Coming off the heels of her tenure as The Mighty Thor and the events of War of the Realms, Jane Foster – former mantle bearer of Thor and cancer survivor – finds herself taking on the role of Valkyrie after the former Valkyrie died during War of the Realms and wielding the Gerber tool of Uru weapons “The All Weapon” (seriously, that name is stupid).
Issue 1 finds Jane trying to recover Asgardian weapons and technology that has fallen into criminal hands (see again War of the Realms) and particularly Dragonfang the sword formerly wielded by her predecessor. This is a big deal because whoever wields the Dragonfang becomes a master of weapons combat, can summon Asgardian horses, and generally becomes a total badass.
Finding the Dragonfang isn’t Jane’s only issue though. The life of a superhero has finally caught up to her as the multiple missed workdays, chemotherapy appointments, etc has caused Jane’s boss (the hospital director) to re-assign her to a less “stressful” environment … so no longer is she a trauma doctor she is a morgue doctor with all the wacky stereotypes of such a job following her in the form of her new partner.
Overall, one issue in and I’m thoroughly enjoying Jane Foster: Valkyrie much more than I did her run on The Mighty Thor (I liked the run, but the smaller scale presented here is a nice change of pace). The scripting is tight, integrates well into the rest of the Marvel Universe and serves as a good way of keeping a heroic character going despite losing her former mantle (unlike the original Thor whose “Unworthy” titles generally sucked)
Artistically this title has the feeling of a more traditional Marvel or DC title instead of the looser indie style / Tumblr style that the publisher has been leaning on in the last few years. Backdrops are well rendered but not so detailed to detract from the heroes or action. The character’s themselves pop from the page while looking like actual humans (or human adjacent).
All in all, I give Jane Foster: Valkyrie 3 out of 5 swords. A Really good start but it may run out of steam quickly depending on the writing team.
