REVIEW: Marvel's Loki is an epic and intimate ride through 13 years of the MCU. Pop Culture Weekly's Kyle McMahon reviews the series debuting on Disney+ Wednesday June 9th.
Fan favorite Loki is finally getting the solo treatment in Marvel's Loki, the third Marvel Studios Disney+ series and the third entry in Phase IV of the MCU. Where WandaVision incredibly set the stage for the weird and wondrous heights Marvel is willing to go with the Marvel Studios series on Disney+, and The Falcon and Winter Soldier gave us a high octane story following life after becoming a major superhero, Loki becomes both an epic and intimate ride through 13 years of the MCU.
Photo: Marvel
Loki starts off with a familiar scene, dropping us in the action where we saw him stealing the Tesseract in 2019's Avengers: Endgame. While that seemed like an interesting side note in a film full of numerous shocking moments, that ends up being the starting point of the God of Mischief's story for the Disney+ series. In fact, it was a time traveling mishap in Avengers: Infinity War that allows the Loki of 2012's The Avengers to escape unharmed after getting an Infinity Stone. It is essentially that Loki that we are now following in the series.
Photo: Marvel
Immediately, Loki is arrested by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) for crimes against the Sacred Timeline. We are told that Time Keepers protect the proper flow of time and when Loki veered off the main timeline he unknowingly created an event called a nexus, meaning this Loki is what's called a variant. The Time Keepers created the TVA to serve as an enforcement group that brings variants back to the main timeline so the Sacred Timeline is kept intact. Since this Loki variant has created that nexus, he is now due to be destroyed.
After Judge Ravonna Renslayer (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is convinced by Agent Morbius (Owen Wilson) to allow Loki to not face a "reset" if he's able to help him track down a violent variant spanning through time. This unlikely duo is now forged with being forced to work together despite the appropriate mistrust and use their unique skills to take this violent time traveling serial killer down.
Photo: Marvel
Both familiar and entirely brand new, Loki expertly ties in 32 movies and two series into one interweaving narrative giving us a glimpse of the multiverse that is happening all around us...and will be addressed directly in 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. No matter if you're just hopping in to the Marvel Cinematic Universe or you've been along for the ride since 2008 like myself, Loki serves as both an excellent place for a newcomer to hop in as well as a satisfying romp with one of the MCU's most popular characters for day one fans.
Loki debuts exclusively on Disney+ Wednesday June 9th and new episodes will release every Wednesday.
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