Loki has gotten a lot more love in the last decade. Like many Marvel characters and their recent rise in popularity, it's pretty much just because of the MCU. Tom Hiddleston's performance as the God of Mischief has had a huge impact on the character, making audiences, both casual movie goers and hard core comic fans, love Loki again.
There's lots to love about the God of Mischief. Over the years, he's run the gamut from dastardly villain to reluctant hero. Loki changed a lot over the years, with some versions of him being awesome and some being not so awesome. This list is going to take a look at the best and worst versions of Loki in comics and movies.
10 Best: The Sandman Loki
Because of his role in Marvel history and the MCU, people only think of Loki in terms of Marvel but one of the best version of Loki of all time comes from a DC/Vertigo book- Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. Introduced in "Seasons Of Mists," this version of the character would go on to play a huge role in Gaiman's endgame of the book.
This version of Loki is pretty much straight up the mythological version of the character and is a big change from the Marvel version of the character, but that makes him no less cool.
9 Worst: 2011's Thor Loki
This list is going to break up the MCU versions of Loki because they are all so very different and the first one, and the worst, is the original Loki from 2011's Thor. The Thor movies are vastly divergent in quality and while the first one isn't the worst one, its version of Loki is.
There would be glimmers of what the character would become in later years but he was more of a stereotypical villain than the more nuanced and entertaining version of the character that was to come.
8 Best: The Avengers And Thor: Dark World Loki
The Loki seen in 2012's The Avengers and 2013's Thor: The Dark World is a much better version of the character than the one fans were initially introduced to. The main villain of The Avengers, Joss Whedon's writing of the character and Hiddleston's performance brought out the charm and fun in the villain.
While Thor: The Dark World is one of the worst MCU movies, Loki's role in it is a stand out. The movie goes out of its way to inject some pathos and nuance into the character, making him more than a just a charming villain - he became a believable three dimensional character.
7 Worst: Kid Loki
Kid Loki wasn't exactly terrible. First off, he was mostly written by Kieron Gillen and it's hard for anything written by Gillen to be bad. Secondly, he was a completely different version of the character than fans have ever saw before, which can be nice.
It was a way to make Loki into more of a heroic character but it was too much of a departure from what fans liked about the character. He was still mischievous, but he was also much less powerful and seeing a teenage Loki without the baggage of Loki's life isn't nearly as cool as people thought it would be.
6 Best: Ultimate Universe Loki
The Ultimate Universe version of Loki, introduced in The Ultimates 2, is a perfect distillation of everything Loki has been in Marvel Comics. He plants doubt into the minds of the Ultimates about this universe's version of Thor and who and what he really is.
Readers weren't sure if Loki was tricking them or telling the truth and that's just a perfect encapsulation of how Loki can be written. He's so tricky that even the audience doesn't know if they are being tricked.
5 Worst: Lady Loki
The Avengers: Disassembled story line crossed through the related Avengers books and in Thor, the book ended with Ragnarok, killing all of the Norse gods for a time and taking them off the table for creators to play with. They would return when J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel brought back Thor in a new series.
However, they would all be slightly different, with Loki coming back as a woman. This change looked like it could be used for all kinds of things, as mythological Loki had a history of gender bending trickery, but nothing was ever done with it before the character was reverted to the version of the character they'd been used to.
4 Best: King Loki
Robert Rodi and Esad Ribic's 2005 Loki miniseries presented a Loki that fans had never seen before - a triumphant one. Loki had defeated Thor and conquered Asgard. The book opened up in media res, with Loki already having the throne of Asgard and ruling the kingdom.
Fans weren't used to seeing the character this way as Loki was never supposed to win. While the end of the book would re-establish the status quo that fans were used to, it was still great to see the character in a way fans never had before.
3 Worst: Dark Reign Loki
Dark Reign was an intriguing time over at Marvel, as the villains were put in charge of the Marvel Universe. Norman Osborn formed the Cabal and one of the main members was Loki. Having Loki in a position of power was a novel concept that was ripe for story potential.
However, Osborn and the Hood got most of the spotlight during this time. Bendis tried to redeem this by making it seem like Loki was behind a lot of Osborn's bad decisions when it came to Asgard, but it was so stereotypical and predictable.
2 Best: Thor: Ragnarok And Avengers: Infinity War Loki
Thor: Ragnarok is the best Thor movie and one of the best parts of it is Loki. He's grown as a person in a lot of ways. He's no longer just the stereotypical villain but a complicated man trying to survive.
Hiddleston's performance captures the best of everything he's done with the character and it's a joy to watch him every time he's on screen. The moment he sacrifices himself for Thor in Avengers: Infinity War feels earned and tragic.
1 Worst: Stan Lee Written Loki
People look at Stan Lee as a creative powerhouse in American fiction nowadays. He's responsible for creating some of the greatest characters in modern American pop culture. However, going back and reading Stan Lee stories is tough for modern readers.
His Loki is a stereotypical bombastic villain, spouting off the hokey dialogue Lee is known for writing. The seeds are there, but there's nothing special about Lee's Loki.