Alright! I said I’d be reviewing some stuff on here, and I recently mentioned this series in my subscriber chat (For my other publication—this could get complicated) so I thought, “why not?” at nearly midnight.
Loki: Agent of Asgard is a 17 volume comic series from 2014 written by Al Ewing and illustrated by Lee Garbett (colored by many), chronicling the adventures of Loki after the Young Avengers series in 2012-2013 (sorry if my dates are a bit off).
Aside from any kids comics or random things I found, this was the first marvel comic series I read—and thank God, ‘cause jump-in points for Marvel comics are hard to find, and this happened to be a fairly good one. I was already a Loki-nerd from the movies, so when I saw the series I knew I needed to check it out.
While there were a few aspects of the series that I didn’t understand, like past lore or character mentions from a past arc, it was fairly easy to follow. I was very quickly attached to the characters, and I ended up cosplaying Verity Willis to my first comicon (I’m almost completely certain nobody knew who I was).
The thing with AOA was that it leaves you with multiple options: Yes I could go forward with reading in the chronological timeline, but at that point, I couldn’t see much ahead for Loki (I would find some later). So, I went backwards.
I was reading this on Marvel Unlimited at the time, so I had access to the entire marvel library. Since I just love lists (no sarcasm) I pretty much searched “Loki” and found the entire timeline of his appearance in comics. I found a new starting point, which would be Journey Into Mystery (2011?). I then understood that, the original arc of AOA was actually the end of a massive story arc starting from JIM, and a bit before that.
I binge read through JIM and quit when it became about Sif (I’m sorry, but I have my priorities). Then going into the Young Avengers series and jumping all over the map with Thor comics, trying to get myself up to speed in this corner of the MU.
Theennnnn I got a bit burnt out.
But I was officially in the world of marvel comics, and I was reading and keeping up with the awesomeness (look away from the stack of unread comics in the corner).
Looking back over my collected edition of this series made me so happy. I could go on about the art for hours.
This series had hit me deep when I first read it, I’ll never forget. It might’ve been the first comic that made me really feel how important stories are. So, with all that said, I hope you enjoyed my rant that’s been going in my head for ages finally put into words, and if I make a part two someday, forgive me.
Have you read AOA? Drop a comment and let me know your thoughts!
Thanks for reading!
~ Rea
Fantastic review! I love Kieron Gillen. I really enjoyed his The Wicked And The Divine series. I'd highly recommend reading it if you haven't already.