Comics THORsday: Loki Agent of Asgard #9, Loki and Thor Swap Roles!

Welcome to another Comics Thorsday! This time, Loki Agent of Asgard #9 gives us a shock: Loki and Thor swap roles! During years, Loki has been a villain, and Thor a great hero! But thanks to the events of AXIS, Thor has turned evil and Loki pure good. However, Loki still questions himself as a hero. Am I doing the correct thing? Am I the best version of myself? This issue brings us not only echoes from past events in the history of Marvel with our favorite duo, Thor and Loki; but it also poses to us a moral question: do heroes do good? And if so, what type of good? Can their morality be flawed? In connection to this, it also asks us about our own dark side. Does our dark side give to us our humanity and make us who we are?

The cover is telling us something about being heroes and villains: roles could be swapped at any time for whatever reasons. On the left you can see Kirby’s cover for Journey into Mystery (1962). On the right, you can see Garbett’s Loki Agent of Asgard #9 cover (2015). So, what makes heroes and villains what they are?

Heroes in comics tend to have an unrealistic morality by which justice will prevail above all. This is what it’s going on in this page. Amora, thanks to Red Skull’s inversion spell is now a hero, and as such is holding an unrealistic morality that prevents her from feeling compassion or treat in a different way her sister. Even if she loves her, she’ll bring her to Asgard so that Odin will apply justice to her. Here we can see how heroes are treated in comics, basically as moral absolutists as a general rule. They won’t kill even one person so that they will save millions. However, there are cases in which our morality will be questioned by their actions: isn’t that her sister? Would you kill one to save many? Heroes are metaphors of our ideas, and as such, heroes morality is but an idea of what we think morality should be. Even if we think in the same way as superheroes do, that to kill one person is wrong to save millions, if we’re confronted with the situation we will probably change our ideal morality.

And thus we have Loki questioning what about good! The inversion has made him good, but it has not cleansed him from questioning himself how can he be better, or if what he is doing is morally correct. Loki here is but making the same questions the readers might be asking. Loki is being but human.

As Odin confronts Loki about him being a superhero now, we discover a problem with superheroes: their inability to grow. Conflicted characters like Loki have the potential to show and grow till they better themselves, but heroes are the keepers of status quo, and as such have little success in developing their personalities. And so, in becoming a hero, Loki has lost his ability to grow as a person. The dark parts of or personality are what brings us the potential for growing, and so Odin is warning us of that as well. Superheroes excel in wielding moral virtue but are absolute zeroes in growing from what they already are. However, layered characters such as villains or antiheroes hide the potential for growth, exploration and challenge.

So, what happens to Loki in this issue, besides questioning himself about the essence of being a hero? He discovers that not only heroes have the burden of keeping up with justice whatever happens, but he also finds out that some, like him now, do have a dark side and do not react to it at all. While Amora chooses Justice above all, he questions that justice at every step.

So, what happens when Loki is finally worthy of holding Thor’s Hammer, Mjolnir? In essence, he becomes Thor. He can hold the hammer because he feels no remorse and no guilt to whatever he did in the past. He is a blank slate for justice. But at the same time, it’s the starting point for great evil. Wielding the hammer to smash his brother with the weight of justice.

And so, when the spell disappears, all the guilt, all the remorse, all that made Loki a complex character comes back! The guilt that cannot be forgiven returns at light speed and leaves him speechless. While he was a hero, the guilt was gone, and now that he returns to his real self, that guilt returns to remind him of his feelings. And with it comes potential to better himself by acknowledging his darkest parts.

And with guilt, comes the inability to held Thor’s Hammer. And what’s worse: the hero’s denial to recognize that he too was dark. Thor goes back to himself and ignores what just happened: that Loki was able to hold the Hammer, that Loki was worthy, that Loki was like Thor. And while Loki stays on the ground plenty of guilt and sad because no one will acknowledge his journey, the reader is left with Loki’s inner truth: that to better oneself one must accept one’s personal dark side regardless what others think about it.

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Find us in Good Reads!

Need more help? Read some more:

• Loki Agent of Asgard #1, we start reading!
• Introduction to Comics
• Maybe also, some History of Comics?
• Loki is a little bit of a Geek. Some info about Issue #2 before reading it. The cheating sheet is here!
• Loki goes speed dating in Issue #2. Read it here.
• Loki explains legends in a different light in Issue #3. Read it here.
• Loki Geeks out in Issue #4. Read it here.
• Loki shows off in Issue #5. Read it here.
• Is Loki of Asgard really loved by Odin? Discovering an important page in Original Sin, Thor & Loki The Tenth Realm. Read it here.
• Loki gets in trouble in issue #6 + The Tenth Realm. Read it here.
• Loki gets upside down in Loki AoA issue #7! Read it here.
• Loki is too good to be true in issue #8! Read it here.

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