Tag Archives: Valkyrie

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War of the Realms: Week Five

As promised, before running down the three War of the Realms reads for week five, here’s a continuation of my tribute to the dearly departed Brunnhilde — Odin’s favorite, first among the Valkyries, and first in my heart… 😢

Last week we looked at my five favorite Val covers from the seventies through the present, singling out only standard cover designs (or, as we called them before the variant era, “covers”). When Brunnhilde was restored in the pages of Busiek and Larsen’s wonderful 2001 Defenders series, she received what is, in all likelihood, her first variant showcase courtesy of Arthur Adams. It’s a good one. But it didn’t quite make the cut of top 5 variants. Surprisingly, we had a lot to choose from. In chronological order:

Secret Avengers #4 (2010)
Variant cover by Chris Bachalo

I’m never a fan of those line-wide trade dress frames, even when they’re composed of nothing but the beautiful Women of Marvel. They invariably take away from the art, as this one threatens to do to Chris Bachalo’s dope ass Valkyrie swinging a giant ass Dragonfang. Love this. And the Secret Avengers book, like the aforementioned Defenders vol. 2, is a sorely underrated, kooky gem.

Secret Avengers #6 (2010)
Variant cover by Marko Djurdjević

Case in point. Check out how much cleaner another Women of Marvel variant is, two issues later, this time by Djurdjević. By the 2010’s, Val’s costume had undergone a few minor changes here and there, which of course is totally common for superheroes and their ilk. But bless you, Marko, for reminding us of the best part of that original John Buscema character design — those sweet straps criss-crossing Val’s calves above those totally impractical black ballet slippers. Sure, the fur-lined Viking boots make more sense, but when is logic ever welcome in fantasy costume creation?

Fear Itself: The Fearless #7 (2011)
Variant cover by Frank Cho

Frank Cho has a special knack for certain characters. While his gorgeous pin-up style was more often employed with the Ultimate universe’s version of Valkyrie, he did show off that certain set of skills on the 616’s Brunnhilde for this variant of The Fearless. The series itself, like much of the Fear Itself event, is forgettable. But hard to forget a pose like that.

Fearless Defenders #1 (2013)
Variant cover by Milo Manara

Following a sexy X-Women collaboration with Chris Claremont, Italian erotic comics legend Milo Manara did a number of variant covers for Marvel in 2013. Following a touch of controversy surrounding his (in)famous Spider-Woman cover, Marvel discontinued plans for future work. Luckily, he knocked out this fantastic cover for the otherwise shitty Fearless Defenders series first.

War of the Realms #2 (2019)
Variant cover by Javier Garrón‏

Garrón, a Spanish artist and 2019 “Young Gun,” got my attention on Matt Rosenberg’s Secret Warriors, but he really blew me away on Mark Waid’s Ant-Man & Wasp mini. Now he’s killing it on Saladin Ahmed’s Miles Morales book and he got tabbed to design one of the variant covers for last month’s War of the Realms #2, that fateful issue in which Brunnhilde was so rudely removed from the playing field. It’s a great tribute to Marvel’s valkyrior in general, with a vibrant focus on our favorite Val. Check out his Blogspot for some sketch studies that went into the cover art.

Continue reading War of the Realms: Week Five →

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War of the Realms: Week Four

Continuing our weekly survey of everything War of the Realms with some quick reactions on the three event tie-in books that came out this Wednesday. But first, a moment of silence for last week’s dearly departed, the O.G. Valkyrie. The Asgardian shield-maiden’s name and role will live on, of course, thanks to Tessa Thompson and Jane Foster, but, for the time-being at least, the Marvel Universe will have to do without their original Scandinavian warrior woman with the killer blonde braids. And because I’ve become particularly fond of this character in recent years (especially after digging in to her bonkers origin stories), I’m going to offer up, as tribute, my top 5 Brunnhilde the Valkyrie covers over the decades.

She hasn’t been on a lot of covers, of course (but more than your average B-lister, to be sure), but I still had a hard time narrowing it down. So instead of one top 5 list, I’ll share two: this week a list of standard covers, followed up by favorite variants next week. We live in the Golden Age of collectible alternate covers, of course. We’ve come a looong way since 1989’s Legends of the Dark Knight #1 and its multiple cover colors (save that little nugget, trivia fans) and Val has been featured on more than her share of retailer incentives. But the classics come first, in chronological order:

The Incredible Hulk #142 (1971)
Cover by Herb Trimpe

This is Valkyrie’s second appearance, and the first time Brunnhilde’s spirit is housed in a human host. It wasn’t the mentally unstable and long-time Defender Barbara Norriss, however, but Manhattan socialite and feminist activist Samantha Parrington getting the mystical whammy from Enchantress. The iconic cover by the wonderful Herb Trimpe was actually given the homage treatment in a recent “Hasbro Toy” variant cover on a 2014 issue of Hulk.

Defenders #4 (1973)
Cover by John Buscema and Jim Starlin

The classic issue in which crazy-ass Barbara gets Brunnhilde zapped into her body and takes over Aragorn from the turned-to-stone Black Knight. Norriss was the longest-running host for Valkyrie, and her best and craziest adventures happened in the pages of The Defenders, beginning with this Steve Englehart run before getting passed along to Steve Gerber and J.M. Dematteis.

Marvel Two-in-One #7 (1975)
Cover by John Romita, Sr.

This one is special for a few reasons. Besides being a great Romita cover, it’s also the beginning of Gerber’s seminal Defenders work. The totally bonkers Celestial Harmonica story, and its connection to Valkyrie, begins in this comic. On a personal level, this brings back special memories because it was part of that battered batch of comics that made up my collection long, long ago before I discovered comic book shops, bags & boards, and all the rest. To this day, when I think of my earliest impressions of this character, they take me back to this issue. I don’t know where that beat-to-hell copy is today (scant few remain from those early years, save for some odd G.I. Joes, Peter Porkers and Spider-Mans), but I have since added a more pristine copy to my grown-up collection.

Defenders #130 (1984)
Cover by Frank Cirocco

In the last years of its life, as the original Defenders title limped off to eventual cancellation, gutted by the X-Factor genesis, the book took on the “New” moniker in an effort to make it somehow more appealing. It also featured some incredible eye-popping cover artwork from folks like Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, and Bill Sienkiewicz. But easily one of the best — and my personal favorite — is this Valkyrie cover by the great Frank Cirocco. Frank was one-half of the creative team behind Alien Legion, still one of the classic works of sci-fi in the comics medium. I can’t remember what happens in this particular Defenders issue (and I don’t care enough to Google it), but I remember the era well, and love this cover.

Fear Itself: The Fearless #12 (2012)
Cover by Art Adams

Flash forward several decades into the modern capes n’ tights era (or the “Diamond Age” if you’re a fan of our trivia nights) to the point in which Valkyrie has been restored to her original, beautiful, Brunnhilde self (but just prior to the silly Annabelle Riggs body-timeshare ploy). The great Arthur Adams did a number of great Valkyrie covers during the Fear Itself event and he also featured her on a gorgeous variant cover for Busiek and Larsen’s underappreciated 2001 Defenders relaunch. This capper to the The Fearless spinoff series is classic.

Continue reading War of the Realms: Week Four →

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Asgardians of the Galaxy

At the onset of Marvel’s current Fresh Start, the publisher made a predictably uniform push to give its marquee characters renewed rack appeal. The whole initiative kicked off with Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness’s new volume of The Avengers and, in short order we had new #1 issues for fan-favorites like Deadpool, Venom, and Thor. From those first solicitations, there seemed to be very little “freshness” in the back-to-basics approach promised by new EIC C.B. Cebulski. Thor was a boy again; Peter Parker was a broke shmuck again. Tony Stark wasn’t dead, or in a coma, or whatever… and The Avengers looked more or less like the casual fan expected. I braced myself for a disappointing regression from the diversity, creativity, and artistic experimentation that had made Marvel stand apart from the major publishers in recent years.

Instead, I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that Fresh Start, while pandering slightly to the fans who couldn’t deal with a Black Captain America or teenage girl in Iron Man armor, has been replete with some genuine excitement. Creativity preempts the same old: Mike del Mundo and Christian Ward, whose fantastic art is outside the capes ‘n tights norm, get the nod to kick off Jason Aaron’s final Thor volume. Al Ewing and Joe Bennett re-imagine Hulk as a chilling EC-inspired horror book.

Women writers take the reins on noteworthy titles: Kelly Thompson is tapped to bring back West Coast Avengers. Mariko Tamaki unveils the best Laura Kinney to date in the new X-23. And Margaret Stohl continues to orchestrate the comic book face of the MCU’s proudest new property, Captain Marvel.

Most interestingly, however, peppered among the predictable #1 issues, is a host of oddball books and unexpected revivals. Jeff Lemire is writing a great Sentry. Matthew Rosenberg is allowed to bring Multiple Man back from the dead. Cosmic Ghost Rider — maybe as odd as it gets — graduates from the pages of Donny Cates’s Thanos into his own mini. And my favorite Marvel B-lister of them all, Valkyrie, leads a marvelously unusual crew of cosmic godlings in this week’s Asgardians of the Galaxy #1.

Continue reading Asgardians of the Galaxy →

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Four Color Primer: Valkyrie, Part 4

Taika Waititi’s highly anticipated Thor: Ragnarok opens in theaters this weekend, and the hype engine has been revving ever louder for the indie filmmaker’s first Hollywood blockbuster. Among interview bon mots like Waititi’s stance that he’d love another chance at an MCU film, so long as it’s Thor, because he doesn’t “really like any of the other characters,” is buzz regarding Marvel’s first openly LGBTQ character, Valkyrie, played by Tessa Thompson.

boom! – nice to meet you

We’ve been detailing Valkyrie’s comic book backstory and, if you’ve been following along since the first installment, know that this unnecessarily in-depth primer is finally getting wrapped up. Thanks for sticking it out. If you’re here for the first time, welcome as well! And if Valkyrie’s bisexual orientation is what steered you here, then you’ve arrived at an opportune time. This four-part series on the Nordic shield-maiden is, ostensibly, a guided reading list of key storylines. In the process, however, we’ve shed some light on how the visions of various creative teams, over several decades, can shape and define a character. Her sexual orientation, for example, really came into focus within the last few years.

When last we left Brunnhilde of the Valkyrior, she had finally been restored to her true form, body and mind in the same place for the first time in centuries. Her memories were no longer muddied with those of mortal hosts like Samantha Parrington or Barbara Norriss (may she rest in peace); her powers of enhanced strength and combat skill had become more pronounced; and she was leading (at least in her own mind), the “New” Defenders. And then she died. Again.

Back Issue! #65, the B-Team edition

This was an editorial mandate to free up all those former X-Men for the launch of X-Factor. Without Beast, Iceman, and Angel, there was very little rack appeal for The Defenders, and the series was ticketed for cancellation. Despite her lengthy tenure on the team, Valkyrie really didn’t have a life outside of that title, so she was sadly sacrificed along with super-nobodies Interloper, Andromeda, Gargoyle, and Manslaughter. In an interview for Back Issue, Peter B. Gillis bemoans the premature demise of the team he had been building.

My long-term plan was to populate the Defenders with my own crew of characters… characters who nonetheless had ties to interesting parts of the Marvel Universe. Andromeda, while not the Sub-Mariner, gave me a connection to Atlantis. – Peter Gillis

Even though he didn’t get his chance to develop that crew, including some remarkably stupid characters (“I fell in love with Manslaughter as much as Don [Perlin] did. He was definitely going to stay a member”), Gillis found a way to bring back Valkyrie et al, in the pages of another book he was writing, Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme. Continue reading Four Color Primer: Valkyrie, Part 4 →

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The Mighty Thor #700

Every once in a while a book comes out that reminds us not only how much we love the glorious spark and bombast of superhero comics, but also how much we’ve loved them over the years, and how much these characters, creators, and concepts have meant to us through various stages of our lives. One of the principal aims of Marvel’s Legacy initiative is to pay tribute to Marvel’s storied past while paving the way for an exciting future. No one has taken that more to heart, or done a better job embodying those ideals, than Jason Aaron. In Week 3 of Marvel Legacy, Aaron and a host of incredible artists drop the “god-sized” Thor #700 on the shelves, and, verily, the earth doth shake with its majesty.

The War of the Ten Realms is still raging, and now things really escalate as Malekith and his armies move against the stronghold of the Norns at the base of the World Tree, Yggdrasil. The sisters who weave strands of fate are besieged, and in the process, the very fabric of storytelling itself comes under attack. It’s the perfect milieu for this launch, and the gorgeous two-page interior spread by Thor artist extraordinaire Russell Dauterman portends enough future storylines, each of them with threads connecting back to that legacy tapestry, to make your head spin. There’s Loki with the Infinity Gauntlet and Odinson with what looks like a golden hammer. Both Namor and Brunnhilde look primed for battle. Jane Foster might really (snif…) succumb to cancer and, in the background, the Mangog looms!

You want more Legacy? You’ve got more Legacy. What’s more Marvel than a classic Hulk vs. Thor battle? Except in the modern era, that means Thor, Goddess of Thunder, taking on Jennifer Walters, the hero formerly known as She-Hulk.

Continue reading The Mighty Thor #700 →

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Four Color Primer: Valkyrie, Part 3

Tessa Thompson joins Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Cate Blanchett as the sword-wielding Valkyrie in this November’s Thor: Ragnarok. There are many wonderfully succinct character bios available on the Internet that can illuminate her powers and backstory, but this isn’t one of them. This is part three in another ridiculously verbose Idle Time primer on Valkyrie, and if you’d like to get caught up, start with part one. If you are up to speed, and still reading these posts, thank you. I had no idea this little journey through oddball Marvel comics from the 70’s and 80’s would result in more than 10,000 words on an admittedly minor character. I’ve grown quite fond of Brunnhilde of the Valkyrior, to be honest. Regardless, I need to think about wrapping it up. But not before an in-depth look at the next writer responsible for putting his stamp on the character.

the Six-Fingered Hand saga begins in Defenders #94

Over the course of a decade, beginning in 1970, a handful of writers and artists took this concept and design, which began as nothing more than a villainous blind for Amora the Enchantress, and began to flesh out a complex and compelling character. She is Brunnhilde, leader of Odin’s nine valkyries, immortalized in popular culture by Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle. For reasons as yet unclear, she was held captive by Amora, with her persona and powers bent to the sorceress’s will. Eventually that persona was permanently embedded in the body of a human woman, Barbara Norriss. In turn, Barbara’s psyche was trapped in Brunnhilde’s body, still held captive by the Enchantress. Brunnhilde fought nobly for years, while inhabiting Barbara’s body, as a member of the Defenders. During a war in Valhalla, the immortal body of Brunnhilde animated by Barbara’s psyche was damned to Niffleheim, and Valkyrie, as she was now known, went back to the hero business seemingly devoid of the psychic feedback and confusion that had been linked to Barbara Norriss (although she still happily made use of Barbara’s body).

She was still a member of the Defenders, and this famous “non-team” title had been a wonderful below-the-radar outlet for trippy forays into non-traditional stories, social commentary, and general experiments in superhero team dynamics. The next major creator to play around in the Defender sandbox was J.M. DeMatteis and he, much like Gerber before him, used this series to explore themes that may not have gone over as easily in a mainstream book.

Valkyrie is shot from behind and killed in Defenders #107 (May, 1982)

Gods & Goddesses, Death & Rebirth

DeMatteis’s later work, particularly on books like the Moonshadow graphic novel and DC’s Spectre, clearly showcases the author’s interest in spirituality and humanity’s place in the universe. But a look back at his earlier books, including a Defenders run that began with issue #92, reveals a related fascination with religious iconography, the psychology of faith, and the concept of an immortal soul. What better instrument of exploration than Valkyrie, a character herself inspired from human religious beliefs, right?

Wrong. As DeMatteis launches into his first lengthy storyline, “The Six-Fingered Hand,” Val takes a backseat to recent Defenders recruits Hellcat, Devil-Slayer, and Daimon Hellstrom, as well as Gargoyle, a character first introduced in Defenders #94. The Hand in question is an alliance of demons, captained by Mephisto, looking to unleash literal hell on earth. Hellcat, our dear Golden-Age Patsy Walker, reveals that she might be the daughter of the devil, and that she was sold into demonic servitude… by her mother! What a great opportunity for Valkyrie to sympathize. After all, the human body that she’s running around in belonged to Barbara Norriss, who was sold off to a cult of demon worshipers by her mother.

this all sounds really familiar…

But no. Throughout this storyline, replete with demonic possessions and satanic pacts, Valkyrie is a minor supporting character, operating almost exclusively in the background. You begin to get the impression that, had he been able, DeMatteis would have written her off the team. Even in the climactic battle, in Defenders #100, Mephisto separates her along with Clea and Silver Surfer, disregarding their worth as “children of other worlds” to be “consigned to an eternity as nothings — in a realm of nothing!”

Continue reading Four Color Primer: Valkyrie, Part 3 →

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Four Color Primer: Valkyrie, Part 2

This is part two in a primer on the comic book saga of Valkyrie, portrayed in this fall’s Thor: Ragnarok by Tessa Thompson. For the first part of her story, including the origins of three different Valkyries, brought to life by comics legends Roy Thomas, John and Sal Buscema, and Steve Englehart, among others, click here.

Valkyrie magically connects to her teammates’ origins in Giant-Size Defenders #1 (July, 1974)

The newly incarnated Valkyrie, the persona of an Asgardian warrior in the body of a human named Barbara Norriss, may have been the missing ingredient that transformed these conflicting personalities into a team of Defenders. Or, at least, brought them dangerously close to establishing the identity that they had been denying for several issues. In Giant-Size Defenders #1, Doctor Strange’s disciple Clea guides Val through a framed narrative that helps her make sense of the “three titans” who, despite each possessing his own headstrong nature, seem to work so well together in this burgeoning super-squad.

part of the Valkyrie framing sequence, beautifully illustrated by Jim Starlin

Just as these normally solitary heroes are coming together as a team, however, Valkyrie asks for a leave of absence from the Defenders. She has unresolved issues with her past, specifically her connection to Barbara Norriss. But despite expressing a desire to part ways, Valkyrie soon finds herself fighting alongside the team on several adventures, including the famous Avengers/Defenders War.

Val is matched up against the Swordsman in the Avengers/Defenders War

That clash is precipitated by Doctor Strange’s solution for bringing the Black Knight back to life, currently existing as a stone statue in Strange’s home. But following the manipulations of Loki and Dormammu, members of each super-team find themselves squared off against one another in a competition to recover pieces of the Evil Eye. Cooler heads prevail (as is typically the case in these hero v. hero conflicts), and Val and her cohorts journey to the twelfth century in an effort to restore the limbo-locked soul of the Black Knight to the present. During this adventure, Valkyrie responsibly returns the Ebony Blade to its rightful owner.

Dane Whitman, however, makes the decision to remain in the past, alive again in the body of his ancestor. Since Aragorn didn’t make the trip back in time, Val gets to keep the Black Knight’s flying horse. In Defenders #12, Doctor Strange gives Val her new magic sword, Dragonfang, which was carved – not surprisingly – from the tooth of a dragon. A few issues later, new Defender Nighthawk uses his super-powered checkbook to buy Val a private riding academy for her winged steed. Pretty nice friends, kid.

you’ll never guess what a sword called “Dragonfang” was carved from

Continue reading Four Color Primer: Valkyrie, Part 2 →

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Four Color Primer: Valkyrie, Part 1

This fall’s Thor: Ragnarok may be winning the hype war with a rockin’ 80’s-themed trailer and a Planet Hulk-style interstellar gladiatorial tournament, but it’s those co-stars that really get my head banging. Cate Blanchett as Hela looks fantastic, and, like this guy, makes me want to buy toys again. Jeff Goldblum is inspired as the Grandmaster, and knowing that the director himself, Taika Waititi, gets his mo-cap suit on for a turn as the combatant Korg is delightful. This movie just looks like a great time. And my favorite addition to the party just might be the lovely Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie.

For the fourth in our series of comic book primers on B-list characters making big screen debuts, we’ve mined the archives and dug deep into the vaults. Presented here is a fairly comprehensive history of Valkyrie’s funnybook career, accompanied by reading recommendations for anyone even as remotely obsessive as myself.

Valkyries in Norse tradition are the mythical warrior women who preside over mortal battles, shepherding the chosen slain into the halls of Valhalla, where the noble combatants can revel, drinking mead and sharpening their axes in anticipation of Ragnarok. In a Marvel universe already well populated with mythological characters and lore, it was only a matter of time before Brunnhilde the Valkyrie made an appearance. This Valkyrie, like her kinsman Thor, possesses superhuman strength befitting an immortal Asgardian, but instead of a hammer, swings a big-ass sword as her weapon of choice. She’s also surprisingly less married to that Nordic tradition than is the God of Thunder. For years she flew around on the back of Aragorn, a winged horse handed down from the Arthurian-inspired hero Black Knight. She even picked up his Ebony Blade for a spell, before replacing it with the still-not-very-Viking-sounding Dragonfang. And, at least during the earlier years of her career, she was much more interested in punching men in the face than escorting them to the afterlife.

This Valkyrie is more than just an anachronistic collection of accessories in a hot outfit, and her origin story is as bizarre and non-traditional as any comic book hero that came to life in the gloriously zany 1970’s. Read on, for a backstory that involves demon-worshiping cultists, celestial harmonicas, and Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung.
Continue reading Four Color Primer: Valkyrie, Part 1 →