And we're getting so much closer because now we know who Thor will be facing off against and that's Tom Hiddleston as the trickster Loki!
en cast as the villain Loki in the highly anticipated movie "Thor."Kenneth Branagh will direct the film penned by Mark Protosevich and Ashley Miller & Zak Stentz.
real name: amoraThe Enchantress' parentage is unknown, though it is known she has a sister by the name of Lorelei. In time, Amora became one of the more powerful magic-wielders in Asgard, with her magical arsenal focused on (but not limited to) charming and mind-controlling people. Her by now well renowned beauty did not hinder in this.
Amora has devoted her immortal life to the pursuit of power and pleasure, using sorcery and sexuality as her tools. Born into the Asgardian gods, Amora studied under the mighty sorceress Karnilla The Norn Queen, who ultimately expelled her for being too undisciplined. Amora went on to study under many other Asgardian mages, often seducing them to learn their secrets. By the time she reached adulthood, Amora was a powerful sorceress, famous for her beauty and infamous for her heartless scheming. An early alliance with the warrior goddess Brunnhilde the Valkyrie ended with Amora trapping Brunnhilde's soul, using the Valkyrie's vacated form as a shell for herself and various pawns to inhabit over the centuries that followed. Brunnhilde would eventually return, becoming one of Amora's bitterest enemies.
Amora's longest-serving pawn was Skurge the Executioner. Skurge was madly in love with Amora, who granted him just enough affection to ensure his loyalty. The two pursued many schemes together, often coming into conflict with the thunder god Thor and his mortal comrades, the Avengers. When Skurge eventually sacrificed his life aiding Thor in an heroic rescue mission, Amora mourned him with a genuine grief that surprised everyone, including the Enchantress herself.
Other smitten pawns such as the original Power Man (Erik Josten) and a new, human Executioner (Brute Benhurst) never served the Enchantress quite so well as Skurge, and were soon abandoned. Pardoned in recent years after helping defend Asgard against Surtur, Amora has had an on-and-off romantic link with her longtime foe Thor, to whom she was drawn even more strongly after he inherited the throne of Asgard. As Thor's ally, advisor and sometime lover, Amora has been a prominent figure in Thor's Asgard. Sadly, Amora was among the many Asgardians apparently slain when Thor's brother Loki led a revolt in fulfillment of the Ragnarok prophecies. Whether she will rise again remains to be seen.
real name: norman osbornRuthless industrialist Norman Osborn was the co-owner of a leading New York firm, Osborn Industries, which specialized in chemical manufacturing via Osborn Chemicals, as well as other areas of research and development, including robotics. His wife Emily died within a year after the birth of their son Harry, leaving Norman embittered. The product of an oppressively stern upbringing by an alcoholic father who lost the family fortune, Norman raised Harry dispassionately, often devoid of fatherly warmth, being chafed by Harry's failure to demonstrate academic excellence or a competitive drive. Despite living in reacquired opulence, Harry felt depressed and neglected by his father. Unbeknownst to Harry, Norman had risen in power by participating in a collusion enabling the creation of powerful opponents to challenge the super-hero community, thereby offering corrupt corporations a means to distract the heroes from probing into their affairs. One failure in this regard involved using Osborn Industries employee Nels Van Adder as a human test subject, transforming him into the disfigured "Protogoblin." Osborn dodged accusations of wrongdoing from his head of security, Arthur Stacy, and his brother Detective George Stacy. He discovered the notes of his business partner, Professor Mendel Stromm, for a strength-enhancing serum. Stromm was jailed after Norman had him arrested for embezzling funds, allowing Osborn to gain full control of the firm. Osborn tested the serum upon himself in his private lab, but the unstable concoction exploded in his face leaving him hospitalized for weeks. He emerged smarter and superhumanly strong, but at the cost of his sanity. (After Harry's death, Spider-Man discovered recordings in which Harry claimed to have been responsible for the serum exploding, bitter at being neglected by his father; however, Harry suffered mentally instability at the time of these recollection; the veracity of this claim is unknown.)
The amnesia proved to be only temporary however and Osborn relapsed into his Goblin persona twice more only to be defeated by Spider-Man each time. After helping rescue Peter Parker's girlfriend Gwen Stacy and her father, retired police captain George Stacy, from a kidnapping by the Kingpin, Osborn had a brief affair with Gwen which resulted in an unusually rapid pregnancy and secret birth of twins, Gabriel and Sarah. Though Gwen left the twins in the care of Osborn's people in France, Gwen refused to give Norman custody of the twins, fearing that the fate of Norman's son, Harry - mentally deteriorating and turning to illegal hallucinogenic drugs - would befall her own children. Osborn threatened Gwen, but she insisted that she would tell Peter the truth. Gwen believed Peter would marry her and raise the twins, trusting that Parker's love for her would oversee her failings. This prompted the third emergence of Norman's dark side, propelling what would be one of the darkest hours in Spider-Man's career. In a strike against both Gwen and Spider-Man, the Green Goblin kidnapped Gwen and took her to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge. In an act of brutality during a melee with Spider-Man, the Goblin threw Gwen from the bridge. Spider-Man attempted to save her but she had already died during the fall. Filled with rage, Spider-Man savagely attacked the Goblin nearly killing him.
He returned to his senses at the last minute however, while the Goblin took the opportunity to attempt one final play by remotely controlling his damaged goblin glider to impale the wall crawler. Spider-Man was able to dodge the glider which instead impaled the Goblin, seemingly killing him. The nightmare was over...or at least that's what Peter thought.
Harry Osborn, Norman's son, had witnessed the apparent death of his father at the hands of Spider-Man and removed the Goblin costume before the authorities could arrive, thus preserving his secret identity. He even bribed the coroner so that further autopsy reports would show no mention of the "goblin" formula in Norman's blood. And for many years, the world believed Norman Osborn to be dead.
The Amazing Spider-Man #583
real name: sean cassidyIreland's storied Cassidy clan is an ancient and noble lineage steeped in heroism, secrets, adventure, feuds and tragedy, all of which Sean Cassidy would inherit in some measure. The family's ancestral home is Cassidy Keep, a fortress-like castle in a remote, sparsely populated coastal area of County Mayo, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean from high atop the granite cliff Cassidy Crag. The Cassidy presence there predates historical records, and Cassidy Keep itself was built by Liam Cassidy over a thousand years ago to defend the Irish coast against Viking raiders. The Keep also covertly sheltered the "Families" (diminutive enchanted leprechauns or elves). In recent decades, the castle's Seneschal (steward), Eamon O'Donnell, has served as both caretaker of Cassidy Keep and guardian of the "Families". Born and raised in Cassidy Keep, Sean Cassidy had a happy boyhood there, fantasizing about fighting dragons and rescuing damsels. During adolescence, Sean discovered his mutant sonic powers but concealed them - partly because his wail spooked the superstitious elders of the community, who likened it to the ghostly banshees of Irish lore.
Banshee soon teamed with Jubilee, Emma Frost and a reluctant Sabretooth to rescue a group of mutant teens from the extraterrestrial Phalanx. One of the teens, Blink, sacrificed herself to make the victory possible. The survivors, Jubilee and various other young mutants all enrolled in Xavier's new youth education program at the Massachusetts Academy, with Sean and a newly reformed Emma as co-headmasters. Cassidy and Frost worked together uneasily at first, and experienced several severe fallings-out, but gradually forged a mutually respectful working relationship and a strong bond with their students, Generation X. This alcoholic downslide, combined with Emma's wavering morality, funding troubles, and other factors, led to the disbanding of the Generation X program.
Sean had barely begun to heal, both emotionally and physically, when he uncovered vital information regarding the recent disappearance of Charles Xavier. Unwilling to entrust this information to electronic communication, he flew back to America via commercial aircraft, but the X-Men's mysterious new foe Vulcan seized control of the X-Men's Blackbird jet and set it on a collision course with Sean's plane. Healed enough to fly short distances under his own power, Banshee exited the plane and could have flown to safety, but instead tried to save his fellow passengers by sonically deflecting the Blackbird. However, the injured Banshee lacked the power to accomplish this feat, and was caught between the two planes in a fiery mid-air explosion, sacrificing himself to protect innocent human lives.
