Loki Now You Know How It Feels

Each episode of Loki delivers a new mind-bending twist on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even the mere introduction of the abusive Fourth dimension Variance Authority and the Sacred Timeline radically shook up everything we thought we knew well-nigh the "Infinity Saga." And honestly, we'd expect nix less from a show starring the God of Mischief. But how many Gods of Mischief can one show feasibly hold?

We already had Loki and Sylvie, just with the end credits scene of episode iv, we met 4 more than Lokis. And this week'due south penultimate episode, "Journey Into Mystery" (named for the Marvel comic serial in which Thor starting time appeared), introduced even more than.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Loki episode five, "Journey Into Mystery."]

In episode 4 of Loki, Loki and Sylvie discovered that the omniscient creators of the Sacred Timeline, the floaty-chair-sitting Time-Keepers, were but a agglomeration of animatronics. While they were nevertheless reeling, Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) pruned the god into oblivion. That seemed like the cease for Loki, but like most of what the TVA gets involved in, what happens on the surface doesn't explain everything that's going on.

In a post-credits scene, Tom Hiddleston's version of Loki popped upwards in a ravaged cityscape, consummate with a crumbling Stark Tower. A fair assumption might be that this is an Earth where Loki and Thanos' attack on New York went according to plan, but instead of finding a mirror version of himself lording over the globe every bit male monarch, Loki met a number of new Loki variants.

As Gauge Renslayer explained in episode 5, when affair is pruned from variant timelines, it isn't immediately incinerated. Instead, it'due south sent to the temporal equivalent of an incinerator: the Void, a time/place at the end of time/infinite. There, all things are eventually devoured by a terrible tempest monster called Alioth.

Who are these Lokis at the end of fourth dimension?

Image: Curiosity Studios

Classic Loki

The caped Loki with the largest horns is "Archetype Loki" (at least by the credits' description), a mirror image of Jack Kirby's original take on the character, as played past Richard E. Grant — whom fans have long speculated might show upwards every bit Mephisto, even dorsum in WandaVision.

Not quite. In assuming xanthous and green with a Kermit-the-Frog-like neckband, Grant'southward Loki is a dead ringer for the version of Loki who reigned every bit devilish rex over Marvel's Thor mythos for decades. If yous but know Loki from the MCU, or Curiosity Comics subsequently Agent of Asgard, it's tough to separate the Tom Hiddleston of it all from the character. His portrayal has shaped the modern characterization of the God of Mischief for years.

Only before Hiddleston'southward entrance into the MCU, Curiosity'due south Loki was this thin-faced, jester-garbed figure — wizened where Thor was muscular, sour-faced where Thor was handsome, and every bit irredeemably evil as Thor was worthy. Curiosity's classic Loki had as much ruddy in his ledger as any other genocidal supervillain, and he felt about every bit much remorse as the Joker or Carnage. He was not the sympathetic trickster we know today.

Loki's Classic Loki has his own layer of pathos, though — episode five explains that he was a Loki who put all his specialization points into illusions, and survived Thanos' attack in Avengers: Endgame by going into hiding alone. It was only when he started to miss Asgard and his blood brother, and set out to rejoin them, that he was pruned past the TVA.

Kid Loki

Child Loki in Young Avengers.

Image: Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Mike Norton/Marvel Comics

Classic Loki's transition from villain to antihero took place over many years, merely reached an inflection bespeak during Curiosity's Siege effect, when he super, super died. And at the aforementioned time that the sometime Loki died, a new Loki appeared in the comics: Kid Loki.

Child Loki is played by Jack Veal on Loki, and in the comics, he was created past Classic Loki equally a very long-game fleck of trickery. But functionally, he was a younger version of Loki who had withal to commit grievous crimes and had the potential to have a better (though still non completely heroic) nature.

Thor believed in his brother where the rest of Asgard didn't, and that gave Kid Loki plenty of room to apply his "Ain't I a stinker?" vibes to become a fan favorite. Though he somewhen gave way to the narrative demand for a fully adult Loki, Kid Loki cameos are not uncommon in Curiosity Comics, and some of his adventures, specially with the Young Avengers, remain very popular.

In a chip of fun irony, Loki's Kid Loki is the near respected of the Void Lokis — considering of all of them, he'south the only one who managed to kill his Thor.

President Loki

Episode v introduces one more Loki with a direct inspiration in the comics: President Loki. In 2016'southward Vote Loki series, Loki ran for president of the United States, on an open platform of lies. He didn't win, but the President Loki of Loki appears to accept at least convinced a small regular army of other Variant Lokis to follow his leadership.

Comics history doesn't have much to articulate up about the other Lokis in episode 5. Deobia Oparei, whose credits include Sexual practice Pedagogy and Game of Thrones, seems to be playing a version of Loki that's more similar Thor — his heroic outfit fifty-fifty comes with its ain hammer. Oparei's Loki says that he'southward defeated both Thor and Iron Man, and seized all 6 Infinity Stones — simply then once more, the credits refer to him as Exhibitionistic Loki, and we just have his word for it.

And and then at that place's Alligator Loki. Where did he come from? What does he desire? What was his Nexus Outcome? We accept no idea, but we wouldn't want him mad at usa.

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| Image: Curiosity Studios

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/comics/22557023/loki-episode-4-5-classic-loki-kid-boastful-alligator-president-variants

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