The God of Lies/Stories/Nothing.
Loki is a 2019 comic book series from Marvel Comics, written by Daniel Kibblesmith with art by Jan Bazaldua. It stars Loki following the War of the Realms event.
After being reborn once again and killing his birth father Laufey, Loki has become king of the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. He’s finally gotten what he’s always wanted, a throne. Only problem is Victory Is Boring! After creating a sentient Snowman Frosti as a stand in for their kingly duties, Loki sets out to do something new. Become a hero. No, for real this time!
Because this book is part of the Thor family, all characters from this series can be found here.
Tropes featured in this series include:
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: It’s not long before Loki leaves Jotunheim out of boredom to go gambling in a supervillain casino in the first issue.
- Bait-and-Switch: In issue one, we see a Flash Forward in which a bearded man wielding Mjolnir lands on Earth injured from fighting a severe threat known as the Unfather, who is implied to be Loki once again back to their classic villainous ways. Except issue four shows that bearded man is a Loki who is now worthy and the Unfather is Thor who is under Ultron’s control.
- Bargain with Heaven: As Loki wonders how he could become worthy of being an Avenger he finds himself within the House of Ideas, a metaphysical place containing the stories of every hero like Thor and Spider-Man who ever existed. They got those stories by making a deal with the tenants, a boy and girl pair incarnations of Eternity, for enough time to achieve a goal while forgetting they ever made the deal in the first place. Loki makes the same deal and is thus set on his path of glory.
- Big Bad: For the flash forwards, it’s the Unfather, revealed to be Thor who is Brainwashed and Crazy courtesy of Ultron.
- The Bus Came Back: After a long period of absence since Agent of Asgard in 2015, Verity Willis returns in Issue #5.
- Classical Anti-Hero: Issue five has a confrontation with Nightmare who tries to force Loki into experiencing his worst nightmare. This does nothing because living as someone redeemed with the responsibilities of a king and hero to live up to and everything to lose is already his worst nightmare.
- Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: They may be on the side of angels in a way they has never been before but they’re still Loki requiring someone to reel them in from time to time. This time that duty has fallen on Thor.
- Everyone Has Standards: Stark may not like Loki (and with good reason) but that doesn’t mean that he won’t respect their pronouns. Especially after they saved the day. Loki notes that he/she/they are cool with all of them!
- Guile Hero: Par for the course for Loki and the series has him giving tips for trickery in special caption boxes. Issue five has him defeat Nightmare by convincing him to agree to a duel where they both are made powerless mortals. Using a fob for a prototype Stark car, sets up a fatal accident that kills Nightmare who, being a newly minted soul with no sins, is immediately catapulted into Heaven where he basks in the eternal love of the One Above All, cursing Loki's name.
- Non-Linear Character: The last issue is Loki narrating a story that hasn't happened yet because somehow their meta awareness has developed to the point that they're aware of past and future stories, stories that become true as they tell them. Loki is telling this to Verity from prison, in the end recruiting her help to find out why this is.
- Reluctant Ruler: Loki quickly becomes this after their Klingon Promotion to King of Jotunheim. Justified as their duties include resolving petty disputes such as who rightfully owns a giant club.
- Say My Name: When Nightmare dies and is greeted by the One Above All in the afterlife, Nightmare screams "LOKI!!!"
- Short-Runners: Quietly canceled at issue 5
- Took a Level in Kindness: Loki has been headed this way for some time but the first five issues are their greatest milestone since Young Avengers. Shortly after becoming King of Jotunheim, Loki takes a relatively small frost giant under his wing since he reminds him of himself. In issue five he saves a woman Nightmare used to escape into the material world. After defeating Nightmare and learning he erased her marriage, Loki gives her kind words of advice and encourages her to go talk to her former wife and try to start over with no gain to himself. This is seemingly what puts him on the path to becoming worthy of his brother’s hammer. He's not really worthy, the worthiness enchantment is faltering due to Donald Blake's damage to Yggdrasil.
