Loki

Loki is the son of Laufey, king of the frost giants of Jotunheim, one of the "Nine Worlds" of the Asgardian cosmology. Odin, ruler of Asgard, led his subjects in a war against the giants. Laufey was slain in battle and the giants were defeated. Surveying the spoils of war, the Asgardians discovered a small god-sized baby hidden at the giants' main fortress. The infant was Loki, whom Laufey had kept hidden due to his shame over his son's diminutive size. Because Loki was the son of a king fallen in battle, Odin elected to adopt him and raise him as a son alongside his blood son Thor, the future god of thunder.


In childhood Loki greatly resented the fact that Odin and the other Asgardians favored the young Thor, who already had a nobility of spirit and excelled in all his endeavors, over himself. As a boy Loki began studying the arts of sorcery, for which he had a natural affinity. He became infamous for his mischievousness, but secretly resented Thor and the love that Odin lavished upon him. When Odin was preparing his greatest gift for Thor, the enchanted hammer Mjolnir, Loki interfered with its creation, causing its handle to be forged too short. Loki was envious that Thor would one day wield Mjolnir, and over the years repeatedly crafted schemes to make Mjolnir's power his own. His hatred of Thor grew, and while still a boy, Loki vowed to become the most powerful god in Asgard and to destroy Thor in order to achieve this end. After achieving adulthood Loki began making alliances with other enemies of Asgard.

When Loki and Thor were still young, Thor was attracted to the sword maiden Sif, who had beautiful gold-colored hair. Loki cut of her hair while she slept, but Thor guessed that Loki was responsible and demanded that he restore it. Loki enlisted the dwarves Brokk and Eitri to forge new hair for her, but as he did not pay them anything, they decided to craft the hair from nothing, making black hair from the night itself. However, Thor still loved Sif, even without her golden hair.

Thor and Loki occasionally adventured together as teenagers, though Loki always searched for an advantage over his brother. When Odin sent Thor, Sif and their friend Balder to gather elements needed to craft the blade Svadren, Loki secretly followed them, but when he learned that the sorceress Karnilla, queen of the Norns, was planning an attack on Asgard, he refused an offer to join her and instead alerted the others to her scheme. Later on, Loki and Karnilla became occasional allies, although her love for Balder prevented her from aiding Loki in any way that would affect Balder.

As Loki grew to adulthood, his inborn propensity for mischief had begun to manifest itself, and he earned the nickname "God of Mischief." Loki attempted many times over the centuries to destroy Thor and seize the throne of Asgard for himself. Finally, Odin magically imprisoned him within a tree as punishment for his many crimes to learn from his actions. Loki, fed up with Asgard, used his magic to escape his cell, and eventually met Eldred the sorcerer, who increased his training in the black arts. Finally, Loki confronted the fire demon Surtur of Muspelheim and offered him Eldred's soul in exchange for power. Surtur accepted, and Loki assumed ownership of Eldred's lands and minions. His foray into the black arts earned him the title of "god of evil" among the Asgardians, and he forged alliances with many of the realm's enemies. Loki mated with the goddess Angerboda, who bore him the monstrous offspring Jormungand (the Midgard Serpent) and the Fenris Wolf, as well as Hela, the goddess of death. Loki also tricked the goddess Sigyn into marrying him by posing as her true love, Theoric.

Loki eventually learned of the prophecies of Ragnarok, in which he was fated to bring about Asgard's ruin by slaying Balder, then leading the enemies of Asgard into final battle. Loki ultimately embraced this destiny, and sought the means to bring about Ragnarok on more than one occasion. However, Loki usually crafted his schemes so subtly that Odin and Thor could rarely justify punishing him, and Loki would continue to live in their midst, awaiting his opportunity.

Shortly after Blake regained the ability to assume the godly form and power of Thor, Loki succeeded in freeing himself from his mystical imprisonment. There followed a long succession of clashes between Loki and Thor. Sometimes Loki battled Thor directly. Loki sought victory over his brother by exploiting Blake's human weakness, and employed many pawns against him on Earth, including Jinku the Lava Man, the Weather Maker, Sandu, Amora the Enchantress, Skurge the Executioner, Skagg, Surtur, Cobra, Mister Hyde, the Absorbing Man, Destroyer and the Super-Skrull. In one attempt to trick Thor into battling the Hulk, Loki diverted a distress call intended for the Fantastic Four to Dr Blake's office, but it was also intercepted by Iron Man, the Wasp and Ant-Man (Henry Pym). When the four heroes learned of Loki's involvement and banded together with the Hulk to defeat him, they decided to form a team of heroes to face future threats, calling themselves the Avengers. Loki long regretted having caused their formation.

Loki made several attempts at claiming the throne of Asgard when Odin entered into his "Odinsleep" hibernation, but threats to Asgard such as the Mangog and Surtur frightened Loki into surrendering the throne. Loki once joined forces with Dormammu of the Dark Dimension to trick the Avengers and Defenders into assembling the mystical Evil Eye for them, but the combined heroes ultimately defeated them both. Loki even unleashed a direct assault upon Earth once, and Thor helped lead Earth's ground forces against his army, finally defeating him. After Loki usurped the throne of Asgard yet again, he was sent to Earth in the guise of a vagrant by Odin as punishment.

Loki regained his identity due to the presence of Harris Hobbs, a journalist who had been to Asgard but had the memory removed by Thor. Hobbs dreamed of Asgard in his sleep, and his dreams reached Loki, restoring him to normal. Loki finally set Ragnarok in motion when he arranged for Hoder to shoot Balder with an arrow of mistletoe, but Odin preserved Balder and eventually revived him. Loki also caused the mortal Red Norvell to gain powers similar to Thor's Loki was bound to Sigyn as punishment, but he finally obtained release by blaming Odin himself for his problems, claiming that Odin's favoritism towards Thor was the root of all his misfortunes.

When Surtur prepared to wage war on Asgard in order to complete the forging of his sword Twilight, he had the dark elf Malekith see that Loki remained out of the conflict by signing a non-aggression pact. However, Loki did not honor his agreement and stood alongside Thor and Odin in Asgard's defense. Odin seemingly sacrificed himself to imprison Surtur, and the realm was left without a ruler. Loki began his machinations to be named as the new ruler of Asgard. As part of his plans he magically transformed Thor into a frog, using power drawn from Surtur's abandoned sword. But Thor was returned to his normal form when the Asgardian Volstagg destroyed the engine draining power from the sword. Loki was unable to prevent the ascension of Balder to the Asgardian throne after Thor refused the throne himself.

After Thor rescued mortal souls from the realm of Hel, Hela laid a curse upon him so that he could not die, but also would not heal from injuries. Learning what his daughter had done, Loki amused himself by sending frost giants, the Midgard Serpent and the Destroyer against Thor. Although Thor's physical body was reduced to paste, his spirit took over the Destroyer armor and forced Hela to undo her curse. Thor broke Loki's arm for his part in the events, knowing that Loki could heal the injury easily. When Seth of the Heliopians (or Ennead, the Gods of Egypt) led his Demons of Death into conflict with Asgard, Loki refused an alliance with him, and in his astral form discovered that Seth was holding Odin prisoner within the Black Pyramid, the source of Seth's power. Loki secretly helped Thor rescue their father, and Odin repulsed Seth's invasion. Still smarting from the success of the Avengers, Loki concocted a scheme for the enemies of all super-heroes to obtain their revenge. During this "Acts of Vengeance" conspiracy, Loki appeared to Doctor Doom, the Kingpin, Magneto, the Mandarin, the Red Skull, and the Wizard as an anonymous lackey, offering them the power to manipulate Earth's super-villains into conflicts with the heroes who would be unprepared to unfamiliar adversaries. Each of the six "prime movers" was led to believe that he was the one arranging the scheme. Loki's plot was finally uncovered by Thor, and he was defeated. As a final act of vengeance, he merged three Sentinel robots into the powerful Tri-Sentinel, but it was defeated by Spider-Man, who used the Uni-Power as Captain Universe to face this threat.

Loki assumed the guise of a businessman on Earth, and enlisted Ulik the rock troll and Amora to aid him in a new plot against Thor, collecting the powers of the Wrecking Crew along the way to aid them. At this time, Thor was bound to the mortal Eric Masterson so Loki had Eric's son Kevin captured. Thor set Kevin free, but as an act of spite, Loki hurled a blast of energy at Kevin and his mother Marcy. Amora, now acting against Loki, took control of Kevin's babysitter Susan Austin and had her take the blast for Kevin and Marcy. Thor was so furious with this attack that he used Mjolnir to draw Loki's life force from his body, seemingly killing him. As punishment, Thor was banished into the sub consciousness of Eric, and Eric took the place of Thor.

However, Loki's consciousness had taken over the body of Odin while he was in Odinsleep, and through him took command of Asgard. Eric and Sif eventually found Odin's spirit within the demon Mephisto's realm, and they restored Odin to his body while Mephisto claimed Loki instead. Although he was now a prisoner in Hell, Loki's spirit continued to wander when Mephisto was distracted. he once schemed with Pluto of Olympus to trade enemies, with Loki arranging the death of Hercules while Pluto plotted Thor's demise. Loki enlisted the titan Typhon against Hercules, but he failed, and Loki's own minion the Flame aided Pluto, but Loki himself had to save Thor form the Flame when he threatened Sigyn. Loki once imparted some of his power (via a mystical dagger) to Knut Caine, a mad killer who patterned himself after Loki and called himself "Mad Viking." Caine began to create a pseudo-Asgard on Earth, but was defeated by the Hulk, Henry Pym, and the Wasp. The Hulk hurled the dagger into the ocean to prevent it from possessing someone else.

Loki finally escaped Mephisto's realm when Thor reluctantly enlisted him to aid him against the New Immortals. However, Loki's physical form no longer existed, and he had Sigyn temporarily bond him to a suit of armor. He continued to trouble Thor, as well as Eric Masterson (now the hero Thunderstrike), possessing War Machine (Jim Rhodes in alternate Iron Man armor) to attack Thor. Loki finally struck a bargain with Seth to have him genetically engineer a new body, and his spirit took possession of it. He sought revenge on Thunderstrike, but when War Machine, She-Hulk and Ant-Man (Scott Lang) were drawn into the fray, he was instantly reminded of the Avengers and ended the fight.

Loki eventually crossed over into the dimension of Earth-93060 (the Ultraverse), where the six Infinity Gems had been scattered. Loki began to gather the gems together, battling many of the local superhumans ("Ultras") for them. Finally, the Grandmaster revealed to him that there was a seventh gem, the Ego Gem, and they pitted the local heroes Ultraforce against the Avengers with the gem as the stakes. However, Loki did not win, and soon lost all six gems, returning to his native reality.

Attempting to stave off Ragnarok, Odin had allowed the world tree Yggdrasil to think that Ragnarok had already happened, and his the Asgardians on Earth in mortal identities. Loki became the businessman Tso Zhung, with no recollection of his earlier life. He was brought together with the other "Lost Gods" by Red Norvell, and became the first of them to reclaim his true form, confronting Seth, who had taken advantage of the situation to try and eradicate the Asgardians. When the other Asgardians regained their true identities, they defeated Seth.

Thor's most recent mortal identity, Jake Olson, was that of a paramedic slain during a battle, and Thor took on the man's appearance as a new secret identity. Loki reanimated the true Olson's body and began committing crimes so that Thor would be suspected, but Thor eventually bound the true Jake Olson to himself and Loki was trapped in a body identical to Olson, which was named "Loren Olson," Jake's twin brother, who was sent to prison for his crimes.

Karnilla released Loki from prison not long before Odin faced Surtur in battle once again, and this time Odin was truly slain. Thor ascended to the throne of Asgard, and Loki found himself surprisingly content under hi rule, seeing new opportunities for power, and genuinely pleased as Thor began to impose Asgardian values on the Earth.

Loki finally attempted to start Ragnarok again wielding an uru hammer of his own. However, this time Thor allowed him to play the events out to their conclusion, having realized that Asgard was caught in a repeating time loop of death and rebirth, denying them a true warrior’s death. Thor decapitated Loki, and kept his still-living head with him as he permitted Surtur to unleash the final assault on Asgard. Thor then confronted They Who Sit Above In Shadow, the powers responsible for repeating Ragnaroks, and he saw to their destruction. Loki was apparently consumed in the destruction of Asgard alongside his brother.Loki has been reborn as a woman.