- Angel & Faith #2 - 16 May, 2014
- Loki: Agent of Asgard #3 – Review - 14 April, 2014
- Buffy is Back! The Return of the Slayer in Comics - 11 April, 2014
After a stellar first issue and a dull second, I wasn’t sure what to expect of the third outing for everyone’s favourite Asgardian trickster. This time around we join him on something of a left-turn adventure, centring on the original evil-flavour Loki, his adopted father Odin as a child and the creation of the sword of truth that (the much cuter) Loki used in the first issue. Told in the style of a sprawling legend the story jumps around in the years and features such insanity as Loki killing a giant fish-man with a rocket launcher and a fight with a giant dragon. Young adult Loki only appears in this issue in brief glimpses, it is truly handed over to the old villainous Loki, a character I admit to being less familiar with.
There is a sense that this is all building towards something, with evil Loki’s story in the past affecting the present-particularly the explanation as to how Loki was able to obtain the sword of truth and leave it behind for his other self to find centuries later. A new characters is also added to the mix with Sigurd, the first hero of Asgard (and a previous owner of the sword), who will be hunting down Loki to recover his stolen property. But at the same time it doesn’t feel like this issue will really contribute to the main story as a whole, being more of a side story that feels decidedly out of place, particularly as this series is still struggling to establish itself.
Garbett’s artwork continues to be quite strong, you can see clear differences between each version of Loki; with the older form appearing more lanky and twisted. Odin is made to look enough like Thor to give a clear family connection, but his youthful appearance makes him feel ageless. The fantasy elements all look very impressive and well detailed (the dragon in particular), with the brief snippets of action fun to behold.
This series continues to be a bit of an oddball, it’s not exactly bad but it feels aimless at the moment. You have to wonder if perhaps the intention is to tell stand-alone stories but if so, why present it as if there is a larger story at play at all? It really needs to establish its intentions soon before I write it off as an irreverent mess once and for all.
3/5
