The latest trailer of Loki is here, and it is clear that MCU phase 4 is finally making strides to fix the problem with the God of Mischief’s power.
Being an antagonist Loki has been an integral part of the Marvel cinematic universe and has been around for as long as the Avengers. Tom Hiddleston first debuted as Loki in the 2011 movie Thor, and immediately attracted everyone’s attention becoming a fan favourite. Loki fans often claim that it was his character that bought in the element of fun and energy in the first two movies of the Thor franchise. Fans have also straight away rejected the creative decision taken by writers to kill Loki in Thor: The Dark World, demanding him to be brought back for the opening scene of Avengers: Infinity War, The third Thor movie, and even a spin-off series of his own.
In the Marvel universe, Loki has gone from being a villain who is ready to take vengeance to an anti-hero with virtuous motives. The Disney+ series will follow the 2012 Avengers version of Loki, which was before his redemption arc. The question of whether he will be portrayed as a villain or an anti-hero remains unanswered. While on one side MCU immensely and thoroughly explored Loki’s adoptive brother, Thor’s god like powers, ranging from studying the intricacies of the hammer Mjolner to him levelling up his powers in the third instalment of the Thor movies.
On the other side, Loki has always been somewhat ignored, with the writers never exploring his powers to a great extent. Loki is always found taking a backseat to his stronger, elder brother. Although the writers do have a point in taking this creative decision as the Thor movies heavily revolve around Thor, the long-time Marvel audience argues that the movies of the Thor franchise are as much as Loki’s movies as they are Thor’s. With MCU finally deciding to give Loki his own series, with his name on the title, we are positive that the writers will explore more of the God of Mischief’s potential and powers. This theory is even further backed by the trailer of the Disney+ series.
MCU has barely revealed Loki’s magical abilities
Marvel is slowly trying to level up its magic based characters, now that MCU is well established. While the other magic users of the MCU have witnessed their powers increasing in each movie, Loki has seen his powers decreasing from when he first appeared in Thor. In the comics, Loki’s powers were as important as his ability of deception or his silver tongue which is not the case in the movies. It is often criticised that the writers ignore the book’s claim that without his magic Loki would not be able to pull off his schemes. The MCU version of Loki at least as far as his powers are concerned is a far cry from his comic book version.
In the books, he is portrayed to be as powerful as Dr.strange or even Scarlet Witch but his advantage is that his magic is inborn while the others like Dr. Strange have to rely on bookish knowledge and the likes of Witch who has to tap into chaos magic. Being a thousand-year-old Demi-god, he has a variety of powers that often go unnoticed in the MCU, such as magical energy blasts and force fields, illusion casting powerful enough to fill entire cities, powerful telekinesis, teleportation between dimensions and vast distances, shape-shifting, and many more. He has also found ways to cheat death. All these combined with his excellent manipulative abilities make him extremely powerful, as quoted by Silver Surfer “Power such as his can decimate a planet.” However, this is not the way MCU usually portrays him.
MCU has also undermined Loki’s manipulative abilities
Loki’s magical abilities are not the only things that is being under-explored by the writers, his gift of deception and trickery is also another field that does not get its due importance. Although being extremely entertaining the Loki in MCU is almost depicted as a fast-talking con man or a diva. While in the book Loki is an incredible chess master, a strategist who is always a step ahead of his opponents, the movies have been accused of reducing the character of Loki into comic relief and almost use his story like a lighter sub-plot.
Nevertheless, we would be completely wrong to not mention the few moments where Loki’s deceitful tactics were showcased in the Marvel movies, especially in the first Thor movie which showed shots of Loki standing behind Thor whispering in his ears and manipulating him into going to Jotunheim to challenge the Frost Giants all the while appearing to talk him out of it. Moments like these have been cherished by fans but do not give Loki’s character the justice it deserves.
Here’s why the trailer of the Loki series looks promising
In the trailer, Loki, a shot of him throwing a fearsome signature concussive energy blast at an enemy in his signature green shade, shows him using magic again. Another important aspect that the trailer shed light on was that Loki is back with his manipulative traits. At one point he says to Mobius M. Mobius,” I’m ten steps ahead of you.” Which briefly appears to be the case at least in one scene where he is seen leaping through one of the Time Variance Authority’s portals and closing it behind him before he can be stopped by Mobius.
While it is implied that Loki and TVA will manipulate each other in the series, TVA will also Loki to help undo the damage that is done by him to the timeline. In this series, Loki is being sent on several missions, such as the post-apocalyptic NYC hellscape, where it is impossible for him to succeed without using his magical powers and deceitfulness. It may have taken Marvel almost 10 years to do so but they seem to have finally given the character of Loki the importance that he deserves.
