In “Loki: Agent of Asgard” #10, Loki tells Thor the truth about Kid Loki. It goes precisely as you’d think. Check out out our review below! Be wary of mild spoilers for this issue and spoilers for a comic from 2012 you should have read by now, real talk.
Written by Al Ewing
Illustrated by Lee Garbett• In the aftermath of AXIS, Loki is the Hero Of Asgard no more. But one change remains:
• The God of Lies can only ever tell the truth.
• Now, Loki’s brother, the Odinson, visits his apartment, to talk of cabbages, kings… and Kid Loki.
• This is it.
Having literally hundreds of writers work within one shared universe is tough, especially considering how Marvel has more or less stayed in one universe for the past 75 years – 50 if you only count the post-Fantastic Four era of Marvel. DC may completely destroy its own universe whenever it wants to bring back a white guy (something Marvel may also look into) but for the House of Ideas, they’ve basically stayed within one playground for decades. This has made it difficult – or at best convoluted – for any stories to have any sense of finality. If you kill off a comic book character, you better pray that Geoff Johns didn’t love them as a kid or else they’ll be back before you can explain why Barry Allen just isn’t that interesting. Like Jonathan Hickman said, it’s the perpetual second act. Superhero comics exist in an endless journey towards a climax they’ll never honestly achieve, not in the same way literally any other form of media does. Unless you’re Neil Gaiman and everyone is too afraid to continue “Sandman” for you, someone is going to dig up your creation’s grave and play with its carcass like a puppet.
Perhaps that’s why we at Multiversity Comics were such huge fans of the finale of Kieron Gillen’s run on “Journey Into Mystery”. Former Editor-in-Chief Matthew Meylikhov gave the final issue (pencilled by the amazing Stephanie Hans) a perfect score before having to leave due to him being annihilated by the shadow of his former self and fans of that run would certainly know why it was so good. “Journey Into Mystery” #645, more than any other issue of the post-Civil War era of comics, felt like an honest-to-god conclusion. It was a final statement on the very existence of Kid Loki and left very little say on his fate. Sure, Gillen and McKelvie carried on with Ikol in “Young Avengers”, exploring some of the psychological aftermath, but for years the events of ‘Everything Burns’ have remained a dark secret shared between Teen Loki and the readers. It’s been the other shoe everyone has been waiting to see drop and, without giving away too much of “Agent of Asgard” #10, it finally did.
It may be unfair to be talking a lot about other comics outside of “Agent of Asgard” before discussing the issue itself, but that’s unfortunately the nature of the series. It was born in the shadow of one of the great tragedies in comics which could make plenty of other creators play it close to the chest. Instead, Al Ewing and Lee Garbett have forged their own vision of the God of Mischief, taking the vast amount of mythology that’s come before and building right on top of it. The Loki (or Ikol) in “Agent of Asgard” is a (not-quite) hero despertaltey seeking redemption, rather than the perpetually haunted teen in “Young Avengers” or the honest-to-god devil in “Journey of Mystery”. That’s why the repercussions of his confession in this issue cut so deep. Loki may have been defiantly searching for redemption, seeking to break out of his role as the ultimate idiot tyrant of the future, but there’s no breaking out from what he’s done. Like the cover shows, what he did to Kid Loki will, no matter how much good Teen Loki does, come back to swallow him whole.
Speaking of the cover, how about this Lee Garbett dude, right?! We’ve praised him before for his quirky, charismatic character work but this issue is a major shift in tone from any of the levity we’ve seen in the past nine installments. Aside from providing the usual cheesecake in yaoi Loki, beefy Odinson, and the ever charming Verity Willis, Garbett also supplies us with emotions that aren’t just heated, but believable. Thor isn’t just furious about Ikol, he’s downright hurt. This issue’s artwork is just as complex as its plot and proof positive of how excellent a storyteller Garbett is. We loved him before, but the range of emotion displayed here really demonstrates how powerful an artist Garbett can be. Especially when it comes to the re-drawn flashback sequences from “Journey Into Mystery” #645. By actually calling back to that issue, and the heartbreaking conversation between Thor and Kid Loki, the pain in this issue doesn’t feel arbitrary but earned.
Continued belowThat’s probably a major reason as to what makes “Agent of Asgard” so darn good. Ewing and Garbett had the easiest follow-up story to create with Ikol’s revelation, but instead of diving right into it, they waited. They built up the character of the Agent of Asgard, his goals and motivations, and crafted an entire world around him only to burn it down again ten issues in. They didn’t just tell this story and piggyback on ‘Everything Burns’ like anyone could, but they downright earned the right to tell this story. And what’s scarier than a deeply hurt Thor, a tear-stricken Loki, and a world that will no longer accept him is the fact that this doesn’t even seem close to being the master finale that Ewing and Garbett have planned, what with King Loki still lurking in the shadows.
Unless “Secret Wars” causes this title to get prematurely cancelled. In which case I’m just going to listen to “Chandelier” on a loop and angrily write fan fiction about Loki and Verity until my hands bleed.
Final Verdict: 9.2 – An emotionally distraught refrain of one of Marvel’s most traumatizing moments from a talented group of creators not afraid to stand out of the original stories shadow.
