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| Kid Loki ain't kidding around, bird. |
Alas, the Journey Into Mystery run of comics uberscribe Kieron Gillen is over. JIM #645 came out today, and I'd suggest you grab it soon if you haven't already. There were only a handful left at the shop when I went on my lunch break. With beautiful art by Stephanie Hans and a hell of an ending, this was quite the finale to Gillen's story about longtime villain Loki reincarnated as a teenager. So 'bout that ending...
10/25 Edit: Never mind, after re-reading and looking at other reviews, I think I was way too optimistic in my interpretation of the ending. :(
When I started reading Journey Into Mystery and first saw magpie Ikol, the spirit of Loki's evil, former self, I thought, "Loki's gonna have to symbolically kill that bird sometime." But I thought it would be more, uh, Miss Julie-ish. A quick neck snapping/decapitation or whatever. Maybe followed up by tossing the dead bird off the World Tree. Instead we got a full-on bloody, feathery, live self-cannibalization. Obviously this is more visceral and has added shock value, but I think it was a solid, legitimate choice. Loki has simultaneously rejected, subsumed, and consumed his former self. Perhaps self-destructive Loki's most (or second most) literally self-destructive act was also his most self-constructive. The act seemed more like a reversal of Cronus devouring his young than the Ouroboros...hopefully.
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| Journey Into Mystery 645 |
So what's next? Well, we don't have to worry about Loki dying from bird flu. As we know from Marvel NOW! Point One, Loki ends up in New York doing some head-hunting for SHIELD to get the Young Avengers up and running again (that series starts in January 2013). I think it'll be a good move to get Loki out of stagnant Asgard and have him interact with other characters. We already got to see his chemistry with badass America Chavez (AKA Miss America), and I'm looking forward to seeing him work with fellow magic-boy-with-kinda-weird-Scarlet-Witch-connections Billy Kaplan (AKA Wiccan). How Loki ends up in New York is still not answered. I'm kind of hoping Thor decided to take Loki there to raise him and is now the hottest single parent at the Park Slope grocery co-op. Can't you just see him hefting five 50-pound bags of organic fair-trade flour on each shoulder?
And hopefully the new environment will offer Loki a bit more support and guidance as well. Loki needs mentors who can enforce boundaries with him and in whom he can confide. Sometimes you need a trusted adult you can tell things to like "I have a crush on this girl but she's the embodiment of my maybe-daughter's severed hand" or "today I almost had to destroy myself to save the universe but instead I literally devoured part of my being." Yes, he has Thor, who loves him more than anyone and always will, but Thor is, in Loki's words, "the biggest, sweetest idiot in the whole nine realms." Loki needs Thor's unconditional (to the point of being ridiculous) love, but he also needs someone who is not going to be dazzled by his bullshit. Nick Fury, Tony Stark...really anyone who will say, "Where are you going, young man? What? No, you cannot blow up Stonehenge. Where the fuck did you get that idea?"
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| Does OSHA not have jurisdiction over SHIELD? |
Random notes:
-Glad they cleared up that whole incest question...not that Loki and Leah really seemed to mind? For a while there I thought Daimon Hellstrom was going to be a way age-inappropriate Han Solo, but nope, Loki & Leah duncurr.
-Leah best be coming back at some point. The people demand more Leah, Marvel! And please don't let Greg Land near her.
-Thor and Loki have another DRAMATIC HUG. I mean, sure, "promise me if I turn evil again you'll kill me" sort of calls for DRAMATIC HUG, but can they ever just have a casual bro hug?
-Hela has the best wedding outfit ever, even if we only see a little of it. Tyr's mustache remains stupid.
-Will Fandral ever tell Volstagg the secret of condoms?
-Tom Hiddleston (AKA Marvel movie Loki) wrote a letter for the "Journey Into Stationery" section! :'D
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| Crikey, indeed. |
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