I first met Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in the summer of 2012. By then, he had already lost twice to his elder brother in symbolic fashion: once on-screen crushed underneath the burden of worthiness embodied by Mjolnir; and before that off-screen, losing the audition to play God of Thunder to a brawny, first round reject Chris Hemsworth. Fortunate as ever for Loki, most people watched the first Thor instalment after The Avengers and the ones who already did never told their friends about it. So when Joss Whedon’s showdown came about, the God of Mischief was still exciting and dangerous.
Back then, The Avengers stood for the impossible: six superheroes in the same movie. Obviously; we remembered Thor more from mythology than comic books, Captain America was the generic good guy we completely ignored in our teenage, Black Widow looked ravishing in that suit, Hulk looked a bit different than the last time we saw him and who was this midget spy side character shooting arrows at aliens! But did we really care? After all, Tony Stark’s charisma had given him cultural notoriety even when his debut in 2008 was overshadowed by the box office numbers and fan accolades drawn by Nolan and crew. The Avengers was Iron Man 3 before Iron Man 3, and now it was bigger than our collective imagination. The hype was real and we saw franchise fandom take birth in India. Introverted bookworms loved Harry Potter, teens with raging hormones loved Twilight, but everyone loved Marvel. Some nerd would even spend hours reading comics and wiki pages online or watching Captain America: The First Avenger on torrent, to sound cool in front of their crush when a friend asked what S.H.I.E.L.D. stood for.
The beginning of the decade was a moment in time when we wanted to believe the impossible: the end of corruption by a fasting Gandhian with his own set of Avengers, the victory in a World Cup finale with an unabashed Sixer off the captain’s bat and the death of Arab dictatorship at the hands of social media. The American benevolent hegemony was still strong, China and Russia weren’t threatening yet and Bin Laden was dead. At home, the wounds of 26/11 had almost healed and our biggest problem as Indians was also one we loved to talk about- onions and tomatoes being way too expensive. Hell, even the Mayan end of the world seemed more like a happy closer to the series.
Then, Nick Fury was able to pull off in four years what Batman and Superman couldn’t in four decades- uniting Earth’s mightiest heroes. Even Shah Rukh Khan could do that only for one dance video. You could say that X-Men had already done multi starrer comic book movies to death, but Professor’s mutants had lived together since the first movie. The Avengers had assembled. And they did it to fight a God among heroes- Loki. Everyone’s superpowers were either manufactured in a lab or were scientifically rationalised (why do you think Thor’s dating an astrophysicist and not a mythology PhD or an Asgardian warrior princess). Loki had magic and two infinity stones. Art imitates life, and as impossible it was for a Joss Whedon to build a cohesive narrative based on five isolated movies, the chances of Avengers working together without killing each other were further slim. The heroes were bickering among themselves, and the chaotic God had a plan. We worship villains who remind us that ultimately, the heroes are fighting their own worst selves. They impose order in a scattered world where our selfish fears keep us from rising to the occasion. Loki told us what Tony Montana had proclaimed in ‘83,
“You need people like me”.
For all their legacy and might, the Avengers lacked Vision, and Loki had Glorious Purpose on his side.
It didn’t matter.
Loki lost. Again.
We were rooting for Loki all along but we gave up on purpose the minute our favourite man child threatened us with nuclear suicide. Earth had picked her side as the battle between what we want and what we need razed New York into rubble. Free will had won. Mischief had lost. Loki had risen to become a God, but here was being walked away, chained and muzzled.
Part 2, coming soon. Stay Tuned.
Shout Out to Shubham Goel for kicking the ball first and big with Soul Letter. Shout out to Isha Sachdev for sharing access to Hotstar Premium where I could watch the TV series, Loki.
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