Writer: Jason Aaron and Al Ewing
Art: CAFU, Jesus Aburtov, VC’s Joe Sabino, Mahmud Asrar, and Matthew Wilson
Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 24, 2019

Is there anything Jane Foster can’t do? She went to medical school, survived cancer, bashed up Roxxon oil with a magic hammer, and using a different Thor’s hammer helped kick some Dark Elf butt in the War Of The Realms. Now, she has a different role- The last of the Valkyries, caretakers of the fallen Asgardians. Thats a lot to have to put on your resumé! Let’s she what she’s up to.

Sacred Asgardian relics in the hands of C (more like C- list) Captain America villains on rollerblades? Take my money! The old Blue Streak is back in it with an XTREME speed themed gang, in it for the likes on their “YouRoxx” page have run into a flying Valkyrie – and we learn a bit about what Valkyrie’s different power set is- she has a new, mysterious Asgardian all-weapon “Undrjarn” that responds with exactly he right amount of force, and according to Asgardian magic, the right amount of force for a rollerblading themed Villain is smashing his helmet to pieces and leaving him whimpering in pain. No argument here! The rest of the crew goes down pretty easily, Valkyrie deflects a magic arrow that never misses, then uses “Valkyrie vision” to track Down Silver Ghost when he becomes invisible. It gets a little trickier when Goldrush flees carrying “Dragonfang”, the previous Valkyrie’s sword. One persons luck escaping an angry Asgardian is another persons bad luck, and Goldrush is stabbed by the sword by a shadowy figure. Redline, the only rollerblader left is carried off as Jane Foster remembers she has to be at her performance review.

Her boss, the stern vaguely titled Hospital Administrator Regina Hagen is not entirely happy with Dr. Fosters recent performance- She’s late, takes risks… Jane decides not to tell her boss she’s now moonlighting as an mythical Asgardian Valkyrie. Let’s hope that doesn’t. It’s her in the butt! She’s assigned to the morgue for now, and the slightly strange Coroner Dr. Gillespie is baffled about the case on the table- he was stabbed with a sword, wearing gold armour and rollerblades. That’s some coincidence!

Valkyrie teleports up to Valhalla, chats with the spectral Brunhilde and vows to get the sword back. Brunhilde explains on how being Valkyrie is different than being Thor- Thor is a god, Valkyrie is a job. They both sound like work to me! To get a different perspective, she grabs Heimdall and heads back to Midgard. Another useful Valkyrie power: she can see impending death! She sees it over Heimdalls head as the killer from earlier rises in the air on a winged horse.

Final Thoughts:

This book is a great way to jump back into Marvel post War Of The Realms, and Jason Aaron continues to show how well he knows and loves the Thor-Verse. Valkyrie manages to straddle the line between funny and serious- having the god like Valkyrie take down campy villains on rollerblades is a fun way to introduce us to the new status quo. It would have been easy to let this book slide into dense melodrama, but Jason Aaron and Al Ewing manage to make Jane Foster compelling in a different way than we’ve ever seen her before. A lot of plot conveniences happen this issue, but I’m more than okay with them at this point because the rest of the story is so well done. Excited to see where it goes from here.

8/10