Loki can say he is fine all he wants, but Time-Slipping to the past and future sure looks painful for the God of Mischief. But even though he has been seemingly “cured” of the phenomenon, the trailers (and now the first episode) have already spoiled how he will harness it as a power to beat Kang. Well, normally it is us, the fans who want the fantastical objects in MCU films, but this time, Marvel should be hoping that it can Time-Slip to the past for real.
You know why Thanos was a fearsome presence even before he made the full magnitude of his purpose and powers become apparent — because even when he was off-screen, he managed to cause massive destruction and sow fear in the hearts of his enemies. The Titan took matters into his hands much much later, but we were already dreading his arrival.
Loki season 1 set about to paint a similar atmosphere for Phase 5 and 6’s big bad, with He Who Remains establishing that he, the man who has been ruthlessly pruning zillions to protect the Sacred Timeline, is nothing compared to what awaits the universe. But when Kang did make his hyped debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, what did we get — a villain who is into monologues, making half-cooked decisions, discarding his weapons to pick a fist fight, only to eventually get overpowered by ants and defeated by Scott Lang.
Does that even remotely sound like someone you would be scared of?
But in Loki season 2’s episode of less than 40 minutes, a 7-second scene strikes more fear in our hearts about Kang the Conqueror than his original debut in Quantaminia barely managed to touch.
The dread his imminent arrival triggers is palpable in every scene, in Loki’s desperation for people to understand him and the dangerous threat that is coming their way, and his willingness to risk eternity in the black hole of time. The series paints Kang and his variants as dominating evil masterminds who have been pulling the strings, slyly manipulating unsuspecting people to embrace his selfish agenda as their mission. Shrouded in the dark cloud of the fracturing thread of time, his inevitable arrival is a death sentence for everyone.
But we have met Kang courtesy of Peyton Reed’s Quantumania and sadly, he is nothing to be afraid of. Unless Kang and/or his many variants do something really heart-stopping in Loki season 2 and it is jaw-dropping enough to erase the memories of ants overpowering the time conqueror, Marvel can only wish they had started Phase 5 with the second season of Loki.