YMMV / Loki: Agent of Asgard

• Base-Breaking Character: Freyja, big time. One camp defends her actions such as keeping Old!Loki around despite what an obvious Card-Carrying Villain he is as necessary to protect Asgard and the Nine Realms when her husband was too busy in his self-imposed exile. But a majority of fans dislike her for her treatment of Loki which they saw as emotionally abusive, and how she's more than willing to throw him under the bus when her decisions end up screwing everyone over. It doesn't help that the characterization of her MCU counterpart is the complete opposite how she's being portrayed here. Not to mention the fact that her portrayal here is a massive Continuity Snarl from how she was portrayed in earlier Thor runs. It is however fairly consistent with prequel series Journey into Mystery (Gillen) (the Kieron Gillen one) ie. the only in-continuity Loki focused Thor title before it (so this isn't so much a continuity problem as Parental Favoritism written large).
• Broken Base:
  • The fact Loki's bisexuality and gender fluidity is finally being confirmed after merely being hinted results in something of a split in audience reaction. Generally everyone is supportive of the idea (well, almost everyone), but there's a split on how well Al Ewing has handled it. The fact Loki has no love interest of either gender, spends almost all their time as male (which is lampshaded in #14), and generally tends to express his bisexuality through mild flirting (and his gender fluidity being discussed more than anything) leads some to feel it is an Informed Attribute. Others are more patient, due to the fact that a love interest would probably result in a Romantic Plot Tumor and the only way to fairly portray his bisexuality would result in playing into stereotypes about bisexuality.
  • There's also at least some split concerning Story!Loki. Either because of their Cloudcuckoolander mental state and odd priorities (which are either fun or creepy or both or neither), or their status as Loki's latest reincarnation, with some upset at the loss of Teen!Loki and their friendship with Verity (with Story!Loki not actually sure what to make of her at first, though it is quickly revealed they share their previous self's affection for her), while others are happy as this allows Teen!Loki to ultimately end his story as a hero, with Loki now free to choose their destiny.
• Crazy Is Cool: Loki. All of them.
  • Old!Loki's Batman Gambit to create Gram anyone?
  • Teen!Loki's heist on Asgardia anyone?
  • Pretty much everything Frigga does during the Siege of Asgard when Old!Loki brings about Ragnarok to escape the Incursions.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Verity has gotten an extremely warm reaction for simply being awesome, being a perfect foil to Loki, and for the fact that the two of them are currently shaping up to be a wonderful platonic friendship instead of a romantic pairing.
• Evil Is Cool: Say what you want about Old!Loki, but they're a very cool villain.
• Ho Yay:
  • It's really not hard to read this into Loki's interactions with Sigurd, especially the fencing scene.
  • And the scene with Agent Coulson on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier (really Loki, you couldn't do it without the stripping, restraints and safeword?)
  • The part in issue #12, where Old!Loki's flashback/story includes Fandral complimenting Loki's silver tongue.
  • If Loki/Loki wasn't a ship before it would become a thing after issue #17's last confrontation.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Issue 1 has Loki tricking Hawkeye into shooting Banner with an arrow, which prompts Banner to Hulk out and beat up the Avengers, all Played for Laughs. Come Civil War II, Hawkeye shoots a dehulked Banner dead when he thinks Banner's going to Hulk out.
  • The series' Esoteric Happy Ending can be seen of this, in light of the fact that Loki's death and reincarnation as the God(dess) of Stories was largely ignored by subsequent stories, which continued to treat Loki as the anti-villainous Teen!Loki they were prior to Agent of Asgard, making it read as if their quest for redemption was All for Nothing.
  • The joke about employers turning down Verity, someone with the proven superpower to verify the true of any statement, simply because she insists on working from home became a lot less funny after the COVID-19 pandemic when many employers started dragging workers back to the office despite having proof they can work perfectly well remotely.
• I Knew It!: It took over a year before Verity Willis was confirmed as the daughter of Roger Willis, the guardian of the Casket of Ancient Winters from Walter Simonson's The Mighty Thor.
• Iron Woobie: Poor Verity is blessed with suck, but by the time we first meet her has lost all patience with anything angst related, and then Loki becomes her friend, and makes her life a lot more dangerous, but maybe a bit better too... maybe. We're not sure.
• Jerkass Woobie: No matter how big of a Troll Teen!Loki is it's hard not to feel bad for them.
  • His future counterpart Old!Loki qualifies as well. He basically has the same emotional baggage that Teen!Loki has, but does not have the stabilising influence of Verity in his life. By the final issue, its hard not to feel sorry for him.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Teen!Loki is shipped with many people, from the plausible like Verity, or Amora, or Lorelei, or even Sigurd (and teased in canon with each, except for Verity), to the unlikely like Thor (hey, they aren't blood related!), or Kamala Khan, to the truly cracktastic like Old!Loki or bacon. Story!Loki continues this trend, with the added bonus of being slightly older and now more openly gender fluid.
• Love to Hate: Old!Loki. Cool, awesome, trolly and absolutely deplorable. You want them to lose, but at the same time just can't look away from all that gleeful evil.
• Narm: "I am the crime that cannot be forgiven." Not so much because it's not intimidating in itself, more because it's all the specter of Kid Loki ever says, over and over and over....
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Once Verity's falsehood detection powers are confirmed she should have governments, criminal investigators, lawyers and investigative journalists beating down her door, especially in a world where shapeshifters and mind control exist. Instead she gets a few job offers checking resumes and articles, all but one of which are prepared to walk away the moment she asks if she can work from home.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Some people felt that, just like Loki's Journey Into Mystery run, they knew that Loki will go back to being the bad guy (especially after the Darkest Hour of issues 10-11), so why bother? Others pointed out that in Loki stories assuming is a dangerous thing as even Journey Into Mystery ending went differently than expected. As of the end of the run with issue #17, the more optimistic readers were proven right.

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