Loki Season One - Mobile Edition

Comics Movie Reviews
Loki Season One
By Hervé St-Louis
October 2, 2021 - 12:59

Studios: Marvel Studios
Writer(s): Michael Waldron, Bisha K. Ali, Elissa Karasik, Eric Martin
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Owen Wilson, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Richard E. Grant, Jack Veal, Deobia Oparei, Jonathan Majors
Directed by: Kate Herron
Produced by: Victoria Alonso, Stephen Broussard, Louis D'Esposito, Kevin Feige
Release Date: 9 June 2021
Distributors: Disney+

A variant of Loki escapes during a retrieval mission by the Avengers in the past to obtain the Tesseract. This was not supposed to happen; thus, Loki ends up in captivity, held by the Time Variance Authority (TVA), an organization that polices time abnormalities outside of the known universe. But Loki is a rebel and constantly attempts to escape them, until he is offered to join the TVA so that he can help them catch the ultimate threat of the organization, a Loki variant that is smarter and more dangerous than him. Will Loki help the TVA or try to double-cross the other Loki?

There was a lot of hype around this series, and I sort of see why but I was not as satisfied with the series as I thought I would be. If I compare it to WandaVision, the latter is a much better series. I will say that this was marginally more entertaining than Falcon and the Winter Soldier but not by much. What created the hype is the usual Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) parasitic industry of speculators and pundits that try to extract every bit of insight from anything Marvel instead of just enjoying the present. Many of the rumours and theories are just that. Thus, there is a lot of hype around a series like Loki for the potential it could have for the entire MCU, but the product itself is lacklustre. It’s not bad, but certainly not groundbreaking.

What I liked about the series was the constant play on Loki’s motivation and the deep reflection into his character, forced by events or Agent Mobius. I like the implication that Loki is so narcissistic, that the only person he can love is himself, or a female version of himself, that is Sylvie. Sylvie, the female Loki, variant is a mix of the second Enchantress, Sylvie Lushton and Lady Loki. Physically, she reminded me more of the original Enchantress, the classic Thor villainess. Sylvie is a great character and since her character arc is not over by the end of the series, we know that we will see more of her in the future, probably in Loki Season Two. Sylvie reminded me of Slipstream, the female variant of the Decepticon Starscream from the Transformers’ franchise. Both are variants of the original who appear to be smarter and more dangerous than their original male counterparts.

Many of the ideas used in Loki were seen in the competing DC series Legends of Tomorrow with the Time Bureau, and the old DC Comics’ character Rip Hunter, although the TVA is from the comics. The difference between the Legends of Tomorrow and Loki is that the latter had a better budget, better scripts (even though there are major plot holes), better effects, better cinematography, and better promotion. Thus, Loki is the superior product, but the concepts are not original to Marvel.

Some of the plot holes included having Agent Mobius returning to life easily. Why didn’t other characters, banished to death do it before? The beautiful sets and the cool visual effects do mask some of the problems with this series. I like the Miss Minutes character a lot. He Who Remains, or Kang, or Immortus was interesting in that he did not act like the usual evil villain but was a bit lunatic and ecstatic. I like that about him as he was unpredictable. This series is fun to rewatch for the many Easter eggs included.

Rating: 8/10