Journey Into Mystery - Issue 633 | Kieron Gillen & Richard Elson
What I liked most about this dream/nightmare sequence was not so much that it is a heart-stealing-gut-wrenching moment of, “Oh my god that poor kid,” but rather the context it creates. Which isn’t to say I didn’t like the aforementioned, but we’ll get back to that.
I feel like we have definitely had hints of Loki’s fears that maybe - just maybe - he’s still evil. That he’s still old-him, destined to make all the same mistakes again as his predecessor, despite his clear (although under appreciated) efforts to fight the good fight. We are even given moments, like when he goes to cut Sif’s hair, of him unwittingly repeating the well-known deeds of Loki of myth/prior canon. Despite the fact that he seems to believe he can outsmart everything, destiny seems to have its own say in this cycle. And, most damning of all, Thor’s death was due to his actions.
“Oh, it’s not so bad being bad, Loki.”
Yet, even while this manifests itself here, I feel like the fear is more of the undertone than the theme. His normal personality, the carefree boy who cheats at cards and trolls the internet is just the other side of the same coin. Unlike his previous incarnation(s), it isn’t so much a facade as another facet of a complex personality.
Straying from Journey into Mystery for a second for comparison’s sake, I think that JMS’ Thor, where Loki is parading around as a woman, is a really great contrast. He says multiple times that the whole woman thing is specifically to win the hearts and minds of everyone and then strike where it’s worst when the time is wrong. While this isn’t necessarily due to a heart-stealing-gut-wrenching reason like gosh I hope I’m not really evil, it would be difficult to say Loki isn’t without motivation. But if we want to go all the way to heart-stealing-gut-wrenching, just travel a second into the cinematic universe. We’re always hearing about what a tragic villain movie Loki is, citing the scene where he flat out refers himself to the monster that parents warn their children about at night. Here, again, we have this later overlay of powering-tripping-angry-but-I-am-so-in-control-it’s-okay-guys when in reality things seem to be slipping out of his hands and unraveling and an alarming rate. Again, it’s up to interpretation, but I feel like the in these instances you have this motivation, with a facade slapped over it, trying to repress whatever feelings are lurking just beneath the surface, tragic or otherwise. Repeatedly, you’re given a fabricated personality.
But getting back to Journey Into Mystery, this time, though, I feel like his personality isn’t just a mask. That isn’t to say that his drive for good intentions isn’t partially (or wholly) due to everyone insisting he’s evil, but that it’s just part of this very complex young character that’s being created for us.
That context really sets this Loki apart. Here, his personality isn’t fabricated to gain certain nefarious ends, rather, he’s just a kid. A kid with heart-stealing-gut-wrenching feelings that make you want to give him a great big hug and tell the Asgardians to calm down just a bit so this kid can just be a kid.
But he’s Loki and there’s really no rest for the wicked, even if they did get reincarnated into the coolest series ever.
