Comics Review: "Loki" Volumes 1 and 2

Marvel released two comic books under the name "Loki," which both focus on the titular villain, but are not connected to one another. The first dealt with events after the titular character took control of asgard. It's slow paced, but details how he has placed his family under captivity, with thor chained and trapped. We see how loki was jealous of how he was treated, and how he was so angry at his brother. Yet, he still had some love for him, and was willing to let him go, when by the end, thor broke free and was ready to defeat him. The series itself was decent, but didn't really captivate me as I hoped it would. I thought the next one was a sequel, but thankfully it was something different.

The second volume dealt with events as loki tried to understand his destiny and place in life. After seeing some witches of norn, he gets wind that he should kill balder, his and thor's brother. The first issue deals with how loki felt he should have been in charge of mjolnir. After cutting off sif's hair out of jealousy, he went to the dwarves to try and fix things. They made new hair for sif, but also gave him a special boat, a spear, and from some opposing dwarves who loki manipulated, a boar's head, and golden arm ring, and mjolnir. As loki went to give his gifts, he made a pact with the second dwarves, that if their gifts were deemed better, they could have his head. Unfortunately, after seeing mjolnir, which landed in thor's hands, the dwarves came just short of his head; instead, they tied his mouth shut, with thor's help. Whether these events were true or not is rather unclear. The point was, loki always felt like a bit of a joke, someone who never truly belonged with his family, and as a result, he wanted more. This led him to be jealous, and to seek out his destiny. Which, was revealed by those norn witches, was to kill balder and bring about ragnarok. So, through some tricks, he did just that; he convinced balder's brother hoder to kill him with a spear, and eventually thor caught whiff of the plot. We see some scenes where loki saved a poor family, and afterwards, realized he'd rather be feared than loved.

Unfortunately for him, loki's plot is uncovered, as he reveals he's killed balder in front of everyone, and thus did not shed a tear to help bring him back, unlike everyone else. And, he also accused his adopted mother of not even knowing who balder's true father was. After that, he's ran to stone hidden cove where he won't be found.... or so he thought, because thor finds him, in a scene returning back to the ste start of the first issue of this volume. They fight, and loki is eventually tied to a rock with a serpent above his head, spitting poison, mirroring a scene, I think, from the first volume. There's some clues that he may eventually escape and lead the dead in battle, but the book ends there.

Overall, the second volume was much better than the first. It's hard to feel bad for loki, because his side is not something as sympathetic as, say, magneto. But still, it's almost as if he's resigned to his fate, playing his role of the villain. After being treated like second class, or so he viewed, he felt jealousy, and anger, and that it's what motivated him to do what he did. Not out of pure evil, but out of anger and dejection. And that makes him more of a tragic character, albeit one who does seems pretty bad stuff. I'm glad I read this before "The Avengers," perhaps it'll give me a new perspective on the villain as I watch the film. Only one more day!