The sentiment among many marvel fans is that since Endgame, Marvel has fallen off. Movie after movie of bad CGI, bad writing, and bad jokes left many fans feeling defeated. However, in November Marvel made a comeback with what many consider one of their best pieces of content to date.
The show Loki, which started in 2021 and ended in November, was a massive success. The season two premier was the second most watched Disney Plus premier, and its finale gathered over 11 million viewers in only three days! Compared with some of their recent shows like Secret Invasion and Ms. Marvel, whose premiers didn’t even break 1 million viewers, Loki stands out in a serious way, but how and why? Many recent Marvel projects suffer from a lack of character development. Instead of focusing on the characters as they move through the journey, it’s about saving the world/ universe/ multiverse from some new threat, while the characters don’t change and continue to sell merch. In contrast, Loki is, in the end, about Loki. While it’s still full of the classic action movie tropes, Loki’s development is the main focus of the show. People want to see the characters change, just look at something like Guardians of the Galaxy 3. It is a story mainly about it’s characters, not the action, and it is seen as one of the best Marvel movies in years. However, Loki season two isn’t just good when compared to other Marvel projects, on its own it is still an incredible ending to Loki’s story. It is hard to talk about its incredible ending without spoilers, but I’ll try my best anyway. Loki season two is the perfect ending for his character. Going from the sad, jealous, angry villain to the person we see in the final episode is an applause worthy journey. I’m so happy Loki was a show instead of a movie, just so we can see as much of this development as possible. It doesn’t impact the story which was my main focus, but I have to mention how good the actors are. You can’t help but smile everytime Ke Huy Quan is on screen. Of course, it would be a boring article if I talk about nothing but the good parts. If you know anything about Loki, then you know it has a lot of time travel shenanigans. Thinking too hard about what’s actually happening makes it clear that some of the things they do don’t make any sense, even by the rules of the show. Also, they do that science fiction thing where they just make up a bunch of proper nouns and throw them in to solve problems, while barely if at all explaining what they actually do. Of course, you can’t be mad that a science fiction show is using science fiction, but it still threw me off a little. Overall, Loki season two (Given you’ve seen season one, obviously) is a must watch for anyone who misses Marvel or is just looking for a good watch.
