On The Air: Loki (2021)

 Rare is the time when an established villain can be the star of his own series, either in print or on the air.

Currently, DC has The Joker in his 2nd ongoing series, and the first in 45 years. His ex, Harley Quinn, falls under the classification of anti-hero these days, sometimes an outright heroine, and DC has invested heavily in her the last several years.

Marvel's tried it, too. First, they took a relatively obscure villain, the Foolkiller, who'd fought Spider-Man & Man-Thing, and tried to market him in the 90's. It ultimately didn't work. Of course, the gold standard for villain-centric comics would be Marv Wolfman and the late Gene Colan's seminal Tomb of Dracula.

And, then, there's Loki.

The God of Mischief. Adopted brother of Thor. And, in 2021, starring in his own Disney+ series, with Tom Hiddleston reprising his role from the Avengers & Thor movies. Hiddleston is also given an executive producer's credit, because that's a thing with franchise stars these days. 

The plot: Loki is arrested by the TVA (Time Variant Agency), then given the task of helping the TVA retrieve a number of time variants of himself. That is SO an idea that Rod Serling, the acclaimed writer and creator of The Twilight Zone, could've imagined decades ago.

Owen Wilson, not content with letting brother Luke (Stargirl) have all the genre fun in the family, co-stars as Mobius, who becomes Loki's supervisor, for lack of better description.

In all, Loki, the series, is a free-wheeling joyride into cosmic crazy. Check the trailer:

Hiddleston, whose only other series gig was The Night Manager here in the US, is a joy to watch. Given the fact that Loki has had a heroic turn or two since the turn of the century, in the books, that is, Marvel has to be careful not to ruin what makes him what he is.

Rating: A.