More or less in release order. I deliberately skipped over series like Agent of Asgard and most of the recent main continuity in favour of finding hidden issues that give greater context for events like Siege and War of the Realms.
# | Title | Volume | Issue | Release Date | Cover Date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Thor: Season One (2013) | 1 | #1 | Oct 2 2013 | Dec 2013 | This is a weird one that I absolutely love. It's main continuity, but also really, really not. It's a primer for the lore, quickly establishing who the main players are and what makes the world turn. Don't look for a Season Two, because there isn't one. This is part of an ongoing process by Marvel to make it as difficult as possible to get into comics. I'm putting this one right here at the top because if you read this one, you don't have to slog through all those Silver Age comics that can make you want to claw your eyes out from silted dialogue and bizarre art. This is more about the overall lore, and less about the characters, but it's still a fantastic place to start. |
2 | Thor (2007) | 3 | #5 | Dec 28 2007 | Jan 2008 | This is where things start to get sticky. It's the infamous "Lady Loki" arc, and whatever you've heard about it from Tumblr, throw it all out the window. This arc is Loki at his absolute most depraved. It has nothing to do with his sexuality or gender, although he may have learned some things about himself during this arc. This is the arc where he steals Sif's body and parades it around half-naked because he can. TL;DR backstory: Ragnarok happened, Asgard was gone, Thor willed himself back into existence, and is on a quest to find all the missing Asgardian souls who have become trapped in human bodies. |
3 | Thor (2007) | 3 | #12 | Dec 24 2008 | Jan 2009 | I don't even know how to explain this issue without spoiling it. Loki is a great big back of dicks. Laufey is a great big back of dicks. Odin is a great big bag of dicks. That's basically it. |
4 | Dark Reign: The Cabal (2009) | 1 | #1 | Apr 29 2009 | Jun 2009 | Only appears in story #5 "Dinner with Doom." This is one of those random backstory things that was easy to miss if you weren't keeping up with solicits. It helps explain why Loki is such a piece of shit during Siege. |
5 | Thor (1966) | 1 | #602 | Jun 24 2009 | Aug 2009 | This issue ends the "Lady Loki" arc, which is not as cute and wholesome as some on Tumblr would have you believe. |
6 | Thor (1966) | 1 | #603 | Sep 30 2009 | Nov 2009 | This one isn't about Loki, per se. In fact, he's only in it briefly. The story is about Bill, a human from Broxton who has found himself in the strangest situation possible. But Loki is the one orchstrating all of this, and these few issues are what allow Siege to play out. |
7 | Thor Giant-Size Finale (2009) | 1 | #1 | Nov 25 2009 | Jan 2010 | This directly follows Vol 1 #603, and wraps up that bit of the story before leading into Siege. |
8 | Thor (1966) | 1 | #604 | Dec 3 2009 | Feb 2010 | Loki is a bag of dicks. |
9 | Siege: Loki (2010) | 1 | #1 | Apr 14 2010 | Jun 2010 | This is the issue where all of Loki's plans are finally revealed in full. |
10 | Siege (2010) | 1 | #4 | May 12 2010 | Jun 2010 | Loki dies in this issue. It's actually kind of horrific, even though he deserves it. |
11 | Thor (1966) | 1 | #617 | Nov 10 2010 | Jan 2011 | The series goes on without Loki for a while, cuz well. He dead. But then Thor gets a big sad again and decides that he misses his brother, and decides to go out and find him again. This begins the "Kid Loki" era, which is still not the same Loki that is running around today. But we'll get to that soon. |
12 | Thor (1966) | 1 | #620.1 | Mar 23 2011 | May 2011 | This is a "Point One" issue, which for a while were being used as unofficial starting points in order to avoid launching a new volume. Unfortunately for Marvel, they wound up being confusing as hell and tended to take place somewhere other than the comic it was released after. There is a huge event in here that is impossible to sum up succinctly. Loki runs around with a disembodied hand (Leah) and an echo of his former self (Ikol). |
13 | Journey into Mystery (1952) | 1 | #645 | Oct 24 2012 | Dec 2012 | This is the issue that Agent of Asgard keeps making callbacks to, and why Agent of Asgard makes no sense in a vacuum. The whole of Journey into Mystery is well worth the read, but TL;DR, the bird is the version of Loki that blew up in Siege. The kid is a horcrux. Everything is awful |
14 | Young Avengers (2013) | 2 | #1 | Jan 23 2013 | Mar 2013 | At this point, Loki almost completely vanishes from the main title, save the odd appearance here or there. He is once again dead, but in a different sort of way. His previous soul has taken over his new body, but the new body is weak and lacks power. Enter Billy Kaplan. This is still not the Loki currently running around. The whole series is worth a read, but I'm not gonna list it all here. |
15 | Young Avengers (2013) | 2 | #11 | Oct 23 2013 | Dec 2013 | Loki ages up in this issue, but is still not the Loki currently running around. Soon. Ish. I promise. Agent of Asgard starts immediately following this series' final issue. |
16 | Ms Marvel (2014) | 3 | #12 | Feb 18 2015 | Apr 2015 | This issue takes place before AoA #10. It's kind of a goofy one, but Loki starts showing up in a lot of random books once AoA is over, and that's important later. |
17 | Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (2015) | 1 | #8 | Aug 12 2015 | Oct 2015 | Also takes place before AoA #10. This is a very brief appearance by Loki, but it becomes absolutely vital that Loki starts making a few more friends who actually like him. |
18 | Mighty Thor (2016) | 3 | #2 | Dec 16 2015 | Feb 2016 | This is where stuff gets weird again. There's a lot that's been left out, because this isn't meant to be a comprehensive list. (If you want that, go to the main list and search for Loki; you'll get everything). But this is another area that got very confusing for some people, so here's another quick and dirty TL;DR: Loki is playing the double agent through this entire thing. He's joining the bad guys so that he can counter their plans by covertly building up allies from outside of Norse titles. I'm mostly going to be focusing on those, and will have a full, comprehensive list for War of the Realms soon. This entire arc is worth reading on its own, but it is very much Jane's story, with Loki popping in and out to play his scripted role. |
19 | Ms Marvel (2016) | 4 | #6 | Apr 27 2016 | Jun 2016 | All of these appearances in other people's books are completely at odds with what Loki's doing in the main Thor title. It's meant to be a little jarring and confusing, because of what he's doing. We're actually going to see him getting pretty decent at the "hero" thing, which is impressive considering the amount of apparent murder going on in the main story. |
20 | Doctor Strange (1968) | 1 | #381 | Nov 15 2017 | Jan 2018 | Wonky numbering strikes again. It may be listed as (2015) in some apps. TL;DR Background: Magic has a cost, and Strange didn't pay the bill. Because of reasons that totally make sense, this attracted the Empirikul, a science cult bent on destroying all magic and martyring the Sorcerer Supreme across all dimensions. Strange defeated the Empirikul by killing the Dragon Lines (the force that binds Yggdrasil and runs magic through the realms) and using their power as a battery. With a war on the horizon, Midgard without magic is very bad. Obviously, Strange cannot be trusted. |
21 | Doctor Strange (1968) | 1 | #382 | Dec 6 2017 | Feb 2018 | |
22 | Doctor Strange (1968) | 1 | #383 | Dec 20 2017 | Feb 2018 | |
23 | Doctor Strange (1968) | 1 | #384 | Jan 17 2018 | Mar 2018 | |
24 | Doctor Strange (1968) | 1 | #385 | Feb 14 2018 | Apr 2018 | |
25 | Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (2015) | 2 | #27 | Dec 13 2017 | Feb 2018 | Sorcerer Supreme Loki and Squirrel Girl team up properly this time. Her comics are always a delight. |
26 | Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (2015) | 2 | #28 | Jan 10 2018 | Mar 2018 | |
27 | Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (2015) | 2 | #29 | Feb 14 2018 | Apr 2018 | |
28 | Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (2015) | 2 | #30 | Mar 14 2018 | May 2018 | |
29 | Amazing Spider-Man (1963) | 1 | #795 | Feb 7 2018 | Apr 2018 | More wonky numbering. Some apps may list it as (2015). Loki continues his shenanigans as the Sorcerer Supreme. |
30 | Free Comic Book Day (Avengers) (2018) | 1 | #1 | May 5 2018 | May 2018 | Prelude to Avengers. It's released after #1 because reasons. |
31 | Avengers (2018) | 8 | #1 | May 2 2018 | Jul 2018 | This is a delightfully meta callback to Avengers #1, only this time instead of the Avengers forming as a consequence of his stupidity, forming the Avengers is the plan. A lot's happened, the band broke up (like the Beatles), and that war is getting desperately close. So Loki plays his role as the villain to gaslight and manipulate the heroes into doing hero stuff. |
32 | Avengers (2018) | 8 | #2 | May 16 2018 | Jul 2018 | |
33 | Avengers (2018) | 8 | #3 | Jun 20 2018 | Aug 2018 | |
34 | Avengers (2018) | 8 | #4 | Jul 4 2018 | Sep 2018 | |
35 | Avengers (2018) | 8 | #5 | Jul 18 2018 | Sep 2018 | |
36 | Avengers (2018) | 8 | #6 | Aug 22 2018 | Oct 2018 | |
37 | War of the Realms (2019) | 1 | #1 | Apr 3 2019 | Jun 2019 | Oh guess what. He's dead again. |
38 | Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (2015) | 2 | #43 | Apr 10 2019 | Jun 2019 | This issue happens at the same time as War of the Realms #1, and shows what Loki is up to right before the whole ordeal that happens. |
39 | War of the Realms (2019) | 1 | #6 | Jun 26 2019 | Aug 2019 | So, this one is gross. |
40 | War of the Realms Omega (2019) | 1 | #1 | Jul 10 2019 | Sep 2019 | A quick bridge between stories. |
41 | Loki (2019) | 3 | #1 | Jul 17 2019 | Sep 2019 | This series is unbelievably confusing and convoluted, but I'm including it because it was obviously trying to set something up. It tried to build a mystery by starting the story in the middle and going back and forth through the narrative, but all it accomplished was being a mess. It's a cute read, but don't expect it to make a whole lot of sense. TL;DR: Loki is king of Jotunheim and he hates it. It's tedious and boring, and he keeps leaving Drrf in charge while he goes back to Midgard to hang out in illegal sky casinos and get wasted. Thor gets fed up with this, and lets him in on a bizarre meta secret that made for funny jokes, but doesn't really work if you think about it too hard. Loki makes a deal to become the God of Stories, with a few promises and caveats. Also, he flat out murders Nightmare in the dumbest way, and goes on another weird adventure with Wolverine, where they are both cowboys. The series got cancelled after five issues, presumably because nobody could understand what was going on. I've included it because all that nonsense is extremely relevant in the current Thor series. |
42 | Thor (2020) | 6 | #1 | Jan 1 2020 | Mar 2020 | Where Loki's series fits in relation to this issue is a mystery. Because even though it was released before this issue, it very clearly takes place after. Thor is still very angry with Loki over that whole war thing, and Loki isn't even pretending to try when it comes to being king. This entire run has been very good and I highly recommend the whole thing. |
43 | Thor (2020) | 6 | #9 | Nov 4 2020 | Jan 2021 | If I had to guess, Loki's series takes place somewhere before this issue. At this point, Thor has significantly warmed up to Loki, which is odd since Loki wasn't even here for seven issues. But this is the bit where Loki's series becomes relevant. |
44 | Thor (2020) | 6 | #14 | Apr 14 2021 | Jun 2021 | One of the promises made in Loki's series has been fulfilled at this point. He is no longer the God of Lies. |
45 | Thor (2020) | 6 | #20 | Jan 5 2022 | Mar 2022 | Loki does not play a significant part in this issue, but it's also one of the first times we see him taking his role as king seriously, and playing an active part in realm politics. |
46 | Thor (2020) | 6 | #24 | Apr 27 2022 | Jun 2022 | This is the 60th Anniversary issue. Loki plays a rather touching role in the main story, and has his own story that leads into a new series. The side story is cute, but the main one is the one I liked better, because it does show that he and Thor have finally seemed to repair their relationship and can move the hell on with their lives. |
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