Loki: The God of Mischief's Many Forms in the Marvel Universe

MCU Loki

This version of Loki probably requires little explanation for fans of the MCU, but since it has been some time since Avengers: Endgame, here's a quick refresher. As fans of the MCU will recall, Loki was among the first tragic deaths in Avengers: Infinity War. The opening scene of the 2018 film saw Thanos murder Loki on the ship carrying the survivors of Asgard's destruction in Thor: Ragnarok. Loki had taken the Tesseract from Odin's Vault before Asgard's destruction and when Thanos intercepted the ship to collect it, Loki tried to kill Thanos but failed.

So you might be asking if Loki is dead how is he also now in his own series? Good question. In Avengers: Endgame, the heroes carried out their Time Heist in order to get the Infinity Stones from various points in the past to use to restore all Thanos destroyed in the Snap. During the heist back to 2012 during the Attack on New York, the villainous 2012 version of Loki managed to make off with the Tesseract and vanish, an act that generally leads us into the events of the Loki television series.

Lady Loki

With a recap of MCU Loki out of the way, it's time to move into the unusual versions of the character that might appear in the series. A fan-favorite among those variants is the so-called "Lady Loki." First appearing as Lady Loki in Thor Vol. 3 #5 in 2008, Loki took over the human body meant for Lady Sif and generally was just Loki in a female form, complete with the same personality and traits which meant that even as Lady Loki, he was up to all of his old tricks. As Lady Loki, the trickster worked with Doctor Doom, manipulated Balder to make him the new successor to the throne of Asgard, goaded the Asgardians to believe that Beta Ray Bill was a Skrull during Secret Invasion, and, after the defeat of the Skrulls, joined the Norman Osborn's Cabal during Dark Reign.

While Loki eventually reverted to his original male form (who was then killed in 2009's Siege leading to another interesting variation of Loki), this wasn't the last time readers would get a female take on the character. Loki would shapeshift into a woman in 2014's Loki: Agent of Asgard, among other moments.

It's not clear how Lady Loki will factor into the Disney+ series, but some fans have theorized that Sophia Di Martino will play this take on the character.

Kid Loki

In the Siege storyline, Loki manipulated Norman Osborn and his Avengers into attacking Asgard with the plan that it would result in returning Asgard into its place in the Nine Realms. Unfortunately, Loki underestimated the Sentry who had given into his Void persona. When the genuine Avengers entered the fray to defend Asgard, things went south in a hurry as Osborn had the Void unleash his powers, thus destroying Asgard. Realizing the mess he's made, Loki used the Norn Stones to help the Avengers against the Void, but when the Void realizes the enhanced power is coming from Loki, the Void kills him and it's Loki's sacrifice that spurs the heroes on to victory. However, Loki is always scheming and ends up being reborn as Kid Loki.

While Kid Loki is technically an entirely new Loki, part of the old Loki's spirit was able to hijack the new body. First appearing in Thor #617 in 2010, Kid Loki initially had no memories of his previous life, though Thor found him in Paris and helped restore part of his identity and brought him back to Asgard. Distrusted and rejected by the Asgardians, this Loki had a hard time. He was also plagued by nightmares of what the previous Loki had done. While Kid Loki tries his best to turn over a new leaf as a hero and use his natural adeptness at trickery to help rather than hurt Asgard, the essence of the old Loki is still scheming, trying to find a way to take over Kid Loki's body. A lot of weird things go down -- Kid Loki banishes the essence of old evil Loki into a bird named Ikol.

Eventually, it's revealed that during his adventures Kid Loki had inadvertently created and was also bound to a powerful artifact that Mephisto (yes, that Mephisto) was preparing to use to conquer everything. To stop this, Kid Loki would have to cease to exist as it would strip that artifact of power. Kid Loki ended up eating Ikol, allowing the old Loki to return, though the experience left the new-old Loki horrified at everything he'd done. We see the shift in Loki most clearly after his time with the Young Avengers where, despite borrowing Wiccan's powers with the plan to leave the Young Avengers to die, Loki has a talk with his child self still within him, which convinces him to return to the team.

Agent of Asgard

After his time with the Young Avengers, in Loki: Agent of Asgard, the trickster ends up tasked by the All-Mother to collect five keys that Odin had once forged for him should he prove to be worthy. Loki uses the keys to claim the sword of Sigurd, Gram, for himself. For each of Loki's successful missions for the All-Mother, one of his misdeeds and crimes is erased from his record. However, Loki eventually learns that he's being manipulated by an alternate, future villainous version of himself, King Loki.

The Agent of Asgard series sees some pretty wild twists and turns -- Loki is even completely unable to lie during his time as Agent of Asgard and confesses everything to Odin which results in him being banished from Asgard. Ultimately after seeing what becomes of a Loki that clears his record, Loki decides to focus on changing his destiny, telling a new story not as the God of Mischief, but the God of Stories.

What makes this version of particular interest is that it has Loki working for someone else to essentially "set things right". Sounds a little bit like what Loki might be doing with the Time Variance Authority in Loki.

King Loki

Possibly the scariest version of Loki, King Loki is a future version of the trickster who, in his world, killed everyone on Earth and then traveled to the past to kill Odin so that Mjolnir would be useless, thus allowing him to be able to defeat his brother, Thor. Ruthless and bitter, King Loki is the version of Loki that does, in fact, clear his record by completing his tasks for the All-Mother, but even with his misdeeds cleared, he still was not seen as anything but the God of Lies, which prompted his full evil turn. It's revealed that after King Loki revealed himself to the All-Mother, he began working with her to ensure that his future would come to pass, leading to the manipulation of young Loki in Agent of Asgard.

President Loki

The four-issue 2016 miniseries Vote Loki introduces a version of Loki with political aspirations. The series sees Loki stage an attack on the candidates for United States president before manipulating the press and the public into himself becoming the frontrunner. A lot of chaos ensues and despite it, the American people continue to support Loki. Only Nisa Contreras, a journalist for the Daily Bugle, continues to push against Loki's lies. In the end, it's revealed to the public that Loki staged the Hydra attack that launched his political career -- something that the public wasn't privy to initially as they thought it was just a real Hydra attack. The public finally starts to turn against Loki but also turns to violence against one another in the process with those against Loki retaliating against pro-Loki voters. It's when Loki actually speaks the truth on television that the public starts to shift away from Loki and while the election is still close, he ends up conceding.

This version of Loki is one we've actually seen, briefly, in trailers for the Disney+ series so it will be interesting to see if and how the series approaches this.

Scarlet Witch

Yes, you read that right. Loki has even appeared as the Scarlet Witch in comics. In Mighty Avengers #21, Loki took on Scarlet Witch's astral form and used it to recruit a team of Avengers, selecting Henry Pym to lead it, to face the Elder God Chthon. With the Avengers unaware that they were actually dealing with Loki, the team followed "Wanda's" instructions. Loki's goal in using the Avengers was to essentially use them against Norman Osborn (who is in charge of the Dark Avengers). Ultimately, those closest to the real Wanda realized that something was up and it was Wiccan's spell that revealed Loki's ruse. Loki was forced to leave, but his ploy wasn't entirely in vain. The Mighty Avengers did ultimately straining Osborn to his breaking point, something that Loki ended up capitalizing on leading into Siege.

While one could argue that this is less a "variant" of Loki and more part of one of his complicated schemes, it's worth including here given the nature of the MCU's storytelling. With WandaVision concluded and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness yet to come and given Loki's own powers of sorcery, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that Marvel might try to weave in some connection here.

Loki debuts on Disney+ beginning Wednesday, June 9th.

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