Loki: Agent of Asgard #6 (2014)
by Al Ewig & Jorge Coelho
cover by Lee Garbett
Doctor Doom has a complicated relationship with Loki. They’ve been allies a couple of times, but since starting from the 2010s Loki has fluctuated between being a villain and an anti-hero.
So you never know whether they will team up or fight.
We begin in Latveria, where the capital is being rebuilt after Invisible Woman thrashed in the latest Fantastic Four Annual.
Notice that Castle Doom is already perfectly fine, meaning this is set after New Avengers #23.
This is possibly the most realistic view of regular Latveria we have ever seen.
This is far from the first time we see Latverians disagree with Doom’s rule, but typically it’s for lofty ideals about liberty. It’s immensely more believable that people would complain about more down-to-earth stuff.
Doctor Doom is currently visiting the far future, and since this is Marvel instead of the Time Trapper he meets a future version of Loki who has been causing trouble in recent stories.
Future Loki is TERRIFYING.
Even Doom is like NOPE!!!
Valeria Richards is still living at Castle Doom, and she basically acts as Doom’s sidekick in this storyline.
Doom really has a soft spot for Valeria. If Kristoff had dared say THAT, he wouldn’t have gotten away with it.
I really like the idea suggested here, that Doctor Doom regularly travels to the future to be reassured that he will eventually triumph.
In this period Loki was acting as sort of a secret agent for Asgard (hence the title of the series), with the help of Verity: a woman with the magic power to detect any lie. She’ll come up next issue.
Loki manages to gift her a McGuffin before he’s kidnapped by Doom.
You might have thought it was through teleportation, but no: Doom used his time machine to move him to the other side of the planet.
It should be noted that Doom HAS teleportation technology, meaning he’s just showing off.
And speaking of showing off: he’s not just going to blast Loki. He’s going to fight him on his battlefield.
Throughout this, we see that something is off with the Latverians. We’ll get back to this, but notice that Doom seems to have something close to a religious text based on him.
The religious freedom of Latverians has never been really discussed; at best it’s been referenced among other liberties “allowed” by Doom.
But Doom seems to have been serious about that, since there is at least one mosque in Latveria… which, given how small the country is supposed to be, wasn’t a given.
Although shockingly, granting religious freedom is not the same of banning bigotry.
We’ll get back to these workers, but first Loki has to make his first move.
Sarcastic Doom is best Doom.
Doom is going really metaphysical in this one.
Well what did you expect, Doom? For Loki NOT to cheat?
Jokes aside, Doom’s point is that he’s as much of a god as Loki because he’s also a living story.
Which you can certainly interpret as metatextual (he IS a fictional character), but I love how he’s structuring this as to make sense in-universe as well.
Loki is not exactly impressed.
Of course Doctor Doom couldn’t miss the chance to talk about his favorite subject: himself.
Interestingly, this retcons a retcon!
Specifically, Arcade striking a match on his armor on Uncanny X-Men #146 was retconned by John Byrne in Fantastic Four #258… and now Al Ewing is retconning it back.
Which on its own would annoy me, but what is great about this is that the real reason for the Doombots… that writers want a way out to remove badly written Doom stories from continuity… it’s also true in-universe, as a way for Doom to seem invincible!
Plus, how do we know if he’s telling the truth? Or if THIS is also a Doombot?
Because Doctor Doom is not just a person. Doom is a story.
While this is going on, a fight breaks out among Latverian construction workers. We will see next time that something is influencing them.
Loki is not buying Doom’s claim to have turned himself into a living story.
Which is EXACTLY what Doctor Doom was counting on!!!
And so Doom manages to trap Loki in a temporal and metaphorical prison!
Despite Doom’s talk the story WILL continue, of course!
Doom significance: 3/10
This is technically part of the “AXIS” event that will involve Doom, but this issue is not particularly relevant for that. But there’s still some relevance for retconning the Arcade retcon.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Way too cerebral for it.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
My only complains are that the artwork isn’t particularly great and that what is going on with the Latverians goes unexplained here; it will take center stage next time, but it would have been better to integrate some of it in this issue.
But those are minor nitpicks and not enough to lower the score for me. This is some Morrison-level metatextual commentary, but unlike what often happens with Morrison it doesn’t take me out of the story because Doom ties it back to in-universe stuff AND because it’s perfectly in character for him to go into a lenghty monologue for why he’s the best.
But it also contextualizes the reason for the Doombots to be used like they are. And I find it fitting for the character that Doom strikes to make himself look like a larger-than-life living myth.
At the same time, while it’s subtle, the comic also shows that Doom is full of himself because he’s constantly dismissing Valeria’s warnings that will soon prove to be 100% correct.
Loki is very low-key (pun intended) in the story, kind of a secondary character in his own series, but I think it works because he’s outplaying Doom at his own game.
It was a Doombot all along
Crazy tech
This has to be the most creative use of Doom’s time machine we have seen so far.