In the Marvel comics universe, the Avengers are currently facing an onslaught of multiversal threats: Mephisto, Doom Supreme, and the Multiversal Masters of Evil. Spanning multiple Avengers story arcs, the plot has Avengers from several realities coming together to save the multiverse—and with the revelation of a figure called Avenger Prime, it may have just set the stage for an interesting Marvel Cinematic Universe adaptation.
Spoilers ahead for Avengers #64 and #65!
In Avengers Forever #13, a team of multiversal Avenger variants found out that someone called Avenger Prime had brought them together. At the end of the issue, the identity of Avenger Prime was revealed to be a Loki variant.
In the next issue, Loki explains that in his reality, he ascended to the throne of Asgard after Thor’s death. Learning that he was destined to be defeated by the Avengers, he set about making sure no one ever became an Avenger in the first place—but failed to realize that doing so would allow every other supervillain to wreak havoc on the universe. Loki tells the Avengers that after sacrificing his reality to stop them, he tried to end his life, but became Avenger Prime instead. His job, he explains, is to “assemble the mightiest Avengers in all of infinity.”
Plot-wise, this twist makes perfect sense. After all, it’s Loki who originally brought the Avengers together in 1963, in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Avengers #1. Loki is a trickster god, and in folklore and mythology, tricksters can help and harm in equal measures.
Loki’s reveal is cool enough on its own. But could it be telegraphing Loki’s story arc in the MCU, too?
Could Loki be the MCU equivalent of Avenger Prime?
Like their comics counterparts, the MCU’s Avengers first come together to stop Loki. In The Avengers, Nick Fury assembles the team when Loki arrives to try to take over Earth, and it’s only when they learn how to work together that they’re able to stop him.
In the first episode of Loki on Disney+, Mobius explains that this turn of events wasn’t just happenstance, but Loki’s whole purpose in life. “You were born to cause pain and suffering and death,” he says, “all so that others can achieve their best versions of themselves.”
Now, Loki seems to be a sort of Cassandra figure in the MCU, desperately trying to warn the Time Variance Authority about Kang’s impending multiversal war. We don’t know how that plot is going to unfold yet, and the next two Avengers movies aren’t coming out until 2025 and 2026, but it only makes sense that Loki would try to use his vantage point at the TVA to gather a new team of Avengers and save the multiverse.
But he can’t very well just drop in on the Avengers and explain what’s going on. After all, he still has a reputation as a liar and a villain. It’s possible, though, that he’ll use a more roundabout method to approach them—just like he does in Avengers #64, when he dons a disguise to make contact before his dramatic reveal.
If Marvel is indeed writing parallel story arcs for Loki in the comics and the MCU, then it’s a fitting direction for the trickster. By becoming Avenger Prime, he fulfills his glorious purpose by assembling the team and saving the multiverse—but in a way that preserves his quintessential nature as a trickster.
(featured image: Disney+)
Published: Feb 6, 2023 04:10 pm