It has not ever âbeen establishedâ that Lokiâs magic is âmostly illusion-based with shortcomings.â
Loki is, in fact, âthe most powerful sorcerer on Asgard,â according to Kevin Feige.
This is a short list of what we know for sure, from the films, that Loki can doâwe donât know what else he is capable of. (I expect we will see other powers emerge in the new Loki series.)
Ice powers (heâs a Frost Giant).
(Feel free to watch Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, and evening Ragnarok to find where Loki uses all of there powers. If you canât find them all, let me know and Iâll post the gifs.)
Or, just check out Marvelâs official bio for Loki. They give a nice list of Lokiâs powers, but it doesnât include everything weâve actually seen in the films.
But thatâs not all. Loki has superhuman strength speed, agility, durability, healing, and longevity, which Dr. Strange does not have.
Because of these powers, Loki has survived all of the following and more:
Being shot with automatic weapons.
Falling through space and wormholes (at least three times).
Getting blasted point-blank with a SHIELD super-weapon.
Being stabbed through the chest with a huge sword.
Any of the above attacks would kill a human instantly. Dr. Strange would need at least a few seconds to work a spell, or do that thing with his ring, or use the Eye of Whatever stone to survive any of those attacks. So, heâd dieâunless his cloak-friend managed to act quickly enough to save him. (I donât think having a magic cloak buddy should count as one of Dr. Strangeâs powers. Unless we want to count Lokiâs accessories as wellâstarting with the Tesseract?)
Now, Iâm not taking anything away from Dr. Strange. He is the Sorcerer Supreme, and undoubtedly the strongest sorcerer on Earth. But Earth is not Asgard, where magic is an everyday thing. Which reminds me of a few more relevant points:
Loki is a genius, tactician, strategist and âalways 10 steps ahead of everyone else.â He has studied combat and fought in countless wars. Dr. Strange is also a geniusâbut his learning is primarily in medical science.
Loki has lived for over 1,000 years and has studied magic since he was a child.
Loki can hold Infinity Stones in his bare hands without burning up. Humans canât do that.
According to Thor, Loki knows secret paths between worlds that no one else knows about. Only Loki doesnât need the Bifrost.
Loki has his own âdimensional pocketâ where he can keep pretty much anything he wants apparently, including the Tesseract.
In the first Avengers movie, it took all of the OG Avengers (plus Fury, SHIELD, etc.) to stop Loki. As you may recall, there would be no Avengers if not for Loki.
Loki has held his own in extended battles with Thor 1:1 twice. In fact, overall, Loki is generally considered to be as powerful as, or more powerful than Thor.
Now consider this. How did Dr. Strange get his magic? (Aside from being given that ring thingy, the Eye of Whatever, and the Cloak-buddy, I mean.) He studied. He practiced. He read the spell books. He worked hard at it.
So did Loki. Just about 1,000 times longer than Strange.
One more thing: Dr. Strange is a human. Loki is a god.
Okay, now that weâve cleared that up, Iâll just mention that I really donât blame you for thinking Loki can only do illusions. Inexplicably, Loki didnât use most of his powers in the last three filmsânot even to save his neck in IW. Thus, the filmmakers of Ragnarok and Infinity War severely underpowered him.
And THAT is precisely why âpeople cry bad writingâ with regard to Dr. Strange supposedly overpowering Loki.
I thank you for your time.
