Writer: Robert Rodi
Artist: Esad Ribic
Letters: Cory Petite and Randy Gentile

SYNOPSIS:

Loki #1
22 pages + cover • September 2004

Loki has subjugated Thor, wrapped him in chains and now stands over Asgard as the land's supreme ruler. A small child spits in his face, and Loki thinks back on the time when he challenged Odin's rule similarly. He tries to show restraint to the boy, as befitting his rule. He takes the throne for the first time and thinks back on all the millennia past when he was picked on and ridiculed by his peers.

He receives audience from the many who helped him gain power, but quickly bores trying to meet their demands. He retires to his chambers and sends away a concubine given to him by Karnilla as a gift. In his private moment, Hela shows up and makes her request to him: she wants the life of Thor. Loki scoffs at this notion, saying he never intended to kill Thor, just humiliate him. She demands that he act as Lord of Asgard, not the trickster he can no longer be, and give her Thor as is her right.

In distant Jotunheim, a mysterious figure receives word that Loki has attained power in Asgard. Back at the prison, Loki walks by the cell holding Thor and reflects on their time as youths, then forges ahead towards the cell holding the Lady Sif, who lies in chains, bloody and bruised.

Loki #2
22 pages + cover • September 2004

Sif taunts Loki as nothing but an ineffectual liar and trickster, reminding him that he once stole into her sleeping chamber and cut all her beautiful blonde hair off in a bid to get Thor to turn against her. But his trick, she says, failed as usual because Thor responded to her new black hair even more, and they grew closer because of it. All her taunts are a bid to get him to draw closer, and as soon as he is in range, she grabs Loki and tries to choke him. The prison guard slowly and reluctantly comes to Loki's aid. Loki decides at that moment to follow through with the plan to kill Thor, to strike back at Sif.

Karnilla arrives at the palace to gain audience with Loki, to persuade him into following through with the agreement to give her Balder. Loki says he has not decided when he will give Balder to her. She chases Loki through the halls, refusing to take no for an answer, and Loki is forced to hide from her in Balder's prison chamber. He tells Balder that Thor's death at the gallows is to follow the next morning, and Balder promises him this will fail. Somehow, Thor will survive. Loki reminds Balder that in all the years they have known each other, he has always resented the casual disregard the Brave One has shown him; as if Loki did not even exist. Balder shares with him that he has traveled all over the cosmos, and that he has come to know that the reality of Asgard has played out over many different realities, and at all times, Loki has been many things, but never Lord of Asgard.

Loki is haunted by this, wondering if he is fated to remain the trickster no matter what he does. And as the mysterious figure draws closer to Asgard, Loki finally meets with Karnilla. She apologizes for chasing him through the palace, and Loki suggests there is a favor he needs performed for him.

Loki #3
22 pages + cover • October 2004

As the gallows where Thor is to be executed are being built, Loki issues an order for the Rainbow Bridge to be destroyed at the same time of the beheading. Karnilla is summoned and asked to cast an enchantment that will allow them to view the alternate realities that Balder spoke of. In each one, the multitude of Lokis have their fate set to be chained to a rock and mauled by a poisonous snake. Loki stops the vision short, not liking what he sees, and as he makes away, Karnilla shouts out that she wants what she had bargained for.

Loki goes back to Thor's prison cell and sees him hanging lifelessly from the wall, and wonders if it is possible that Thor will indeed rise from this position to once again beat him, like he had done in many occasions that Loki can recall. After Loki leaves the cell, Thor stirs, and his eye opens, glowing in a faint rage.

After an altercation with his step-mother, Frigga, Loki visits Odin and presses him on the details of his adoption. Loki muses aloud that his sole purpose alongside Thor was to make Thor look like a golden god in comparison. Odin cannot refute this logic, and reconfirms his desire to shove those year's of being played for an idiot back into all their faces. He tells Odin he plans to behead Thor at dawn.

As Loki steps outside, the mysterious figure has finally made the long journey across Jotunheim, and has arrived to greet Loki. She identifies herself as his real mother, Farbauti.

Loki #4
22 pages + cover • November 2004

Loki's mother overwhelms him with affection in front of the gathered throngs of Asgardians. She tells him that she has waited for this day ever since her husband- his father- was slain by Odin; that Loki would avenge that death by taking over. She also tells him she has raised an army of warriors from Jotunheim that are ready to do his bidding at any call from him. He is quite embarrassed by her, and gets a guard to take her deep into the palace and keep her distracted. Soon, he is set upon by a whole legion of citizens, all demanding he respond to their needs with dispatch. He finds a way to separate himself from the rabble and find solitude.

Karnilla's concubine, Daia, enters the room. He spends some time using her services, and meanwhile, the night grows longer and Thor continues to stir in his cell as the gallows are slowly being finished. Loki rises from his bed and stares into a pool of water, seeing a vision of Thor in his younger days, palling around with his step-brother Loki. Loki wonders why it is that he is killing the only person in his life who ever had accepted him at one time. Just then, the image of Hela enters the room, reminding Loki that she has come for the soul of Thor. She presses him to not lose the resolve to kill Thor in these final hours. Loki snaps back that he will do as he pleases, and if it pleases him to spare the life of Thor, so he shall. Loki's personal attendant is shocked to see Loki apparently talking to himself, as he cannot see the image of Hela. After a long debate, Loki decides to reinvest himself in Thor's good graces, that he can break the cycle they have long lived in not only by killing him, but by showing Thor how much he really does love it, by proving it. He intends to release Thor from his prison and cast aside all doubt in Thor that all he has ever really wanted was respect and affection. As he leaves the chamber with this new resolve, the image of Hela disintegrates, revealing the image of Loki- it was merely an apparition Loki's fevered mind had conjured to talk him into what he really wanted to do.

Loki paces his way to Thor's cell, to release his prisoner and restore his power, in the hopes that a new way of life can begin for them all, free of the bonds placed on them by fate. But just as he's about to reach the cell, Thor has finally loosed himself from his chains and his hammer splits the prison wall in two. Thor is free, and is in a mortal rage! Loki tries to explain, but the words can't come quickly or believably enough, and Thor smashes him with his hammer.

-- synopsis and panel images by Gormuu