I have not talked about comics in forever but i just reread my copy of Agent of Asgard and. God. I think what I really love about Al Ewing's loki is the way the character subverts not just the queer-coded villain archetype but also the tropes that i find frustrating in other nonbinary fantasy/sci-fi characters.
Yes, Loki is a shape-shifter who can choose whatever appearance he wants. But they also lived as a boy and a man for the majority of their life despite this. Loki comes from an alien fantasy culture. But that culture has a rigid gender binary with it's own standards of masculinity that loki is not able to conform to. Loki's gender identity is not itself the focus of the narrative at any point, and is really only addressed off-handedly by other characters. But allegorically the entire plotline is about breaking out of the story that other people have written for her life. It's about how to become a better person when the world around you is unable or unwilling to separate genuine harm you've caused from intrinsic aspects of who you are.
This is not a one-note, fantasy version of queerness. This isn't a genderfluid character who is nonbinary in the technical definition of the word but holds absolutely no resemblance to any real person's experience of gender. They're not "above gender" or whatever the fuck. The transgender experience is baked into the character.
The resolution only comes from accepting that you have the responsibility to yourself to be the best version of yourself that you can be, regardless of other people's expectations or acceptance. Trying to find redemption through conformity to other people's standards only leads to more bitterness and resentment that hurts yourself and the people around you. It's okay to kill who you are now if you have to. You can reinvent yourself as many times as you need to.
