By Rachel Huser
The expectations were high for Marvel’s third miniseries, “Loki” after a smashing finale of “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.” As a die-hard Marvel fan, my expectations were met and surpassed. Marvel really outdid themselves this time, and maybe a little too much.
As viewers know, the central idea of “Loki” is keeping variants in check and the timeline intact. The Time Variance Association (TVA) is in charge of that, created by the all-knowing Time Keepers.
This idea made for a seamless transition from “Avengers: Endgame”, where Loki acquires the tesseract when the Avengers go back in time to obtain the Infinity Stones, to the miniseries. The first thing that viewers see is Loki using the tesseract to travel to Mongolia. He’s there for maybe a couple of minutes before the TVA arrives and takes him in, labeling him as a variant.
The rest of the first episode heavily focuses on developing the relationship between TVA Agent Mobius, played by Owen Wilson and Loki. Wilson is perfect for the role and he provides the comedic relief that Marvel is well known for. At the end of the episode, Mobius is the one to tell Loki that he’ll be helping the TVA catch the variant that has been killing their agents, also known as minutemen. The twist? The variant is Loki, just from another timeline.
I have to say that I was worried that Marvel wouldn’t be able to easily explain the idea of having multiple timelines with copies of Marvel’s well-known characters in each, tweaked just enough for viewers to be able to tell the difference between them. I was concerned that Marvel was finally in over their heads.
However, they did a great job explaining the concept and keeping it simple for fans to follow along. They were able to continue this even in episode five when four other Lokis from four different timelines were greeted by Tom Hiddleston’s Loki when he entered the void.
Overall, “Loki” knew how to work a cliffhanger. At the end of every episode fans like myself were caught sitting on the edge of our seats, quite literally, as the credits started to roll across the screen.
Six weeks went by fast and I was devastated when I realized that the finale of “Loki” was approaching. However, the final episode was spectacular and was full of surprises, with the biggest one being at the end of the post-credit scene.
I will refrain from revealing any spoilers, but I will say this: Marvel has somehow outdone themselves once again. “Loki” is the best miniseries that they have released yet. 9/10 rating.
rhuser@my.dom.edu
photo from inverse.com
