LOKI 004: Secrets of the MCU Avengers Guidebook
Welcome back to Loki University for class listing Loki 004, Marvel Blog Untrue Believers! Today, we’re going to go digging into some of the assigned reading: the Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Marvel’s The Avengers (2016), which has some fascinating details about the first movie to bring all of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes together on one team to face off against our favorite villain: Loki!
The Avengers Guidebook. Photo: Marvel Comics
Required Reading
The Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe books are an ongoing Marvel Comics series that gives you an encyclopedic look at the movies released in the MCU. Based on The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, a series that gives you a deep-dive into the details of the characters in the 616, the Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe series gives you insight into the characters, situations, and stories of the MCU!
The Who’s Who of The Avengers Guidebook. Photo: Marvel Comics
Previously, we explored some of the secrets from the first movie in which Tom Hiddleston appeared as Loki, the original Thor movie from way back in the MCU’s Phase One.
Loki in Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Marvel’s Thor. Photo: Marvel
Now, we’re looking into the Guidebook for the next MCU movie to feature the God of Mischief: The Avengers!
Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Marvel’s The Avengers
First and foremost, this book gives us an update to Loki’s entry in the Guidebook for the first Thor movie. This means that we get caught up on just what happened to Loki in the interim between Thor and The Avengers, and good news too, as last time we saw the trickster things weren’t going so hot!
Photo: Marvel Comics
Essentially, at the end of Marvel’s Thor, Loki is left drifting through space after battling his adoptive brother. However, he’s located by Thanos and his servant, the Other (Alexis Denisof), who give him the scepter which he uses to manipulate the soon-to-be Avengers on-board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.
Loki 004: Other entry. Photo: Marvel Comics
How did the Other accomplish all this? As revealed by The Avengers Guidebook, he has the ability to “converse with another’s spirit form” in order to remotely influence them (if you are wondering what ultimately happened to the Other after this movie, please see Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 1, currently available for streaming on Disney+).
Loki 004: Other from another movie [GotG — Recordin’ Rebecca]. Photo: Marvel
Photo: Marvel Comics
When Thor (Chris Hemsworth) brings Loki back to Asgard, according to the guidebook, the scepter is left with S.H.I.E.L.D…
But as we know from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, at this point in the MCU, S.H.I.E.L.D. is synonymous with HYDRA!
Loki 004: Ask yourself – would a non-evil organization need all this kind of stuff? Photo: Marvel Comics
The scepter is taken to a remote area near Sokovia, where it is used to experiment on test subjects… including a young Wanda Maximoff, augmenting innate abilities and giving Wanda a “vision” of her ultimate form: the Scarlet Witch (see: WandaVision season one, episode eight, “Previously On”)!
Avengers: Disassembled
The Avengers is an especially important part of the story for the upcoming Loki Disney+ series.
Loki 004: Loki’s The Avengers story sets up the Marvel Studios Loki series. Photo: Marvel Comics
That’s because it’s where our Variant Loki splits from the prime MCU timeline! In Avengers: Endgame (2019), we saw an incarcerated Loki seize upon an unattended Cosmic Cube, picking it up and warping away to unknown parts of the timeline.
Loki 004: Gimme that Cosmic Cube! Photo: Quora
Judging by the trailer for Loki, it’s the fallout from this situation that serves as the main plot for the highly anticipated Disney+ show. However, that also means that when we are introduced to Loki in the first episode of the show, premiering on Wednesday, June 9th, 2021, he will be most closely aligned with the character as he appeared in Thor: The Dark World.
Loki 004: Thor: The Dark World Guidebook. Photo: Marvel Comics
If only there was a Guidebook for that movie! …what’s that, Marvel Blog Untrue Believers? There is such a guidebook, and it’s available to read right now on Marvel Unlimited?
Be still, my trickster heart! Looks like your professor here at Loki Academy is off to hit the books. Stay tuned, Marvel Blog Untrue Believers: there are plenty more courses coming up here at Loki Academy… And hey: would we lie?
