matter the cost.

• Astral Projection: He has demonstrated the ability to project his thoughts telepathically across great distances as well as potent hypnotic capabilities.
• Badass Bookworm: While he's mainly known for his skills at magic and guile, he's quite the skilled fighter and an expert battle strategist as well.
• Big Bad: Of many Thor stories, being Thor's Arch-Enemy, as well as the first Avengers story, and one of the main threats in the Marvel Universe.

• Body Snatcher: Has made a bad habit of this ever since he came back to life after Ragnarok. First he came back in the body intended for Sif and claimed it was the body intended for him, and later claimed he had inhabited her body by mistake when he returned to his true form. He later forced Kid Loki to allow him to take over his body, eradicating his younger self's mind in the process.

• Bring It: At the start of Dark Reign, when Norman Osborn's tripping on his success, he tells the Cabal that if they cross him, he'll go after them. Loki just chortles once.

• Child of Two Worlds: Rarely touched upon but the fact that he is a small Frost Giant adopted by Asgardians; hated, feared and mistrusted by both, really didn't help their mental state or identity issues. In Thor (2014) as Spoiler Character 2 (probably) denied both. Loki is Loki.
• Chronic Villainy: No matter how many second chances Thor and Asgard are prepared to give him, Loki simply can't seem to help but play the villain's part.
• Classic Villain: Pride and Ambition are his principal traits, and he also possesses Envy.
• Consummate Liar: Loki is the God of Lies, though he also manages to play with it — people know they can't trust him, so he simply factors in the not being trusted into what he says. He's so good that he can manipulate a person when they know who he is, that he's evil, and that he's probably manipulating them and shouldn't be trusted. In Loki: Agent of Asgard they even befriended a Living Lie Detector (Verity Willis, who is pretty much Blessed with Suck, both because of her power and the friendship) and then successfully lied to her. She sarcastically congratulated to the feat later.

• Dark and Troubled Past: Loki's early childhood is littered with implications of neglect and physical abuse. Also the fact he's a runt giant, which means he's like 1/5 the size of his kindred. This is often an explanation for his self-loathing and mean behavior.
• Dating Catwoman: He once had a prolonged relationship with Storm of the X-Men, when she and the New Mutants were stranded in Asgard — he even gave her back her Elemental Powers, as she had been depowered at the time (there was also some brainwashing involved). When he was... persuaded... to send them all back to Midgard, he offered her a chance to stay with him as his queen, and even admitted that being with her might have been worth losing the throne. While she turned down his offer, he sentimentally took the molten remains of the thunder-hammer he had used to empower her and reshape it into a statue of her to keep as a memento.
• Deadpan Snarker: Frequently, he enjoys trading barbs with others.
• Deal with the Devil: He has been pressed-ganged into deals with actual devils at times, such as his forced alliance with the dreaded Dormammu, but he has been on the better end of this more often than not; Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man, is just one of many mortals who have gained special gifts courtesy of him.
• Depending on the Writer: His relationship with wife Sigyn tended to vary between writers. While Loki was never a good husband some stories showed him viewing his marriage as nothing but an unwanted burden while others had him saying that Sigyn was the only person he truly loved and was genuinely appreciative of her loyalty towards him.
• Disappeared Dad: Discounting his relationship with his children (Jormundgandr, Fenris and Hela), Loki hasn't been a stellar father to the children he sired with human women either.
• Distaff Counterpart: Loki bears the dubious honor of being one of the few characters to become his own Distaff Counterpart. When the Asgardians are reborn following the Ragnarok, Loki claims what was supposed to be Sif's new body to himself.
• Easily Forgiven: Thor and Odin always forgive Loki in the end and give him another chance. Loki is so convinced that they secretly hate him that he never takes it.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's all about himself and wants to take the 9 Realms because he wants to one-up Thor; he has also fought to defend to it to prevent its destruction.
• Evil Chancellor: To Balder, during his tenure as Asgard's king in the JMS run. His manipulations lead Balder to banish Thor from Asgard and relocate the citizens to Latveria, where they are experimented on by Doctor Doom.

• Evil Is Petty: His main motivation is simply showing up Thor, by any means necessary.
• The Evil Prince: He is prince by adoption of Asgard and technically prince by birth of the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. He has enough clout with the Frost Giants to at least use them as Mooks from time to time and regularly schemes to overthrow his adopted father Odin, take over Asgard and kill his foster brother Thor somewhere along the way.
• Evil Sorcerer: He is perhaps the most powerful sorcerer in all of Asgard, rivalled only by evil (mostly) sorceress Karnilla. Loki has the ability to generate and control a great quantity of mystical abilities for a variety of purposes, of which can be used to further enhance or augment his physical diagram, like his speed, strength, and stamina, but only temporarily.
• Foe Romance Subtext: It probably isn't best to think too hard about how when he turned Storm, who he had a bit of a crush on, amnesiac he also made her a knock-off of Thor.
• For the Evulz: Most of his actions, if not trying to one-up his hated brother, is simply for his own amusement.

• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Loki actually hates himself and has a raging inferiority complex. However, he loves to hide it behind false arrogance and superiority. We see more of the unmasked inferiority complex with Loki as a child, since he's a kid who knows everyone but his big brother hates him... and worse, that the person he used to be means he deserves it.
• It's All About Me: No matter what he says, just about everything he does is self-serving. Sometimes, he can be honest about it.
  Odin: For Asgard!
  Thor: For Midgard!
  Loki: For myself!
• Kick the Dog: When confronting the Power Pack, he used the fact that their grandmother was dying to his advantage and taunted them about it.
• Lean and Mean: Often portrayed as lean if not decently built, and certainly very evil.
• Level Ate: One of his more frivolous acts of mischief was to change buildings and cars into candy.
• Magic Knight: Most stories focus on his illusions and magic, while occasionally a story comes along that reminds readers that Loki grew up in a warrior culture and was taught the art of the sword. He isn't as good of a fighter or as physically powerful as many others, but he can more than hold his own or make up for it with his magic. Being immortal has given him plenty of times to develop his skills in both areas.
• Manipulative Bastard: He has manipulated pretty much everyone in Asgard at some time or another including himself. Fitting, given that he is the personification of deception.

• Mind Control: He has used this on the Hulk and various others, mortal and otherwise, with varying degrees of success. As an Evil Sorcerer, he can do it any time, but how effective it is depends on the mind.
• Misplaced Retribution: The reason he dragged the New Mutants into the Nine Realms. After a previous scheme, he'd given his word to not seek revenge on the X-Men. The New Mutants were not the X-Men, and therefore clearly fair game.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Frost Giants are mostly depicted as very big, very stupid, and typically Dumb Muscle. Loki is a brilliant schemer, a powerful sorcerer, and is usually shown as slightly shorter than Thor (the horns on his helmet notwithstanding) and pretty darn skinny. While he is still very strong and durable, that is primarily in comparison to Earth superheroes/villains, not Asgardians and other Frost Giants. In a conversation with his child self, they both reveal their contempt for their kind and their endless cycle of violence.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He once schemed to pit Thor in a deadly battle against the Hulk, but Iron Man, Ant-Man and The Wasp showed up as well, due to Loki's own interferance. Loki's plot was soon uncovered, and — much to his later irritation — he ended up inadvertently bringing the Avengers together.
• The Nth Doctor: Loki erased himself from Hela's books in Dark Reign so no Loki goes to the afterlife since. Which means when a new one arrives after an unfortunate death, which is predictable as Death Is Cheap in comics, he/she/them will be a different person (so the Loki of the past is not the same as Kid or the 3rd despite all being Loki). He wasn't aiming for this effect, but when did Loki's plans ever not involved unexpected consequences?
• Orc Raised by Elves: Loki was a Frost Giant raised by Odin after (apparently) killing his father Laufey. Loki attempts to conquer and destroy Asgard and in general the universe. He also hates his own race, especially his Abusive Parent (who Loki also killed in one instance).
• Parental Neglect: One of the reasons he turned so psychotically evil is Odin never bothering to make it clear he loved him, at least not to his face.
• Papa Wolf: His relationship with his children can be strained at best, but as it became evident with his (temporary) partnership with Spider-Man, he does care for his progeny, and as Morwen painfully learned, he does not take lightly anyone possessing them.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After his plan to lure the X-Men and New Mutants to Asgard culminated in him having to return them all to Earth while he gained nothing from his efforts, while he deprived most of them of the new powers or gifts they had acquired during their time there, he specifically stated that he wouldn't be so cruel as to subject Karma to regaining the excess weight she'd lost during her time there (prior to her coming to Asgard, Karma had been possessed by the Shadow King and her body had bloated up considerably as the villain indulged his appetites, only slimming down due to the strain of her time in the deserts around Asgard).
  • When his mortal daughter Tess Black gets possessed by an ancient sorceress of chaos, Loki goes out of his way to save her, and considers himself indebted to Spider-man for helping him save her.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: When appearing in a New Mutants storyline, he takes a moment to note Storm is very beautiful, before adding that this is despite the color of her skin.
• Progressively Prettier: When he first debuted, he was drawn as a craven-looking man as a sharp contrast to his stepbrother's good looks.
• Really Gets Around: Implied. When he reveals to Spider-man that he sired a daughter, he simply comments that he's a Norse God; that's basically what he does.
• Redemption Equals Death: During the Siege event, Loki realizes that he's been making a massive mistake: He wanted to make Asgard greater than ever, but let his hatred of Thor get in the way of that. In a last ditch effort to stop the Void, he uses the Norn stones to empower the New Avengers to give them a fighting chance. When this doesn't work, Loki takes the full brunt of the Void, dying while tearfully apologizing to Thor.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: In his first Silver Age comic appearance, he had been magically imprisoned inside a tree by Odin as punishment for his antics. He would become free only if his plight caused someone to shed a tear. No one missed him strongly enough to want to cry, so he resorted to poking Heimdall in the eye with a leaf.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: During Acts of Vengeance, he disguises himself by A: not speaking in the typical butchered Elizabethan English Asgardians used at the time, and B: Dressing in sharp suits.
• Sibling Rivalry: His rivalry with Thor is one of his main motivations for villainy.
• Smug Snake: He's extremely overconfident, and his plans don't go quite the way he wants them to, including occasions in which he's the one responsible for his own failures, and does not take them as well as he could. But if you were a Physical God and master of sorcery with a genius level intellect, you'd be high on yourself too.
• Stable Time Loop: The circumstances that led to Loki becoming his current self turn out to be the result of the villain using magic to travel back into the past. He interfered in the war between the Asgardians and the Giants of Jotunheim by casting a curse that turned the leader of Asgard, Bor, into snow; then used his illusion powers to haunt Bor's son, Odin. Consumed by grief, Odin was easily manipulated into adopting the child version of Loki, thus ensuring the latter would grow up into the God of Mischief.
• Start of Darkness: Loki was originally a weak and abnormally short giant, who was regularly belittled by his own parents. However, following an encounter with his time travelling future self, Loki embraced his inner hatred and manipulated his own father into fighting a losing battle against Odin. This in turn led to him being adopted by Odin, then growing up into one of the most fearsome villains in the Marvel universe.
• Super-Empowering:
  • He turned Crusher Creel into the Absorbing Man and has given powers to several other less known villains.
  • He gave The Hood some Norn Stones when his arrangement with Dormammu predictably took a bad turn, but reclaimed them to empower the Avengers so they could stand a chance in the fight against the Void.
• Take Over the World: Loki seeks to become the lord of all creation and someday make all bow before him.

• Took a Level in Badass: In his earliest appearances, he was more of a nuisance than a major threat, but it wasn't long before Loki became truly menacing.
• Troll: Ironically for a guy who comes from a race named "Frost Giants," he does occasionally scheme, manipulate, annoy or outright hurt people just for "funsies".
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Loki used to be ugly, yet his wife was the beautiful Sigyn. He also had a brief love affair with Lorelei.
• The Unfavorite: He definitely thinks of himself as Odin's least favourite son.
• Villainous Widow's Peak: On the occasions he's been bareheaded, it's shown he has a pretty prominent widow's peak.
• Villain Team-Up: He will sometimes work with other villlains if needed. He once led almost every mortal villain to perform Acts of Vengeance.
• Villain Teleportation: Often uses magic as a getaway.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like a number of gods or goddesses, Loki possesses highly developed shape-shifting capabilities. He is able to adopt almost any form imaginable whether it be animals, other humanoid beings, or even inanimate objects.
• Weaksauce Weakness: When he first appeared, he had one — he couldn't use his powers when wet. Against Thor, who could easily make it rain. No wonder this is ignored now.

Kid Loki

Kid Loki

First Appearance: Thor (vol. 1) #617

After his death in Siege, Loki was resurrected as a preteen without his adult memories, powers, or emotional baggage. He was the lead character during the run of Kieron Gillen on Journey into Mystery.

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• Amnesiacs are Innocent: Loki has no memories of his adult self's evil acts, or his motivations for committing them.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: The point of the "Kid Loki" arc – he's a preteen again, with no memories from before his preteen years (except for in his nightmares). Therefore he does not remember his hatred of Thor, which started when they were teens. Instead, he adores him. Eventually he came to remember him, but his feelings towards him remained warm.
• Back from the Dead: Inexplicably, he makes a return in Asgardians Of The Galaxy, apparently separated from his older counterpart. In Issue #4, it's revealed that he's actually Ikol's guilt.
• Big Brother Worship: As far as Loki is concerned, his big brother Thor is the center of the universe. Kid-Loki practically worships Thor and nothing he does can ever be bad. Even if daddy doesn't like it.
  • Kid Loki is justified with this line of thought, as Thor is by that point the only person who likes him at all and is nice to him.
• Break the Cutie: Things start out bad for him and proceed to get progressively worse.
• Cessation of Existence: At the end of Kieron Gillen's run on Journey into Mystery, Ikol/adult Loki overrides his mind, annihilating his identity.
• A Day in the Limelight: After Thor #622, Kid Loki took over the book, which was renamed Journey in Mystery.
• Dying as Yourself: He claims that despite accepting to kill his ego for the sake of Mephisto not getting the crown of thorns, as part of Old!Loki's plan, he still wins because he did change.
• Fake Defector: Loki uses his bad reputation to pretend to betray Asgardia as part of his schemes to help Asgardia on more than more occasion.
• Geek: Is an absolute geek in regards to Midgardian culture and technology.
• Guile Hero: As he has very little of his adult self's magical or fighting skills, he relies almost entirely on his wits.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Most of his plans unravel at the end of "Everything Burns", specially the crown of fear, which pretty much forces him to go along with Old!Loki's plan to kill himself.
• I Hate Past Me: Kid Loki had no love for his evil past self.
• Keet: Extremely eager and happy, his enthusiasm surprises even Thor.
• Morality Chain: To Thor. When Thor discovers that Ikol took over Kid Loki's body, he goes absolutely ballistic on him. What stops Thor from bringing himself to kill them was the memory of Kid Loki's final moments with Thor.
• Manipulative Bastard: A good version of this (he needs to be, since he doesn't have his magic; manipulation is all he's got).
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He pitted the Fear Lords in an eternal battle over the Fear Crown, but didn't count on Mephisto intervening and taking the crown for himself. This was all part of the original Loki's plan.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: He becomes fascinated with Midgardian pop culture after discovering the internet.
• Talking to Themself: Ikol turns out to exist in solely in Loki's mind.
• Trickster God: Well, he's still Loki. Literally as it turns out; "Kid Loki" is a scam pulled off by Loki to avoid the ignominy of predictability.
• Trauma Conga Line: The entire run of Journey Into Mystery is just one big "Shaggy Dog" Story for the poor kid. Almost everyone in Asgard still hates him for what his original self did, he loses his best friend Leah, abandoned by Thori, and discovered in the finale that everything he accomplished is nothing more than another of his original self's schemes.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Even when his intentions are good, Loki's schemes still lead to disaster.

The 3rd Loki (Teen Loki/Ikol etc.)

The 3rd Loki (Teen Loki/Ikol etc.)

First Appearance: Journey into Mystery (vol. 1) #622

"I am the echo of a scream^note They're a copy of the old Loki. I am the magpie who whispers^note They're mostly the consciousness that Ikol was. I'm the crime that will not be forgiven."

He/she... or rather they... are the Loki who was born from the death of Kid Loki at the end of Journey into Mystery, who cursed themselves with their first breath, and the world (including the readers) with the second. Oddly they're pretty much neither of their predecessors, but instead take elements from both well still somewhat forming their own identity. "Star" of Young Avengers and Loki: Agent of Asgard.

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• Acting Your Intellectual Age: As Kid Loki they were prone to some very troubling unchildlike behaviour. On the other hand, their intellectual age was obviously lower than their actual age would suggest. "You're as old as you feel" and they didn't feel like an adult yet either. When they eventually got their teenage body, they started acting more adult or young adult at least.
• Ambiguous Gender: On aging up, this Loki can be a woman whenever they feel like, and would do so for no other reason. Odin outright calls them his "child who is both his son and daughter" on at least two occasions.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: They still can't remember why they hated Thor in the first place, despite having most of their memory back.
• Animal Motif: Look at their quote and guess. Could it be magpies?
• Batman Gambit: Their entire ploy to reform the Young Avengers had them manipulate Miss America by telling her they plan on killing Wiccan so that she goes to warn him and brings the team back together.
• Becoming the Mask: Thanks to the nature of gods, this begins to happen to them after they take the place of their younger self.
  "I stepped into your part. And now that part steps into me."
• Beware the Honest Ones: They're not that honest but when they do do honest things, they're quite unpredictable and untrustworthy.
• Big Bad: Everything bad during their run with the Young Avengers was their fault, with the exception of the fake Patriot. Given all the Character Development, they were a Villain Protagonist too. In their defense at least the League of Evil Exes wasn't intentional.
• Body Snatcher: They took over the body of kid Loki.
• Buffy Speak: They're approximately equivalent to a human of about twenty-one years of age, and has become quite fond of Western pop culture. Is it any wonder they sometimes do the... adjective fail thingy?
• Clones Are People, Too: They are a personality copy of the past Loki in the body of the kid, literally created in the process of a Cloning Gambit. They fought very hard to become their own person which reaches its peak when Old Loki tries to push them into accepting the role of the past Loki. They would rather burn virtually everything in themselves that belonged to their previous incarnations, taking a new title, writing a new story, and breaking the timeline.
• Consummate Liar: They're Loki after all, no matter how they look. This ends up being subverted after AXIS, since they can't lie any more. Until they change to the God of Stories that is.
• Death of Personality: Warned ahead of time that "ego-death is coming", they eventually destroy their current self to prevent their ever becoming King Loki, becoming the God(dess) of Stories.
• Determinator: They don't know the meaning of giving up. This is also one of their vices, if they got something in their head they won't give up no matter the cost and will need other people to point out if it's counter-productive or self-destructive. Considering their pride, greed and selfishness they generally lack the friends they sourly need when that happens. Until King Loki begins to meddle and accidentally fix this that is.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?:
  • Loki made a deal with a parasite called "Mother" and orchestrated Billy bringing it into the world, then betrayed it and prevented it from consuming Billy. And they did it in such way to not break the magical deal that prevents it from revealing their involvement and escape the consequences. And they did it again later, when they played a game of questions with the parasite. It thought she learned a lot and they learned nothing, but they pointed out how they could afford to answer all its questions with no harm done, while they learned "Mother" knew nothing about what interested them.
  • They trick Mephisto into believing they were gonna get Sigurd's soul in exchange of the Sword of Truth after they both signed Mephisto's contract. Actually, they used many invisible devices to ensure they would be invisible and exchange Mephisto's contract for one of their own that ensured their sword was theirs again, Mephisto vanished and Sigurd delivered to the All-Mothers. All to trick them into believing Loki captured Sigurd when in reality Sigurd was Loki's inside man in the Asgardian jail.
• Escape Artist: They claim to be the biggest expert in escaping Cool And Unusual Punishments, especially those by Odin, and with their track record we're inclined to believe them. It's anybody's guess why people still try to imprison them, they'll make their inevitable escape sooner or later.
• Evil All Along: They were this at the beginning of Young Avengers. If we go by his future self, they've gonna be this eventually despite all their good intentions. They do manage to avert that particular evil future self that was plaguing them at least.
• Faking the Dead: They seemingly annihilate themselves in an attempt to defy the villain's plans in issue #13 of their solo series... it's also a ploy to redefine what being the God of Lies means (Stories not Evil), break the timestream, make their future time displaced, and screw destiny. And it works. They come back to Verity at the last pages (8 months in-universe time) with a Plot-Relevant Age-Up. The villain is still fooled though.
• Future Me Scares Me: They aren't like the past Loki, but there is a pretty strong possibility that they're going to turn out like that but worse. Said possibility just loves to torture them with this.
• Get It Over With: After admitting how they replaced kid-Loki and manipulated the Young Avengers, they asks Miss America to kill them before they can talk their way out of it again. She replies that she's not going to make it that easy for them.
• Guile Hero: While hero might be stretching the term, Loki will use their wit and resources in most situations.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: They plotted to steal Billy's power and drive the boy into suicide but changed their mind and helped the team out of a tight spot at the last minute. They still planned to betray them later but they ended up liking them and decided to leave before they could turn on them again.
• Helpful Hallucination: During their time with the Young Avengers Kid Loki often appeared in front of them to try to persuade them to do the right thing. They almost never listened to it and ended up paying by having many other physical hallucinations of their teammates manifest and join the parasite Mother.
• Heroic Vow: This Loki vowed that they will not end up becoming the Loki that has tormented the Marvel Universe for such a long time. They made this at least twice, one before taking over Kid Loki's body and then again when they were talking to Prodigy at the Young Avengers new year's party. So far they hasn't broken their vow.
• Hometown Nickname: In Ms. Marvel, Bruno (one of Kamala's friends) called them "Hipster Viking" not because he knew they were from Asgard, but because he thought they were from Williamsburg (apparently people from funds dress weird there).
• Honesty Is the Best Policy: Their behavior around Verity is always this because she can see through any of their lies, so they always have to either plan ahead or use a different kind of trick with her.
• I Meant to Do That: To truly ridiculous degrees at times. For example when they were still Ikol they claimed to Kid that Loki's whole death, resurrection and so forth was totally part of the plan and nothing backfired at all, which is blatantly untrue if you read these tropes. The "ghost" of past Loki downright denied later that he intended to die.
• Impossible Thief: Once managed to steal an item from the telepathic Red Skull's person with him not noticing until Loki was long gone.
• The Jinx: If you can be certain about one thing around Loki at all that'll be things won't go as you expect them, how bad that's to the people around them is as erratic as they are. (Yes. They can cause mischief by standing still.)
• Loophole Abuse: They cannot avert being the God of Lies, but that way lies evil, so they decide to go around that by becoming the God of Stories instead, because that sounds a lot nicer while meaning basically the same, and it works.
• Mad God: Loki was never particularly sane to begin with, dying and sundering, killing, remaking, etc. themself didn't help their mental state at all, which combined with being a Reality Warper makes them very dangerous even if they don't mean harm. Basically when they can't tell fantasy from reality, neither will anybody else.
• Magic Is Feminine: Loki is a sorcerer and has been depicted as being just as comfortable in a female body as he is in a male one. His younger self and also his later God(dess) of Stories incarnate would change gender for no reason other than that he could.
• Manipulative Bastard: Comes with being the Norse god of mischief.
• The Mentor: Was one to Billy in magic.
• Meta Guy: Loki was always kind of Medium Aware, but this version of them is an outright in-universe Fourth-Wall Observer (gods being trope based entities, which they're keenly aware of), who occasionally also wreaks havoc on the real fourth wall, but when not can still lecture on about the Theory of Narrative Causality.
• Mood Whiplash: They're a master of slipping disturbing remarks between jokes.
• Mr. Vice Guy: They're pretty much every sin personified (except envy, they lost most of that) but special mentions go to greed and sloth, they want to better themselves for personal gain (wanting everything includes friends) and more comfort.
• My God, What Have I Done?: They're still so wrought over their guilt that at one point it manifested itself as Leah and plotted to destroy reality.
• My Greatest Failure: The murder of Kid Loki.
• Mythology Gag: Loki's involvement helped to bring a group of misfit heroes together to save the world. Kinda like the original Avengers except this time they joined them (itself a callback to Pym realizing this and offering Loki a seat on his team—ironically causing his team to disband in the process).
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood:
  • Invokes this trope by comparing themselves to Tyrion Lannister to convince the Young Avengers to trust them. Wiccan and Hulkling don't buy it, and America Chavez has no idea what Game of Thrones is.
  • A more dark example is when they desperately try to convince Thor and the Asgardians of this after the Asgardians learn about what they did with Kid Loki.
• Our Gods Are Different: As a pagan deity ("Evil Mischief God") they feel entitled to critique Wiccan's religiously insensitive alias.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up:
  • They get one from Wiccan in their time with the Young Avengers. (From child to late teen early twenty~ish)
  • And then another one in their solo series when they rebrand themselves. (To adult.)
• Pop-Cultured Badass: They'll quote The Princess Bride at you, or reference Game of Thrones, or casually admit writing Slash Fic. They're as much of a technophile as the kid was, the only things they've issues with are guns.
• Rebellious Spirit: Kid Loki already had shades of this, but they bring it to brand new levels. In a twist what people expect from them is good old predictable villainy. Nope!
  Loki: I am my own, and I will not sit long in any box built for me.
• Real Men Cook: They're surprisingly talented at cooking, due to their love for Midgardian cuisine.
• Screw Destiny: We don't know to what extent but they actually manage to derail the story.
• Skewed Priorities: We're not even talking about their vices. Loki's priorities can seem very strange because they tend to ignore (apparent) danger entirely. A cosmic horror tries to kill us? Since when is that an excuse to not take a joke? (And by the way your alias sucks!) The world is ending? Big deal. Tell me about yourself!
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In their "Young Avengers Wanted" ad, they describe themself as "One mischievous and lovable godling who is not at all evil and definitely not manipulating everyone."
• Take a Third Option: Is given the option to accept being Old!Loki or cease to exist like Kid Loki. Decides to reinvent himself instead.
• Talking to Themself: They've Kid Loki's "spirit" in their head who personifies their guilt and acts as a conscience.
• The Tease: Loki flirts with everybody. Guys, gals, it's the same for them.
• Technopath: Generally speaking Loki is a highly versatile magic user, which they acknowledge to mean Reality Warper, but this application of their powers is unique to the third. They admitted finding technomancy easy and low risk, because technology is very gullible.
• That Man Is Dead: They're pretty adamant on claiming that past Loki died in the Siege, and they aren't him. Which can also read as a toned down version of Never My Fault in this case. Meaning they say that they're not the murderer, but the weapon, and insist that they didn't really have any choice in how Loki's last gambit would play out. Issue 13 of Agent of Asgard proves this is, for all intents and purposes, true.
• They're All Grown Up: They took over the body of Kid Loki but later while with the Young Avengers, they become the very attractive Teen Loki thanks to Wiccan.
  Kate: Now he looks like trouble.
• Token Evil Teammate: Of the Young Avengers, albeit their level of evil is up to debate. Were more evil than they claimed to, but also less evil than they thought themselves to be. Even after leaving the team at least Miss America considers them her frenemy.
• The Tooth Hurts: Telling the truth to Thor about what really happened to Kid Loki results in their losing a tooth, which remains missing for the remainder of their life.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Milkshake, a legacy from Journey into Mystery. And bacon, it really is magic.
• Trash Landing: His confrontation with Sigurd (the Ever-Glorious) resulted in them falling into a pile of trash. The rest of that confrontation... did not go well for Loki. Loki still managed to get the last laugh on him, though.
• Villainous Rescue: They stopped Billy from going through with his suicide and bought the team enough time to escape the parasite.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Of a limited kind. Loki can turn into anything, so long as it's them. Meaning they can't turn into a fly, because they're not that sort of god, but they can turn into a humanoid fox, or in one instance a unicorn.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Oddly enough, they're less of this than the previous two incarnations of Loki, since Odin seems to have a fairly ambivalent attitude towards them, at a contrast to previous hostility.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: For their own surprise. They're at least strictly against child murder, as the Angels of Heven (yes, that is the actual spelling the comic uses for the place) learned the hard way.

King Loki

King Loki

First Appearance: Loki: Agent of Asgard (vol. 1) #1

"You think I am the Loki that was?! Dolt! Simpleton! I am what will be!"

King Loki (or Old Loki, if you prefer) is a representation of everything the Teen Loki hates and fears: Themself drawn back into the ways of evil and insanity. The main villain of Loki: Agent of Asgard.

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• Authority in Name Only: Calls themselves a king of Midgard, after having killed everyone and everything on the entire planet, meaning there's no-one for them to be king of.
• Ax-Crazy: Completely out of their gourd, prone to mad laughter and histrionics.
• Beneath the Mask: God(dess) of Stories Loki literally/metaphorically (for gods or at least Loki that's kind of the same) Dramatic Unmask them to show that under the ancient evil there is also a very sad Loki, as the only acceptance they thought they could get was as this.
• Berserk Button: Odin finally managing to get over the Cannot Spit It Out sent them into a rage fit as apparently in King Loki's timeline he never did. For comparison the freaking Incursion only got a "Well, that's new." out of them. We did say that the old man could've saved people a lot of trouble with occasionally admitting that he loves his children, didn't we?
• Beware the Silly Ones: Acts like (and is) a raving nutjob, but is no less dangerous for it. Just ask Doctor Doom, or Balder...
• Break Them by Talking: As demonstrated on Ego the Living Planet, now Ego the Necroworld. It took 99 years of constant whispering, but eventually he quite literally talked Ego to death.
• Butterfly of Doom: Their presence and meddling unwittingly derailed the timeline quite a bit. Them possessing Thor made the All-Mother ask Loki to become Asgard's agent, and their continued presence worked wonders on Loki's "human" connections (with Lorelei, Verity, Sigurd, and Odin). And when they wanted to see Thor and Angela fight he averted a bloody war (and caused the whole Angela series). etc. In Loki: Agent of Asgard #6 their future still qualified as a Close-Enough Timeline, but that was before the current Loki decided to break it entirely. Also there is an official alternate universe number (Earth-14412) for it now. In 2019's Thor #12, however, they tell Loki that Earth-14412 is inevitable. Bare in mind, though, that that issue is a dream sequence full of out of character moments and general nonsense, and the Venom!Loki in it isn't much like the version from Loki: Agent of Asgard this entry is about. What this implies is up to the reader.
• Card-Carrying Villain: This one's just an outright psychopath. And they're quite happy about it.
• The Chessmaster: Effortlessly manages to rewrite history, in a scheme which involves the odd spot of murder, and lying to a younger Odin.
• Didn't See That Coming: Neither Loki redefining their own purpose, or the imminent end of all existence were something this Loki prepared for.
• Evil Counterpart: To Ikol, which makes sense since they are basically a future version of Ikol turned evil.
• Evil Is Petty: Massacred everyone on Earth simply to spite Thor.
• Fallen Hero: Was actually heroic in their past. But in the end, they couldn't take everyone calling and treating them as the God of Lies, and snapped. If you ask them, it was the Asgardians playing All the Other Reindeer and them being Reformed, but Rejected; but it's perfectly natural to feel that their Redemption Failure is at least partially caused by them being His Own Worst Enemy (they never ever stopped to ponder what God of Lies means for one).
• For the Evulz: When asked by King Thor as to how they could kill off everyone on Earth, their response was that because they could was all the reason Thor needed.
• Future Me Scares Me: The teen Loki is horrified at the thought of becoming this person, and quite rightly. King Loki's well aware of this, and enjoys it, since they're convinced that they're inevitable.
• Gender Bender: Averted. Unlike their younger self, they stick solely to a male form, and even identify as male on several occasions. It's not from lack of ability, since they've been shown turning into a magpie on at least one occasion.
• Genre Savvy: They've still got a talent at it. For example, when telling a younger Odin to make the box to contain Gram, they inform him he'll eventually forget who told him to and why, dryly noting "I know how these stories go".
• Hero Killer: Murders Balder and cuts off his head. For fun. And because for a proper Ragnarök Balder needs to die.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: At the heart of it all, they just want to be loved and accepted, and are completely mad that they aren't. Though they'll deny it, unless there's a Living Lie Detector around.
• It's All About Me: Even young Loki's apparent death only concerned them as far how it might affect them and their future. How dared the runt just die on them?! Now they have to destroy Asgardia all alone!
• It Amused Me: Decided to go mess with Bucky Barnes just 'cause. It wasn't part of their grand plan, they just had time to kill.

• Large Ham: When they get going, they're prone to ranting, shouting, mad laughter and more ranting. Lampshaded, after a particularly long bout of rambling.
  King Loki: And I am dreadfully prone to histrionics. Do excuse me.
• Laughably Evil: Believe more in quantity than quality when it comes to jokes, but they're this trope, by basically subjecting people to the cruelest type of trolling.
• Manipulative Bastard: At one point manages to manipulate an entire family into killing one another, and nearly gets a young Odin killed for it, just so that Odin will owe a debt to them.
• Medium Awareness: Once walked right off-panel. And later jumped out of a panel and sat around between panels for a while. Generally this is how their "time" travel magic looks like, some even suggested that they might Intrepid Fictioneering the comic itself.
• Omnicidal Maniac: In their timeline they're the King of Midgard meaning they killed off every living being on Earth and ruled on the rubble. They claim it was a Mercy Kill (ala Humans Are the Real Monsters), but as they plan to do this to Asgard too they aren't that convincing. And all this just to spite Thor. After obtaining the All-Black symbiote, they declare they're going to destroy everything in existence.
• Orcus on His Throne: Ludicrously powerful, skilled and dangerous, but they're quite content to kick back in a cell in Asgardia and watch events unfold... until the urge to meddle hits them.
• Planet Destroyer: After bonding to All-Black, they effortlessly rip Ego the Living Planet to shreds.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Do you remember the shiny thingy on Loki's sceptre in The Avengers? In the comics that's not an infinity stone, but King Loki's soul/story, because Teen Loki felt that forgetting the cautionary tale about them would be a bad thing. Verity has to ask if this is a good idea or might become a Leaking Can of Evil later, but Teen Loki assures her that it wont be a bad influence on them.
• Shadow Archetype: King Loki represents everything that both Kid and Teen Loki fear and want to avoid becoming. He is essentially what they could have become had their bitterness towards the people's treatment of them got the better of them.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: The reason for their descent back into villainy like the original was that they came to the conclusion that they can never change who they are or rather what people think of them.
• Troll: Very much so. It just makes them that much more unpleasant.
• Villainous Breakdown: Undergoes a massive one when Teen Loki arrives. Story!Loki's presence alone drives them over the edge as it essentially means that Story!Loki has succeeded in what King!Loki had tried and failed long ago.
• Walking Spoiler: It is difficult to talk about Agent of Asgard without mentioning this one in the slightest, given their impact on the plot.

Loki the God(dess) of Stories

Loki the God(dess) of Stories

First Appearance: Loki: Agent of Asgard (vol. 1) #13

"Me? I'm the God of Stories. I'm Loki."

The God of Stories (or Goddess of Stories; they're not fussed), is the latest of Loki's reincarnations, who so far appears to be something of an aged up version of Teen Loki. This Loki is still new, so their full personality is yet to be fleshed out (and they're still catching up with everything), but has decided to escape the inherent evil associated with being the God of Lies by rechristening themselves the God Of Stories, which is essentially the same thing but far nicer, and with more importance, given the Gods' nature as creatures of story.Note: Unmarked Spoilers for Loki: Agent of Asgard #13 onward.

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• Ambiguous Gender: Doesn't really care for which form they assume, and so changes gender whenever they feel like it, even mid sentence. As they see it, as they're the God of Stories, they have to be more than one thing in order to personify all stories.
• Anti-Hero Substitute: They served as a temporary replacement to Doctor Strange as Sorcerer Supreme, and are more unscrupulous than the doctor was. It's later revealed Loki did not actually become Sorcerer Supreme, they just made Strange believe they had in order to enact a plan to jump-start magic on Earth.
• Art Evolution: In later appearances, they're drawn somewhat older with longer hair and more modestly dressed in contrast to his earlier Carpet of Virility.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears a distinct, green and gold coat that goes down to their knees and is a powerful god. It's often drawn with a torn hem for extra coolness.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: After Donald Blake is finally defeated, Loki is out in charge of punishing him. As Blake had wanted to be a god, Loki gives him his old role as the God of Lies, with the attached sentence of being chained down while a snake drips poison into his eyes.
• Break Them by Talking: Somewhat ambiguous; since becoming the God of Stories, Loki has been able to effectively talk is way out of many situations, by weaving a story to the listeners. Just after the collapse of the multiverse, Loki was able to make the Those Who Sit Above in Shadow flee by forcing them to question their own existence by telling a story that implied that they were made by the Asgardians so they had something to believe in.
  • Later during the buildup for the War of the Realms, when his actual father Laufey attempted to have him killed by a gang of frost giants, Loki told them a story. We aren't told what he said, but the results had all the giants except one killed each other and/or themselves, and that sole survivor was maiming himself in an attempt get the story out of his head.
• Brought Down to Badass: In an attempt to break up a fight between Loki and Dr Strange, Zelma temporarily prevents them from casting spells. Unfortunately, while Strange without his powers is just a human, Loki is still a god and immediately uses their innate super strength to send the hero flying.
• Carpet of Virility: His Male form has this, something he's pretty happy with.
• Characterization Marches On: Compared to when he first appeared at the finale of Agent of Asgard, Story Loki has a completely different personality after Secret Wars (2015). A lot of his Creepy Good and introspective tendencies are gone and he seemingly reverts back to when he was Teen Loki - though hints of the God/Goddess of Stories sometimes emerge...
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Has No Social Skills and has very odd priorities. World ending? Not a big deal, let's talk about your life story! Oh, and I hope you don't mind that I turned your true being into a bracelet to save you. At that point they legitimately crossed over to Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant. We could say they are still Mad God, just got from a depressed and kind of schizophrenic phase to a manic one.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: When Thor spares Blake rather than killing him for his crimes, Loki is asked to deal with the punishment. Loki then proceeds to sentence Blake to being chained to a table with a snake dripping poison into his eyes. It's bad enough that Loki refuses to tell the God of Thunder, saying he'd have to lie.
• Cryptic Conversation: This Loki is not prone to outright lying but good luck getting a direct answer from them. They talk almost exclusively in "might"s, "maybe"s, metaphors, terms open to interpretation, with possibly important bits left out. If you get a direct answer that's probably either important or you somehow made them angry.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Basically just talked smack to "Those Who Sit Above In Shadow", and it worked.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Trying to figure out their allegiances likely to result in headache. Dark council (Laufey, Malekith, or who)? Asgard (Odin or Freyja)? Hel? Themselves?
  • At the very least, they're keeping their options open, with Cul (who has a certain insight on the evil point of view) noting that their stabbing Freyja in the back with a poisoned dagger without killing her meant that they were either a very bad poisoner or a very, very good one.
  • Cul seems to be right on the money with this one, with Loki later telling the comatose Freyja that it was the only option they had that wouldn't have resulted in one of Malekith's allies killing her.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Her female form looks like this, giving her something of a Perky Goth type look
• Fanservice: Walks around shirtless when first introduced, though puts on a shirt when they turn female. Really, what did you expect given their last form?
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Loki is no longer trying to takeover Asgard or kill Thor, but that doesn't mean people actually want to be around them. Given their idea of helping tends to be near-indistinguishable from sabotage, one can't exactly blame anyone for not enjoying their presence.
• Fur and Loathing: Loki is almost constantly seen wearing a green coat with a fur collar, though unlike their previous iterations, is more of an antihero than a villain.
• The Gadfly: It really wouldn't be Loki if they weren't. The trickster god loves taking any and all opportunities to annoy the hell out of everyone around them. In The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, they shapeshift their head into Cat Thor per Nancy's request, and keep gradually enlarging it just to piss off the two Thors.
• Ignored Aesop: Under Jason Aaron's run, Story Loki has completely forgotten the Character Development that they had undergone throughout Agent of Asgard and has resumed playing the role as the villain/Anti-Hero. Or just chose to play that role to keep the story going. They actually temporarily erased their memories to become their future prime counterpart, eventually regaining them.
• Magic Feather: When he and Iceman face a fusion of their fathers, the latter is too afraid to fight while the former is without his magic. Loki lends him his power with his crown and staff, allowing Iceman to defeat the monster. After, Loki reveals the items did nothing and it was just a ploy to boost Iceman's courage.
• Magic Staff: Gained one in the last issues of Agent of Asgard. Technically it's Freyja's Staff of Authority transformed by King Loki into the shape known from The Avengers. Later completed by Story!Loki who added the jewel to it... as in the soul (story) of King Loki.
• Medium Awareness: They survive the incursion by effectively telling themselves out of the story. They also just love to lean on the fourth wall.
• Me's a Crowd: By channelling their previous selves no less. Given how Loki normally relates to themself the wisdom of this was quite questionable.
  • Issue 24 of Thor (2020) reveals that the original, Agent of Asgard-era, God(dess) of stories is still around and arrived at the TVA following the end of their series. Interestingly, they imply that the post-Secret Wars Loki isn't them. Referring to themselves as "The Ghost of Christmas Past" and post-Secret Wars Loki as "what comes next."
• Klingon Promotion: After Laufey swallows them during the War of the Realms, Loki uses their magic to hold their body together and carves Laufey open, escaping and killing the giant in the process. However, due to Laufey having been the king of the frost giants, Loki is now forced to become the new ruler.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Some time after returning to the world, Loki erases their memories in order to become the Loki prime of their multiverse, thereby linking their Agent of Asgard incarnation to their current one. However, at a certain point in the future, their memories return.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: As the God(dess) of Stories, this comes with the territory. Loki is capable of utilizing narrative like a weapon and on occasion speaks in narration boxes. However, they do not acknowledge they are in a comic.
• Losing Your Head: When the new Thor smacks his head off, his expression is more 'unimpressed' and 'slightly bored' than anything else.
• Paradox Person: Outside of the next two contradicting tropes, they were also born out of a Temporal Paradox. They would not exist without the meddling of King Loki but also their existence means that Teen Loki never becomes King Loki in this universe.
• Partial Transformation: Loki can shapeshift individual parts of their body.
• Perma-Stubble: They have one in the new Thor's book, where they primarily stick with a male form.
• Really 700 Years Old AND Really Was Born Yesterday: Technically both and lampshaded. As Loki, they're a being who has existed for centuries, but in different forms. The latest form was only recently created so they're essentially new. As they put it:
  Loki: Oh, I don't know! I'm either half an Eon old or half an Hour old! Or Both! Or Neither!
• Really Gets Around: For someone almost universally hated across the multiverse, he's been with a lot of people. In a Pride comic, he's captured by a horde of angry exes including Sigyn, Cyril, Hepti, Mr Cluck, Fede and James, Angerboda, Svadilfari, Isidore, Jeph, Queen Sindr, Lorelei and Leah. Afterwards, Loki counts himself lucky that Morgan le Fay and Hercules didn't decide to show up.
• Reluctant Ruler: After becoming the king of Jotunheim, Loki doesn’t actually enjoy it very much due to having exceptionally little in common with the other giants and frequently runs off. Thor has to drag them back at one point and another time, Loki even leaves a snow man in charge.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Loki becomes one to Doctor Strange in the aftermath of the Loki: Sorceror Supreme arc when he claimed the latter's title as Sorceror Supreme by tricking him into forfeiting it. Strange never really forgave Loki for it, and whenever the two meet they would make smarmy remarks at each other's expense.
• Stopped Caring: They claim that they won't ever become like King Loki because for Then Let Me Be Evil to happen they should care what anybody in Asgard thinks and they stopped doing that.
  King Loki: Nothing's changed, carpet stain! Nothing that matters! They'll always hate you! You can change however they want and it'll never be enough! You'll always be the liar! The trickster! The villain! Never accepted! Never wanted! Never—
  God of Stories: If you say so. So I probably shouldn't care what they think, then, should I? I mean, "King Loki"? Come on. Who wants to be king? I'm done with that. No more ego games. No more jealousy games and revenge games and "make me king" games. I don't need the whole of Asgard to love me—
  • This seems to have faded somewhat in post-Secret Wars stories. Not only are they shown placing a lot of weight on their relationships with Freyja and Odin, but the Agent of Asgard-era God(dess) of stories is shown to be outright distraught at Odin's death despite their open contempt and apathy towards him and his wife back in the final issues of their series.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Blue Marvel's reaction when he realizes he's going to be stuck with Loki on the Defenders.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Unlike the last incarnation, who was relegated to only to forms that represented them, this Loki is capable of shapeshifting into whatever they want. Loki mostly uses this power to present as whatever gender they happen to be or get a rise out of people.
• Wild Card: Sort of. As they put it, "I don't do sides." They do seem to be semi-consistently inclined to help the heroes, helping Thor in his new book and as T'Challa points out when Tony Stark assumes they've gone bad again (after the "emo anti-hero phase"), he actually orchestrated the formation of a new Avengers team (and destruction of the Final Host in the process) by playing the villain. Despite that, it’s probably best to keep one’s guard up around them - after all, a storyteller is first and foremost only loyal to the tale…

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