Warning! Spoilers ahead for King in Black: Return of the Valkyries #3
Marvel’s King in Black event is in full swing, and current Valkyrie Jane Foster has been assembling other Valkyries to form a new team to fight back against Knull the Symbiote God in the afterlife. Jane also recently rescued one of of the original Valkyries from the past who had long been trapped, debuting the version played by Tessa Thompson in Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok. However, much like in the film, this original Valkyrie carries some significant reluctance to join the fight, fearing that her true nature is not a heroic and brave as she wishes it to be.
At the start of this series, Jane Foster’s Valkyrie is escorting the soul of the Sentry to Valhalla after he is killed by Knull in King in Black #1. However, their journey is interrupted by the headless body of a Celestial imbued with the power of Knull, having created its own dark reality within its body to trap souls it captures. While the Celestial realm takes Sentry’s soul, Jane inadvertently rescues this original Valkyrie, who has long been trapped for years, imprisoned within a world of her own memories and dreams. Now, Jane Foster is looking to gather more Valkyries to rescue Sentry and destroy this headless Celestial, thereby cutting off a large source of power for the Symbiote God.
However, this newly freed Valkyrie is unsure of herself in King in Black: Return of the Valkyries #3, written by Jason Aaron with art by Torunn Grønbekk. Venturing on a quest to retrieve her long-lost ax Jarnbjorn (the same ax Thor used when he was unworthy), this warrior of a past age admits to her own fear, concerned that she may ultimately just be a coward despite having reclaimed the ax that can cut through a Celestial’s armor. Her time in the Celestial was almost like a gilded cage, as she confessed that there were many times where she was content to live in the memories of her past, rather than face the harsh truth of reality.
This arc is not unlike the one Valkyrie has in Thor: Ragnarok. After a horribly traumatic defeat at the hands of Hela the Goddess of Death, Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie had to watch all of her sisters die while she lived. She eventually made her way to Sakaar, which likewise exists on a plane of existence apart from the the rest of the universe akin to the realm of the Headless Celestial in this miniseries. Similar to the arrival of Jane Foster’s Valkyrie, it isn’t until the arrival of Thor that this Asgardian warrior has to grapple with returning to the real world as a Valkyrie.
Hopefully, this comics version of the MCU Valkyrie will continue to follow suit, and she’ll rejoin the fight as the hero and brave warrior she truly is. It’s also likely that she’ll be a huge asset as the King in Black tie-in series continues from Marvel Comics as well, especially now that she’s regained her Celestial-cutting axe. In any case, this series seems as though it’s going to be an epic beginning for an equally epic MCU character in the greater Marvel Comics Universe.
