Know Your Heroes!
One of the newest Avengers is the hero VALKYRIE. She:s been around the Marvel universe for a while (and lately in the Ultimate line of titles) but this is the first time that she:s been invited to the “major leagues,” as it were. So don:t you think you should get to know her a little bit more?
Marvel promo art by Mike Deodato
Valkyrie is an actual valkyrie from the Asgard legend-- one of many warrior-goddesses chosen by Odin to lead the souls of those fallen in battle into Valhalla, the honored heaven reserved for such glorious deaths. In fact, our Avengin’ Valkyrie is none other than Brunnhilde, the leader of this special group. It:s kind of like Gabriel of the Heavenly Host of God becoming a superhero under the name Angel, or of Willie Lumpkin of the postal service becoming the champion known as Mailman.
We:re not quite sure right now why Valkyrie:s a superhero again, let alone a Secret Avenger. It might have something to do with the fact that Asgard was reborn in recent years as a floating city somewhere around Oklahoma. And since that got destroyed, she might as well be a hero in New York again, right? Way before that, Valkyrie was a superhero regularly hanging around on Earth with the team Defenders. That:s because she was upset at the gods of Asgard for abandoning her for a while. But that:s only because she was trapped in a crystal and her form, powers, and personality were given to a crazy woman called Barbara Norris. But *that:s* only because the Asgardian sorceress Enchantress had trapped her there since Valkyrie wouldn:t give her “friend” the Enchantress the secret of immortality. But anyway the body of Barbara Norris was killed, and Valkyrie later got her own body back, but that body died too, and she must have gotten reborn again at some point because, you know, she:s a Secret Avenger.
Since she:s a valkyrie, I wonder if the other valkyrie found her after she was dead and was all like “what, girl? Again?!” and kept on resurrecting her. There:s gotta be some benefits to being a kind-of grim-reaper, right?
At a different point, Valkyrie appeared to a different Valkyrie-hero, one named Samantha Parrington. Parrington was turned into a Valkyrie thanks to a spell from a team-up of an Asgardian and Olympian god, but she didn:t want to be a player in that game and helped a new team of Defenders defeat :em all. The spell remained, though, and Valkyrie One gave Valkyrie Two her blessing to continue acting as Valkyrie Whichever. Her parents were very supportive, and even tried to enter into the spirit of thing, setting up a new headquarters for the Defenders to support their daughter's efforts. They set up an entire floor of their old-money mansion with state-of-the-art communications systems, complete with a computer avatar based on Samantha's plush Mr. Bunnyhopper. But apparently this origin was just as complicated as the original one:s, so everyone just follows the adventures of Valkyrie One anyway.
Note: (I'm taking a little vacation this weekend/week, so I'll try to post some things while I'm away. If I don:t, it's just because I:m either too relaxed or too busy! Try the RSS subscription if you:re worried about missing some content.)
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