HELA'S FATHER WAS A LOKI FROM A DEAD RAGNAROK
Hela is Loki's daughter — just not the Loki anyone in Asgard knows. Her father was an earlier incarnation of the trickster, one who lived and died in a previous turn of the Ragnarok cycle, long before the present age of the gods began.
Her mother was the giantess Angrboda, and Hela was born in Jotunheim, the land of the giants, carrying a pedigree from a version of reality that had already ended once.
When she came of age, Odin appointed her Goddess of the Dead and handed her Hel and Niflheim to rule — a crown granted by decree, in Journey into Mystery #102 (1964), rather than one she seized for herself. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby adapted her from the Norse Hel for that debut.
WHY IT'S OBSCURE
Asgard's history runs in cycles of destruction and rebirth, and Hela is a survivor's child from the far side of one — her parentage only makes sense once you know the gods have all died before.
Screen versions recast her as a firstborn of the royal house, but the comics give the All-Father no blood claim on her at all; his one act in her origin was signing her appointment papers.
Her charter covered the ordinary and dishonored dead while the honored dead stayed outside it, and that single exclusion powered decades of her campaigns against Asgard.
GALLERY
BULLPEN BULLETINS — SOURCES
- Journey into Mystery Vol. 1 #102 (1964), Marvel Comics — Hela's first appearance, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
- Wikipedia — Hela (character)
- ComicBook.com — Thor Ragnarok: Who Is Hela?
- Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.