Loki: Marvel’s Ambitious Fan Service

By: Andrew Yuan

“There is a fork in every road, yet the wrong path always taken.”

As Oedipus Rex helped me to navigate through the hardships of COVID, I never imagined it to be re-envisioned by Marvel, at least not for the trickster god. 

Released on Disney+ this summer, the limited miniseries Loki follows Loki Laufeyson’s journey to uncover mysteries behind the Time Variance Agency (TVA) and himself. 

Similar to WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the series follows the 2019 blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, where Loki, in an alternate “time branch,” is taken prisoner by the TVA to aid a search investigation for multiple versions of himself across apocalypses of different eras. As he falls in love with Sylvie, a Loki variant, secrets behind the potent TVA begin to unwind. Eventually, He-Who-Remains, or Kang, is revealed to be the manipulator behind TVA and sets off multiversal chaos upon his death at Sylvie’s sword. 

Beyond introducing a new villain and an upcoming multiversal war, Loki hints to Marvel’s new ambition to further its initial breakthroughs in the television industry after receiving several Emmy nominations for its previous miniseries. Loki has managed to apply classical dramatic tensions and philosophical complexion to an otherwise rascally villain. 

Borrowing elements from Ancient Greek drama, the show slowly reveals the inescapable path of predetermined destiny for Loki and Sylvie. The scenes draw the audience’s attention as the characters struggle for “free will” but only to return to their scripted fate in the time loop. 

In ways, Loki could be seen as a Marvel reenactment of the Oedipus Cycle that follows the sarcastic, yet tragic, descent of a hubristic ruler into his destined downfall as he attempts to bring good to his realm. 

The show, featuring Loki as one of the most famous antiheroes in ancient mythologies, is an antithesis to Marvel’s traditional (and overrated) approach of “Hero’s Journey.” Unlike the Avengers or Gilgamesh, Loki never received a call to adventure, or a Supernatural Aid to start with. He steps on a bizarre, destined path of chaos after seeing the tragedies of his alternate life played out on a screen while grappling with the puzzling mystery of TVA. 

Loki becomes the audience, watching his “other” life as we would in Avengers: Infinity War or Thor: The Dark World. He is not chosen for a glorious mission, but to be sinned on a looping path of atonement, only to find his captors as puppet droids in lost disappointment. Such breakthroughs in character development evidenced Marvel’s ambition to go bold and to revolutionize the cliche. 

The unnerving revelation of Loki’s descent to a Kang-ruled alternate universe at the end of the series leaves the audience not only hung to their seats (and screens, but also remorseful at Loki’s supposedly triumphant journey of redemption throughout the entire series. The very remorse might have struck the Athenians as they witnessed the Theban king stabbing his own eyes with regret and departing the state he once gloriously defended. The Ancient Greeks, too, might have asked, “what was all this for?”

Director Kate Herron, a loyal fan of dystopian literature herself, represents TVA as a totalitarian agency to simulate embezzlement and dread for viewers. With colossal monuments, concrete murals, and posters with Stalin-like gazes, minute designs within TVA provoke Cold-War and anti-communist apprehensions from the audience while reminding Marvel fans of similarly covert settings of Hydra in the Captain America series. 

In contrast with the monotone TVA, the cyberpunk planet of Lamentis-1 fulfills expectations of sci-fi fans with neon streets and apocalyptic cityscapes. Similarly, the electrifying vibrance of Lamentis-1 represents the start of emotional bonding between Loki and Sylvie, as opposed to their mutual contempt in TVA. The production team’s masterful utilization of colors and sensory details to arouse emotional attachment adds to the creative designs of this show. 

Despite Marvel’s ambition, Loki’s sudden pursuit of “free will,” a concept Loki has long despised and was rarely mentioned throughout the series, at the last episode seems abrupt. This deliberate attempt to level the series up to a philosophical ending fails to deliver substantial development in the plotline and turns the characters into simple plot devices to raise dramatic tension. 

Similar criticisms have been drawn to the rushed ending of WandaVision, as fan-anticipated characters of Mephisto and a Quicksilver from the FOX/Marvel X-Men Universe become futile fan services to arouse attention and press releases. 

Nonetheless, the final reveal of Kang as the possible villain for Marvel’s Phase Four, after the absence of important villains in WandaVision and the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, projects Marvel’s successful transition from an old-fashioned comic company on the edge of bankruptcy to a cross-platform entertainment giant invested in both movie and television. Surviving its strings of underperformance in the film business during COVID, Marvel’s commitment to its television series is a gift to its fans, and a threat to others in the industry by turning its blockbuster characters into breathtaking biographies.

As Loki is expected to return in Season 2 and upcoming projects, both Hiddleston and Marvel fans are praying Laufeyson to not stab himself blind, or to self-exile himself to Colonus. After all, he did land himself in a Kang-controlled TVA.