All 7 of Loki’s Deaths Explained (MCU & Comics)

If one thing Marvel’s God of Mischief is famous for, it’s his inability to die fully. Loki, due to his evil nature, has been imprisoned, captured, banished, and tortured more than you can imagine. He somehow always finds a way to return, or he most likely faked his death in the first place.

Due to his incredible ability to fully evade death, we decided to compile this list of Loki’s deaths, both in the comics and the MCU. So far, the mainline version of Loki has died seven times, and we’ll likely see more of his shenanigans in the future. Now, let’s explore all of Loki’s deaths and how they happened. 

1. Loki was killed by Thor in ‘Mighty Thor’ #432

Loki was a pain in Asgardians’ backside for several thousand years at this point, and after he was banished to Hades, banished to Hel, trapped in a tree, exiled from Asgard, bound with Uru chains (twice), and caused the Avengers to form, he moves on to his next plan to separate Thor from his mighty hammer.

To achieve his goal, he riled up the villains – Prime Movers, into kick-starting the ‘Acts of Vengeance” event while he kidnaped a human named Eric Masterson with Enchantress’ help. 

Loki blackmailed Thor into giving up his powers, or else he will kill Eric. Thor’s honorable nature did not allow him to concede them, but he also couldn’t let his adopted brother kill an innocent human. Loki and Thor fought a long battle, and after some time, seeing that Loki’s evil nature was not subsiding, he decided to invoke ancient Asgardian magic, and using his life force, he managed to kill Loki.

Seeing what played out, Odin cursed Thor for killing his brother and exiled him for eternity, with Eric Masterson taking up the mantle of Thor. Loki, however, did not stay dead for long. He was back in ‘Mighty Thor’ #440 through time-traveling shenanigans.

2. Killed by Desak / Destroyer in ‘Thor’ Vol. 2 #79 

It was prophesied in a faraway past that Loki was bound to bring Ragnarok to Asgard, and it happened. As Desak brought Twilight of the Gods to Asgard, Loki thought he was smart and decided to unleash his secret weapon upon the invader, ‘The Destroyer.’

However, it turned out that Desak’s creator, Tarene, was the one to animate Loki’s Destroyer’s armor. He decided to release Tarene’s spirit and merge itself with the shell, becoming Desak / Destroyer. As the violent battle raged on, Loki and all other great Asgardians were annihilated in the fight. 

Thor was the only one to survive but could not bring them from the dead because he just ended the cycle of destruction and rebirth, and this was technically the last Ragnarok to take place. Thor then used the Odinforce to merge himself with his younger version, keeping the memories of the last 200 years intact so he doesn’t make the same mistakes once again. 

Thor then shattered the current timeline, and all other Asgardians, including Loki, emerged in a different one. After this death, Loki was reborn as a woman. 

3. Loki is killed for good by the Void in ‘Siege’ #4 

After Loki was reset following Ragnarok for some time, he inhabited his female body and, messed with Avengers, X-Men, and overall spread chaos wherever he went. But his latest scheme proved to be the deadliest of them all. At one point, Loki manipulated Normal Osborn to lead his fake Avengers and H.A.M.M.E.R. to attack Asgard. Sentry was on that team, who was highly powerful but also mentally unstable due to his tendency to unleash the dark persona called Void.  

Osborn was aware of the Void and used it to fully destroy Asgard, while Steve Rogers was trying to get the real Avengers to save the realm. Loki figured out his mistake in time and prayed to Odin, seeing Asgard was destroyed. He used the Norn Stones in order to give the Avengers a fighting chance and was, in the process, annihilated by Void. His last words to Thor were, “I’m sorry, brother.” 

This was Loki’s final death, but he decided to set up one more scheme before he died. He manipulated Hela into removing his name from the Book of the Dead to ensure that he would be reborn again. He wasn’t. Following Loki’s true death, a completely new Loki was born, the one who decided to be good and wanted to break free from the past’s bad deeds associated with the one before him. The old “dead” Loki haunted the new Loki for some time, and Kid Loki decided to name the old Loki “Ikol” to mark him as being the opposite in character and intentions. 

4. Loki falls into the black hole in ‘Thor’ 

Loki’s first appearance in the MCU was in ‘Thor,’ released in 2011. His cinematic journey closely resembled his comic journey, and he was hellbent on removing Thor from the position of the heir of Asgard and planting himself. Only his plans were slightly changed when Loki found out that he was adopted. In one last-ditch attempt to impress Odin, Loki aimed to genocide the Frost Giants by using the Casket of Ancient Winters to freeze the Rainbow Bridge while it was destroying Jotunheim. 

Following a brief battle between Thor and Loki, Thor decided to destroy the bridge, and Loki was left hanging by a thread. Loki eventually let go but was sucked into a wormhole generated by the Rainbow Bridge itself. 

Instead of truly dying, Loki ended up in The Sanctuary, where he made a deal with Thanos. 

5. He faked his death in ‘Thor: The Dark World’

Loki can be extreme when it comes to attention-seeking measures, and one of his grandest displays of illusions was during the events of ‘Thor: The Dark World’ when he faked his own death at the hands of Kurse, a Dark Elven lieutenant. 

As Loki managed to sneak up on Kurse from behind, he impaled him with a blade, but Kurse managed to grab Loki at the last second and pulled him onto the blade. However, Loki still had a way out of this as he activated the Black Hole Grenade that consumed the Dark Elf forever. Loki then seemingly died in the arms of his brother. 

I say seemingly because, as we all know, he survived the encounter and disguised himself into the armor of the Einherjar Guard that he managed to defeat. Loki informed Odin himself that his “body” was found on Svartalfheim before he proceeded to put Odin in a retirement home and sit on the throne of Asgard, usurping his place. 

6. Loki is truly killed by Thanos in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’

Following the events of ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Thor and Loki were finally allied, having a common goal, and Loki’s sort of heroic personality started to manifest. But the deal that Loki made with Thanos during the events of ‘Avengers’ came to bite him in the backside.

Onboard Statesman Loki and Thor noticed Thanos’ ship approaching. Thanos has come to collect the Tesseract that Loki promised him, and to Thor’s surprise, Loki had it on himself. At first, Loki feigned loyalty toward Thanos, but the Mad Titan wasn’t amused in the slightest.

Loki tried to kill the Mad Titan with a hidden dagger but failed miserably, and it was at this moment, Thanos crushed his neck easily. Loki’s body slumped to the ground, landing on Thor’s knees. The fans were expecting that Loki would live through this one. After all, it became a sort of tradition for Loki to evade death in the MCU. It’s even something that Thanos referenced when he killed him. However, this didn’t happen, at least not as the fans expected it. 

Much like in the comics, Loki did return, but as a different version. During the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ when Avengers time traveled to the past during the Battle of New York, a new younger version of Loki emerged, which hasn’t lived through the events post the original ‘Avengers’ movie. However, this time around, something changed. Loki activated the Tesseract and landed himself right into the hands of the TVA. 

7. Loki was pruned in Season 1 Episode 4 of ‘Loki’ 

This new version of Loki was imprisoned by the TVA and left to wonder about free will, the multiverse, time travel, and everything in between. He found allies in the meantime. He even fell in love with his variant Sylvie Laufeydottir, and just as he figured out who the Time Keepers truly were, he was “pruned” by Ravonna Renslayer.

Loki was supposed to disappear forever, and he ended up in the Void, sharing the hellish place with several other versions of himself.

And this is pretty much it. As you can see, Loki died numerous times, but he managed to “survive” most of his deaths through careful machinations or otherwise pure luck. If we’re talking about Loki’s true deaths both in the MCU and comics, he only died two times, but even then, he managed to return to his fans through technicalities. 

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