Loki #1

The first issue of this 2010 Marvel limited series announces itself with gleeful menace: Loki, adorned in his horned helmet and dark green-and-fur attire, brandishes Mjolnir with a wild, laughing abandon as lightning crackles around him. It's a cover that captures everything unsettling and delightful about the God of Mischief in a single image, rendered with sharp energy by Sebastián Fiumara. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's story, "The Trials of Loki: It Should Have Been Mine…," promises a tale rooted in envy and scheming — and that triumphant, slightly unhinged grin on the cover suggests Loki is already several steps ahead.