First Appearance of Loki: Journey into Mystery #85

Loki, as Marvel readers know him, first appeared in Journey into Mystery #85, cover-dated October 1962, created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby (Wikipedia). It is only Thor's third appearance, and PriceCharting also lists it as the first appearance of Odin, Heimdall and Asgard.

In the story, Odin has imprisoned Loki inside a tree until someone sheds a tear for him. Loki makes a leaf fall into Heimdall's eye, the tear frees him, and he goes to New York for revenge on Thor, causing chaos with hypnosis and illusions until Thor defeats him and sends him back to Asgard for Odin's judgment (Freeman/Lozier Library, Bellevue University).

Marvel's predecessor published a Loki thirteen years earlier. In Venus #6 (August 1949) he is shown among the Olympian gods and is sent back to the Underworld after Venus stops his plan to spread hate (Wikipedia). PriceCharting also labels Venus #6 the first appearance of Loki. Its values, retrieved September 25, 2026: ungraded $236.86, CGC 2.0 $336.00, 3.0 $602.00, 4.0 $752.00 and 6.0 $1,560.00. Sales are about one a year, so these are rough. Most collectors treat Journey into Mystery #85 as the Loki key, and the price gap shows it.

PriceCharting values, retrieved September 25, 2026:

• Ungraded: $1,180.00
• CGC 4.0: $1,946.96 (about one sale a week)
• CGC 6.0: $4,454.12 (about one a month)
• CGC 8.0: $11,729.24 (about five a year)
• CGC 9.2: $21,673.80 (about one a year)
• CGC 9.6: $146,906.79 (rare)

The step from 9.2 to 9.6 multiplies the price by almost seven, because so few copies from 1962 survive in that condition. An ungraded copy also sold for $419.00 in September 2026, a reminder that raw copies vary widely with condition.

• The Avengers #1 (September 1963): Loki's scheme brings Iron Man, Ant-Man, the Hulk, Thor and the Wasp together; the Wasp names the team after they defeat him (Wikipedia, Avengers).
• 2008: after Ragnarök, Loki returns in a female body.
• Journey into Mystery #622 to #645 (2011 to 2012): Loki reborn as Kid Loki.
• Young Avengers (2013): the reborn Loki appears as a teenager.
• Loki: Agent of Asgard (2014): writer Al Ewing established that Loki is bisexual and would shift between genders at times.

Unless marked, these points are from Wikipedia's Loki article.

Hela first appeared in Journey into Mystery #102 (March 1964), by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In the comics she is Loki's daughter by the giantess Angrboða, born in Jotunheim to an earlier incarnation of Loki who died in a previous Ragnarök. The films changed this: in Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Cate Blanchett's Hela is Odin's daughter, which makes her Thor's sister rather than his niece (Wikipedia, Hela). The question of who fathered a child with Hela has no answer in the sources we checked; Wikipedia's article records no children of hers. What it records is her own parentage, Loki and Angrboða.

Tom Hiddleston first played Loki in Thor (2011) and returned in later Marvel films and in the Disney+ series Loki (2021), in which he is the title character (Wikipedia). For the comic that started it all, look for Journey into Mystery #85.

Northstar is the answer usually given. He first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979), but an editorial policy against openly gay characters kept his orientation implied for years; in Alpha Flight #106 (1992) he said on the page that he is gay, making him the first openly gay character to come out in a Marvel comic. He married Kyle Jinadu in Astonishing X-Men #51 (June 2012), the first same-sex wedding in mainstream comics (Wikipedia, Northstar).

• Indicia: the small print on the first page or inside cover gives the title, issue number, date and publisher; reprints and facsimiles say so there.
• Cover price and barcode: a price or barcode that did not exist in the cover year means a later edition.
• Paper: decades-old newsprint tans at the edges; bright white pages on an old date are a warning sign.
• Restoration: color touch, trimmed edges and replaced covers are common on expensive keys; a grading service such as CGC can detect them. See spot a fake or restored comic.

Shoot the front cover flat and straight on in even light, then the indicia and the back cover. For Journey into Mystery #85 the indicia should read Journey into Mystery, issue 85, dated October 1962. Venus #6 is a separate 1949 title, so check the title before comparing prices. ComicLens reads the title, issue number and cover art from the photo and shows a reference price range that moves with the grade you pick; there are free scans every day.

Research and drafting were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed on this page. Prices are the figures shown by the named source on the date given; they change with the market.