Ancient To Modern: Borrowed Gods (4)

Loki

In Norse mythology, Loki is a shape-shifter (hence, a trickster) who is ascribed various powers in different versions or accounts. He is sometimes described as helping the other members of the Norse Pantheon and sometimes as working against them. This diversity makes him nuanced and interesting. In the original myths, he is completely unrelated to Odin, Freya, and Thor.

Loki shown in an 18th Century Icelandic manuscript.

The punishment of Loki by Louis Huard (1813-1874).

Loki and Sigyn (1863) by Marten Eskil Winge.

This Norse god has been skillfully re-written in Marvel Comics. In their version, he is the adopted son of Odin and Frigga (Freya) and the envious stepbrother of Thor.

Credit: Marvel Comics

This unavoidably sets him at odds with the Avengers (get a load of the old Iron Man).

Credit: Marvel Comics

The imagery for this character has been  effectively re-invented in the comics. Below is a later version.

Credit: Marvel Comics

Disney Marvel also got Loki’s imagery right, and Tom Hiddleston excellently portrays him in the movies. In my opinion, he has become one of the best villains in cinematic history.

From The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon.

“Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World” (2013, directed by Alan Taylor)
Loki (Tom Hiddleston)
Ph: Film Frame
© 2013 MVLFFLLC. TM & © 2013 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

We’ll look at one more Norse god next week and then move back to the Greek pantheon.

 

The Modern Pantheon: Thanos

From The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon

So I did something I hadn’t done in a long time. I bought some graphic novels. And what did I choose? I  decided to read Thanos: The Infinity Revelation and Thanos: The Infinity Relativity, both by Jim Starlin, Andy Smith, and Frank D’Armata. This betrayed my interest in a character which I had seen during those brief clips at the end of The Avengers and Avengers: Age Of Ultron (both directed by Joss Whedon) as well as more prominently in Guardians Of The Galaxy  (directed by James Gunn).

From Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014), directed by James Gunn

We know from his appearances so far that Thanos is a very powerful being who is attempting to collect the Infinity Stones for some nefarious purpose, so he’s not a very nice guy. I mean, he ordered an invasion of earth, for crying out loud. The movies have not yet developed his character sufficiently, but if they incorporate any of his characteristics from the comics, he should be interesting and fun to watch. In the comics, he is an intellectually as well as physically advanced alien with a nihilistic intellect. He loves death (literally), and death ultimately has no power over him. He is possessed by intellectual curiosity and cannot resist a good puzzle. This sense of inquiry could make him a psychological study to rival Loki if he is written properly. I look forward to seeing him in the Infinity Wars adaptations scheduled for future release.

The Modern Pantheon: Loki

“Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World” (2013, directed by Alan Taylor)
Loki (Tom Hiddleston)
Ph: Film Frame
© 2013 MVLFFLLC. TM & © 2013 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

Loki (played magnificently by Tom Hiddleston) is a god. Just ask him:

The above scene from The Avengers (2012, directed by Joss Whedon), in which Loki’s argument is rendered moot by the Hulk, reminds me of a passage from the second chapter of Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton (perhaps my favorite author).

“So you are the Creator and Redeemer of the world: but what a small world it must be! What a little heaven you must inhabit, with angels no bigger than butterflies! How sad it must be to be God; and an inadequate God! Is there really no life fuller and no love more marvellous than yours; and is it really in your small and painful pity that all flesh must put its faith? How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos, scattering the stars like spangles, and leave you in the open, free like other men to look up as well as down!”

This kind of ambition – to dominate, to subjugate, to exalt oneself above others – is madness. By human standards, it may even be seen as an entirely reasonable madness. Chesterton again:

The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything but his reason.

And the cure?

I mean that if you or I were dealing with a mind that is growing morbid, we should be chiefly concerned not so much to give it arguments as to give it air, to convince it that there was something cleaner and cooler outside the suffocation of a single argument.

In various ways, I suppose we are all mad, that we all consider ourselves gods. Time to breathe, Loki. Otherwise, yourself is all you get.