The Mighty Valkyries #1

The Mighty Valkyries #1

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Jason Aaron & Torunn Grønbekk

Illustrated by Mattia De Iulis & Erica D’Urso

Coloured by Mattia De Iulis & Marcio Menyz

Lettered by VC’s Joe Sabino

Jane Foster believed she was the only Valkyrie left – but the fight against Knull, the King in Black, proved her wrong. Now the Valkyries must redefine their roles in a changing world – and Asgard’s not going to make it easy. When Loki comes to Jane with rumors of a beast stalking the souls of Midgard, she leaps into action – but she’s not the only one after the strange wolf’s hide. She’ll need backup...but her ancient coworker has other priorities. Years ago, the warrior made a promise to a woman she loved. And now, it’s time to follow through.

Well i have to say that this issue is just chock full of surprises and that’s precisely why I love it so. While Jane seems to be just about everywhere these days my real love for the Valkyries comes from Dani Moonstar when she became one in the New Mutants Special when they were scattered across Asgard. So I am hoping that any book about the group will include this vivacious and fierce young lady.

I am rather enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The opening alone is more than enough to grab the readers attention instilling within them the desire to know more. The character development that we see throughout thanks to the dialogue as well as how the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter is what really fleshes them out as people. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story and those taking part in it it’s very easy to get caught up in this uncontrollable force.

How we see this being structured and the layers within continue from previous arcs as well as those which premiere here set the stage beautifully for what we can expect to see. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is extremely nice to see.

The interiors here are stunning to see. Mattia’s work on the first story is beyond gorgeous as just the style that we see here brings us this sense of realism that captures faces, facial expressions and body language in ways that further the characterisation at a glance. I’d like to see more backgrounds but the way that we see depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story is downright astonishing. Not to leave Erica out of this either because her work is just as impressive in how she brings all this to us as well. With the utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels we see two sets of eyes that are sensational storytellers. The colour work is beautifully rendered as well. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is exceptionally well done.

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There is some really nice depth and complexity to the storytelling that sets itself apart from the normal Marvel storytelling we’re currently seeing. Alas it is also this kind of storytelling that tends to get swept under the run from Marvel in favour of the same old, same old that befalls the Avengers and the X-Men which is the real shame here. So enjoy this while you can because this is the kind of smart, intelligent storytelling that I wish we’d see a heck of a lot more of.