Valkyrie: Jane Foster #1: Review

Jul 2019

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Story Name:

The Sacred and the Profane Part I

Review & Comments

Rating:

Valkyrie: Jane Foster #1 Review by Peter Silvestro (January 27, 2020)

Review: Very nice intro to Jane’s new series. She arrives in a blaze of glory, kicks the butts of some third-rate bad guys, has trouble with her personal life from being a hero, talks to her mentor, ends up facing a major bad guy (Daredevil villains count) and that’s the usual template. Undrjarn will be a cool weapon if it isn’t used as a convenient gimmick. Art is nice, writing effective, all well and good. We’ll see where this goes.

Comments: Valkyrie Jane’s origin was in WAR OF THE REALMS OMEGA. Heimdall has recovered from his blindness inflicted in the last Thor series. Lisa Halloran was Ms. America’s girlfriend, seen in AMERICA #1-4. Dr. Annabelle Riggs was Valkyrie Brunnhilde’s human host. First appearances of Regina Hagen and Rudy Gillespie, who may become regulars and maybe not; the latter shares a name with the famous mentor from the Dr. Kildare series (Google it). Issue includes separate essays from the two writers, Jason Aaron and Al Ewing, introducing the series.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Valkyrie: Jane Foster #1 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

The new Valkyrie, Jane Foster, wielding Undrjarn, a weapon that takes on any form needed for a situation, descends upon a crime scene. The gang of armored rollerbladers the Fast Five (Blue Streak, Gold Rush, Silver Ghost, Green Light, Redline) have robbed a truck containing Dark Elf and Asgardian weaponry left on Earth after the War of the Realms. Jane easily takes them down. Having to save a carful of people from Redline allows Gold Rush to get away with Dragonfang, sword of Brunnhilde, the previous Valkyrie. But not for long: the rollerblader is accosted in an alley by an unseen assailant and killed with the sword he’s stolen. The mystery man reports to his superior that he has the sword….
Jane has to hurry and ends up late for her own performance review at the hospital. Dr. Regina Hagen, her administrator, is angry with her for her unreliability so Jane has to endure a transfer, becoming a morgue assistant. With Dr. Rudy Gillespie, Jane examines the corpse of a young man killed by a sword. Jane realizes this is Gold Rush and, as Valkyrie, heads to Valhalla to talk to her predecessor. Explaining the situation to Brunnhilda, Jane asks if she has a way to locate Dragonfang; Brun doesn’t and warns Jane that the wielder of the sword has all of her Asgardian powers. Brun also reminds Jane that being Valkyrie is a heavy responsibility and tells her to seek out a woman named Annabelle Riggs. Meanwhile, Jane recruits Heimdall and they go to New York where he encourages her to develop her innate ability to see everyone, as well as their fates, the size of a skull icon above their heads indicating how near they are to death. She then turns to Heimdall and sees a massive skull looming over him—and then he is impaled through the back by Dragonfang. The sword is in the hands of Bullseye, who also controls Valkyrie’s flying horse….

Lisa Halloran is also in the story but I couldn't get her into the synopsis.