Biography of Loki, 1964

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The following is a biography of Loki for the year of 1964, in which a determined Loki targeted the vulnerable Jane Foster in his continuing efforts to take down his brother Thor.

Biography

Targeting Jane Foster

Loki was, for reasons unclear, released from his imprisonment and maneuvered his way to Odin's ear. Thor at this point was distraught over the fact that Odin wouldn't allow him to marry Jane Foster on account of her being a mortal. Loki used Thor's continued frustration to influence Odin into stripping Thor of half his power. He also looked through the centuries (and into another universe) for a potential enemy for his brother, and found the Tomorrow Man, who had lost his memory and all aspirations of villainy in his last battle with Thor. Loki magically and remotely restored the Tomorrow Man's memory, causing him to return to the 20th century once more. Through much hardship, Thor was nonetheless eventually able to defeat Tomorrow Man.[1][2] As Odin continuously desired a way to drive Jane Foster from Thor's heart, Loki proposed sending the Enchantress, an Æsir legendary for her beauty and wiles. Loki and Odin believed that she would thoroughly seduce Thor, but in practice he proved to be too honorable and too attached to Jane for her attempts to have any effect. She enlisted the Executioner to remove Jane from the picture, but he was himself defeated by Thor, and the two were thrown back to Asgard by a Mjölnir tornado.[3]

Manipulating Odin

Odin became desparate to expel Foster from Thor's heart once and for all. Loki again made a suggestion to him, proposing that he himself travel to Earth and exert his will. An emotionally vulnerable Odin agreed, and gave Loki a portion of his power to watch over Asgard while he was gone. Loki conspired to defeat Odin and Thor all at once and claim rule of Asgard for himself once and for all. To do so, he released the Storm Giant Skagg, whom Odin had trapped in a circle of flame long ago; and the fire demon Surtur, whom Odin had confined in Earth's core during the planet's formation. The two attacked New York where Thor, Odin, and Balder awaited their attack: Balder had notified the former two of Loki's unsurprising treachery. The aligned Asgardians were able to defeat their foes, returning Skagg to his flame prison and knocking Surtur into deep space. Odin returned to Asgard, and assigned Loki to serve under the trolls as punishment.[4] Odin soon banished Enchantress and Executioner to Midgard a punishment for their recent actions, and Loki counted his blessings that Odin didn't realize he was behind it all.[5]

Tricking Doctor Strange

Loki continued to contemplate ways of defeating his brother Thor as he remained imprisoned in Asgard.[note 1] He decided to trick Doctor Strange, a powerful human sorcerer on Midgard, in an attempt to get him on his side against Thor. He sent his spirit form to Strange's sanctum in Greenwich Village, conjuring magical chains on himself and claiming that the "evil" Thor had done this to him. Strange had been largely separated from affairs with other heroes until recently, but was nonetheless aware of Thor's heroic exploits. Loki tried to convince him that he was the victim and Thor was the evil one, and Strange quietly decided to play along. Loki gave him a sliver of leather from the thong of Mjölnir, and Strange analyzed it with his amulet, detecting evil energy, though the energy was in fact coming from Loki himself. Strange sent out a magical hand to seize Mjölnir as Thor flew through the sky, and in doing so found that there was no evil energy coming from it or him. He concluded that Loki was the evil one, and the two engaged in magical combat. Loki's power was lowered due to being in spirit form, but he still proved an incredible threat to the human sorcerer. Strange called off the magic hand's hold on Mjölnir, returning it to Thor. Just as Loki's power seemed to be too much for Strange to overcome, Loki detected the approaching presence of Thor. The thunder god had used his magical hammer to trace the cause of the interference. Fearing his brother's reprisal, Loki's spirit form vanished, defeated by Thor once more.[6]

Jane Foster's kidnapping

Loki next took advantage of Odin and much of his loyal army leaving Asgard for battle by transforming into a bee and flying past Heimdall to Midgard. He disguised himself in Don Blake's office as an old man holding a cane, and stumbled into Dr. Blake such that their respective walking sticks fell to the ground. Loki took Blake's cane and defenestrated it, preventing him from transforming into Thor. He grabbed Jane Foster and ran off, easily losing the hobbling human in the chase. He sent Foster into the Limbo dimension and hid upstate, awaiting his brother's challenge. Thor indeed reclaimed his cane-hammer and tracked Loki down. The two fought, and Loki quickly realized that he could not defeat his brother directly. Instead, he decided to send a magical assault to Foster in Limbo, but she was protected by a magical barrier from Thor's new ally Doctor Strange. Thor beat Loki into submission and forced him to release Jane. As Loki tried one last act of deception, he was snatched from thin air by a soldier of Odin's, having returned from battle, and sent back to his confines in Asgard.[7]

Cobra and Mister Hyde

Loki somehow escaped once more and returned to Earth to plot another attempt at Thor's defeat. He took on the appearance of a human and paid the bail of the Cobra and Mister Hyde, whom Thor had recently defeated and taken into custody. In exchange for freeing them, Loki requested their assistance in defeating Thor. To begin with, he magically doubled their power, and told them to capture Jane Foster. An "unalterable edict" of Odin's forbade Loki from revealing that Thor and Don Blake were the same person, making Thor's connection to Jane Foster a confusing one for Hyde and Cobra. Nonetheless, they took to their task with gusto. As planned, the two captured Foster and ran from Thor. He confronted them on the street, where they told him to not pursue them or Foster would be "finished." Instead, he was to meet them again at that spot in 24 hours and surrender his hammer. Thor begrudgingly complied, not willing to put Jane's life at risk. Loki returned to Asgard and showed Odin how Thor let them escape, and Thor's apparent cowardice and continued attachment to Foster angered him. Odin appeared to Thor and declared that he was banished from Asgard. Thor quickly deduced that Loki was behind this plot, and stormed into Asgard to confront him. Loki refused to admit any wrongdoing, but did slyly show Thor the location where Foster was being held: a palacial estate upon a hill in New Jersey. Odin himself soon arrived, and Thor attempted to explain. Withholding judgment, Odin instantly transported him to New Jersey. Thor arrived at the mansion and battled the Cobra and Hyde, and their intense combat soon resulted in an explosion that destroyed part of the building. Thor found Foster alive but in critical condition among the rubble. He knew she was dying, and could not be saved under normal circumstances. Swinging Mjölnir at a ferocious speed, Thor stopped time from passing within the house, allowing him to defeat his foes and keep Jane stable.[8]

As Odin observed these events, he softened to Thor's plight, recalling his own desire for mortals in days past. He commanded Loki to take a message to the great healer Hardol who lived far away, requesting his presence to save Jane Foster's life. Balder noticed this command, and he and others cornered Loki, knowing that he could not be trusted; instead, the noble Balder took the message and made haste for Hardol. Making his way through several perilous areas, Balder got to Hardol and retrieved the medicine, sending it down to Thor and saving Jane Foster, foiling Loki's plans yet again.[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ There aren't any further references to Loki serving under the trolls after his previous scheme. It's possible that this is happening in the background, or it was simply a temporary sentence, after which he returned to standard imprisonment.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Journey into Mystery #101a: "The Return of Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man!" (February 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Bell, George (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  2. ↑ Journey into Mystery #102a: "Slave of Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man!" (March 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  3. ↑ Journey into Mystery #103a: "The Enchantress and the Executioner!" (April 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  4. ↑ Journey into Mystery #104a: "Giants Walk the Earth!" (May 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  5. ↑ The Avengers #7: "Their Darkest Hour!" (August 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  6. ↑ Strange Tales #123b: "The Challenge of Loki!" (August 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Ditko, Steve (p), Bell, George (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  7. ↑ Journey into Mystery #108a: "At the Mercy of Loki, Prince of Evil!" (September 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  8. ↑ Journey into Mystery #110a: "Every Hand Against Him!" (November 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  9. ↑ Journey into Mystery #111a: "The Power of the Thunder God!" (December 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
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