During Jane Foster’s time as Thor, Asgardian goddess of thunder, she accomplished a number of things the Odinson never could and proved to the universe that her inherent heroism made her every bit as worthy as anyone who’d ever wielded Mjölnir before.
In the time since Jane hung up her cape and helmet, she’s been living a mortal life and recovering from cancer, but it won’t be long before she’s back in the sky thanks to Asgardian magic.
In the wake of Marvel’s ongoing War of the Realms in which all of Asgard’s Valkyries have been destroyed, Jane Foster is being called upon to to replace them as the Valkyrie in the aptly named Valkyrie, from writer co-writers Al Ewing and Jason Aaron and artist Cafu.
Like Thor, Valkyrie is a kind of title that serves a specific function within the lore of Marvel’s Asgard, and the fighters’ existences were closely tied with that of Valhalla. Because all of the Valkyries were murdered, Valhalla no longer exists, but Jane’s prepared to step up to the plate and do what she does best: Maintain the balance against impossible odds.
In an interview with Marvel, co-writer Al Ewing explained that while Jane’s past as Thor will obviously make her return to Asgardian heroics somewhat easier, becoming Valkyrie is something different for her:
It’s a sacred task, and brings additional abilities — and responsibilities — of its own. As the first of a new generation of Valkyries, Jane has to decide for herself what that task involves, and that’s a big part of what we’ll be exploring in this series. If you’re reading this, you know who Valkyrie is, but what she is is one of the big philosophical underpinnings of the book.
Instead of wielding the legendary hammer she’s become so familiar with lately, Jane will race into battle with Undrjarn, the All-Weapon, which can be transformed into any battle weapon she can think of — and she’ll also have former Valkyrie Brunhilde to provide advice for the new phase of her life.
Valkyrie hits stores this July.
Comments
14 responses to “Jane Foster Is Becoming An Asgardian Valkyrie In Her New Marvel Series”
As long as they don’t make the same mistake as her Thor run and spend most of the time taking pot shots at people who were never going to read the bloody comic anyway, I’m keen as a kidney bean.
That really depends on whose writing it. What I don’t get is why Jane? Like, why not give Valkyrie her own comic? Or did they do that already?
That would be Brunhilde the former Valkyrie and she did kinda have her own run for a bit as the leader of an Avengers offshoot. (Might still do so, haven’t really kept up on it)
Yeah I don’t really get it either but I will assume Brun won’t want to be a Valkyrie again for narrative purposes.
My question is why Jane if Asgardian Magic only hastens her cancer but I’m sure that will get covered too.
I’m ok with her being a Valkyrie, but kind of tired of Marvel *yet again* retrofitting yet another character into a pre-existing role?
What’s next? Jane becomes the Hulk? Jane becomes Thanos? Antman becomes the new Magneto?
Jane Foster: Stealer of Gimmicks.
Honestly her role as Thor should have ended in death. instead they copped out and brought her back in a few pages. She did her part and now they just keep wanting her to be in everything.
This is not going to be a story I read mostly because I just don’t really enjoy her as a character. her run as Thor was bland and I read it to see what the actual Thor was up to.
Agreed. She should be the new Uncle Ben, she should die and stay dead for a long time until it actually has impact to bring her back.
I think it was because they actually carved out a pretty solid role for her outside Thor as the Midgard rep, she kinda shined through there in between all the nonsense.
It’s like they were in such a hurry to cover all the bad decisions they didn’t look at what they had got right and we had to suffer through another death, resurrection and retcon in the space of a few months. (Which seems to be the template for a lot of the MU right now unfortunately)
I’m all for the writers having more freedom but there is a limit if everyone just ties everything up in a messy trope filled bow just to have the next writer open it up and discard it five minutes later.
I actually enjoyed the Odinson run though.
Thor: Ragnarok hit the nail on the head, sexy stoic space Jesus gets really lame and old, seeing Thor knocked down a few pegs allowed for some solid work.
New characters taking on the secret identities of old characters is a trope almost as old as super hero comics.
I agree that Marvel has probably been doing it a bit too quickly recently (making many changes line wide in All New All Different, only to reverse them all in A Fresh Start is a bit on the nose), but the series with good writers have turned out pretty well.
I’ve enjoyed Al Ewing’s other work for Marvel, so look forward to seeing this in six months or so when it hits Marvel Unlimited.
Absolutely, I’m not against it at all. Sometimes it can work out quite well. But yes, Marvel has been doing it way too much lately, too much in one go. :\
The whole Roxxon/Malekith War of the Realms story started during Jane Foster’s run as Thor though, so giving her a part in its conclusion seems earned.
That’s fair enough, I guess that does make sense. I also guess she’s just been caught up in the whole glut of characters being tokenistically changed over for the hell of it. I’ve actually liked a few of them. Sam Wilson as Cap, I thought was utterly fantastic how they analysed how a black Captain America would be received, and I thought the new Hulk in the end was done rather well.
EDIT: nvm, noticed that I was repeating James’ comment.