The Valkyrior, created byStan Lee andJack Kirby, first appeared inThor #133 (October 1966). The team, led byValkyrie andMisty Knight is the subject of the 2013 series,The Fearless Defenders byCullen Bunn andWill Sliney. Bun said about his book: "The basic idea of the book is that Valkyrie is choosing a new team of Valkyrior, and she's been asked to choose all these women from the heroes of Midgard, instead of from Asgard. She has completely failed in this task. Valkyrie has been unable to choose anyone that she feels is worthy to be one of the hosts of the shield maidens. So she just hasn't done it. She's dropped the ball. Because she's not done what she said she would do, nature—or supernature, as it is—abhors a vacuum. The absence of the Valkyrior has opened the door to something terrible. Something awful is waking, and Valkyrie finds that it's really her fault that she's put everything at risk".[1]
The Valkyrior are warrior goddesses ofAsgard who ride winged horses. Originally, under the leadership ofBrunnhilde, they took mortally wounded human heroes from German and Scandinavian battlegrounds and brought them to Valhalla, an area of the Asgardian dimension where the astral forms of the deadAsgardians and human heroes eternally feast and compete in friendly battles. The Valkyries were no longer able to perform this task whenOdin, ruler of Asgard, vowed to theCelestials a millennium ago that he would restrict Asgardian contact with Earth.[volume & issue needed]
In later years, Brunnhilde became a member of Earth'sDefenders.[volume & issue needed] The other Valkyries all died when Odin andHela went to war over who would rule Valhalla.[volume & issue needed] Odin restored the Valkyries to life after he regained possession of Valhalla, but these Valkyries only have physical form within Valhalla; outside it, they exist only in astral form. Valtrauta has taken Brunnhilde's place as ruler of the Valkyrior, andHildegarde's sister Krista (aka Mist) has filled the role of the ninth Valkyrie, left open since Brunnhilde's departure.[volume & issue needed]
During the "War of the Realms" storyline, Brunnhilde and the rest of the Valkyrior, saveMirage, are massacred byMalekith and his forces invading New York. During the battle, Brunnhilde is beheaded by Malekith.[2][3] Afterwards,Jane Foster then takes up the mantle of Valkyrie.
Jane Foster[16] – first of a new generation of the Valkyrior, she wields Undrajarn the All-Weapon, a weapon that can change its shape and be whatever she needs, such as a sword, mace, or pair of wings
Rūna[17] – one of the original nine Valkyries and the original wielder of Jarnbjorn
The Valkyrior appear in the 2017 live-action filmThor: Ragnarok.[22]Odin sent them to Hel to preventHela from escaping. However, the attack turned into a massacre, as Hela killed every Valkyrie with the exception ofValkyrie / Scrapper 142. The trauma of the massacre led Valkyrie to abandon Asgard and settle onSakaar.
