Warning: This article contains spoilers for Loki: Episode 2! Be sure to check out IGN's review of the new episode.
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The second episode of Marvel’s Loki just introduced a major new character to the MCU. In the process, the show has just confirmed a popular casting theory. Sophia Di Martino is indeed playing a female version of Loki, and she’s hatching a scheme designed to upend time as we know it.
How can there be a female version of Loki? What does this mean for the trickster god's ongoing MCU story? Let’s break down how Lady Loki has factored into Marvel’s Thor comics and how this unpredictable character may fit into the future of the Disney+ series.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/10/the-cast-of-loki-debates-trust-free-will-and-space-lizards"]
In traditional Norse mythology, Loki is portrayed as a shape-shifter and a trickster who can take many forms. Needless to say, he’s not limited to manifesting as a man, or even as a human. In one of the more famous Loki myths, the trickster god takes the form of a mare and is impregnated by a stallion named Svaðilfari, which results in Loki giving birth to an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir that becomes Odin’s prize steed. As one does.
In Marvel’s comics, however, the concept of Lady Loki didn’t really arise until the 2007 Thor comic. That series is set in the aftermath of Ragnarök, a cataclysmic battle only Thor himself survives. Now reigning over the empty kingdom of Asgard, Thor sets out to locate all his fellow Asgardians, who have reincarnated in new, human bodies without their memories, to restore them to full power. That includes Loki.
[caption]
Art by Olivier Coipel. (Image Credit: Marvel)[/caption]
Thor is surprised to find his brother now taking the form of a woman. But though Loki professes to have left her evil ways in the past, this is actually the start of her latest scheme. Colluding with Doctor Doom, Loki hijacks the body of Lady Sif and sets about a chain of events that results in Thor being banished and the Asgardians taking up a new home in Latveria.
Loki eventually reverts to his traditional, male form, but only after sowing seeds of chaos across the Marvel Universe. And that only lays the groundwork for more transformations. Loki soon dies again, returns as a child and becomes Asgard’s most unlikely hero. It’s all part of the character’s shift from overt villain to a more morally neutral agent of chaos. Because what good is a god of chaos if they’re predictable?
While the original Lady Loki storyline dealt with Loki stealing Sif’s body, Marvel has gradually shifted away from portraying Loki as strictly male or female. Loki is now officially recognized as being both genderfluid and pansexual.
That detail was cemented in 2014’s Original Sin: Thor & Loki - The Tenth Realm. After discovering the existence of the Tenth Realm of Heven and his long-lost sister Angela, Loki takes a female form in order to blend in with these angelic warriors. Odin himself recognizes Loki’s nonbinary status at the end of this story, remarking, “My children. My son and my daughter and my child who is both.”
[caption]
Lady Loki, we presume?[/caption]
Loki also spends several issues of his own comic series, Loki: Agent of Asgard, taking the form of a woman as he reunites with his friend and ally Verity. Verity is the one person to whom Loki is physically incapable of lying, and this new form is a rare sign of trust and vulnerability from the erstwhile Marvel villain.
[caption]
Art by Lee Garbett. (Image Credit: Marvel)[/caption]
Again, Marvel is simply reflecting an aspect of Loki that’s existed in Norse mythology for centuries. Loki is a trickster who can adopt many different forms, male, female and otherwise. Far from needing to steal another Asgardian’s body, Loki can change his physical form at will.
This detail appears to be reflected in the MCU as well. The official Loki Twitter account released a promo image indicating Loki’s gender as “fluid.” Head writer Michael Waldron confirmed this is something the series will explore over the course of Season 1.
"I know how many people identify with Loki in particular and are eager for that representation, especially with this character," Waldron told Inverse. "We worked really hard."
Sylvie Lushton (Enchantress) and Wiccan[/caption]
There seems to be some debate as to whether Di Martino 's Loki is also the Enchantress, another major Thor villain. For one thing, Di Martino's Loki has blond hair, like Enchantress, rather than Loki's traditionally dark hair. For another, at least one foreign language dub of Episode 2 lists Di Martino's character not as "The Variant" but "Sylvie." Sylvie Lushton is name of the second character to use the Enchantress name in the comics.
This suggests some elements of the Enchantress are being carried over for the MCU's portrayal of Lady Loki. While the original Enchantress is an Asgardian who yearns for Thor's affections, the second Enchantress is a human given magical powers by Loki himself.
While we finally have confirmation Di Martino is playing Lady Loki in the Disney+ series, there are plenty more questions surrounding this new incarnation of the character. Has she taken this new form as part of her mysterious plan, or is this Loki from an alternate timeline where the character has always manifested as a woman?
For all we know, Di Martino’s Loki is the same character as Hiddleston’s Loki, just from a later point in the MCU timeline. Perhaps everything Loki is now enduring as a captive of the TVA is an ordeal she’s already experienced. Based on an Easter egg in Episode 1, some have speculated Lady Loki may be in league with Kang the Conqueror, with both characters attempting to weaponize time itself and destroy the TVA.
One thing does seem clear, at least. It doesn’t appear the MCU is adapting the original Lady Loki storyline and depicting Di Martino’s character as a Loki who has hijacked another person’s body. As influential as the 2007 Thor comic is, that element is generally regarded as transphobic by today’s standards.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/16/loki-just-introduced-a-major-new-comic-book-character-to-the-mcu-ign-news"]
Marvel’s recent Loki-centric comics may give us an idea of the core conflict between Loki and Lady Loki. No longer a clear-cut villain, Loki often wrestles with the idea that he’s destined to become Asgard’s destroyer. In Loki: Agent of Asgard, that fear is embodied in another alternate version of the character called King Loki. Loki’s struggle in that series boils down to a desire to rewrite his story and become who he wants, not what fate would have him become. He’s not the Prince of Lies, but the God of Stories.
Just as Di Martino was heavily rumored to be playing Lady Loki, a great many Marvel fans have speculated that Richard E. Grant’s mystery role is actually King Loki (or a similarly older and more evil version of Hiddleston’s Loki). If this theory pans out, we can probably expect Loki to face a similar dilemma in the Disney+ series. Grant’s Loki may represent Loki’s apparent fate as a cosmic destroyer, whereas Di Martino’s Loki could embody the freedom and possibilities of a story yet unwritten. Either character may represent a possible future for the Loki we know and love.
Like so many great time travel tales, Loki may ultimately be a story about the clash between free will and destiny.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Continue reading...
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
The second episode of Marvel’s Loki just introduced a major new character to the MCU. In the process, the show has just confirmed a popular casting theory. Sophia Di Martino is indeed playing a female version of Loki, and she’s hatching a scheme designed to upend time as we know it.
How can there be a female version of Loki? What does this mean for the trickster god's ongoing MCU story? Let’s break down how Lady Loki has factored into Marvel’s Thor comics and how this unpredictable character may fit into the future of the Disney+ series.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/10/the-cast-of-loki-debates-trust-free-will-and-space-lizards"]
Lady Loki: A Comic Book History
In traditional Norse mythology, Loki is portrayed as a shape-shifter and a trickster who can take many forms. Needless to say, he’s not limited to manifesting as a man, or even as a human. In one of the more famous Loki myths, the trickster god takes the form of a mare and is impregnated by a stallion named Svaðilfari, which results in Loki giving birth to an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir that becomes Odin’s prize steed. As one does.
In Marvel’s comics, however, the concept of Lady Loki didn’t really arise until the 2007 Thor comic. That series is set in the aftermath of Ragnarök, a cataclysmic battle only Thor himself survives. Now reigning over the empty kingdom of Asgard, Thor sets out to locate all his fellow Asgardians, who have reincarnated in new, human bodies without their memories, to restore them to full power. That includes Loki.
[caption]
Art by Olivier Coipel. (Image Credit: Marvel)[/caption]Thor is surprised to find his brother now taking the form of a woman. But though Loki professes to have left her evil ways in the past, this is actually the start of her latest scheme. Colluding with Doctor Doom, Loki hijacks the body of Lady Sif and sets about a chain of events that results in Thor being banished and the Asgardians taking up a new home in Latveria.
Loki eventually reverts to his traditional, male form, but only after sowing seeds of chaos across the Marvel Universe. And that only lays the groundwork for more transformations. Loki soon dies again, returns as a child and becomes Asgard’s most unlikely hero. It’s all part of the character’s shift from overt villain to a more morally neutral agent of chaos. Because what good is a god of chaos if they’re predictable?
Does Loki Have a Gender?
While the original Lady Loki storyline dealt with Loki stealing Sif’s body, Marvel has gradually shifted away from portraying Loki as strictly male or female. Loki is now officially recognized as being both genderfluid and pansexual.
That detail was cemented in 2014’s Original Sin: Thor & Loki - The Tenth Realm. After discovering the existence of the Tenth Realm of Heven and his long-lost sister Angela, Loki takes a female form in order to blend in with these angelic warriors. Odin himself recognizes Loki’s nonbinary status at the end of this story, remarking, “My children. My son and my daughter and my child who is both.”
[caption]
Lady Loki, we presume?[/caption]Loki also spends several issues of his own comic series, Loki: Agent of Asgard, taking the form of a woman as he reunites with his friend and ally Verity. Verity is the one person to whom Loki is physically incapable of lying, and this new form is a rare sign of trust and vulnerability from the erstwhile Marvel villain.
[caption]
Art by Lee Garbett. (Image Credit: Marvel)[/caption]Again, Marvel is simply reflecting an aspect of Loki that’s existed in Norse mythology for centuries. Loki is a trickster who can adopt many different forms, male, female and otherwise. Far from needing to steal another Asgardian’s body, Loki can change his physical form at will.
This detail appears to be reflected in the MCU as well. The official Loki Twitter account released a promo image indicating Loki’s gender as “fluid.” Head writer Michael Waldron confirmed this is something the series will explore over the course of Season 1.
"I know how many people identify with Loki in particular and are eager for that representation, especially with this character," Waldron told Inverse. "We worked really hard."
Is Lady Loki the Enchantress?
[caption]
Sylvie Lushton (Enchantress) and Wiccan[/caption]There seems to be some debate as to whether Di Martino 's Loki is also the Enchantress, another major Thor villain. For one thing, Di Martino's Loki has blond hair, like Enchantress, rather than Loki's traditionally dark hair. For another, at least one foreign language dub of Episode 2 lists Di Martino's character not as "The Variant" but "Sylvie." Sylvie Lushton is name of the second character to use the Enchantress name in the comics.
This suggests some elements of the Enchantress are being carried over for the MCU's portrayal of Lady Loki. While the original Enchantress is an Asgardian who yearns for Thor's affections, the second Enchantress is a human given magical powers by Loki himself.
How Lady Loki Fits Into the MCU
While we finally have confirmation Di Martino is playing Lady Loki in the Disney+ series, there are plenty more questions surrounding this new incarnation of the character. Has she taken this new form as part of her mysterious plan, or is this Loki from an alternate timeline where the character has always manifested as a woman?
For all we know, Di Martino’s Loki is the same character as Hiddleston’s Loki, just from a later point in the MCU timeline. Perhaps everything Loki is now enduring as a captive of the TVA is an ordeal she’s already experienced. Based on an Easter egg in Episode 1, some have speculated Lady Loki may be in league with Kang the Conqueror, with both characters attempting to weaponize time itself and destroy the TVA.
One thing does seem clear, at least. It doesn’t appear the MCU is adapting the original Lady Loki storyline and depicting Di Martino’s character as a Loki who has hijacked another person’s body. As influential as the 2007 Thor comic is, that element is generally regarded as transphobic by today’s standards.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/16/loki-just-introduced-a-major-new-comic-book-character-to-the-mcu-ign-news"]
Marvel’s recent Loki-centric comics may give us an idea of the core conflict between Loki and Lady Loki. No longer a clear-cut villain, Loki often wrestles with the idea that he’s destined to become Asgard’s destroyer. In Loki: Agent of Asgard, that fear is embodied in another alternate version of the character called King Loki. Loki’s struggle in that series boils down to a desire to rewrite his story and become who he wants, not what fate would have him become. He’s not the Prince of Lies, but the God of Stories.
Just as Di Martino was heavily rumored to be playing Lady Loki, a great many Marvel fans have speculated that Richard E. Grant’s mystery role is actually King Loki (or a similarly older and more evil version of Hiddleston’s Loki). If this theory pans out, we can probably expect Loki to face a similar dilemma in the Disney+ series. Grant’s Loki may represent Loki’s apparent fate as a cosmic destroyer, whereas Di Martino’s Loki could embody the freedom and possibilities of a story yet unwritten. Either character may represent a possible future for the Loki we know and love.
Like so many great time travel tales, Loki may ultimately be a story about the clash between free will and destiny.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Continue reading...