Marvel has some iconic villains, but few have made as large of an impact on the page and the screen as has Thor’s mischievous brother, Loki. Ever the trickster, Loki has been up to no good for literally centuries -- both in comic history and in real-world mythology. This is perhaps one of the coolest aspects to Loki and Thor their stories have been told since the age of the Vikings and are still told. As mischievous as he is, Loki is often causing all kinds of trouble for Thor, Odin, and the other Asgardians; sometimes, he takes his tricks to Earth, where he can wreak more havoc. But despite all of the problems he has caused for the various Marvel heroes out there, Loki has found himself often doing good-natured things, despite his innate evil intentions.

He is truly a villain who is at odds with himself at times -- internally debating with different versions of himself. He is also a character who isn’t afraid to do something good for the sake of his own goals. He’s truly a realistic and multi-dimensional character, full of conflict, and that makes him extremely fun to watch. Here’s ten of the worst (and ten of the best) things that Loki has done!

20 GOOD: HELPED THOR FIGHT THE FROST GIANTS

Though Loki is often at odds with Thor, the two have a lengthy history. After all, they were raised as brothers, so there is an affection built on that familial bond. This is first exhibited when Loki joins Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three in battle against the Frost Giants in Thor. It’s the first time we see Loki in combat, even if he doesn’t have a chance to do very much.

Of course, this was the event that triggered Odin to banish Thor to Earth, so Loki’s motivations weren’t necessarily pure, but it still is pretty cool that Loki took up arms at his brother’s side. It shows that the two brothers do obviously care for each other, even if their goals don’t always align.

19 BAD: LET THE FROST GIANTS INTO ASGARD

Thor is not your typical Marvel movie. Most of the time, the villain is fought directly, their devious plot having to do with sheer destruction and conquering. What makes Thor so different is that Loki accomplishes almost all of his plans through cunning manipulation of the events and people around them, using their motivations for his own ends.

Such is the case with Laufey and the Frost Giant, who attempt to invade Asgard and reclaim the Casket of Ancient Winters. They are ultimately stopped, but their invasion sets forth a series of events that leads to Thor’s banishment from Asgard. When we find out that the Frost Giants had been led into Asgard through a secret passage, and even worse, that Loki was behind it, the sinister nature of his actions becomes much more apparent.

18 GOOD: HELPED THOR SAVE JANE FOSTER

Loki didn’t have much of a choice in Thor: The Dark World, but when Thor needed Loki’s help to scheme against Malekith, Loki answered the call and delivered some mischief indeed. With an illusion that included a dismembered Thor, Loki helped Thor lead Jane to Malekith, who extracted the Aether from her, thus saving her life.

Once again, this is an event that Loki uses to serve his own purposes- he fakes his death and takes over the throne of Asgard as his own under the guise of Odin. But, Loki did use his powers to help save an innocent life, which isn’t something we’ve seen from him very often. Perhaps his ultimate goal wasn’t innocent, but he helps his brother when he’s called upon once again.

17 BAD: TRIED TO TAKE THE THRONE OF ASGARD

Loki’s true goals in Thor are to destroy Jotunheim and become next in line to rule Asgard. Everything he does is towards this endgame. He lets the Frost Giants into Asgard to anger Thor; he uses Thor’s anger to manipulate him to attacking Jotunheim, and then uses his father’s anger to banish Thor to Earth. He rules in Odin’s stead when Odin falls into the Odinsleep, kills Laufey, and distracts Thor with the Destroyer Armor while he makes his final moves to destroy Jotunheim for good.

Everything about this plan is evil, from the deceit to the intended genocide. Loki is the god of mischief, after all, but this mischief goes beyond trickery and into the psychotic acts of history’s worst fascists. Fortunately, he’s stopped by Thor, but his defeat is only temporary.

16 GOOD: HELPED THOR FIGHT HELA

If there is one thing we can say about Loki, it’s that he usually has Asgard’s best interests at heart. He truly believes he deserves to rule. He truly believes he is the best fit to be the king of the realm. He also cares deeply for the survival of the Asgardian people, and helps Thor fight Hela to save them all.

In the final battle of Thor: Ragnarok, Loki uses his helmet and daggers to great effect, fighting Hela’s undead army. He also recovers Surtur’s crown, revitalizing the demon, who destroys Asgard, the source of Hela’s power. Once again, Loki proves that he is an invaluable ally when the fate of the universe is on the line, and his actions save all of the Asgardian survivors.

15 BAD: TRIED TO TAKE OVER EARTH

Speaking of acts of fascists, Loki is directly compared to Hitler in The Avengers, when he tries to force a crowd to kneel before him in Germany. He argued that humanity survived best when in a state of subjugation, and intended to rule over the planet as their new leader, taking over through brute force.

That brute force comes later, during the Battle of New York. Thousands of Chitauri solders are brought through a massive portal. It takes the full might of the Avengers (and a nuclear missile) to take down the Chitauri army, but before that can happen, the aliens cause tons of property damage and, though we don’t see much in the movie, we can guarantee there are some major civilian casualties, as well.

14 GOOD: HELPED THOR ESCAPE FROM ASGARD

In Thor: The Dark World, Loki also helped Thor escape from Asgard when it was under siege by Malekith and the dark elves. After Malekith kills their mother, Thor recruits Loki’s aid in a plan to leave the Asgardian realm and return to Svartleheim, where they’ll be able to confront Malekith away from Asgard.

In a lengthy escape sequence, Loki leads Thor to a secret portal that transports them out of the realm. His motivations here are perhaps the most pure that we’ve seen up to that point. He is angered at the death of his mother and is working for revenge. Finally his knowledge of Asgard’s secret entrances is put to good use, which makes Loki crucial to the successful defeat of Malekith and the forces of darkness.

13 BAD: HYPNOTIZED HAWKEYE AND DR. ERIK SELVIG

Part of Loki’s plan in The Avengers requires the skills of Erik Selvig and Hawkeye, so he uses the Mind Stone hidden inside of the sceptre that Thanos gave him to control them and make them into his pawns. Hawkeye’s silent, deadly arrows make him crucial to helping Loki gain the equipment to build the machine necessary to bring the Chitauri army to Earth, and his knowledge of S.H.I.E.L.D. is crucial to ensuring Loki’s freedom once captured. Hawkeye is eventually released from Loki’s control and seems to recover quickly.

Erik Selvig, on the other hand, is not so lucky. Loki used him to build the universal transporter machine, but the knowledge required to do so messed with Selvig’s sanity, and when we next see him in Thor: The Dark World, he’s running around naked and getting himself locked in a mental hospital.

12 GOOD: HELPED THOR RESCUE ODIN FROM SETH AND THE DEMONS OF DEATH

Seth, an Egyptian god, isn’t a character you’d expect to have much of a history with Norse gods. However, in Marvel, gods of all cultures coexist, and so one could imagine their would be conflicts. Seth, for example, kidnaps Odin at one point after absorbing all of the power from the other Egyptian gods.

Loki is part of the group that helps fight back against Seth and his armies who seek to destroy Asgard, and helps to rescue Odin, as well. In an epic battle, Odin and Seth, in the form of a serpent, face off, while Thor and Surtur are distracted in their own fight. While Seth is eventually defeated and Loki’s physical form destroyed, the two later strike a deal and Loki regains a body once again.

11 BAD: ACTUALLY TOOK THE THRONE OF ASGARD

Loki finally accomplishes his goal of becoming the leader of Asgard at the end of Thor: The Dark World. He actually spends much of the movie helping Thor after the death of their mother, but as the eternal trickster, of course Loki is going to have a few surprises up his sleeve.

When Thor and Loki face off against Malekith for the first time, Malekith pulls the Aether from Jane and Thor attacks the Aether in an attempt to destroy it. Unfortunately, he is unable to stop Malekith from bonding with the Aether, and Loki is mortally wounded in the struggle. Except it’s later revealed that at some point, Loki took the place of Odin and sent Odin away somewhere else. That this particular action occurred off screen makes this all the more mysterious.

10 GOOD: CREATED THE AVENGERS

Everyone knows the Avengers, but did you know that the MCU accurately reflected the comics in that it was Loki who caused the Avengers to team up in the first place? Indeed, it is one of the God of Mischief’s greatest regrets. His plan was to use the Hulk to fight Thor (a plan which we see paralleled in the movie, as well), but this leads to Thor and Hulk teaming up with Ant-Man, Wasp, and Iron Man to defeat Loki.

Since the Avengers have gone on to save the world, galaxy, and universe on several occasions, it’s easy to see how Loki’s actions here served the greater good (even if that was in no way his intention). If not for a little mischief, who knows what shape the Marvel Universe would be in.

9 BAD: TURNED INTO A SNAKE TO TRICK THOR

Loki didn’t do too much in Thor: Ragarok that would be considered purely evil, but he was still up to his old trickery at times. For the most part, it seems he’s turned over a new leaf, but we are shown that Loki has pretty much always been reliable for one thing: to trick Thor, if for no other reason than his own amusement.

We’ve seen plenty of those tricks in the movies so far, but we come to find out that even as a child, Loki would go out of his way to trick Thor, even turning himself into a snake for the sake of changing back into his human form after Thor had picked him up for a closer look. It may not seem evil, but it’s certainly malicious, and is an accurate representation of their relationship in a nutshell.

8 GOOD: CREATED THE MIGHTY AVENGERS TO STOP CHTHON

Chthon is an evil elder god who attacks Earth while Loki is in female form. Loki is a member of Norman Osborn’s Cabal at the time, because Osborn has promised to assist Loki in taking the throne of Asgard and returning Asgard to the heavens where it belongs. Of course, Loki is also working against Osborn. She appears as Scarlet Witch and recruits several heroes under her influence for the purpose of wearing at Osborn’s mental state.

Loki gathers The Wasp, Jocasta, Hercules, Amadeus Cho, US Agent, Stature, Quicksilver, and Vision together to fight off the primordial god. Once again, the formation of this team is for Loki’s own purposes, but nonetheless, the Mighty Avengers save the world. This is one particular action that seems to do much more good than harm.

7 BAD: TRIGGERED RAGNAROK

The end of the world is an event that is the inspiration for many myths all around the world, and the Norse myth of Ragnarok is no different. Since Thor and Loki are innately tied to the old mythology, the event is of course included in both the Marvel films and comics. However, these events play out a little differently in the comics.

While Loki is certainly part of the trigger that sets off the events of Ragnarok in the Thor: Ragnarok movie, it is his invasion specifically that starts Ragnarok in the comics. His home is destroyed and thousands are killed. If there is any bright side, at least Thor punished Loki by decapitating him and forcing him to watch the destruction. Lesson learned? Don’t piss off Thor.

6 GOOD: RESCUES WICCAN AND HULKLING

We mentioned before that Loki had killed off Kid Loki and took over his body, but even in this young form, Loki accomplished some good. One of his first deeds in his restored state was to rescue Wiccan and Hulking from the parasite known as Mother. He joined the Young Avengers for a time to help them fight the parasite and save the world.

Of course, Loki did have some ulterior motives in joining with the Young Avengers -- namely, he needed to trick Wiccan into giving Loki his powers back, so he could be back to his full strength. He was going to abandon the team, but after an internal debate with his younger self, returned and saved the day. He left the team, feeling unworthy of their trust and forgiveness, but he still made a major impact in his short time with them.

5 BAD: TOOK OVER THE FORM OF LADY SIF

Loki has temporarily taken on the form of many different humans and animals in the past, but for an extended period, Loki was actually a woman. Using this new form, he was able to convince a number of Asgardians to side with him, presenting himself as a newer, gentler version of the god of mischief. Unfortunately, as one would expect, he was not to be trusted.

The female form he’d taken was actually that of Lady Sif, whose consciousness was trapped in the body of a bedridden old woman who was nearly dead. Despite the trust he’d gained from the other Asgardians, Loki managed to kill Thor’s grandfather, convince everyone that Beta Ray Bill was a Skrull, and allied himself with Doctor Doom. It was one of Loki’s most mischievous comic arcs ever.

4 GOOD: HELPS UNDO THE INVERSION

Scarlet Witch is one of those characters that is so powerful that she can bend and twist reality on a whim. As a result, she has been responsible for several soft reboots and events, such as "House of M" and "AXIS". In "AXIS", Scarlet Witch inverted the morality of a bunch of heroes and villains, Loki and Thor included.

The villains, now working as heroes, worked together to revert reality back to its former state. Loki changes his outfit to reflect his new status -- no longer the God of Mischief, he is now the God of Heroism and Truth. During all of this, Loki even manages to lift Thor’s hammer to defeat him, proving that he is worthy of carrying it. "AXIS" showed us Loki at his most heroic.

3 BAD: “SACRIFICED HIMSELF” AND THEN DESTROYED HIS NEW SELF

Loki has died, or faked his death, several times in the comics. One of the more recent times Loki died was at the hands of Sentry at the end of the "Seige" storyline. What seemed to be a selfless sacrifice turned out to be something Loki had a contingency for, and he was reborn. Unfortunately for Loki, the new Kid Loki had no memory of his past and wanted to work to redeem himself for those past misdeeds.

Kid Loki appeared to be less evil than Loki, but was constantly under attack by Loki’s spirit. Eventually, Loki manipulated Kid Loki into giving up control of his body to his former self, effectively destroying Kid Loki and returning the evil version of the character to his former glory.

2 GOOD: REWRITES ASGARDIAN MYTH SO THOR CAN DEFEAT THE SERPENT

The Serpent is a mighty foe and a god. He was once a man of Asgard, but was transformed and became a nearly unstoppable foe who caused the Fear Itselfstory arc. The might of all of Earth’s heroes could not stop the Serpent, and eventually, Thor sacrificed himself to destroy the creature. It was a noble act that one would expect from the heroic Thor.

But, in Journey into Mystery #629, we see that Thor’s victory is only made possible because Loki is able to rewrite the Serpent’s history, giving him a weakness that Thor can exploit, allowing the god of thunder to win the day at the cost of his own life. Loki, thus, did help to defeat the Serpent, but one has to wonder why he couldn’t have done a little editing that kept Thor alive, too.

1 BAD: CREATED THE ABSORBING MAN AND THE WRECKING CREW

Beyond his own schemes, Loki has a tendency to make trouble for Thor in other ways, like by creating a number of his most formidable adversaries. He is directly or indirectly responsible for Enchantress, Executioner, Hela (who, in the comics, is his daughter), and the Wrecking Crew (the leader of whom was mistaken for Loki when he was imbued with his powers).

He also gave Carl Creel his powers and made him into the Absorbing Man. These powers allow Creel to become any material he touches, a power which, though he remains mortal, makes him powerful enough to stand toe to toe with Thor. He’s fought Thor a number of times, and at one point even had his own magical hammer, which made him Greithoth: The Breaker of Wills for a time.