Bagheera

Earlier volumes of JiM are not required reading (I haven't read them). Having seen the Thor movie helps a bit, too, because then you know who the Warrior's Three are if you didn't already. Other things you need to know... well, Loki and Balder both sacrificed themselves to save Asgard before this, and before THAT Loki was female and pretended to be reformed and then he did lots of really evil stuff with Doctor Doom (which is the reason Tyr is dead and hanging out with Hel) so no one is particularly keen on having him back. I think the second trade paperback of this volume is more problematic because it's a tie-in to a big Marvel Event, Fear Itself, which again I haven't read and in some places I felt it suffered from the tie-in. But the first tpb is very self-contained.