#and also I theorize that since Loki was also pushed through the windows multiple times he knew Tony would survive that

[worstloki]

Hi, I saw your tags on a post about Loki's injured back in avengers 1 and I take it you and other people I've seen mention it mean before Hulk smashed him into the ground? Where does that come from? My memory isn't the best but I've re-watched the avengers 1 movie not too long ago and I don't recall anything about a back injury. Did I miss something?

carrying the thor franchise did it to him 😔😔😔

Yes! Basically, Loki’s back gives way a few times in the SHIELD facility (skip to 0:55 and 1:05) after only just arriving through the portal, and he’s already not looking too good in those scenes, added with the fact that Loki was definitely tortured during the year between Thor 1 and Avengers 1 also makes that the only probable cause we’re shown while establishing his back is already messed up. 

He also hits his back multiple times in the film before the Hulk smash:

- at the end of the fight with Cap when Tony blasts him into stairs (skip to 3:40)

- When Thor drags him off the quinjet by his neck and slams him back-first into a mountain (skip to 1:15 and watch the scene play out)

- Coulson uses the destroyer gun to shoot him through a metal wall back-first (skip to 2:20)

- You could also consider the Iron Man suit deploying after the “We Have A Hulk” speech which pushes him into bending backwards, although we don’t see him fall (skip to 3:38) and even if it doesn’t look like a heavy landing Tony then repulsor blasts him onto his back too (4:05)

- Thor kicks him back-first through a sheet of glass (skip to 1:35)

- When Hawkeye’s arrow explodes in his hand he’s forced to roll onto his back when landing (skip to 0:24)

- Before he gets Hulk-smashed Hulk hits him backwards through a glass screen and he hits his back into a marble/stone bar feature wall (skip to 0:34)

And then Loki gets Hulk smashed (and his back is hit 6ish times into the stone flooring hard enough to leave indentations). 

I think it’s also worth noting that Asgardians do not get injured very easily and heal fast... so his back would’ve had to have been either very recently or extremely badly injured sometime before he arrived on Earth for it to have been sustained throughout the film.

It’s also worth mentioning that when Loki’s back gets hit and he has the chance he tends to talk or stall for time (eg. SHIELD facility, surrendering to Iron Man, rolling off the roof with Thor, trying to monologue to Hulk). And that he acts well enough to conceal the injury during fights even if his back tends to be braced and kept stiller than it could be at times (reflected in how he fights the Avengers: more offensive and scattered than we’ve seen before, likely to divert the attention of opponents?). 

Oh, and to top it all off, we’ve also never seen him reveal that he’s been tortured or seen anyone suspect it so we can assume no one in-universe knows :)