#comics!balder

[lokiinmediasideblog]

Loki has a point lol

[lokiinmediasideblog]

Time to Skim Thor comics for Vintage Loki Panels

Loki being GNC as fuck since childhood, wearing a skirt

The narrative is SO FUCKING MEAN!!! LMAO. And it's interesting Loki was originally a storm giant rather than a Frost giant.

Loki with his pointy ears. Modern designs should bring Loki's pointy ears back, and we all know what happens next..

[lokiinmediasideblog]

Thor + Balder=Marvel!Thor (3/3)

I have not watched TLAT and don't plan to do so. So I won't take that into consideration. Also, note I have read a small percentage of Thor comics and have a preference for those that have Loki on them (especially if Loki isn't "just evil").

Marvel!Thor's Similarities to Balder:

In the MCU, Loki kills him and he comes back to life. In the comics, Marvel!Thor and Marvel!Loki have a Cain and Abel dynamic. In the mythology, Balder dies when Loki hands a mistletoe arrow to the blind god Hodr (and Balder's twin brother) to shoot at the "indestructible" Balder in a game where everyone was throwing things at Balder for the lulz.

All of Asgard loves him and acts like he's perfect. In the MCU, Thor's friends are loyal to him no matter what he did. They are ready to try to unbanish him right away despite Thor nearly starting a war. In a large portion of the comics, it gets quite annoying how often and constantly Thor is being praised. I find myself eye-rolling so often. In the mythology, Balder is "the fairest of the Gods" and everyone loves him, and Frigga goes around making everyone and even fucking plants and rocks swear oaths to never harm Balder. Of course, she forgets a sprig of mistletoe. When Balder dies, they try to bring him back by making everything cry for him, but the giantess Thokk (believed to be Loki in disguise) refuses.

Considered to have been influenced by Jesus. Balder dies and comes back after Ragnarok to the new world. It's believed the Christian Snorri altered Balder for his purposes. The Thor (2011) movie was originally approached by writer Mike Protosevich with the intention of turning an Old Testament God into a new Testament God. MCU!Thor dies protecting a town and comes back to life after proving himself worthy (Fun fact, it was originally going to be set in the Middle Ages not 2011 NM but for budget reasons this was changed).

Not as hot-headed or bloodthirsty as myth!Thor. I consider Marvel!Thor to be an amalgam of myth!Balder and myth!Thor personality-wise.

Marvel!Thor is often compared to the sun despite being a storm god, and Balder is the god of Light. Thor's sunny disposition came from myth!Balder. It's my belief that had Balder a cooler/less Jesus-like title than "God of Light", Marvel would have Balder comics and not Thor comics.

MCU-specific: Frigga is his biological mother. In neither comics or mythology is Frigga Thor's mother. She's Balder's mother. And the closest thing to a Balder in the MCU is Thor.

Prophetic dreams of bad things to come. In AoU, MCU!Thor dreams of Asgard's ruin. In the Norse myths, Balder dreams of his own death, which prompts Frigga to seek oaths from EVERYTHING that they won't harm Balder (making him invincible) but forgets a sprig of mistletoe for being "too young".

An example of the convenient narrative bullshit I consider to be "Balder-like" in Marvel Thor (on par with "everything cried for Balder except evil Loki"):

Marvel!Thor's Similarities to Thor (They were basically added to make the Marvel amalgam "edgier" and "manlier"):

Hammer. The main difference is that in the myths the ability to lift the hammer is due to some gloves and a belt Thor outfits himself with. It has nothing to do with whatever Odin considers "worthy."

War-mongerer tendencies- In Thor 1 MCU!Thor nearly starts a war over an insult and kills some Jotuns along the way. In the myths, Myth!Thor's favorite past time was smashing things into puree with Mjolnir, especially Jotnar (mass murder was his favorite hobby). The comics are weird, and there's so many runs I feel weird making a broad generalization. But most of them have problematic elements because they'll portray Asgard as always good if they were written before a certain year/decade.

Uses physical violence for intimidation. In the beginning of TR, Thor threatened to bash Loki's skull in after finding out Loki survived. The comics show him casually manhandling or beating the shit out of Loki for a variety of reasons(sometimes warranted, sometimes not). In the myths, Thor is sicced after Jotnar and Loki on various occassions, and it ends up badly for the the Jotnar and Loki.

Anger management issues. See above examples.

Reacts very badly to insult. In the MCU, he nearly starts a war over being called "princess." In the mythology, he is rather pissed off about having to wear a dress and pretend to be Freyja.

Myth!Thor and Marvel!Thor differences:

Thor is respected/feared in the myths but he's not as charismatic as the Marvel version. He's not the one even the fucking rocks cried for to bring back from Hel. That's a Balder trait added onto Thor. Whereas in the comics, even Marvel!Balder is whining about how he's not as strong/perfect as Marvel!Thor.

Myth!Thor is crueler. Marvel softened him up (and it was pretty clear they would have picked Balder had he a cooler title).

Obligatory Thor is a red-head in the mythology.

Thor's hammer in myths was given to him by Loki who made a wager with some dwarves to restore Sif's hair and bring gifts to the Aesir/Vanir. Lifting it is also not dependent on worthiness, but on a powerbelt and some gloves. In Marvel, the hammer usually existed before Thor and Loki (unless it's a Norse-inspired run like Loki (2010)).

Thor's biological mother isn't Frigga in the mythology or comics, but she is in the MCU.

Myth!Thor in a nutshell^^^

Lazy Citations

Thor (film) - Wikipedia

Baldr - Wikipedia

This may not be as thorough because I don't have the energy to go through all the comics.

Previous parts of this post series:

Loki + Odin=Marvel!Loki

This is part (2/3) of a series. This is the most obvious "equation" out of the three, being that all Norse myth adaptations have an Odin an

[lokiinmediasideblog]

On a kick where I skim old Thor comics for the loki panels. I do like how Loki was drawn in the Simonson runs.

He has such a sassy shit-eating grin.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

I will always wonder why out of all the Norse deities, Thor was chosen as Loki's foil for Marvel (which had a lot of influence on other depictions). Thor and Loki had to be changed a lot from the mythological counterpart to work as foils.

There are foil candidates in the mythology that require less changes such as:

Heimdall-Kismesis (and arguably my favorite). They die by each other's hand during Ragnarok. They fight as seals. They are known to have beef with each other as one is the all-seeing gatekeeper of the realm, and the other one is the god of shiftiness. And they are very different in that one is entropy and the other is enthalpy. Heimdall also has rather unique abilities such as very enhanced senses, and he was born from 9 mothers. Unique abilities are common in superhero narratives, just saying. And athough I often see it attributed to Loki in adaptations, it's actually Heimdall who suggests Thor dress up as a bride. Loki's just happy to be a bridesmaid and happily joins in. They both like to troll Thor.

Odin-There's whatever the "Blood Brothers" bond would have entailed. I've seen it interpreted in many ways from Loki being a friend, adoptive child, adoptive little brother, and even Loki being his sugar baby/side piece. I lied, I can see why he was not chosen. They probably wanted someone more evenly matched in power dynamic than King-of-Gods/Jester-Henchman and a younger hero for a demographic consisting of children. Odin has a lot of power over Loki in the myths and had him imprisoned in a very horrendous way. Myth!Odin is also a bit too much like Loki (shady) and is a bit GNC himself and basically gets away with it because he's the Allfather and unlike Loki has more power. But it works in the "Two sides of the same coin" frenemies/abusive relationship sort of deal.

Baldr (arguably the most similar to Thor comics)-Loki's destined to cause his death. My ridiculous and admittedly unfounded theory is that they substituted Thor for him because "God of Thunder" sounded cooler than "God of Light." Also, is it me or does "God of Light" sound too Jesus-like and Marvel might have wanted to avoid that? Marvel comics Thor actually shared multiple traits with Balder (esp. in early versions). The comics do have a depiction of Baldr and his moniker is "Balder the Brave" (avoiding the "God of Light" title) and he's a very bland character. They also like to make it a point to show how Thor is better because he's stronger and braver bleh bleh. The traits they have in common is that myth!Balder and Marvel!Thor are beloved by ALL of Asgard (except maybe Loki), myth!Balder is practically indestructible (except for mistletoe) and Thor was so Gary Stu-ish and "the strongest" to the point of eyeroll. Also, the reason Marvel!Thor and has parallels with Jesus is because they meshed myth!Balder (whom Snorri tried to posit as a Jesus-like figure with his resurrection and such) with myth!Thor to make Marvel!Thor.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

besides immortal thor are there any other comic depiction of loki you despise?

You mean "Ultimate Thor"? I went on a huge rant on that comic run.

I generally despise "Evil from Birth" narratives. Or the "we were right to torture you" kind of punitive justice. So that would be most of the Thor comics.The thing is, I don't think I hate comics!Loki, I like comics!Loki out of spite. Because the writers didn't want me to like him, but the narrative gave me bad vibes.

CW: Transphobic dogwhistles

I'm torn on Lady Loki because I find Loki interesting during that run (I love the interactions with Dr. Doom) and therefore don't hate them, but I FUCKING HATE that they wrote Loki stealing Sif's body. I hate how it's "justified" by dudebros and pseudo-feminists with "it's an allegory for rape" as if there hadn't been any rape in Thor comics before. The whole body thief thing is actually a transphobic dogwhistle in the same way that Silence of the Lamb's Buffalo Bill was: "A man wearing a woman's body/skin to seduce and manipulate other men." Can we get that retconned into Loki just shapeshifting rather than stealing Sif's body?

NVM, I KNOW WHICH RUN/DEPICTION I FUCKING HATE AS MUCH AS ULTIMATE THOR! It's Thor: Son of Asgard!!

CW: Sexual assault, magical roofies, Karnilla being a pedo, Loki being a creep, Amora and Sif also being creeps

I hate when Loki's written as "the creepy nerd lusting over the popular hot girl" (comics!Sif) or abusive/rapey husband (comics!Sigyn). Which is a bunch of comic runs. Like so:

I think the writing on "Son of Asgard" is terrible/cheesy(they have a chapter called "The Warriors Teen" *eyeroll*) and it's full of rapey plots. Loki is rapey (with Sif and colludes with Amora). Amora is rapey (with Thor). Karnilla is rapey (with Loki). Even Sif is rapey! (with Thor).

The plot is stupid. They go on some mindless quests as glorified poachers because Odin told them to do so, and relish in torturing and killing a poor dragon that was just minding its own business, among other things. Sif and Balder whine about Thor not giving them a say on agreeing to the quest despite following him over there. Fucking jackasses. Meanwhile Loki is doing stupid magic bullshit to impede on their quest from afar, justifying Sif's suspicions and hatred of Loki that would otherwise seem unjustified and ridiculous. IDK I hate when they justify over-the-top suspicion of "Loki told the dragon where we were" rather than "We were actively seeking the dragon for its scales because we're poachers." It's also used to justify over-the-top punishments for Loki with evil monologues and thought bubbles or lazily written magic bullshit. It also makes Asgard seem incredibly incompetent and stupid.

My thoughts exactly, Thor:

I also dislike how Sif is written. She's "masculine" but in the ways cishet men would find "hot". A scantily clad warrior with the supermodel physique constantly contorting in weird ways. Her personality revolves around her obsession with Thor and her suspicion/hatred of Loki. It's a crime to write a warrior woman so heterosexually. They made her go off about how she wishes to be gifted with a JEWEL from the shitty sand place. So, they all get swallowed by the sand (and Loki too because he was a dumbass and materialized in the location). They escape by not feeling anything because there's weird baby crystal things that seek emotions. Loki is captured by Karnilla restrained by a bunch of creepy hands in creepy places, and Karnilla kisses a teenage Loki. Loki absorbs her magic through the kiss and escapes.

Loki refuses to help Karnilla out of love for Odin. I'll admit this is kinda cute and can't believe they actually gave him a redeemable trait:

Thor just won't give up on those damned quests. It's ridiculous! Priorities!

Ridiculously, Karnilla antagonizes Thor by turning a whole lake into sand. An adult woman beefing with a bunch of teen poachers. He takes some sand from the lake and goes back to Asgard to find it under attack. Thor and co save the day, only for Thor to be shot with an arrow by Karnilla. Karnilla and Odin fight. Odin takes pity on her and spares her. Thor is saved by "the power of love" aka Sif's tears.

Karnilla takes Loki hostage:

Balder tries to sacrifice himself for Loki. Karnilla is conveniently weirded out by such a selfless act and vanishes. Odin makes a sword out of the shit they got from the quests, and hands it over to Balder for his brave sacrifice.

Frigga damn... "only son"...

Volstagg is sexist to Sif and Sif is fatphobic to Volstagg... damn these comics have a fatphobia problem among other things...

Sif beats his ass. Then challenges Thor who pulls her by the hair and wins (for a warrior, Sif is dressed in very inconvenient ways). Everyone is like "yes Thor, you beat the ONE GIRL" and Sif gets angry and broods.

We cut to Loki's schemes and hate of Sif:

My thoughts exactly, Amora. The cishet writers fumbled on writing these two (Sif and Loki). They should have been GNC queer besties.

When people tell me Loki was not queer-coded before the whole bodytheft subplot:

Amora and Loki plot against Sif because Amora wants Thor for herself and Loki wants Thor out of the way. Thor attempts to console Sif. They're about to kiss when Amora interrupts them, calls Sif a slut, and Sif bitchslaps her.

Thor breaks up the fight and tells Sif there was no need to bitchslap Amora. Sif gets angry and leaves. The next day, there's a new female student in the warrior training class, Brunhilde. Sif remarks that "She had to be blonde." Lol.

They show Sif's backstory as a former blonde. Loki cut her hair out of jealousy that she was in love with Thor. He regretted it and got her replacement hair. However, the hair turned from blonde to black and "marred" her beauty.. Thanks, I hate it and it makes me uncomfortable... Sif is insecure of her black hair and jealous of the other blonde girls at schools.

Brunhilde wonders if Thor has his own special weapon because Balder got one in the previous issue. Thor says not yet, but one day he will when he's worthy. Sif takes offense because she's jealous of Brunhilde and bitchslaps her like she did Amora. A very male-gazey fight ensues, and Sif gets yanked by the hair once again. Sif just cut your damn hair. Sif gets in trouble for starting shit and gets told to use the facilities at the sorcery school to keep them from fighting again. Amora shows up and plays with Sif's insecurities, but seriously, she has a point in Sif resorting to violence way too often and easily. And I am being made uncomfortable by "dark hair and deeper tan on a woman=masculine" in this comic.

Sif and Loki conspire to magically roofie Thor with a magic mirror.

Sif gets the mirror.

Amora petrifies Sif (so that she watches), and steals the magic mirror from her, using it to make Thor fall in love with her. Loki very creepily frees Sif from her spell and confesses she wanted to see Sif's heart broken because he hates how Sif can "See through him." I thought he was going to do much worse because it looks bad, the way he holds Sif, when I first read this.

Sif goes straight to attacking Amora in a male gazey fight again, and Thor breaks up the fight and shames her for starting shit so often. Brunhilde finds the bag that held the mirror, and asks Sif about it. Sif confesses she wanted to use the mirror on Thor because she was jealous of Brumhilde.

Loki and Amora can't return the mirror without the pouch. Loki is about to be like "Lol nothing ties me to this crime." But Brunhilde and Sif catch them and tell them they have the bag. They say they'll give them the bag if they revert the spell. Brunhilde breaks the mirror, Thor is no longer under the spell and is hurt because he expected that from Amora but not from Sif. Frigga tells Sif that the mirror doesn't count and Thor still has his kiss virginity intact. Sif apologizes to Thor and they kiss.

Then Thor's trying to lift Mjolnir, and lifts it a little off the ground. Thor goes see the Norns to see what stands between his faith. I don't get it. Comes back to Asgard under attack and Sif being kidnapped by Storm Giants. Thor lifts the hammer with the power of love and goes to rescue Sif.

The cover for the next issue makes Thor look like an anime boy:

Thor collapses a bridge some giants were on, and they fall. He yeets himself with the hammer into the castle.

Thor kills a bunch of giants, and the comic makes a callback to Sif's introduction where Thor saves her from Hela. Here, the giant struck a bargain with Hela to gain immortality, exchanging Sif for it.

He finds Hela, who is pissed Thor's escaped from her grasp before.

This reminds me of Thor Ragnarok:

Hela may not be Odin's daughter here, but this has Thor Ragnarok vibes:

This echoes Sif's first appearance where Thor offers his own life in exchange for hers.

Hela warns Thor that they'll meet again. Sif and Thor kiss and fly away.

Lol. I am such a hater I ended up prioritizing this ask over other posts.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

go on a rant about ultimate thor

CW: Nazi mention

I shall! This took a while to gather.

So it starts out with runes and a bunch of Nazi symbols ON THE VERY FIRST PAGE. This comic reinforces the incorrect notion that the Black Sun symbol is a Pagan symbol when IT IS NOT.

I do actually like the whole "People think it's all on Thor's head" aspect, but the rest of the writing is just convoluted and incoherent. I also find this factoid thrown around in an exchange a cool explanation of how Mjolnir works.

Dr.Donald Blake makes an appearance and he's not Thor's mortal alter ego created through Odin's magic to teach Thor humility.

We are shown interactions between a masked Nazi, "Baron Zemo" and the Nazis at Wewelsburg castle. Zemo shows them this little stones with runes, and they go on about how the Sacred texts of the "Poetic Edda" show how to use them. *facepalm* I just find this very lazy concept-wise.

Then we see flashbacks to "eons ago" in Asgard. Where Balder is fighting giants only to receive help from Loki and Thor. At some point Loki saves Thor from a Frost giant and warns him about watching his back, a rather heavy-handed foreshadowing. Loki also keeps going off about how Ragnarok is real and WILL HAPPEN. Balder mocks him for being grin and throws a snowball at him. Loki is worried about the constant war and attacks from Jotunheim. Balder reveals he knows Odin is building a secret weapon, Mjolnir, that he commissioned to the troll Ulik. It seems like Loki didn't get his lips sewn shut in this. And Loki has severe mommy issues that aren't explained very well.

Then we're sent back to Nazi Germany and are bombarded by magic mumbo-jumbo that I can't bring myself to care for. Something about opening a gate. The most unrealistic aspect is that the Nazis want to fight the Gods of Asgard despite the existence of white supremacist Norse pagan circles such as the Asatru and Odinists (unless it's Loki because they usually hate them).

Then, apparently they've allied with the Frost Giants, whom will be revealed to be under a peace treaty with Asgard that has harsh stipulations.

I actually liked how they use MRI to reveal Thor is actually a God.

So, the war with Jotunheim ends. I have trouble understanding the throne picture regarding "Who's who?" I think Farbauti is in the Moon throne with the Jotuns. I wonder if the other woman is Frigga/Freyja? Because unlike most comic book runs, Loki is actually biologically related to Thor as a half-brother. Odin (most likely through some threat) made Farbauti have Loki and had him reside in Asgard to "ensure peace". Which screams hostage situation. By the time the story takes place, Farbauti, Loki, and Loki's fully Frost giant brother are stuck in Asgard. Jotunheim's fall made Farbauti despondent and so Loki has mommy issues here and is driven by them to get Asgard to fall and earn his despondent mother's love. Also, for some reason Farbauti looks like an Asgardian with black hair. It's never explained WHY. Is this magic? Did Odin do this to her?

Also, Asgardians like to fight very scantily clad. I find it funny how Balder and Loki have color-coordinated underwear. And I think Thor was given the same as the W3 to show how "down-to-Earth" he is. LMAO. There's very bad and heavy-handed foreshadowing of Loki's betrayal again, when Loki decides to turn against Thor in the game, and Loki continues to warn in a ridiculously ominous manner about change and such (It gets so tiring...). Balder goes on a fatphobic rant towards Volstagg during the fighting games because the writer thought that was funny. I am surprised Balder won instead of Thor. But Balder proceeds to go off about how Thor is the only one that can lift Mjolnir in the typical praiseworthy fashion of these comics.

We go back to the Nazis and the alliance of the Jotuns with them. MORE MAGICAL BULLSHIT JARGON I HAVE TROUBLE CARING ABOUT.

Thor asks Odin about Mjolnir's power. I gotta say I REALLY hate Odin's design in this. And he spends a lot of time shirtless. In a break from tradition, Thor is already "the humble one" rather than an arrogant proud and violent prince that needs to learn humility. And that makes this even worse and feel preachy. Thor's appeal is that he doesn't start as a good guy.

The Nazis and Frost Giants open the bifrost gate. Heimdall appears and attacks them. Baron Zemo shoots an arrow through Heimdall's skull (seriously he's very good with arrows).

This is how the Odinson brothers are drawn in this series. Guess which one they made into a Nazi ? (a) Is it the brown-haired white dude that's not a "peace offering" and also a heir to Asgard's empire? (left) OR (b) Is it the one that's constantly referred as a "half-breed", was drawn with suspiciously Native American facial features, and who was born to his Jotun mother as a "peace offering"? (middle) OR (c) What about the guy that fits the exact "Aryan ideal" , is not a "peace offering", and is the preferred heir to Asgard?(right)

If you picked B, you're unfortunately correct. And Ta-Da! The twist we all saw coming from a mile away they tried to disguise by having Loki change his eye color to brown (odd choice for allying with Nazis)!

Then the Nazis, the half-breed Loki, and Frost giants partake in an antisemitic trope of blood-drinking the whitest mfs around to gain the superior Asgardian strength. And IDK this is the worst way to show you hate Nazis...

The art seems to be deteriorating. The Frost Giants and Nazis start Ragnarok, Odin comments that Loki's back from banishment. There's a flashback to Balder catching Loki looking at the stupid stones and Loki kills him. Balder for some reason is Odin's "all-seeing eye" has a weird connection to Odin.

The purpose of the facility Thor is being studied is eugenics.... and they're not the villains...

Thor goes off about his memories of the Asgardian Black sun and I need people to stop fomenting the myth that it's a pagan symbol. We go back to Asgard being attacked. Odin sends Loki to "a room with no doors." Loki is unrepentant for the evulz.

Odin is killed by an Ice Wolf who is in turn killed by Thor. And we have this sappy shit.

Then in another very badly executed twist and against comic tradition, it turns out tha Dr. Donald Blake was actually BALDER ALL ALONG.

Apparently Odin plans to remake Asgard. They go back to the lab and this guy trips me up because he looks like a beardless Thor in a lab coat. ¡Que cientifico tan mamadisimo!

They are studying Thor's harness and such. Trying to reverse engineer it and add more features. Only Thor can use it so that's why he's kept around. Then Thor asks them to make him a hammer. Then Thor goes around being a white savior, and gets offers from the US military because he's special enough to help in the army.

Oh and there's the masked Nazi again (Loki) and some other one fucking around with the stones again. Magic bs happens.

Loki makes the Hulk go apeshit and unites the Avengers in the typical fashion of the comics. Thor saves the day. Bleh bleh. THE END.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

How fid balder gp from thr favorite and beloved one in norse mythology. To being just that dude who keeps saying hes Thor's brother but thors like "no ur not" xD

It's so ironic indeed, because Balder is "beloved by all" and practically the Gary Stu of Norse Mythology (it's also why I don't care for his original mythological counterpart, sorry guys).

And it's so strange that technically, Loki got the short end of the stick from Marvel (being portrayed as a ghoulish villain that always fails for decades), but even that Marvelization and demonization gave Loki the most interesting dynamic with Thor, the Norse figure Marvel decided to make the protagonist (I personally consider Marvel's Thor to be a mix of myth!Balder and myth!Thor because in comics written prior to 2010, Thor's very Gary Stu-ish). Balder in the comics is a less hot-headed and weaker version of Thor with a yandere sorceress, Karnilla, obsessed with him.

I think Loki will always or usually end up being an interesting character due to their ambiguous nature in the myths and the large role they play in the mythology, no matter how much different he is in the depiction (Marvel's Loki, to me started out as a mix of myth!Loki, the Devil of Abrahamic religions, and myth!Odin because myth!Loki's magic was just shapeshifting themself and others).

It's a question of whether demonization is better than being overlooked and forgotten.