Both Marvel Comics’ Loki and DC Comics’ Mr. Mxyzptlk have spent decades gleefully tormenting some of their respective universes’ most powerful beings. Loki regularly plays head games with his adopted brother Thor to gain control of Asgard, while Mxyzptlk has basically defined himself as Superman’s number one prankster, often reshaping reality just to screw with the Man of Steel.
While these tricksters can easily make the lives of superheroes miserable, however, the question remains—which trickster has the power and skill to outwit the other? As it turns out, the answer, much like these two classic characters, is far from straightforward.
Mxyzptlk: Superman’s Arch-Prankster
Debuting as far back as 1944 in Superman #30, Mr. Mxyzptlk represented a departure from Superman’s usual foes—instead of being a physically powerful being like Metallo or a super genius like Lex Luthor, Mxyzptlk was a cartoonish imp from the Fifth Dimension who loved to play tricks on the Man of Steel. While other villains like the Toyman and the Prankster had done the same, Mxyzptlk was far more dangerous since his fifth-dimensional powers allowed him to reshape reality to his whims.
This meant he could transform anyone, including Superman’s friends and family, into barnyard animals any time he wanted. He could grant other people superpowers that rivaled Superman’s. He could even switch the genders of everyone on the planet if he thought it would be funny. Worse, since his fifth-dimensional powers qualified as a type of magic, Mxyzptlk’s “spells” could affect Superman himself.
Obviously, anyone with this much unlimited power represented a huge threat to Superman. Fortunately, Mxyzptlk had a few weaknesses Superman could exploit. His most famous was linked to his nearly-unpronounceable name: as long as Superman could trick the imp into saying his name backwards (“Kltpzyxm!”), Mxyzptlk would have to return to the Fifth Dimension.
Then there was his personality—although comic book writers portrayed him in different ways, Mxyzptlk usually acted like a naïve child (albeit a cunning and manipulative one). This was good, since the imp generally didn’t want to hurt anyone and usually allowed reality to revert to its normal form once he left Earth’s dimension.
Loki: Asgard’s Favorite Trickster
Where Mxyzptlk’s powers were native to all Fifth Dimension imps, Marvel Comics’ version of Loki gained his magical abilities through centuries of study and training. Originally a Frost Giant adopted into Odin’s family, Loki gained many additional abilities over the years, including shapeshifting, illusion casting, mind control, and other tricks he uses both maliciously and beneficially.
Due to his ongoing rivalry with his step-brother Thor, Loki typically uses his magic to manipulate others into doing what he wants. He’s been known to take on a seemingly benevolent guise only to reveal he’s been moving both heroes and villains alike to fall into an arrangement most beneficial to him. This usually involves him shapeshifting into different forms, including apparently harmless elderly people and children, or even assuming the shape of his step-father Odin to take control of Asgard’s throne.
Loki’s magic and Frost Giant heritage grant him many superhuman attributes, including super strength, durability, and speed, and he is a skilled fighter with centuries of experience—but once again, he typically employs guile in his battles. One of his favorite tricks is to cast illusory images of himself as decoys, allowing him to strike an opponent from behind. He can also overwhelm an opponent with multiple images of himself, making him appear to be a bigger threat than he actually is.
And therein lies Loki’s greatest difference from Mxyzptlk—while the Fifth Dimension imp has genuine reality warping abilities, Loki’s stratagems typically involve him using insubstantial illusions to overtake his foes. While these illusions can be remarkably effective, a sufficiently powerful opponent with the ability to power through such mirages can potentially take down Loki by simply penetrating his defenses.
Loki vs. Mxyzptlk
So, which magical villain is the better trickster? If we judged the characters based on the strength of their magical abilities, Mr. Mxyzptlk would easily take the top spot. While Loki may call himself the “God of Mischief,” Mxyzptlk’s feats easily dwarf anything Loki has done. During the Silver Age, the imp regularly warped buildings and people into cartoonishly ugly versions of themselves just for fun. Even in the Modern Age, the imp has shown insane levels of power—including the ability to cross between the Marvel and DC Universes at will.
And while Mxyzptlk may appear to be a mostly harmless prankster, when he cuts loose, his tricks can be truly devastating. In the classic Superman imaginary story “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” writer Alan Moore and artist Curt Swan depicted a Mxyzptlk who decided to engage in acts of pure evil. He ended up mind controlling Bizarro and Toyman into murdering hundreds of people, including Superman’s friend Pete Ross. He goaded Lex Luthor and Brainiac into engaging in an all-out war on the Fortress of Solitude which resulted in the deaths of Jimmy Olson and Lana Lang. Superman actually had to break his no-kill vow just to stop this Mxyzptlk, showing how dangerous he was.
When it comes to judging the strength of a prankster, however, power alone isn’t the deciding factor. Tricksters are, after all, manipulators—and few characters are as manipulative as Loki. Regardless of how much power Mxyzptlk might wield, Loki’s silver tongue and quick mind would eventually discern the imp’s weaknesses and exploit them for his own ends. Loki could easily trick Mxyzptlk into saying his name backwards (a feat accomplished multiple times with relative ease by Superman), putting an end to the fight almost before it began.
However, Loki would more likely trick Mxyzptlk into using his magic for the God of Mischief’s own purposes—making him lay waste to Asgard, for instance, so Loki could finally conquer his adopted land (or possibly paint himself as Asgard’s savior so the people would willingly submit to him). And once Loki figures out that Mxyzptlk belongs to a whole race of all-powerful imps, he might journey to the Fifth Dimension and try to conquer that realm as well.
Unfortunately, here Loki’s ambition will once again cost him—for while Mxyzptlk may be a naïve (if potentially harmful) prankster, the other imps of the Fifth Dimension are not so easy to deceive. Loki might very well wind up transformed into a house plant if he tries to take on the imp’s entire race, showing the last laugh…will be on him.