‘Loki’ returns burdened with the inglorious purpose of the worst reviews for any MCU series not named ‘Secret Invasion’ or ‘She-Hulk’

With Loki finally returning to screens for its second season, the review embargo has lifted at last, and the response from critics has been… fine, we guess.

In what’s going to be somewhere between a shock and a disappointment for Marvel Cinematic Universe fans everywhere, Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief is currently carrying the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score for any Disney Plus series hailing from the world’s biggest franchise that isn’t named She-Hulk: Attorney at Law or Secret Invasion, and we all know how everybody feels about those two.

In fact, Loki initially debuted with a 74 percent approval rating that would have placed it below Tatiana Maslany’s maiden run of self-aware adventures as Jennifer Walters, but at the time of writing the score has improved to an altogether more respectable – but still not great – 79 percent.

For comparison’s sake, the next lowest-ranked MCU series is the 85 percent of Loki‘s first season to give you an indication of what we’re dealing with here, although the Asgardian’s first batch of episodes is tied with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in that respect. Having been heralded as the stuttering saga’s latest “return to form,” though, it’s maybe not all that surprising its actually been received identically to Iron Man 3, Black Widow, and – gasp – Captain Marvel in terms of its early RT rating.

Of course, those numbers are guaranteed to fluctuate throughout the week, but it’ll be fascinating to see where it ends up when the dust finally settles and it evens out.