The last time we convened, we were walking and talking about Loki’s new place in the MCU after the first episode of Loki. Episode two brought even more twists and turns, introducing a female Loki played by Sophia Di Martino. Loki is pretty gender fluid in the comics and as we’ve talked about in our previous column, the show plans to take full advantage of Loki’s various different forms. One of the more interesting things to develop out of the show was an image of Trevor Slattery from Iron Man 3 as a Loki variant. Given the fact that Marvel already wanted to retcon that version of The Mandarin, now they have done so by introducing the real Mandarin in Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings. It seems to be officially retconned that Slattery was really Loki in disguise. That’s honestly a really cool way for Marvel to deal with a really poor decision in production, which was their creation of a “fake Mandarin” for Iron Man 3. It didn’t go over well and there’s a reason for it.
But Mandarin aside, this week’s Loki covered quite a bit of ground. We now know that there are numerous different Loki’s throughout time that are wreaking havoc throughout the timeline. The female Loki that appeared in episode two is definitely straight out of the comics. In the comics, female Loki happened when he commandeered a body meant for Lady Sif. The character first appeared in Thor (2007) #5 coming out of the events of Ragnarok. Asgard had largely been wiped out and Tony Stark decided that he would help fund a new Asgard built over Broxton, Oklahoma. As the Asgardians were being reborn into new bodies, Loki steals the body meant for Lady Sif, of course this was all part of his dastardly plan. (S)he also appeared during the Original Sin storyline when Nick Fury whispered something to Thor that made him unworthy to carry his own hammer.
While we don’t know much about Lady Loki and how she’ll function within the MCU, it’s pretty clear that Sophia Di Martino is going to have a hell of a time fleshing out the character and allowing Loki in her lady form. One of the things that makes Loki so unique is that you never know what version you’re going to get with him. It could be a genuinely good dude like we saw at the end of Ragnarok or it could be God Butcher Loki or Loki leading the Chitauri on an attack of the planet. You truly never know.
The cool thing about this past episode is that we see Loki knew something was up the entire time. While he appeared to be working with the Time Variance Authority, it also appears he has some tricks of his own up his sleeve. How this will pan out with Mobius M. Mobius remains to be seen, but we can probably bet that the time-keeper has some tricks of his own up his sleeve. Also, it’s important to remember that Loki is largely driven by his own desires. It’s hard to envisage a scenario in which Loki would allow the whims of a variant version of himself to outweigh his own desires and plans. In other words, it doesn’t matter if these variants are versions of himself, he’s going to look after himself and his own wants/needs.
We’re only two episodes in, but Loki is already the best show out and a damn fine ride if you’re watching. It has great exposition, an intriguing plot, and an abundance of quality characters with plenty of room for these characters to grow. It will be even more interesting to see how characters like Ravonna Renslayer mature and grow into a central figure in the life of upcoming villain Kang the Conqueror. In the comics, she is his lover and wife. They are obviously going to build toward that with Jonanthan Majors appearing in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in 2023. The seeds are being planted and Disney+ shows are being used as vehicles to drive the MCU into a world post-Big Three. Iron Man and Captain America are done, Thor is being given a new lease on his life. We’re now headed for characters like Ms. Marvel, Spectrum, Moon Knight, She Hulk, and the Eternals. The X-Men and the Fantastic Four are also on their way, so it will be interesting to see what Kevin Feige and Victoria Alonso have cooked up with showrunners and directors. For now, Loki drops a new episode every Wednesday at midnight. If you want to get technical, it actually drops ten minutes prior to midnight on the West Coast, so tune in at 11:50pm on Tuesday and receive thine pleasure.
I’ll be back next week with another recap and more to discuss.
Flip the page for all the Easter Eggs in Episode 2.