Just A Little Thing: Loki's Suit

In Young Avengers #11 (October 2013), Wiccan performs a spell on Loki that shows several alternate reality versions of the trickster god.

Several of his past outfits from comics appear, as well as the female version that was showing up in comics around the same time, and some versions where he looks like a frost giant. But then there's this one:

That one, in case you don't realize it, is the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Loki, as seen below.

This issue came out a month before Thor: The Dark World (November 2013), so I assume it was some planned synergy on Marvel's part. Or maybe it was just a fun thing the writer or author threw in. Either way, pretty cool!

Hulk vs Thor

Changes are inevitable in adaptations. And sometimes, even when a specific story is adapted, the changes made to the story can sometimes be adapted back into a different story. 

Planet Hulk is a perfect example.

"Planet Hulk" was a 2006 storyline in which the Illuminati (an organization of Marvel bigwigs that have their noses in everything) exiled the Hulk to space, where he landed on the planet Sakaar and was forced into gladiatorial combat. Most notably, he had to fight the Silver Surfer.

When Planet Hulk was turned into an animated movie (2010), Silver Surfer was replaced with Beta Ray Bill, who is essentially an alien Thor. (In case you're unfamiliar with Beta Ray Bill, the short version is that he took over as Thor briefly, then Odin gave him his own hammer called Stormbreaker).

"Planet Hulk" was also a large part of Thor: Ragnarok (2017). In this case, Hulk fought actual Thor.

This scene in particular made a huge splash with fans, particularly because of a line Thor says where he's excited Hulk shows up ("Yes! I know him! He's a friend from work."), which was suggested by a fan during a set visit.

So when Incredible Hulk #711 (December 2017) decided to revisit Sakaar's gladiatorial games - no doubt to coincide with the movie, which came out in November - they had the new Hulk (Amadeus Cho) fight Odinson (an unworthy Thor). Except they twisted it a bit by reversing the roles - they even give Hulk the "friends" line!

What's most interesting is that Greg Pak wrote both the original Planet Hulk storyline and this one!

Appearance Spotlight: Valkyrie

In April (2018), Marvel will be releasing a new volume of Exiles, a series about a group of people from various alternate realities teaming up to save the multiverse. When they first announced the new series last week, their image showed Iron Lad, Khan, Blink, and Wolvie, but it had a mystery character blacked out. On Monday, they revealed who the mystery character was: Valkyrie!

But a very different Valkyrie than readers are used to. See, normally Valkyrie is white girl with two long, blonde braids and armor that is similar to Thor's.

The Exiles Valkyrie isn't based on that version, though. Instead, she's based on the version seen in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). She has the same skin color, armor design, and eye markings. Also, it's hard to tell in this picture, but she has a blue cape that matches the Exiles character as well.

As far as I can tell from interviews, this Valkyrie is meant to be the MCU Valkyrie, or at least as close to it as possible. It's common for Marvel alternate universes to have several other universes that are practically indistinguishable from them, for the purposes of having drastic things happen to familiar universes while keeping the "main" one the same. This - as far as I know, at least - is the first time the MCU has received one of those adjacent universes.

Item Spotlight: Infinity Stones

These are the Infinity Gems. They have a long history in Marvel Comics, beginning in Marvel Premiere #1 (February 1972), when the Soul Gem first appeared. The rest of them appeared during The Power of Warlock (1972) and were originally called Soul Gems as a group. In The Thanos Quest (1990), Thanos changes the name to Infinity Gems since only one of them controls the soul.

In the MCU, Infinity Stones (note they're not called gems) first confirmed to exist in Thor: The Dark World (2013). However, that's not the first time one appeared.

The Tesseract (aka the Cosmic Cube in the comics) was first mentioned in Iron Man 2 (2010), first appeared in the post-credits scene of Thor (2011), played a major role in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), and then was first confirmed as an Infinity Stone in Thor: The Dark World (2013). At some point, probably in an interview, the Tesseract was confirmed to be the Space Stone.

The Aether first appeared in Thor: The Dark World (2013). At some point, it was revealed to be the Reality Stone.

The Orb first appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). It was confirmed to be the Power Stone.

The Mind Stone first appeared (sort of) as the Scepter in The Avengers (2012). The Mind Stone itself was first alluded to in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and then first appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). As the gem that powers the Vision, it was combined with the Sunstone from the comics.

The Time Stone was first alluded to in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), then first appeared as the center of the Eye of Agamotto in Doctor Strange (2016).

The Soul Stone (which is orange) has not appeared yet.

As you may have noticed, the colors of the Infinity Stones do not match the colors of the Infinity Gems. Keep that in mind below.

In the Marvel Universe, the universe was rewritten following Secret Wars. In practice, this doesn't mean much. No previous Marvel stories have been erased from existence. But it does allow them to change a few things going forward, and one of those changes is that Infinity Gems are now Infinity Stones. Other properties have changed as well.

They started reappearing in Marvel Legacy #1 (September 2017) with this blue stone.

The next one to appear was this giant purple stone in Guardians of the Galaxy #147 (November 2017). The writer says it's so big because of how much energy it has, but that it can be compressed.

Captain Marvel #126 (November 2017) debuted the next stone, a red one that was found in another reality.

The most recent one was also the first to be specifically named: the Time Stone. As you can see, it is now green. It showed up in Thanos #13 (December 2017). Interestingly, only a piece of it has been found so far, and it was found in the future.

Infinity Countdown Prime #1 (February 2018) shows that Turk Barrett has the Mind Stone...

...and Magus has the Soul Stone, until it's taken by Ultron.

Item Spotlight: Loki's Scepter

This is Loki's scepter. You know all about it.

But in case you don't, it first appeared in The Avengers (2012), as a weapon given to him by Thanos to help him invade Earth. In Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), we learn that it houses the Mind Stone inside its bauble.

It made its way into the comics in Loki: Agent of Asgard #16 (July 2015), although this one is just a modified version of Freyja's staff created by King Loki. (This particular image is from issue 17.)

I know they don't look exactly the same, but I think it's pretty clear the inspiration is there. Oh hey! I just realized kid Loki's jacket has the same weird half-zipper lapels that his movie outfits have. I'm not going to make a separate entry for that, but it's noted.