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Before Sylvie wore a broken crown on the Loki MCU series, another version of the God of Mischief wore one for heartbreaking reasons.
Beyond echoing the design of Lady Loki, Sylvie’s broken crown on Disney+’s Loki series speaks to the character’s rough and tumble life. As a long-standing fugitive from the Time Variance Authority, her crown was likely broken in one of her many battles with its agents.
In Loki: Agent of Asgard, Marvel’s main Loki character also wore a broken crown, albeit for very different reasons. The story of how Loki’s headgear was broken is rooted in a brutal falling out with his brother, Thor.
Loki’s time with the Young Avengers saw him aged from Kid Loki to a teenager by his teammate Wiccan. After he left the team, Loki became the All-Mother’s agent, taking missions on Asgard’s behalf in exchange for having his crimes erased from history. One of his missions saw him earn Gram, the sword of the legendary hero Sigurd. He also became friends with a mortal woman, Verity Willis, who had the power to see through any lie. Willis was present for Loki’s falling out with Thor in Loki: Agent of Asgard #10, by Al Ewing and Lee Garbett.
After Loki lost his ability to lie as a result of the 2014 Axis crossover that briefly reversed his morality, he attempted to reconcile with Verity after he betrayed their friends Lorelei and Sigurd while he was “inverted.” He tried to joke his way through his confession but found that he couldn’t physically stand even those minor lies.
Unfortunately for Loki, Thor, who at this time had lost his ability to wield his hammer Mjolnir, showed up to apologize for the way he’d been treating his brother at the worst possible time. As they were both commiserating about losing the things that were traditionally tied to their identities, Loki became philosophical, wondering if they would ever be free of the identities he described as cages.
When Thor asked his brother what happened to the mischievous young child he used to know, Loki realized he was trapped. Powerless to hide the truth, he revealed that he wasn’t the Kid Loki that Thor knew. He was the spirit of the old Loki, Ikol. He killed Kid Loki and took over his body, in Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ Journey Into Mystery #645.
Thor did not take this reveal well. Furious that his brother’s murderer had been “squatting” in his corpse, Thor brutalized Loki, knocking him through the wall of Verity’s apartment. As he landed on the pavement below, one of the horns of his helmet snapped off.
When Loki called Gram to him, it further enraged Thor, causing him to break the sword. The only thing that kept Thor from killing his brother was a promise he made to Kid Loki to never give up on him, even if he went bad.
Thor dragged Loki to Asgardia, where he revealed the truth about him to their fellow gods. Although he couldn’t bring himself to kill Loki, he was willing to leave him at the mercy of his fellow Asgardians, hoping he’d rot in a cell until the end of time. The final image of the issue saw Loki pleading for Thor’s forgiveness wearing a broken crown, which remained broken for the next several months.
Loki’s broken crown reflected his fall from grace, and the character’s central struggle. After Kid Loki endeared himself to Asgard, the teenage version was recast to be the villain from the past. It took some scheming at the literal end of Marvel’s multiverse in Secret Wars for Loki to finally be able to re-write his story.
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