WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Loki #4 by Daniel Kibblesmith, Oscar Bazaldua, Victor Olazaba, David Curiel, Carlos Lopez and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
After the conclusion of the War of the Realms event, Loki was not only crowned as the new king of the Frost Giants and Jotunheim, he was also finally seen as a hero instead of the villain he had always been. Now, Loki has his sights set on becoming a superhero, one who could even be worthy of joining the Avengers one day. However, just as his brother Thor was named the new All-Father, a strange warning came from the future in Loki #1.
The newly-minted King of Asgard was visited by a Mjolnir-wielding time-traveler that looked a lot like the aging King Thor or perhaps Odin. This traveler warned of the coming of someone called the Unfather and of Thor's role in a dangerous future that had yet to come to pass.
While this left plenty of questions, Loki #4 has delivered the answers. Now, we know the identity of the time-traveler -- and worse still, we know who the Unfather is.
After Loki #2 and 3 focused solely on the God of Mischief's heroic quest in the present, the final pages of issue #4 finally take us back to the future. There, we catch up with the time-traveler, who now finds himself on Mars, untold thousands of years in the future near the end of everything. From what we can gather, most of Midgard has been destroyed, and the traveler is the only hero that remains. However, the character who looked like an old Thor is revealed to be someone else entirely: Loki. Somehow, in the future, Loki will indeed become worthy of Mjolnir and become the new Thor.
This hearkens back to the cover of the series' first issue, as well as a challenge made to Loki by Tony Stark in Loki #2. After refusing the Asgardian's request to join the Avengers, the Armored Avenger tells him the only way he would ever consider his membership would be if the God of Mischief shows up holding Mjolnir in his grasp -- something Stark and everyone else-- don't think could ever happen.
While Loki proved his doubters wrong, that's not the biggest surprise in the issue.
The real twist comes when we find out that a twisted version of Thor is the source of all the destruction. As warned, this enemy is the Unfather, but this isn't simply a God of Thunder who was turned evil by time. If his hammer and half of his face are any indication, Thor has seemingly been taken over by Ultron. What's more, while Thor's left arm is still replaced by an armored limb, it appears as it part of his whole body is covered in organic metal, which could mean that Thor and Ultron may have merged in some capacity.
This isn't the first time we've seen Ultron take over host bodies. He's been merged with Hank Pym, Marvel's first Ant-Man, for the past few years. In 2017, the Guardians of the Galaxy dealt with an outbreak of Ultron virus, when the Avengers villain set out to infect and take over as many creatures in the galaxy as he could.
Although he was stopped then, it appears he isn't done yet. Now that the future Loki has revealed himself to be a hero and Thor is a villain, the eternal roles of the God of Thunder and the God of Mischief have been reversed, and Loki may be the only thing stopping Thor from destroying the Marvel Universe.