By Jim Beard
Where's the brotherly love?
An orphan of the Frost Giant Laufrey taken in by the All-Father
Odin,
Loki repaid his adoptive dad's kindness with evil—and everlasting enmity towards Odin's natural son, the Mighty
Thor. They who should have been brothers soon entered into eternal confrontation, Uru hammer pitted against masterful sorcery and ultimate mischief.
Loki currently wears the guise of a woman, but a pretty face can't hide an evil mind and "her" machinations once again bear fruit in THOR #11, due September 17. Will the God of Lies finally triumph over the God of Thunder? Let these historic struggles guide you to the truth…
AVENGERS v1 #1 (1963)
Not many supreme masters of evil can claim to be the progenitor of a classic super hero team, but an early scheme of Loki's to draw Thor into the open backfired quite famously. Using the
Hulk as his cat's-paw, the God of Mischief lured his brother to the Isle of Silence where they battled furiously. Bringing the defeated Loki then to Earth, Thor introduced him to fruit of his misbegotten labors: the newly-minted Mighty
Avengers!
THOR v1 #154-157 (1968)
Having seized the throne of Asgard while the Odinsleep gripped the All-Father, Loki cruelly dispatched an
Asgardian strikeforce to intercept the malevolent Mangog. The horrible creature intended to unsheathe the Odinsword and bring about the demise of the universe, yet Thor stood in his way despite the treachery of his brother. When the situation became its most dire, Loki slunk away in lieu of defending his lofty home against the coming of Ragnarok.
THOR v1 #278 (1978)
By Loki's malicious design, Thor's close companion Balder perished and the doom of Ragnarok once again sat on Asgard's threshold. His strength and his mighty hammer Mjolnir wrested from him by the bellicose Red Norvell—another of Loki's puppets—Thor defended the Rainbow Bridge with only a sword and his mighty courage. His battle there with his evil step-brother rung throughout the land but the arrival of the Midgard Serpent and the ultimate sacrifice of Red Norvell eclipsed Loki's larcenous labors and Asgard prevailed anew.
THOR v1 #364 (1986)
Having defeated the Dark Elf Kurse, Thor suffered the greatest of all indignities at the hand of Loki: he became a frog. Trapped in an amphibious body, the Thunder God aided other frogs against attacking rats while in Asgard, Loki schemed again to debase his brother in the eyes of the Asgardians. There in that mighty realm, laughing Loki stepped forward to represent the Sons of Odin—until a seemingly normal-appearing Thor made himself known.
THOR v1 #432 (1991)
When the life of Thor's human alter-ego Eric Masterson became a chess piece in Loki's latest gambit, Thor realized that the inevitable battle with his brother would be the final one. Brutal and bloody, their fight nearly destroyed an entire Manhattan skyscraper and Loki's evil knew no bounds. After a clever stratagem with Mjolnir and a final, despicable act by the Lord of Lies, Thor broke Asgardian law and drained the very lifeforce from Loki, leaving him for dead. Then, the solemn victor turned to face the Judgment of the Gods.
Lo, even death represents no surcease to the atrocities of Loki! See him – err, her – once more threaten the Mighty Thor with doom and gloom on September 17 in the all-new THOR #11! Verily, thou shalt check it out! And be sure to scope out Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited for classic THOR!
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