Turns out, two of Marvel’s three Disney+ entries, Loki and WandaVision, are both love stories. On the one hand, you have Vision asking oh-so-romantic things like “what is grief if not love persevering?” On the other, Loki describes love as a dagger; “it’s a weapon to be wielded far away or up close. You can see yourself in it. It’s beautiful until it makes you bleed.”
Unnatural relationships are the heart of these shows but the body concerns itself with expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It would appear Marvel Studios is in a creative flow state, conquering screens big and small as they set up one very in-particular conqueror. In some ways, Loki served more glorious of purpose than WandaVision. In others, WandaVision controlled our minds. Sorry, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier but everyone knows you rank third. In this edition of Mandatory TV Battles, let’s pit Loki against WandaVision and see which is the superior Marvel series.
Cover Photo: Marvel Studios
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In Loki, Tom Hiddleston mastered the art of the five-minute therapy sessions in-between CGI fights, determinism commentary, and fateful finales. WandaVision, while committed at first and featuring stellar performances, succumbs to the Marvel formula in a predictable finale. Loki is a full-fledged Marvel theme park ride that’s staggeringly detailed, makes no apologies, and offers up a mic-drop worth finale rivaling Planet of the Apes’ final shot, boding ill for the past, present, and future of its universe. If you’re a fan of the MCU you’ll have to have seen Loki moving into Phase Four. However, while WandaVision doesn’t concern itself with the future enough, Loki arguably worries too much about tomorrow. In short, another Loki as the man behind the TVA’s curtain would’ve made more sense thematically.
Overall Winner: Loki
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Loki WandaVision
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Concept
A lot. Loki and WandaVision ride the coattails of weird. Wanda Maximoff’s idyllic reality paying homage to sitcoms of yesteryear versus the titular God of Mischief’s run-in with the bureaucratic organization that controls all of space and time—which prunes every world and/or variant it deems undesirable. Without provoking the fandom’s fury, neither of the shows truly capitalizes on its concepts but Loki certainly comes closer when it decides to go all Rick and Morty in episode 5; introducing a slew of Loki variants including an alligator. Or maybe we're just so far removed from sitcoms we don't care anymore.
Winner: Loki
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Love Story
Wanda falls for a machine and then a memory of that machine. Loki falls in love with himself, or, rather herself. Despite Loki being listed as gender-fluid, Loki introduces a female variant of Tom Hiddleston’s character in Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino). Of course, a narcissist would fall in love with themselves. However, the writers don’t play with this; instead, they neuter the trickster and set up a Mr. & Mrs. Smith showdown. A better love story might have been Loki and Mobius (Owen Wilson). Or, maybe just Mobius and his much-alluded to jet ski. Regardless, with Pepper Potts a widow, it’s almost impossible to compete with the MCU’s reigning power couple, Wanda and Vision.
Winner: WandaVision
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Score
All of those fantastic WandaVision theme songs aside (the homage to Malcolm in the Middle being a personal favorite), the show’s score is more or less typical Marvel. Loki’s score is on some Blade Runner shit—futuristic, chilling, techno that makes scenes of Loki running through the halls of the Time Variance Authority feel all the direr.
Winner: Loki
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Cameos
At the end of WandaVision’s fifth episode, Evan Peters shows up as Uncle Pietro, presumably the X-Men franchise’s version of Quicksilver, and the internet was set ablaze. Not Johnny Blaze, he’ll come later. Fans took Peters’ appearance in WandaVision to mean that Marvel was officially cracking open Multiverse and bringing in Disney’s newly-acquired Fox characters. Ultimately this bait and switch turned into a boner joke, and, to be fair, that’s elementary-school-level legendary. Jaime Alexander reprises her role as the Thor franchise’s Lady Siff in Loki’s fourth episode—which means things for the future but nothing beats a good troll.
Winner: WandaVision
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Effects/Action
The bulk of WandaVision’s effects deal with either the Hex or magic and the most notable action sequences occur in the finale—all of which is a rehash of things we’ve seen before. Loki depicts the monster Alioth, a visual representation of the Multiverse, citadels at the end of time...pretty much everything in the Void is incredible (not to mention the plethora of impressive Easter Eggs). On top of that, Loki has a handful of combat sequences.
Winner: Loki
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Villain Reveal
Thanks to comic book nerds, viewers spent weeks anticipating a Mephisto reveal in WandaVision. Almost everyone caught on to the fact that Kathryn Hahn’s noisy neighbor was the witch, Agatha Harkness, who, in the comics, works with Marvel’s devil to steal Scarlet Witch’s powers. The latter never came to pass; leading many to laugh at any and every Loki theory—the biggest being that Kang the Conqueror is the real mastermind behind the TVA. Jonathan Majors’ He Who Remains (is he a villain?) exceeds expectations thanks to some monologing ala time is a flat circle and the promise of “infinite devils.”
Winner: Loki
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Multiversal Madness
It’s all but confirmed that Loki is set to appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Before WandaVision aired, fans already knew Scarlet Witch would play a role in the Doctor Strange sequel. Given the series alternate reality shtick, everyone thought WandaVision would set up the Multiverse in some way. It doesn't. Loki does. At the end of its first season, Sylvie makes the potentially unwise decision to kill He Who Remains, reinstate free will, liberate the Scared Timeline, and make Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man trending topics once again. Everything is canon.
Winner: Loki
