I adore stories about stories! And that ending was fitting for the story of Loki.

Only thing I didn't like were the references to other comics in which shit went down. I haven't read them and at times it did felt like I missed something. ( )

I don't read much comics in the Thor world because the ones that I have read, bore me, especially the way they talk.

Not this one, the whole book was fabulous and the story was woven wonderfully. I am a few years behind on Marvel comics and this was on the top of the list to read. From what I understand, there's some great stories coming out from the Thor side in the future.

Halfway through this book, we get some more answers about Angela, especially if you've been reading Guardians of the Galaxy during that time period. I am excited to see in future comics more about Angela and how she will interact with the Asgardians.

This is a well crafted and fun read and the art is great. ( )

A very enjoyable read, though the main series never lives up to the collection's two major highlights: the third issue's Marvel retelling of the Nibelungenlied, featuring a time-travelling evil Loki at its core, and the five issue tie-in miniseries "The Tenth Realm", both of which are wonderful stories with a sense of high stakes and epic wonder that is a bit missing from the rest of the run.

But the run itself is, as stated, enjoyable. Loki's sympathetically written without ever feeling not him- or herself, and the story is interesting, if perhaps intellectually a bit easy/old hat (basically it boils down to the metaphysical notion of gods being beings made out of stories). The best and most interesting use of this is interestingly (though I'm a bit biased as I love a well-written Doctor Doom) a show-down at about the half-way point of the series where Doom uses this to great effect in a symbolic battle against Loki, a very memorable scene.

The book does an admirable job of merging, exploiting and simplifying the dizzying complexities of the decades of character history, revamps and personality changes, and turns these contradictions into the very core of the plot. It gets perhaps a little too much conceptually at times (I believe there are, at least, five separate distinctive versions of Loki, each with their own agenda and outlook, at various points in this book), but on the whole, it works surprisingly well.

My main gripe with the series is some corny attempts at humour that do not fit the vibe or tone of the story. Annoyingly, this problem got worse in the final arc, where even supposedly (and ideally) dignified characters like Odin and Freyja/Frigga are happily wielding machine guns and donning sunglasses to look, in the comic's own word, 'cool'. This undermines the (otherwise reasonably engaging) seriousness of the apocalypse underfoot at this point in the story.

The book also ends on a very open-ended note, but this actually kind of works with the main narrative, and doesn't bother me.

All in all a solid read which most who pick it up should find lots to enjoy in, though as a whole it's unfortunately just shy of true greatness. ( )

I read this series when it was released in single issues, and again when the trades were released. So, I was happy to get the complete collection, with all the lovely covers, and revisit it once more. Loki makes a good anti-hero simply by his nature and here he is more mischief than mayhem. My reviews of the original trades:

Vol1: With his wild popularity in the Marvel film universe (yeah, I’m in Loki’s Army), it wasn't a surprise that Marvel’s publishing arm would try to capitalize on the character. The tricky part was how to center a comic series on the “bad guy” without selling the character out. Loki himself said it best: “I’m not evil. I’m complicated.” (Amazing Spider-Man 503). Loki is certainly Thor’s nemesis, but over the course of comic history he has sided with the heroes on more than one occasion when it was in his best interests. After being reincarnated as a child in Journey into Mystery, Gillen aged Loki up to the twenty-something star of his own series. He’s working for the All-Mothers of Asgard in exchange for having sins wiped from his history. Though one sin can’t be so easily wiped - this Loki murdered his younger self to take his place. That bit of darkness hangs over what are other-wise snarky and lighthearted stories. He saves Thor from an evil that is poisoning him (and just what that poison is blew me away!); he meets a girl, while speed-dating no less, who can see through any lie; he sings to himself in the shower. This Loki is fun, clever, and doesn't take anything too seriously. Just what you’d imagine the Trickster we know would have been like as a teenager. What I liked best about the series is that, even though the stories appear light weight, there are some clever, deep threads woven through that really make Loki shine. He’s not a hero and his greatest enemy has always been himself. This isn't the film Loki, but it is definitely Loki. Will he go back to the dark side? Has he always been there? I can’t wait to see how these questions get answered. Highly recommended!

Vol2: At the end of Volume 1, Loki quit his job as Agent of Asgard when he learned the All-Mothers of Asgard were working to bring about the prophecy of future King Loki because it meant security for Asgard, but the consequence would be that this Loki disappears, and he would forever be the villain. A villain who always loses. This volume begins with Doctor Doom discovering the future of King Loki, so he decides to remove the current Loki. During this, the Marvel “event” Axis overlaps. To stop the telepathic Hate Wave being generated by Red Skull (who has Charles Xavier’s powers…it’s a long story), Loki uses the Sword of Truth to overcome it. When Axis flips everyone’s natural alignment, Loki becomes a hero! [And, it’s a crime that this volume doesn’t include the cover art for these issues as they cleverly recreated a classic cover with Thor now the God of Evil]. Once everything is put back, Loki finds himself unable to tell a lie, and the truth about the Crime That Cannot Be Forgiven is finally revealed. It leaves Loki at his lowest point, facing his greatest enemy alone – himself.
Usually, crossover events just interrupt the narrative of individual series in order to tie in, with little consequence. But here, Loki’s story evolved as a direct cause of the event in a compelling way. He got to experience being a true hero, and it shaped him. The best part of this volume is at the end, with Loki’s confrontation with his mother, Freyja, and an unexpected interaction with Odin. Overall, this series is fantastic and it’s a shame it didn’t continue after Hickman’s Incursion concluded.

Vol3: I noticed that fans appear to be split on this final volume of AoA, mainly because of how the Marvel-wide event Incursion/Last Days overtakes the narrative. Hickman’s Avengers run began a cossover wherein the multiverse is being destroyed as the Earth in one universe crashes into one from another universe, destroying both. All of reality will be obliviated. Honestly, I HATED this event. Every series I was reading up to this event was ruined by Incursion being shoe-horned into the narrative, and then stopping the series cold - because EVERY series either relaunched or was canceled in the wake of the event. And the writing for the event itself was monotonous and boring (try to stop an incursion, fail, repeat ad nauseum). That said, I think AoA was the only series that used the Last Days in a way that made sense for the character and worked. The volume opens with King Loki showing our AoA Loki how they get to the future of King Loki. King Loki is trying to destroy it all because he DID change, and no one would accept it. To everyone he was still the God of Lies, and nothing more, so he decided to fill that role and take it to the maximum. During this vision, Loki encounters other versions of himself within The Void, including Kid Loki, and the story becomes VERY meta. Loki is learning about himself, and what he wants to be. And he makes his choice. Eight months later, the final Incursion is upon the Marvel Universe, and King Loki is reveling in it by driving all the forces of Asgard and Hel into battle. This makes for several pages of epic action scenes, that are fun but have no consequence. During this, Loki, at least A Loki, appears at Verity’s doorstep – and readers finally learn how Verity Willis, AOA Loki’s friend and human lie-detector, came to have her gift. She doesn’t know what to make of this new “God of Stories”, this new Loki who doesn’t seem to remember everything. Overall, though it has some problems, I still enjoyed the volume and felt it was a solid ending for AoA in light of Incursion. The ending, Loki versus King Loki, was insanely clever, emotional and just worked for the character. As did his response to the universe ending – pure Loki. My only gripe is that I have yet to see Verity again in the post-Incursion Marvel Universe. I liked her relationship with Loki. It was the highlight of this series.

A must-have collection for fans of Loki (and Thor). ( )