Loki Scar-Lip vs Loki

supremthor

Loki
AKA: Loki Scar-Lip, Loki Skywalker, Loki Giants Child, Loki Lie-Smith, Lt. Luke Pinkerton, Loki Mare's-Mother, Malice-Monger

Motive: Personal debt; mischief

Marvel Comics has its own version of the Norse god Loki as the arch-enemy of Thor, God of Thunder. The Sandman version proves that they hardly do the immortal trickster justice. He has hoodwinked Thor into believing an excrement-covered squirrel was his son, he has endured millennia of snake-venom torture, and -- when the realm of Hell goes up for grabs -- his brother and nemesis Odin comes to this most sly and cunning member of their clan for help in sealing the deal.

However, the only regal nature that this version of Loki seems to display is the fact that he's a royal bastard. Without a thought, he takes the place of an Asian deity entreating Dream for Hell and leaves the original to suffer Thor's brawny wrath while Loki escapes. When Dream discovers the deceit, he lets Loki go with the understanding that the trickster-god now owes Morpheus a favor. Rather than be happily owing and free, Loki cannot stand to be in anyone's debt -- it relies on a begrudging honor and hierarchy that he refuses to acknowledge. So, he becomes an eager accomplice to wrecking the Dream King by stealing a child, burning away its mortality, and driving a woman mad.

Loki: He has the power and he has the motive -- what does this candidate lack? Opportunity? No, there's plenty of time after Seasons of Mist for him to put the plan into effect. The only element of it that was already underway was Nuala's servitude in the Dreaming which began during the Hell's Key tale. Also, he certainly could have the connections to both mortal Earth and the divine beyond, allowing him to move both players like Lyta and Thessaly as well as Titania and the Kindly Ones into position.

In fact, there is only one thing he lacks that could rule him out as a candidate: Patience. Most of Loki's ploys are short-run, immediate pay-offs. For an immortal god, he commits very immediate tricks. In fact, it's impressive that he lasted behind the facade of Lt. Luke Pinkerton as long as he did before exploding in fury and torching Lyta's poor friend, Carla. Dream's set-up was methodical, certainly demanding the skill of immortal experience and treachery, but also patience and forbearance. Remember, if Eric and Carla, Lyta's acquaintances, were not either planted or manipulated, the conspirator had to just wait until Lyta finally left her baby's side by their urgings. And, waiting is not the best trait of the Skywalker.

Finally, it seems unlikely to me that the master planner of this endgame would have been as easily bested by the Corinthian as Loki was. Neck snapped, Loki was left there for Odin to collect -- not exactly the ultimate result of a masterful ploy. No, as Puck said, the devilish duo was working for someone; perhaps they were even working for someone who Loki also owed, thereby negating two obligations, one honorably and one dishonorably, at once. But who besides Dream could have had Loki in their pocket?