Crushing on the villain...

My nine-year-old is a HUGE super-hero fanatic, so we took him to see The Avengers the second day it was out. It’s been three weeks and I can’t stop thinking about… Loki.

Every novel I read, I visualize some version of Loki as the hero: Loki in full regency attire, Loki as a soldier, Loki as a cowboy. I don’t care if the author tells me the hero has pale blond hair and brown eyes. I see Loki.

When I found myself trying change Loki’s ethnicity to fit a character I was trying to visualize, I decided to dig into my psyche a bit, to see why I was getting a little nutty over this really bad boy. Why couldn’t I fall for Captain America (gorgeous, noble soldier), Thor (perfect mythological specimen), or Iron Man (brilliant, good bad-boy)?

I dug. I couldn’t find any prior bad-boy addictions. Quite the opposite. I’ve been known to boycott actors, businesses, and brands for A LOT less than wanting to enslave all of humankind. 

Then I thought of the different versions of Loki I’ve dreamt up during my last reads to see what each version has in common…

And then I get. I visualize Loki, a villain, in every hero, because he got a firm grip on my imagination and I want every hero I read about to do the same.

Tom Hiddleston, the actor who plays Loki, made him compelling. When he was on screen, he drew me into his maniacal inner world and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. It was his eyes, his stance, the way he carried himself, and the set of his mouth. All along, I’ve been caught by this actor’s craft. I appreciate it. He’s achieved what I hope to achieve with every character I sketch: to pull an audience into my character’s world, no matter how far-fetched, mundane, or embellished that world may be.