Loki's History
Before dying at the hands of the Void during the Siege on Asgard, the Trickster God Loki laid schemes to break free from the chains of destiny, manipulating Hela into taking his name out of the Book of Hel, allowing himself to be reborn instead of truly dying, and return as a completely new Loki, free of the weight of his past.
Beginning as Ikol
When he was trying to find the motive of his past incarnation for his sacrifice at the hands of the Void, the new Kid Loki found himself transported to a hidden chamber where he encountered an echo of his elder self. The spirit revealed the elder Loki desired to have a new start, a fresh page with fresh ink to write a free future. The echo had come to help the Kid Loki guard the Nine Realms through upcoming hard times, "because a trickster is naught without a playground." Kid Loki reduced his elder self into the form of a magpie, condemned to a lifetime as "Ikol," his minion and his opposite.
Determined not to become like his past self, Kid Loki went on several adventures to gain Thor's and everyone else's trust and affection. These adventures included hiding the World's Heart so Galactus would give up his war against Asgard, helping save Midgard from the War of the Serpent, bringing Thor back from the dead by being the only person to remember him, helping Daimon Hellstrom save people from Nightmare, assisting in the war with the Manchester Gods, and helping Thor and Leah, Hela's handmaiden and his best friend, against Surtur. However, Ikol appeared displeased with his new incarnation's desire to be his own person, as well as his new personality.
During Kid Loki's adventure to help Daimon combat Nightmare, who was harvesting "fear clots" from people's mind that had been left as a residue from the War of the Serpent, the young trickster harvested his own abundant fear clot and gave it to Nightmare, so the Fear Lord would stop threatening innocent lives.[23] Nightmare proceeded to create a Fear Crown from Loki's fear clot, to empower himself over his fellow Fear Lords. However, Loki warned them, and they attacked Nightmare, ultimately leading the Fear Lords to be caught in a never-ending conflict to try to take the Fear Crown from each other.
Kid Loki finally gained the trust he fought so hard to earn when he helped kill Surtur and save the entire universe from destruction, however, his victory was short-lived.[24] During Loki's adventure to help defeat Surtur, a second scheme laid by the elder Loki had been put in action, and Mephisto was alerted of the existence of the Fear Crown. Mephisto defeated the Fear Lords, took possession of the item, and planned to use his new-found power to become the next Satan and unleash Hell on Earth. After noticing his bird's absence, the young trickster returned to the hidden chamber and confronted Ikol, who was revealed to only exist in Kid Loki's mind.
With only a few hours before Mephisto stepped in as Satan, Kid Loki was presented by Ikol with the only way at hand to destroy the Fear Crown. The fear clot that made up the crown had come from Kid Loki's mind, thus if Kid Loki's mind was destroyed, so was going to be the crown. And due to the elder Loki's past machinations, the only way for Kid Loki to die was to let Ikol overwrite his mind, take his body, and make Kid Loki's good name his own. The boy questioned Ikol for the motive of this scheme, and the echo revealed that he himself desired to change, and not for the child Loki to do so.
Before submitting to his fate, the young boy taunted Ikol, reminding the echo that he had changed, and even if Ikol wanted to change, he had already lost due to this selfish machination. As his mind was replaced with Ikol's, Kid Loki firmly stated that he had won. Ikol, now Loki, acknowledged his guilt of having killed the young Loki, and said, "Damn me. Damn you all."
Young Avengers Assemble
After learning of Wiccan, a young hero destined to become the omnipotent Demiurge, Loki decided he needed to control him. Loki reached out to the interdimensional parasite called Mother and made a deal with her. The God of Mischief manipulated Wiccan into bringing the Mother to this dimension through a magic spell that had the purpose of bringing back to life the adoptive mother of Wiccan's boyfriend Hulkling.
However, Loki betrayed Mother, and interfered with the spell, causing it to tie it Wiccan, Hulkling and himself and bring back their dead parents. Under the guise of trying to help, Loki rescued Wiccan and Hulkling from Mother. They were soon joined by other young heroes, who became infected by the link of the spell, leading to the reformation of the Young Avengers. When they were cornered in Central Park by their resurrected parents and an army of mind-controlled adults only they could see, Loki convinced Wiccan to lend him his power for ten minutes to save them all with his better skill at magic than Wiccan. As soon as Loki was given Billy's powers, he teleported away, leaving the other young heroes to their deaths.
Confronted by his guilty conscience, in the form of the deceased Kid Loki, Loki decided to come back, save his fellows, empower them to fend off Mother's army of adults. Mother faded away after the Young Avengers escaped. Loki explained they couldn't go back to any place their parents were or had died (in the case of any deceased parent brought back by Mother) or Mother would return, as her powers were distance based. The young heroes decided to stay together and travel through the universe.
In the next three months, Loki trained Billy to prepare him to fight Mother, with the ulterior motive of gaining his trust. The Young Avengers were joined by Prodigy, who informed them Speed had been kidnapped by a strange entity dressed as Patriot. The Young Avengers chased the entity through the Multiverse, and were brought to Mother's Dimension. They escaped, but accidentally left Prodigy and Hulkling behind. Using numerous evil alternate version of themselves as a distraction, the Young Avengers distracted Mother and save Hulkling and Prodigy. Back to Earth-616, Hulkling left the team.
Using a magic hologram, Loki met up with Mother, who was holding a grudge against Loki for his interference in the spell that didn't allow her to return freely to Earth-616, and questioned her about the mysterious "Patri-not," though she had no idea. Before leaving, the God of Mischief taunted Mother, stating everything was going according to his plan. However, Loki didn't know that Mother was working with what seemed to be an older, vengeful Leah, who had tricked Hulkling into returning to New York, allowing Mother to come back to Earth-616, and threaten to unleash all of the evil version of the Young Avengers to the world.
Since Billy was still too weak to end the spell which had brought Mother, Loki suggested that he would be able to do it if his body was older, thus making Wiccan age him into a young adult. Unfortunately, Loki's powers didn't remain. The trickster had to resort to a second plan, to turn Wiccan temporarily into the Demiurge. Prodigy called all of the teenager heroes available to fight the army of alternate Young Avengers, while the real Young Avengers took care of Mother.
When the Young Avengers faced Mother, Leah and her own team of Young Avengers (a league of evil exes, including those of Noh-Varr and America Chavez), Loki was easily overpowered by Leah. To Loki's shock, he realized Leah was actually the physical manifestation of his guilt and missing powers which he subconsciously gave up due to his guilt over killing his younger self.
Loki confessed his crimes, the murder of Kid Loki and the manipulations the Young Avengers had been victim of. His confession made Leah and the evil exes disappear, which were also manifestations of Loki's guilt, thus regaining his powers and freeing Teddy. After Billy and Teddy managed to destroy Mother, the team returned to Central Park. Loki fled unceremoniously, wracked with guilt over his actions.
Celebrating Mother's defeat, the Young Avengers threw a New Years' party, along with many young heroes that had come to their rescue. During the party, Loki was spotted by David, who confronted him only to find out that Loki was the one who secretly paid for the party. Loki didn't want to stay with the team because they could forgive him; thus, by leaving he wouldn't give them the chance. While talking to David, Loki admitted that he was different than who he was, but he couldn't avoid being Loki, and even if he killed himself, he would eventually come back probably worse; therefore he would be the best story he could.
At the end of the party, after watching the Young Avengers leave through one of America's portals, Loki searched through his phone and smiled fondly at the team photo he took.
Agent of Asgard
Loki started working for the All-Mothers of Asgardia in different missions in exchange of his Asgardian crime record to be erased, one crime for each successful mission. The All-Mothers required Loki to return to Asgardia numerous Asgardians who were roaming freely on Earth, including Lorelei and Sigurd. Even though he let Lorelei go, Loki forced Sigurd back to Asgard. However, Loki later with Thor, his new ally Verity Willis and Lorelei learnt about how Sigurd didn't commit any crime and planned to break him out of Asgardia.
After Thor distracted Heimdall by battling the Technocracy and using Willis to see which traps were real, Sigurd and Lorelei escaped together while Loki stayed to find what the All-Mother have been keeping secret. He found an older version of himself who had been influencing events in history for his bidding. He told Loki that he wasn't his past but his future, being helped by the All-Mothers to prevent Loki and Asgardia's future from changing. Displeased by the All-Mothers' desire to be bound by destiny, Loki quit working for them.
AXIS
Loki had had a scuffle with Doctor Doom, who believed Loki would one day bring about the end of Latveria due to the manipulations of the Old Loki, when Magneto arrived to Latveria to ask for help to defeat the recently-unleashed Red Onslaught. The trickster God helped a group of villains defeat the Stark Sentinels, while Doom and the Scarlet Witch cast an inversion spell to alter the moral compass of the Red Skull and defeat him. The inversion spell had a stronger effect than expected, and affected all of those in the island, including Loki, who became heroic. Loki's role of "hero" was dubious at best as he turned his back on Verity, due to feeling mortals were beneath him, and betrayed Lorelei and Sigurd, putting Asgardian law before their friendship, earning the disappointment and disapproval of Odin. He also became incapable of feeling guilt for his past misdeeds. As the inversion spell turned what was evil good, it also took what was good and made evil of it. Loki, who had been on a path of personal redemption, had lost the aspects of himself that had "grown" (as Odin put it).
Loki rejoined the (now-inverted) villains to stop the inverted X-Men from detonating a gene bomb which would've killed everyone in the planet who wasn't a mutant. Even though they failed,[43] the arrival of the inverted Avengers (including Odinson) gave them a second wind to keep on fighting. In order to prevent him from going on a murderous rampage, Loki tricked Odinson into following him to the Moon. There, Loki found Mjolnir as it had been left after Thor became unworthy. Using Mjolnir, Loki became Thor and fought his half-brother until (back on Earth) a reinversion spell was cast, and Loki became his old self once again and when his guilt for past misdeeds returned, he became unworthy as well.
Ego Death
After returning to his apartment, Loki discovered that for unknown reasons, he was no longer able to tell a lie, no matter how little or harmless. Due to this, while having a conversation with Odinson, Loki revealed against his will the fate of his younger self, Kid Loki. Fueled by rage, Odinson brutally beat Loki up, and brought him to Asgardia for punishment.
The rest of the Asgardians turned their back on him, and Frigga exiled Loki from the Ten Realms. While wandering the space between the Ten Realms, Loki encountered Odin, who admitted his love for Loki even after knowing what he had done. The All-Father then sent Loki back to Earth, where his trial would start, and he would to become worthy of his power once again. When he returned to Manhattan, Loki encountered his evil future self in his apartment, who strapped Loki in order to tell him his story.
After revealing his motives to his younger self, King Loki set Loki on a magical fire[46] that sent him back to the hidden chamber where Kid Loki had first met him. Loki was confronted by the ghosts of the original Loki and Kid Loki, who offered him two options, the original Loki offered him to accept his nature as a villain and the God of Lies, and Kid Loki offered him to destroy himself like he did to save the world from himself. After being motivated by Verity Willis via his phone with magic cell reception, Loki chose a third path. Loki realized that a lie was nothing more than a story, a story he could choose to rewrite, to tell a different one. On the real world, King Loki witnessed as Loki burned to the ground, seemingly dying.
Last Days
Eight months into the future, with the final incursion looming, Loki returned to Verity, reborn as the God of Stories. With the world about to end, Loki prompted Verity to tell her story, and used the moment to trap her soul into a piece of magic jewelry to save her from death.
Loki proceeded to travel to Asgardia, where King Loki had allied himself with Asgard's enemies to destroy the Earth, and the Asgardians as well. With the unexpected appearance of his younger self and the arrival of reinforcements brought by Gjallarhorn, King Loki fled. Loki's return was acclaimed, but he had no longer interest in the judgement of the fellow Asgardians, taking no sides but his own, so he stepped aside while the Asgardians battled their enemies until the universe ended as a consequence of the incursion. Loki used his powers to trap the essence of the Asgardians and their enemies, keeping them safe from annihilation.
Loki and Verity's ghost found themselves in the middle of a blank void, confronted by Those Who Sit Above in Shadow, who demanded the God of Stories to give them the essence of the gods, which was what they feed on. Loki was able to scare Those Who Sit Above in Shadows away by putting into question their origin and existence. If the gods such as the Asgardians come from the stories that have been told about them, it was posible that the gods of the gods didn't create the gods, but had been created by them.
With the threat of Those Who Sit Above in Shadow averted, Loki found another person in the middle of nothingness: a sobbing and defeated King Loki. Loki confronted his future self, and made King Loki realize that in the end, he helped Loki change and grow away from being the God of Lies, a path King Loki was not able to change for himself. Both Lokis reconciled, and the younger one contained King Loki's essence in his scepter. Loki proclaimed that he needed a break, and decided to skip ahead in time until the universe was brought back, for which he used his magic to create a door into the future, and invited Verity to come with him through it.
Dark Council
When Earth-616 was brought back to existence and the War of the Realms was put into motion by Malekith the Accursed and his Dark Council, Loki was sent by Frigga to infiltrate this alliance, under the pretense of having returned to his bad ways.
After introducing himself to the new Thor in a mission which objective was to kill her, Loki was returned to Asgardia in chains when Frigga was going to be put in trial for having helped said new Thor evade Odin's wrath. In the middle of a confrontation between Odin's forces and Frigga and the Asgardians who sided with her, Loki stabbed his adoptive mother with a poisoned dagger that left her on the brink of death. Loki had learned that Malekith was planning on killing Frigga, thus he had decided to neutralize her with the best alternative which wouldn't involve killing but allowed him to remain in Malekith's side.
Vote Loki
Loki eventually set his sights on the Presidency of the United States. After staging an attack on the two candidates, a situation which Loki himself defused, his popularity skyrocketed, fueled by his claims to the press regarding politics. After initially claiming falsely to have no desire to run, Loki announced the beginning of his campaign. While the masses were enamored with Loki, Daily Bugle reporter Nisa Contreras was not convinced and and attempted to defame Loki. However, all of Nisa's attempts to expose Loki proved to be futile and even counterproductive, to the point Loki spinned them in his favor. These attempts including the revelation that Loki's fundraising organization was secretly a worshiping cult, and the discovery that he had directly been involved in the Latverian civil war, aiding one of the two factions.
After Contreras exposed Loki's involvement in the attack on the two candidates, both polar opposites in the public opinion on Loki inflated, leading to a state of unrest. Loki contacted Nisa and set up a live interview with hopes to make people regain their composure. Nisa's remarks and a series of questions from the audience displayed that Loki didn't really have any actual policies or plan to run the country. The next day, when the elections were carried out, the support for Loki tanked, and he lost the election.
Loki spoke to Contreras later, remarking that his plan all along may have been to help her become a rising star as a reporter who exposed bad politicians, an idea which Contreras was somewhat skeptical towards. They then parted on somewhat friendly terms. However, as he flew away, he was shown talking on the phone to one of the rival candidates. He had actually been in a secret deal with them all along to cause a split in the votes by running and then conceding, thus helping even out the votes a bit more and give them a better chance to win the election. The candidate he spoke to presumably granted a reward to Loki, which he expressed he was most pleased with. He then officially conceded the political race.
Infinity Quest
Loki would next turn his attention in gathering the Infinity Stones. He first paid the Gardener a visit, and drove him mad in an attempt to get him to divulge the location of the Soul Stone, which he didn't know. Loki subsequently assembled a group of dwarf Frost Giants, the Black Ice Bersekers, and manipulated them into attacking a S.H.I.E.L.D. storage facility which contained the Space Stone, but they failed their mission. When the Guardians of the Galaxy visited Earth seeking help to search for the Infinity Stones, Loki prevented them from meeting Cable by impersonating him, discovering they hadn't acquired any of the Stones yet in the process.
Sorcerer Supreme
Being aware of the upcoming threats that would menace the Earth, Loki determined that the Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange wasn't ready for these challenges. As part of a ploy to help Strange prepare and push his boundaries, Loki cast an illusion to trick Strange into believing the Vishanti had decided to bequeath the mantle to him during a magical tournament for the possession of the title. Strange subsequently handed over to Loki his magical possessions, namely the Sanctum Sanctorum. Loki also repaired the Cloak of Levitation using Asgardian thread he spun himself months after it was torn to pieces by the Imperator.
While being the Sorcerer Supreme, Loki began obsessing over a spell known as the Exile of Singhsoon, which would transfer all the magic on Earth to him. Since magic was striving to flourish following the Imperator's near purge of it, Loki's intention was to use the spell's power to jump-start magic itself and at least temporarily fix the damage done to it by the Empirikul. Doctor Strange had locked the spell away inside the soul of Zelma Stanton, his apprentice, and not only feared Loki would use the spell for sinister motives, but also that he could kill Zelma trying to excise it from her. Stephen's first attempt at stopping Loki resulted in the accidental death of his talking pet dog Bats. In order to stop Loki, Stephen joined forces with Wong and the Sentry. After becoming empowered by Yggdrasill, Strange and Loki battled until Zelma revoked their magic for three minutes; however, Loki was still a god, allowing him to overpower Strange physically until he relented. Strange unleashed the Void instead, the entity that had killed Loki's previous incarnation.
The Void goaded Loki by revealing the location of the Exile of Singhsoon, prompting him to take the spell and immediately use it to bring all magic into himself. After separating Strange from the Void, Loki brought back magic as he had intended, and joined forces with Strange and the Sentry to recapture the Void. After Zelma angrily forced Loki to reveal that his stint as Sorcerer Supreme had been a ploy, he explained his intentions, and determined he had succeeded since Strange had learned to break the rules. Loki relinquished his role as Sorcerer Supreme back to Strange. As he was apologizing for Bats' death and explaining that he had been trying to remedy the situation by bringing him back as a ghost, Loki was abruptly teleported to an unknown, but unpleasant location by Stephen.
Final Host
Having recalled a story he had learned during his previous incarnation's childhood involving Odin's fight against the Dark Celestial Zgreb a millennia ago, Loki unearthed the fallen Celestial and freed it from its confinement deep beneath the Earth's surface. After summoning Zgreb's fellow Dark Celestials, Loki facilitated their arrival to Earth in order to purge the planet,[68] arguing the Earth was ridden with a disease brought about by an agonizing Celestial named the Progenitor four billion years ago. Infected by the Horde, the Progenitor fell on Earth and died. Loki claimed the percolation of the Progenitor's ill-ridden fluids through the planet's primeval surface forever altered the Earth's evolutionary trajectory, and constituted the primordial cause for the emergence of superhuman beings once humanity existed.
The Dark Celestials were confronted by a group of heroes reluctant to work together despite their shared past as Avengers. After Loki revealed himself as the facilitator of the Dark Celestial's arrival, Captain America attempted to use Omega-Level Warp Grenades to teleport the invaders to the Sun. The plan failed, and Loki and the Dark Celestials returned to Earth. While the Dark Celestials made preparations for Earth's destruction, which included awakening a dormant infestation of Horde creatures on the planet's core, Loki disclosed to Captain America the secret past of the planet. The heroes eventually managed to work together to take a final stand against the Dark Celestials before they destroyed the planet. They emerged victorious and took down the invaders as well as the Horde, with Loki being apprehended in the final battle. Despite the apparent thwarting of his plan, Loki beamed with pride as he welcomed back the Avengers to action. He was then taken away by the Celestials to be punished for what he done, but he was able to escape thanks to the aid of a Phoenix Force-possessed Wolverine.
Infinity Wars
One day, Loki looked through Asgardian texts kept in Omnipotence City about him and became upset that none of the stories ended well for him. The tombkeeper Flowa recalled a certain story and showed Loki it, but most of the pages were ripped out. All that Flowa remembered about the story was that it involved the God Quarry. Intrigued, Loki decided he wanted to go there and invited Flowa to come with him, which she accepted.
After Loki and Flowa arrived at the God Quarry and witnessed the Coven burst into flames, they encountered an alternate reality Loki who wielded both his universe's Mjolnir and Infinity Stones. After the alternate Loki mentioned an "original universe", Loki stated that he needed the Infinity Stones.
Loki later approached Gamora who had claimed all the Infinity Stones after defeating the Infinity Watch and their allies and offered his counsel. Loki and Gamora talked about the God Quarry. Gamora decided to go the God Quarry to investigate what laid beneath it. Loki wanted to accompany her, but Gamora banished Loki to Warp World, a pocket dimension inside the Soul Stone she created by folding the universe in half and merging those halves together.
Not giving up, Loki assembled a team to aid him fight Gamora and save the universe. Finding duplicates of the Infinity Stones Gamora unintentionally created when she created Warp World, Loki and his team escape the Soul Stone and confront Gamora, who had attempted and failed to enter the realm below the Quarry of Creation. Loki's team defeated Gamora, but they were then tricked by Loki who used his sorcery to take Gamora's Infinity Stones. Loki banished Gamora into Soul World and traveled into the realm below the Quarry of Creation to investigate the forces that manipulated his destiny. Loki discovered that the Infinity Stones didn't work in the dimension and that the realm was the home of numerous Celestials.
Loki was allowed by a Celestial to glimpse his future. After learning that his future wasn't what he had wanted, he laughed and accepted his fate. He then went back up to the Quarry of Creation and returned the Infinity Stones to the Cosmic Avengers so they could restore the universe while he returned to Omnipotence City with Flowa.
God of Nothing
Having always intended to betray the Dark Council, Loki turned against Laufey during the Dark Council's assault on Midgard in order to save Freyja from his clutches. In retaliation, Laufey devoured Loki. While struggling to survive digestion inside Laufey's stomach, Loki looked back on key events on his life and met past and future incarnations of himself. He discovered that a war his past self had instigated had led to Malekith becoming a villain, thus indirectly causing the War of the Realms. He expressed remorse over what he had done in the past and what he had become and swore not to become like King Loki
During the final battle of the War of the Realms, Loki carved his way out of his fathers insides using Heimdall's sword, Hofund, barely holding himself together with magic. With Laufey dead, Loki returned to Jotunheim to inherit the throne while Thor became the All-Father of Asgard after being handed over the title by Odin. Reluctant to take up the responsibilities of a king and bored by his new circumstances, Loki neglected his royal duties, spending most of his time in Midgard. In an attempt to comfort Loki, Thor took him to the Halls of All-Knowing and shared with him the previously-restricted Books of Loki, a single tome that prophesied a long and peaceful life for Loki, in which he was no longer the God of Evil, nor Mischief, Chaos or Stories.
Two young cosmic entities, Now and Then, heeded the desire in Loki's heart to do more with his life, and took him to the House of Ideas,[85] a place that archived the exploits of countless heroes in books. Loki struck up a deal with the children to ensure his exploits had more pages, therefore giving him more time for adventures, also granting him the ability to turn untold tales into reality by telling them. The cost for his books being rewritten into a hero's stories became the promise of an eventual hero's death.[86] After returning to Earth from the House of Ideas with no memory of his visit, Loki was confronted Nightmare, whom he had previously fended off from Jotunhiem, and killed him.
Loki was afterwards imprisoned in the Raft, where he called Verity Willis after becoming unsure whether the memories he recalled were real. Loki shared with her a fabricated story, one in which he recovered his memories of the House of Ideas, unlocking within him the ability to consciously alter his past by telling "untold" stories that became true once relayed. Loki additionally came to a realization about his godhood and the constant struggles of his life, and proclaimed himself the God of Outcasts. Loki broke free from his cell, and invited Verity to join him in his further adventures, now that he had discovered that everything he could remember happening was real.
