The One Villain Stronger Than Galactus' Master is Confirmed by Loki
Warning: Contains spoilers for Thor #24
The most beloved incarnation of Loki in recent years is finally back, but he is bringing with him a grave danger for the whole Marvel Multiverse: a villain so powerful that even the Black Winter, Galactus' dread master, looks like "an angry jelly baby" in comparison.
Loki is sometimes the god of lies, and more often the god of stories. Loki has changed aspects and personality many times over the course of the years, but no version was as well-received as the one presented in Loki: Agent of Asgard, an ongoing series by Al Ewing and Lee Garbett that ran between 2014 and 2015. At the end of the series, which coincided with the destruction of the entire Multiverse at the hands of the Beyonders in Secret Wars, that version of Loki decided he "needed a break," and disappeared through a portal to the unknown. The post-Secret Wars Loki was a different one, but fans kept hoping that the beloved version created by Al Ewing would reappear. They were rewarded when Marvel announced the new Defenders: Beyond series, written by Ewing, which will star "his" Loki. A story in Thor #24 bridges the gap between Agent of Asgard and Defenders, showing how and when Loki reappears, bringing with him the warning of impending danger that is superior to the Black Winter, the cosmic entity that used the mighty Galactus as his own herald, and destroyed one of the previous iterations of the Multiverse.
Marvel introduced the Black Winter as a powerful new villain in recent Thor stories, and used it to explain the origins of Galactus. Readers knew that the creature once known as Galan hailed from a previous universe, one that was completely destroyed by an unknown event (later revealed to be the Black Winter). After being left as the lone survivor of this universe, Galan was reborn as Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds. Galactus' universe of origin is the Sixth Cosmos (the fifth iteration of the Marvel Multiverse in its constant cycle of death and rebirth), and that's where Loki arrives in the Thor #24 story "What Comes Next" by Al Ewing, Lee Garbett, and Antonio Fabela. Loki's portal opens in the presence of the Scienceer Supreme Taaia, Galan's mother who appeared in the recently concluded Defenders series, also written by Ewing. When she points out that the new arrival is not a servant of the Black Winter, Loki answers that he just caught a glimpse of something much, much worse.
Considering that this story serves as an introduction for Defenders: Beyond (coming out in July 2022), it is very likely that the mysterious threat glimpsed by Loki is the Beyonder, who has been teased as the main antagonist for the new series. Indeed, the story further describes it as a menace "from beyond the threshold of time," and Loki points out that there are "things that have dominion out there," which all points in the direction of the Beyonders, near-omnipotent creatures that lived outside the Multiverse and were apparently destroyed during Secret Wars. The Beyonder (the original member of this species who appeared in Marvel's stories) could have survived that event, and his full powers certainly make even the Black Winter, who was killed by a Galactus-empowered Thor, pale in comparison.
It is great to see that Al Ewing is bringing back one of his most beloved characters for his new Defenders series. His storytelling always reaches deep into the metatextual level and Loki, in his capacity as the god of stories, is perfect for that, as he showed in Agent of Asgard. Loki's cunning and resources will be certainly needed when the new Defenders team crosses the path of the Beyonder (if he is actually the mysterious threat), a villain who makes even the master of Galactus look like a pushover.