Loki is a prisoner in The Raft, the jail for supervillains, relating
this story to his unseen guest….
“The Man From Up North” features Loki as a diabolical
gameplayer in the Old West, helping mercenary troubleshooter Wolverine track
down the gang responsible for a bloody bank robbery. Loki strolls into the
saloon where the bank gang is hanging out and playing cards; he puts on his “devilish
tempter” act and one of the crooks shoots him in the head. But Loki sits up a
few minutes later (a horned crown does supply skull protection) and then
Wolverine walks in and a huge battle breaks out…and Loki realizes that before
he was the God of Stories he was the God of Outcasts.
Loki drew his guest there with the promise of one last story
and wants to know if he’s telling the truth or not because he wants to know if
his head full of memories is real—and that the approaching danger is something to
fear. It turns out he’s talking to Verity Willis who can detect any lie—and she
knows that everything Loki is saying is becoming true just as he recalls it. So
he breaks out of prison, opens a portal, and invites Verity to join him in a
story that is far from over….