Review: “Loki: Agent of Asgard #9”

If you’re new to my Loki: Agent of Asgard reviews, I do them in the form of live reactions, paying particular attention to how Loki’s genderfluidity/assumed pansexuality is portrayed. I’m behind and trying to catch up, currently mid-way through the Axis tie-in comics! As a reminder, in Axis, heroes are villains and villains are heroes.

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Sigurd’s robbing a bank and is told that’s not heroic…

Entirely possible.

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Loki and Enchantress apprehend Sigurd and Lorelei, hauling them off to Asgard. Loki has some concerns about this, though, bless his heart. What if when evil was turned to good inside them, something happened to the good? Is Enchantress acting rightly? The “justice” they receive on Asgard is pretty awful.

Odin, the god of bad parenting, does actually have some good advice…

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I don’t know if Odin’s advice precipitated this or not, but…

I love it when a scheme comes together.

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And we get to see the Mjolnir-wielding Loki! The whole exchange with Thor is great and I can’t copy it all out, but it shows Loki’s paying attention. He’s still trying hard to be better, even though all the villains already think they are heroes now.

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And then the Axis ends. (Most of) the heroes and villains are returned to their status quo. And Loki’s crushed. That has to be quite a blow, for someone who was trying so hard to be a hero and finally got what he (thought he) wanted.

The next issue promises “the aftermath and the storm to come…”

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Final Thoughts

This mini-arc was interesting. The overwrought retro-comics style worked for these two issues, since that’s who Loki thought himself to be, but I’ll be glad to see that go. It was distracting. As with the larger Axis story, though, I actually wish the flipped characterizations stuck around longer so we could’ve gone deeper, but still. I get all Loki’s emotional beats and it works. This is important for his story and I’m so glad the plot is continuing to develop and change!