Shadow Victory

Loki has achieved ultimate power by absorbing all the energy from the gamma core on Avengers Island.[1] This new found power allows Loki to grow to giant size and he quickly heads to Avengers Mansion to attack the heroes while they are distracted by his pawns — the Enchantress, the evil Thor, the Hellcat possessed Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye.

Realizing that they have been used, Loki’s allies stop fighting and agree to help the Avengers deal with his threat. When they enter the mansion, the Scarlet Witch gets close to the mirror which was used to magically allow Hellcat to possess her body. Suddenly, Agatha Harkness — whose spirit inhabits the body of Ebony, her familiar — leaps at the mirror and claws it. Breaking the spell that frees Wanda. Freed, the true Scarlet Witch tells the Avengers that Hellcat paid the price for believing in Loki’s false promises.[2] With the entire ordeal over with, the Enchantress uses her magic to revert Agatha Harkness back to her human form as they will need the witch’s magic in the coming battle against Loki. Hellcat is not the only casualty the team has suffered, as Hawkeye is struggling to fight off the corruption.[3]

In the next room, the two Thors are having a heart to hear. The good Thor questions his counterpart’s thirst for barbary and tries to instill in him a sense of nobility. However, he indulges his double’s desire for battle, assuring him that he will get his fill in the final battle with Loki. The two Thors then agree to fight together and with nobility moving forward.

Soon the remaining heroes are gathered together to discuss their battle strategy. Iron Man has deduced that Loki is getting his power directly from the gamma core and their first order of business is to shut it down. They head to Avengers Island where the two Thors try to breach the barrier around the gamma core with their two hammers. When this doesn’t work, Captain America suggests that they try another tactic as continuing to toy with the gamma reactor could destroy the entire planet.

A short while later, Loki’s terror spree is interrupted when he is suddenly confronted by the massive form of the All-Father himself, Odin. Loki can’t believe that Odin can be alive since there is no Asgard in this reality. In reality, this is the formerly evil Thor, transformed by the combined magic of the Enchantress, Agatha Harkness, and the Scarlet Witch. This illusion is merely a distraction while the others build a siphoning device. The idea is to force Loki to deplete his current power reserves, forcing him to try and get more power from the gamma core and cut him off at the source.

After mortally wounding “Odin”, Loki is surprised to see that he was actually fighting Thor. With his power depleted, the trickster plays right into the Avengers hands and tries to get more energy from the gamma core. However, his attempts are blocked by the combined efforts of Iron Man’s siphon device and the other Thor creating a vortex with Mjolnir. The Avengers then begin attacking Loki, with an assist from Nick Fury who weakens the trickster faster with a blast from the SHIELD helicarrier’s gun battery. With Loki now staggered, Iron Man lets loose with more energy than Loki can handle, causing him to explode.[4]

In the aftermath of the battle, Thor goes to his injured counterpart and is there for his final words. The mortally wounded Thor believes that his death is a good one and hopes that they might meet again in Vallhalla. The surviving Thor is deeply moved and says that in the end his doppelganger proved that he was finally worthy of the name Thor.

Later, Captain America visits Hawkeye in the hospital and learns that he is expected to fully recover. Clint feels ashamed for being so easily manipulated by Loki and promises Cap that when he is back on his feet he will continue wearing the costume made for him by Loki as a reminder of his past failure and continue fighting to make up for his past mistakes.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Thor II, Ant-Man, Wasp), Loki, the Enchantress, Scarlet Witch, Agatha Harkness, SHIELD (Nick Fury), Hawkeye, Hellcat, Ebony

Continuity Notes

1. Loki had previously been absorbing the energies of those created by the core since Avengers (vol. 2) #9 before getting it directly from the source last issue. See, this pocket dimension was created by Franklin Richards following the events of Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1 in order to save the lives of the Fantastic Four and Avengers who sacrificed themselves to stop Onslaught. This world is populated by constructs that were created by Franklin. The only original characters here are Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye. The evil Thor is a construct while the one fighting with the Avengers is the real deal. See Avengers (vol. 2) #1 and 9.

2. In Avengers (vol. 2) #4, the Enchantress attempted to seduce Wanda to the dark side and it apparently worked. At the same time, Loki turned Agatha Harkness into a tree in order to prevent her from warning the Avengers. Agatha freed herself from her prison by possessing Ebony in issue #8. This was all apparently pointless since Wanda already knew what was going on and was instructed by Cap to play along and find out what their enemies were up to, as explained in issue #9.

3. Here, Captain America pulls off Hawkeye’s mask revealing that there is nothing wrong with his face. This despite the build up in issues #1 and 7 that there was something mysterious about the archer’s appearance. That plot threat, of course, was another victim of the abrupt change in creative teams. What Rob Liefeld’s original intention isn’t known. However, when he came back to revisit this era in Onslaught Reborn #1-5 that version of Hawkeye was revealed to be Wolverine, despite how such a revelation wouldn’t make any sense in the context of the wider story.

4. Although Loki seemingly perishes here, he will pop back up again in Heroes Reborn: The Return #2 before being snuffed out for good by the Celestial known as Ashema.