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Loki

Tom Hiddleston has a glint in his eye as the God of Mischief in Marvel's new escapade on Disney+.

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Tom Hiddleston is back as Loki, reprising the God of Mischief, and ready for bad boy fun.

The events of Marvel’s new series take place after those in the mammoth 2019 film Avengers: Endgame. In fact Chris Hemsworth & co. even appear in the opening scenes of this 6 part series, although I suspect it is reworked footage.

Despite being held captive by the Avengers team, Loki steals the powerful Tesseract stone and escapes to -of all places- the Gobi Desert, Mongolia. He’s a mover and shaker, for sure. But freedom is short-lived when he is arrested by the Time Variance Authority for crimes against the sacred timeline. Say what?

The TVA monitor the almighty timeline and Loki stands accused of being a variant (a rather unfortunate choice of words given current news events). With his disruptive personality this seems like an open and shut case.

But agent Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson), who specialises in the pursuit of dangerous variants, makes him an offer to work with him to track down fugitive variants who are killing his minute men. Are you keeping up? It’s a bit like trusting Hannibal Lecter or Raymond “Red” Reddington in order to entrap their peers.

But can Loki be trusted when his modus operandi is to lie, cheat and deceive until he reclaims his throne as King of Midgard? Have you seen the glint in Hiddleston’s eye?

“This has been a very enjoyable pantomime but I’d like to go home now,” says Loki.

Amid this complex superhero universe is oodles of humour and trippy production design. The TVA is like a bureaucratic corporate office from Soviet 1970s. Think wall to wall brown offices with iMac terminals and Commodore 64s (ok, they were ’80s). There are even 1960s-style training videos in the world of TVA.

Sparks fly between Hiddleston and Wilson as they make for an unfriendly alliance, while Wunmi Mosaku breaks expectations as a black female Hunter of the TVA, having already impressed in Lovecraft Country.

Escapades take place across time-travel backwards and forwards, as far back as Pompeii 79 A.D. in the first two episodes. If you’re up for some rollicking fun with Hiddleston as your tour guide, this is for you.

Loki begins today on Disney+.

One Response

  1. Marvel are reimagining themes last seen in Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. where the main characters were trapped in cyber purgatory, though in Loki’s case his limbo is a magical one complete with government bureaucratic cliches familiar to American audiences.
    Marvel seemed to like creating omnipotent beings that are more powerful than those before them, but after the Thanos reign of terror in Endgame finding supernatural events that are more all encompassing will be a challenge to believe, where was Loki’s Mobius and Ravonna when Thanos was destroying half of all life in the universe for example.
    The Avengers probably would not have been needed.

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