Loki started his journey in the MCU as a pretty beatable villain, despite his status as a literal God — he has been thwarted by Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Thanos, etc. But the Loki of right now? Oops, sorry, more precisely it’s Loki as the God of Stories, who is keeping trillions of trillions alive.
Spoilers ahead for Loki season 2, as we lay out exactly how powerful the variant Loki is, compared to the OG God of Mischief, and to his past self at the beginning of the series.
In simple words? Everyone mentioned above won’t be able to beat this new Loki, even if they all attacked him at the same time.
How powerful was Loki in the MCU already?
Well, for starters, he was already a lot stronger than the OG Loki. He flaunted new abilities, especially in season 2, where he is seen using green energy blasts to not just throw but completely uproot people! We know about his astral projection — his ability to multiply himself — but shadow-grabbing the rogue TVA hunter came out of the blue (eh, green?), and so did his glowing bright green eyes when he flaunted these powers.
Apart from these new additions, Loki already possessed superhuman strength and stamina, the ability to create super-believable illusions, take on someone else’s form, the power to mind control someone, manipulate objects, etc.
He also starts Time-Slipping, i.e., moving forward and backward in time, but this was initially limited to the Sacred Timeline and progressed to him glitching his way to branch timelines as well when the TVA originally got destroyed.
The final powers of Loki as the God of Stories in the MCU – how strong is Loki now?
As time passed and saving the lives of his friends became impossible, Loki learned to control and harness his Time-Slipping. He could now travel to a point in time — either physically, or by transferring his present consciousness to his past self, like he did with in Sylvie’s face-off with HWR. He can also pause time for an individual, or maybe he pauses time itself, existing out of space-time and taking who he wills with him — which happens when he frequently revisits the final moments of the season 1 finale and “pauses” the impossible-to-stop Sylvie.
Evidently, either his status as a God or his ability to exist outside space-time has also afforded him immunity from temporal radiation, as he approaches the dangerously unstable Loom without any protective gear, and destroys it without turning into a bowl of bloody spaghetti.
Now as God of Stories, he has the power to keep the Multiverse alive. Yep, it is no longer just the branch timelines sprouting from the Sacred Timeline — ie, whole realities that are thriving because of his constant enchantment — Loki now has control over all of existence. So, for example, if he ever feels pissed enough, he can simply let go of a thread, effectively destroying all life on that particular thread, or reality. Technically, if he wants, he can be the reason that the X-Men never manage to leave their reality and enter Earth-616. Just a flick of his wrist, and off they go.
Loki’s powers that are yet to be seen in the MCU
Now, these have not been confirmed, but there are two facts at play: a) it is Loki’s magic and his consciousness keeping the “Tree of Life” aka the multiverse alive and kicking; and b) his progress from glitching through time, to harnessing the Time-slipping, to pausing time, to existing outside space-time, to controlling life and time itself (the Time Stone has never made more sense).
It is very obvious that though Loki can’t leave that cursed throne anymore (hopefully, there is not a “forever” in there), he will probably be able to transport his consciousness through any of the timelines and realities, as well as the future and the past, even having the ability to retain a solid form, if he wishes. His existing prowess of creating illusions, combined with his power over the multiverse might have also given him the power to manipulate reality itself, and even cause events while sitting on his Time Throne.
These probably don’t even begin to map out Loki’s powers, but his status as MCU’s most powerful superhero has now been confirmed beyond a single doubt. We don’t know whether Odin would be proud, but this is not the cost we wanted Loki to pay to find his glorious purpose.
