Kid!Loki

[shapinglight]

No one wants to talk about Agents of SHIELD, then?

Not that it surprises me. What does surprise me is finding that I do want to talk about it.

Well, a bit anyway.

Don't suppose anyone wants to talk about Marvel's Kid!Loki series either, but what the hell.

Spoilers for the abovementioned story behind cut.



It may (or may not) surprise you to learn that I have read no books whatsoever this year - well, not since March when all the work on the house started anyway. I have, though (with a long patch, say from June to September where I read nothing at all) managed to plough my way through a lot of graphic novels featuring Thor and Loki.

Some of them were good (all the ones written by Matt Fraction), some of them were very good indeed (all the ones written by Kieron Gillen), and some (J M Straczynski's stuff, which I only read because some Marvel Wiki seemed to suggest that was where the big turnaround in Loki's character begins - it isn't) pretty average.

Last night I finally came to the end of Kid!Loki's story, on the last pages of Everything Burns, during the course of which Kid!Loki, having set free Surtur the fire demon (or did that happen earlier? My memory of what happened when is a bit hazy due to the long gap when I read nothing at all) concocts one of his signature overly elaborate schemes to defeat him, during the course of which he seems to have betrayed not only his foster brother Thor (basically, he leaves him to drown in a big, fiery lake) but everyone else in Asgard who was ever nice to the kid! version of him. But he triumphs in the end, only to find his triumph turn to ashes when he discovers that his entire existence is part of an even more over-elaborate scheme on the part of his old, evil self (who is dead, well, sort of) to give himself a fresh start.

Old!Loki gives Kid!Loki no choice but to sacrifice himself and let Old!Loki have his body, otherwise the entire world, and everyone Kid!Loki loves (including Thor) will go to hell. The end is sort of bittersweet, in that Kid!Loki informs Old!Loki that the fact he is willing to sacrifice himself for others is proof positive that he has changed, something he thinks Old!Loki is incapable of doing.

He still dies, though, and it's very upsetting because he's such an endearing and engaging character.

I'm sad. :(

I know Old!Loki who replaces Kid!Loki turns out to not quite be Evil!Loki too (and in fact becomes teen Loki of Loki: Agent of Asgard), but still...

Sad. :((

Not that I'd want Kid!Loki back unless Kieron Gillen were to write him. He's very good, Kieron Gillen. I must try and catch up on other stuff he's written.

Comments

[liliaeth]

I don't know, I would love to talk about Agents of SHIELD, especially considering how much it's improved compared to the first season.

The problem is that I hate it when people act as if Ward is this poor woobie who just needs a hug to be a good guy again.

But then I have the same issues with the woobification of Loki*g* (not kidLoki, that guy I liked, I'm talking regular adult movieverse Loki.)

[shapinglight]

I suspect woobiefication is a fact of fandom life. Whatever fandom you're in, it's going to happen with some character or other. We might as well just accept it and save ourselves the grief. ;)

I made a post about the new series of Agents of SHIELD yesterday. Wanna talk about it there.

I agree it's improved, btw.

[snickfic]

As I have never gotten around to reading any of Gillen's JiM run, I remain really confused about how kid!Loki and old!Loki relate to each other. Like, I read explanations, and they don't help at all. :\

However! If you want more Gillen writing Loki, Loki is one of the two stars of Gillen's Young Avengers run, which is pretty fun (although I feel it falls down in the end).

[shapinglight]

I'll be going on to Young Avengers next, in fact. I'm glad it was Gillen who wrote the transition between Genuine!Kid!Loki and Fake!Kid!Loki who is really Old!Loki but not quite.

If only because if anyone understands the relationship between the two of them, it has to be Gillen.

I'll always miss Genuine!Kid!Loki, though. He's a sweetie.

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for AoS to be on Channel 4.....

[shapinglight]

I should have waited, I know, but I got all impatient last week.

Not really sure why. I didn't like season 1 much at all.

[kikimay]

I'm thinking about watching Agents of Shield but the first episodes kinda bore me. Is it really becoming that good?

Also I loved JiM with kid!Loki. I loved kid!Loki and felt so much angst for it. It's a perfect arc, though I'm maybe not a comics-person. (I hate the fact that after an arc they basically put things like they were before)

Oh, now I have a Loki icon with a JiM quote! I'm so pleased :)

[shapinglight]

Is it really becoming that good?

Not really, no. It's just that the first two episodes of season 2 have been a bit better than the whole of season 1.

Also I loved JiM with kid!Loki. I loved kid!Loki and felt so much angst for it. It's a perfect arc, though I'm maybe not a comics-person. (I hate the fact that after an arc they basically put things like they were before).

It isn't quite the case that things are like they were before. I haven't read any Fake!Kid!Loki yet, but I understand he's not quite Old!Evil!Loki. On the other hand, I also understand that Old!Evil!Loki is still about, so it's inevitable he'll come back eventually.

That's what happens when you have these huge comic book universes that have no end. The characters may have various iterations, but at some point they'll come back to their 'base' state again. The same is true for another of my favourite characters, Magneto. He's several times seemed to reform for good (spent a long period as headmaster of the Xavier school, for instance, during one of the innumerable times that Xavier apparently died), but some bright spark will always come along with a great idea for a story featuring Evil!Magneto/Loki so we'll get that version of the character again for a while.

I'll be sorry when that happens with Loki. I like that the current version doesn't hate Thor, even if he isn't Genuine!Kid!Loki.

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

I'd love to talk about 'Agents of Shield', but I'll have to wait until it's shown on Channel 4 :-(

[shapinglight]

Oh well, that's what I get for being so impatient. ;)

[yourlibrarian]

I was curious to read this because in the past months I read a regressed age Loki fanfic and enjoyed it. I now wonder if it was written in response the the comics storyline because the ending was exactly the opposite. Loki remains a child, cared for by both Thor and Clint Barton -- though they're not a couple -- Thor is actually in Odinsleep until the last few pages of the story.

[shapinglight]

It could well be, or it could be that the author has read the story, found Kid!Loki endearing and so chose to include him in a Movie Universe fic.

[lokifan]

:( I miss him too.

[shapinglight]

Such an endearing character. I'm reading Young Avengers now, and Old!Loki in Kid!Loki's body is no real substitute, despite having (apparently) gained a conscience of sorts.