Loki is a supervillain that appears in the Marvel Universe and is based on the being of the same name from Norse mythology After slaying the giant Laufey, Odin found a small Asgardian-sized child hidden within the primary stronghold of the Frost Giants. The child was Loki, and Laufey kept him hidden from his people due to his shame over his son's small size. Odin took the boy because he showed strength when Odin slew his father in combat and raised him as his son alongside his biological son Thor.Throughout their childhood and into adolescence, Loki was resentful of the differences in which he and Thor were treated by the citizens of Asgard. The Asgardians valued great strength, tenacity, and bravery in battle above all things and Loki was clearly inferior to his foster brother Thor in these areas. However, Loki's gifts lay in other areas, most notably sorcery. He possessed a natural affinity to command great magical forces and hoped to somehow use these powers to become the most powerful god in all of Asgard and to destroy Thor. As Loki grew to adulthood, his natural talent for causing mischief would make itself manifest and earned him a nickname as the God of Lies and Mischief. However, instead of playing harmless pranks, he grew steadily more malicious in his deeds, and his lust for both power and revenge was apparent to all those around him. In time, his nickname grew from being a playful and mischievous trickster god to the God of Evil . Over the centuries, Loki attempted on many occasions to seize rulership of Asgard and to destroy . He even helped the Storm giant Ghan to escape Thor, and aided other enemies of Asgard. Odin, who had long tolerated Loki's attempts, magically imprisoned him within a tree. Loki eventually freed himself from his prison by making Heimdall the guardian of Bifrost shed a tear for him by using a leaf, and his thirst for power and vengeance became even more consuming than it had been. Loki compiled an extensive criminal record in Asgard, and was frequently exiled.Loki's schemes eventually came to include Earth itself and these schemes often drew some of Earth's superhuman heroes to defend Earth and, often, Asgard itself. He first battled Thor on Earth in modern times. Loki was then able to manipulate the The Hulk into wreaking havoc, which inadvertently led to the formation of the AvengersThor was one of the founding members of this superhuman team, and Loki often found his goals frustrated by them, even when they appeared close to success. Several times Loki, while not directly battling Thor himself, caused threats for Thor to battle, like increasing the mental powers of a carnival fortune teller Sandu making him powerful enough to lift buildings with his mind, and releasing a Lava man called Molto, who Thor mercifully returned to his people.[volume & issue needed] He even released Mr Hyde and Cobra, then doubled their powers, but they were again defeated. Among Loki's better known henchmen was the human criminal Carl The Crusher Creel, whom Loki transformed by sorcery into the superhuman criminal known as the Absorbing Man and sent him against . Creel himself would prove to be a formidable adversary to Thor over the years. Loki even went so far as to attempt to turn Odin against Thor and to steal Thor's enchanted hammer, Mjolnir, but all his efforts failed. When he tried to use the Absorbing man to defeat Odin and take over Asgard, he and his ally were exiled into spacefrom Wikipedia Show less «