You might not even realize why Marvel's villain reveal in 'Loki' was so brilliant
The first Loki season ended its run with “glorious purpose” earlier this week, transforming the show into one of Marvel’s best MCU stories so far. From the first episodes, it was clear that Loki is by far the best MCU TV series made for Disney+. But Loki is also better than many Marvel movies. The finale delivered the final pieces of the puzzle for Loki’s second redemption arc. More importantly, it offered us the final details for one of the main themes in Phase 4, the multiverse. Finally, the Loki finale delivered a huge surprise in terms of revealing the villain. It’s not just a Thanos-grade villain that we saw on Wednesday. It’s something far more dangerous than Thanos could ever be. Before you read any further, we’ll warn you that several spoilers follow below.
Puny Thanos
When Avengers: Infinity War premiered in April 2018, we realized just how excellent Marvel’s big villain is. Marvel teased Thanos (Josh Brolin) for years before we got to know the character. He appeared in post-credits scenes that indicated something more significant was afoot. But it wasn’t until Infinity War and then Endgame that we got to really see and understand Thanos.
The Mad Titan turned out to be Marvel’s scariest villain so far. He was also the best Avengers antagonist we saw since the MCU’s inception. Thanos is the complex villain that a story like Endgame needed, unlike anyone who preceded him.
It was after Endgame we realized that we’ll miss Thanos now that he’s dead. We wanted more of him in the MCU, given how formidable a villain he turned out to be. But then came the big Loki villain reveal in the finale that shocked us. Kang (Jonathan Majors) wasn’t just a cameo. He dominated the finale, giving us the plot twist that we wanted. And the Kang reveal turned Thanos into a distant memory.
Thanos is no match for Kang
Mind you, the Kang we saw in Loki isn’t even a real villain compared to the other Kang variants we’ll see down the road. He’s a better version of them, an Immortus-like being who tries to save at least one Sacred Timeline from multiversal destruction. Even if that means having the TVA destroy every deviation from the predestined path.
