COMICS GREATEST ROMANCES

Kid Loki and Leah of Hel, B.F.F.s – A study of milkshakes and melancholy

Okay, so here’s the thing about romance – happily ever after is basically the beginning of the end.

Maybe my idea of romance is a little tied up in actual Romanticism.  (I mean, have you seen the Romantics?  Those guys were super goth, complete with hair like Eldritch circa First and Last and Always.)  As an intellectual point of view that is the antithesis to Enlightenment era order and rationalism, Romanticism is about unpredictability and extremes.  Which are not sustainable in a happily ever after situation.  Nothing is less romantic than all that mundane stuff that comes in the settling down aftermath of happily ever after.  Therefore, I contend that the best romance has a tragic ending, preserving forever a sublime heartbreak that hurts-so-good.  

Which brings me to Kid Loki and Leah of Hel.  Their story spans Kieron Gillen’s @kierongillen  run on Journey Into Mystery (2011-2012), with bonus feels occurring in Young Avengers (2013).  Leah is the handmaiden of Hela, sent to aid Loki in various tasks.  In need of not just a helper but also a friend, Kid Loki enthusiastically embraces Leah’s companionship, seemingly impervious to her attempts at keeping her distance by way of sardonic banter.

There are moments when you realize that Leah doesn’t actually dislike Loki, that as a literal embodiment of Hela’s left hand, Leah lacks the autonomy to form a bond with him. And your heart will break a little.  Then there are moments when you realize that they’re both just doomed, and your heart will break a lot.  They are each in their own way children isolated from meaningful connections by forces profoundly outside of their control.  But they have each other.  Until they don’t, because they can’t.  This isn’t even romance with a tragic ending.  It’s romance with a tragic beginning!    

BUT IT GETS EVEN MORE TRAGIC!  The romance of Kid Loki and Leah of Hel is ultimately about stabbing yourself in the heart to hurt the one who cares about you most, but for their own good.  A preemptive act of love and betrayal all at once.  And so the romance is preserved forever precisely because it emphatically can’t ever happen.  And it just…hurts.  So good. Read through Manchester Gods for a nice, cathartic cry.  Read through to the end for a great, gasping ugly-cry.

Tia Vasiliou is a Digital Editor at ComiXology. She has it on good authority that she is None More Goth.