God of Mischief Loki, portrayed by Tom Hiddleston in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), is a complex character. His first appearances painted him as a villain. However, in the recent Loki series on Disney+, he is portrayed as anti-hero. Is he just a victim of circumstance? Take a look at these ten facts about him and decide for yourselves.

1.) Origin

In both comics and the MCU, Loki is the son of Frost Giant King Laufey of Jotunheim. He was abandoned by the Frost Giants due to his small stature. Odin discovered baby Loki, and took him in to raise him as his son alongside Thor.

2.) First Appearance

Loki's first official appearance in Marvel comics was in Journey into Mystery #85, published in 1962, where he was introduced as Thor's sworn enemy. This issue apparently stated that Loki's powers do not work in water, although this shortcoming is never mentioned again.

A Loki character appeared in the Golden Age comics Venus #6, published in 1949. In this storyline, he is one of the Olympian gods who has been exiled to the Underworld. He then tricks Jupiter into allow him to escape the Underworld to Earth. The goddess Venus successfully stops his plans to spread evil all over Earth, and sends him back to the Underworld. This Loki has no connections to the Thor storylines that we have become familiar with.

3.) Relationship With Thor

Thor and Loki's relationship can only be described as complicated. Growing up, Loki was envious of Thor's heroic qualities that he lacked and resented how the Asgardians favored Thor over him. Thus, he spent a lot of his youth pranking Thor, honing his skills and powers in trickery. While Thor focused on brute strength and battle skills, Loki concentrated more on magic and sorcery. His powers include shapeshifting, astral projection, molecular rearrangement, illusion casting, telepathy, hypnosis, and teleportation.

4.) Loki Knows How To Fight Too

While he might not be as skilled as Thor, no one should underestimate Loki's fighting abilities either. He is quite proficient in wielding and throwing knives. Combined with his great intellect and sorcery, Loki can definitely hold his own in combat situations.

5.) Loki's Ultimate Weapon

The Laeveteinn (Old Norse for "damage twig") is Loki's mystical ancestral sword. He is able to magically summon the sword seemingly out of thin air. The sword appears a couple times in the comics. Although the Laeveteinn has not been mentioned by name in the MCU, in the Loki series, we see Kid Loki summoning a certain sword and giving it to Loki before he uses it to distract Alioth.

6.) Regenerative Healing Factor

Like Wolverine and Deadpool, Loki possesses incredible healing ability. While his Frost Giant origin already imbues him with superhuman strength and durability, he uses his sorcery to rapidly heal himself, and make himself essentially invulnerable to all injuries. His magic even allows him to reattach severed limbs and survive being beheaded. This explains how MCU Loki can survive being smashed by the Hulk.

7.) Loki's First Love

When they were young, the beautiful warrior-goddess Sif often played with Thor and Loki. Sif and Thor eventually fell in love. Jealous, Loki cut off all of her golden hair while she was asleep. (We had a glance of this event in the MCU in Loki series). In the comics, Loki contacted craftsmen Brokk and Eitri to create new hair for Sif. As he was either unable or unwilling to pay the dwarves enough gold to create golden hair, they crafted magical hair from the blackness of the night, giving Sif beautiful black tresses instead.

8.) Loki's Wife

It appears that MCU Loki's first demonstration of love is toward Sylvie in the Loki series. However, in the comics, Loki is married to Sigyn. Although she was tricked into marrying Loki, she remains faithful to him, and even defends him on many occasions. When Loki is punished for the murder of Balder by being tied to three rocks with a snake continuously dripping poison on his face, Sigyn would collect the venom in a bowl to prevent it from reaching him.

9.) Loki (Inadvertently) Created The Avengers

In the comics, Loki was the reason the Avengers came together. As demonstrated in Avengers #1, His original plan was to use illusion into tricking Hulk to go on a rampage and fight Thor (similar to what we saw in MCU's The Avengers). Instead, this leads to Thor and Hulk teaming up with Ant-Man, Wasp, and Iron Man to defeat Loki.

"And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat! On that day, the Avengers were born, to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand!"

10.) Other Versions of Loki

Kid Loki

Even though Loki series introduces different variants of Loki (like Classic Loki, Kid Loki, President Loki, and Alligator Loki, etc.), the Marvel comics introduces the idea of Loki being reincarnated. Loki had manipulated Hela into taking his name out of the Book of Hel, so that he could be reborn instead of dying. When he was killed by the Void in Siege #4, he reincarnated as Kid Loki without the memories and powers of his past self. The story of Kid Loki can be followed in Kieron Gillen's Journey Into Mystery: https://amzn.to/3jzeUw0

Vote Loki: https://amzn.to/3iAYioi

A satire about the 2016 United States presidential election, Loki decided to run for president, with a certain twist. He vowed to win the election by lying outright as opposed to indirectly like most other politicians.

"America, if I were your President, I'd have the guts to lie right to your face. And you'd love it."

Loki: Agent of Asgard: https://amzn.to/3yEjbEA

A teenage Loki decided to make amends for the evil deeds done by his past adult version by becoming a secret agent (of a sort) for Asgard. For each treacherous mission he completed for Frigga, she would erase one of his misdeeds.

Source(s): Games Radar, Marvel.com, Marvel Database, Screen Rant

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10 Things You Didn't Know About Loki