Summary
Loki‘s Disney+ series has introduced some of Marvel’s biggest concepts to the MCU, even though many of them have not been given the treatment they deserve. At the same time, not every character can make the leap from comics to the silver or even small screen, let alone in their most well known forms.
This is precisely the case with Vali Halfling, Loki’s long-lost son. As the product of both a complicated backstory and an especially convoluted plot, Vali’s comic book career didn’t last long. Even worse, when given additional chances to cement a legacy for himself, Vali’s story was cut short due to a combination of underestimating others and overestimating himself.
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When Vali first appeared in Incredible Hulk #379 (by Peter David, Dale Keown, Mark Farmer, and Glynis Oliver), everything about his introduction belied his true nature. As the son of Loki and an unnamed mortal mother, Vali was introduced to Asgard at an early age rather than being left to carve out a life for himself on Earth. Like his father, Vali couldn’t help but work against his fellow Asgardians if it meant even a small amount of personal gain. As such, Vali was exiled to Midgard for stealing Asgardian secrets. Worse still, Vali was cursed by Odin to live the rest of his eternal life without ever maturing beyond his adolescent appearance.
This didn’t hinder Vali in any meaningful way, however, as he still managed to sire numerous children over the years before taking on the mantle of Agamemnon in a bid to escape his fate. Although Vali could not change his true form, he was able to project an image of himself as a towering, elderly being. As such, he assembled numerous superpowered figures, many of whom were his descendants, into the Pantheon, a group who have acted as both allies and enemies to the Hulk. While the Pantheon was willing to follow Agamemnon’s orders for years, once his true nature was revealed they became far more hesitant to do so, especially once he turned on them.
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When the Pantheon initially learned the truth about Agamemnon, their villainous ancestor attempted to eradicate them entirely. This only led to Vali’s own demise. Like most other Asgardians following the events of Ragnarök, Vali was restored to life and given a second chance to make something better of himself. Unfortunately, he decided instead to reunite the Pantheon under the guise of helping humanity and bestowing upon his descendants the immortality that was rightfully theirs. This set off a dire chain of events that included coming into conflict with other powerful beings including the Olympians and Earth’s irradiated genius Amadeus Cho.
In his quest for omniscience, the numerous confrontations Vali set in motion could have easily had lasting consequences for his Pantheon of descendants. Luckily for them all, Amadeus Cho was able to undermine Vali’s plot and sentence the rogue demigod to an eternity of punishment in the City of the Dead. However, this confinement didn’t last long, as Vali would once again emerge to join in the hunt for Wolfsbane’s son Tier prior to the child’s birth. As a matter of fact, it was the then newborn Tier who seemingly slayed Vali when the Asgardian villain finally caught up with him. The permanence of this demise is certainly up for debate, especially considering Vali’s Asgardian nature, but his lack of any real appearances since then doesn’t impart much hope in his return. At the same time, Vali’s convoluted history and frequent failures don’t impart much hope that he will ever make his way into the MCU, at least not in any recognizable form.
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Although the surprising number of children Loki has sired in the comics have yet to make their way into the MCU, that is probably for the best as of now. Between the liberties taken to change certain Asgardian family lines in the cinematic universe and the shocking forms of some of Loki’s children, there probably isn’t room for things to get much more complicated, at least onscreen. This is especially true when considering the direction Loki’s character has taken in the MCU, which is a far cry from what has traditionally been seen in the comics. However, there is no solid reason why Vali or his siblings can’t make the transition to the MCU – as long as they aren’t there to shake things up in any demonstrable ways.
As easy as it would be for Vali to show up in the MCU as an overtly antagonistic figure, that likely wouldn’t set him up to play a lasting role, nor would it advance any ongoing storylines in any meaningful ways. If anything, the introduction of Vali or the other children of Loki should come at a time when the latter is experiencing a rare reprieve from his usual circumstances. Dropping such astonishing characters into the middle of an already explosive setting would be exciting, but it wouldn’t do anything to inform audiences of who they are and what makes them interesting. Waiting for a lull in the action, however, would give Loki an opportunity to come to terms with what exactly he is facing, just as it would give his children a chance to make a proper entrance into the ever expanding world of the MCU.
Loki once had a son in Marvel’s comic book universe that would actually fit pretty well into the MCU. Read More