Summary
- Loki's variability and refusal to be labeled is what makes him appealing to fans, as he can be a supervillain, antihero, or superhero.
- Vote Loki is a timely and relevant political satire that aligns with today's populist politicians, highlighting the lack of openness and honesty in politics.
- The comic focuses on character development rather than gratuitous fight scenes, with Loki exposing the flaws in the political system and the complicity of the voting public.
Since his first comic appearance in 1962, the ever-mercurial Loki has been many things. The character drifts between supervillain, antihero, and even out-and-out superhero. Readers have witnessed Loki as an ominous, Machiavellian adult in Dark Avengers and a playful, virtuous child in Young Avengers. Given his bisexuality and gender fluidity, neither his romantic partners nor sex can be predicted from panel to panel. This has always been the character’s principal appeal — a capricious refusal to be definitively labeled that keeps fans forever on their toes. Loki’s variability means even long-term readers of Marvel never know quite what to expect from the God of Mischief.
Never was this more apparent than in 2016’s Vote Loki by Christopher Hastings, Langdon Foss, and Paul McCaffrey. Just three years before, Loki had been at his most sinister, manipulating the master manipulator himself, Norman Osborn, during the run-up to Siege. Subsequently killed, resurrected, and partially redeemed during Secret Wars (2015), Hastings took Loki in the most left-field direction yet: what if the God of Mischief were to run for president? Timed to coincide with America’s divisive 2016 general election campaign, Vote Loki is a lively and fun slice of political satire as relevant today as when it was first published.
Loki Is The Perfect Vehicle For Political Satire
Though knowingly offbeat, in many ways, Vote Loki makes perfect sense. After all, the God of Mischief perfectly aligns with today’s populist politicians — charismatic, a flagrant liar, and more than capable of stirring debate between his advocates and detractors alike. Many view the political landscape as littered with power-hungry glory seekers who strain to be perceived as anything but. Part of what makes Vote Loki such an amusing read is the manner in which the God of Mischief does nothing to conceal his hubristic megalomania. When Loki’s campaign begins to take off, Nisa Contreras — Vote Loki’s protagonist — seeks to derail his presidential chances by exposing a Loki-supporting political action committee as a disturbing occult sect. Loki responds by calling a press conference. “Yes, of course I have followers. Worshipers. A religion,” he declares. “I thought I made that very clear. I am a god.”
Comically, Nisa’s plan backfires. What would be a career-shattering scandal for any other politician becomes a PR coup de maître in Loki’s hands. Through unabashed embracement of his delusions of grandeur, the Asgardian ironically endears himself to the voting public, who find his facetious outspokenness refreshing. The reader can’t help but draw parallels to the eventual real-life winner of America’s 2016 presidential election. Hastings utilizes Loki to demonstrate how sorely lacking in apparent openness and honesty the political landscape is — the voters of the Marvel Universe respond ecstatically to it, even though it presents a deeply problematic individual. This is even more humorous, given Loki’s long stint as a supervillain. Many voters, at one time or another, must surely have been caught in the crossfire of his routine battles against Thor and The Avengers. Here, Hastings pokes fun at the fickle nature of the voting public, and Loki serves as the perfect vehicle for this.
Vote Loki Is A Timely And Relevant Allegory
One of the key criticisms Vote Loki faced upon its publication was that it was too engrained in the zeitgeist of 2016. Some readers felt this would quickly consign the series to the redundancy bin. It’s easy to see how many would have believed this — the series playfully pokes fun at Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump alike, focused not on character assassination but rather on the general malaise in politics that led to this divisive presidential election. None of Marvel’s candidates are portrayed as good — they’re all self-serving and liars, so why shouldn’t people vote for Loki, who conspicuously does this to their faces with a wink and smile? Addressing a rally of his supporters, Loki states, “I love each and every one of you. Except…I don’t actually know any of you! So I guess that was a lie!”
Remarkably, seven years later and in the run-up to the 2024 general election, it’s amazing just how relevant Vote Loki remains. The political landscape it was lampooning then is very much alive and well today, and Hastings sets his sights on the voting public as much as any of the candidates. Loki spins Nisa’s negative exposé in his favor by simply pressuring the editor to change the title, the implication being that no one has the attention span to look beyond the headline. The God of Mischief repeatedly points out to his supporters that the media and public are painting them as “stupid” and “crazy,” reflecting the partisan slinging match that arose in lieu of genuine debate in both 2016 and the present day. The moral compass of Hastings' tale is clear: we get the candidates that we deserve, and we are all complicit.
Loki Works Best In Cerebral Tales
Refreshingly for a superhero comic, Vote Loki shies away from gratuitous fight scenes. There are no explosions, city-shattering bust-ups, or other tired tropes of the genre. Instead, Hasting’s tale is all about character — of Loki, the media, and America as a whole. There is no monologuing, cackling big bad serving as the supervillain; rather, Hastings presents the evil of the tale as something more abstract and complex. Loki is not the villain — he is merely an opportunist exploiting division and a broken system. The reader is left with the sense that his entire scheme is more a game than anything. Neither does the villain figure lie in his political opponents — they are merely career politicians struggling to find their place in a strange new world in which our grand narratives are seemingly breaking down.
Instead, the “villain,” in many ways, is the public. Voters expect politicians to embody an unattainable ideal, but so many candidates obfuscate and shy away from real issues for fear of causing offense, hardly presenting as real people in our eyes as a result. The public has created this landscape, so when a candidate — no matter how controversial — comes along with apparent frankness, they respond with self-destructive fervor. In the age of social media, voters don’t effectively analyze the content that media provides them and instead use these platforms for personal attack rather than genuine debate. Loki’s name may feature in the title, but in many ways, the main character of Vote Loki is the public and the world that they have created. Hasting’s gleefully satirizes this, leading to an enjoyable and rewarding reading experience.
At its heart, Vote Loki works because it’s simply a lot of fun. Hastings realized that Loki’s effervescent nature makes him one of Marvel’s most engaging characters, and he utilizes him to send up the poison at the heart of public discourse and politics. Despite the heavy themes, Hastings never allows Vote Loki to drift into a maudlin or sanctimonious arena. The story’s inherent humor always rises to the surface — fans of 2012’s Avengers Assemble will no doubt smirk at the panel depicting Loki getting pummeled by The Hulk that he features in his party political broadcast, trying to demonstrate that the God of Mischief never stops fighting.
With Season 2 of Loki currently streaming on Disney+, now is an excellent time to read or re-explore Vote Loki. The series’ self-contained nature, non-reliant on prior knowledge, makes it a great jumping-on point for readers longing for some Loki action, and established fans may be surprised to find just how well the 2016 comic has stood the test of time. With its lofty themes packaged as comedy, Hasting’s story is thoughtful, refreshing, and fun, perfectly capturing everything that makes Loki great. Through its timely and enduring political satire, playful allegory, and raucous humor, Vote Loki became the God of Mischief’s best comic.