Loki #4: Truth and Consequences

This week, Loki’s realm-hopping journey to recover fragments of the ship Naglfar comes to an end as the trickster deity finally faces the consequences of their actions. Germán Peralta’s artwork is exquisitely crafted, illuminated by Mike Spicer’s moody colors. (The same can sadly not be said of Dustin Nguyen’s cover, which once again feels rushed and lacks some of the finesse of his watercolor work.)

As readers have no doubt come to expect, writer Dan Watters fills his script with passage after passage of poignant prose and Loki’s dialogue really sings. While Bullseye himself is an atypical choice of foe for Loki, Bullseye’s weapon–a physical manifestation of (ostensibly) objective truth in the form of a book–is one of the series’ highlights. It’s all the more interesting taken in tandem with Scarlet Witch #8 (released earlier this month), which saw Wanda force Loki to tell only the truth. 

For all its beautiful art and poignant phrasing, it’s nonetheless hard to call Loki #4 satisfying. While its final pages move Loki forward in some regards, the entire issue simultaneously seems to undo much of Loki’s recent character growth. And even more than the previous two issues, it feels not just tragic but hopeless. Of course, with the new Thor series that started last month, helmed by Loki: Agent of Asgard writer Al Ewing, there’s no telling how this series will play into the larger scheme of things–or if it will suffer the same fate as the ending of Loki (2019) and go ignored.