Valkyrie #1
Without Wings
Brunnhilde leads the Valkyrie from Valhalla astride on their winged steeds. Aragorn flies Brunnhilde to the scene of a battle between Asgardian warriors and a Nornheim serpent which ended with all dead. There, the Valkyrie tap their swords on the brows of the dead warriors, freeing their souls from their body so they can be led back to Valhalla. However, along the way, Aragorn’s wings suddenly start losing their feathers, causing both Brunnhilde and her trusty steed to plumet to the ground. Hitting a mud puddle on the ground, Brunnhilde quickly gets to her feet. She suddenly finds herself surrounded by shades of men that she deemed unworthy for Valhalla. Seeing that she has a fight on her hands, the warrior woman reaches for Dragonfang, her enchanted sword and finds that it is no longer in its scabbard.
That’s when Barbara Norris wakes up and realizes that this was all a strange dream. This is a dream that she has had many times over the past few days and to her it seems as real as her ordinary life. Getting dressed, Barbara goes about her daily routine, which includes a visit at a local restaurant for breakfast. Along the way, Barbara sees a homeless woman huddling in an alley for warmth. She feels sorry for the old woman as the cold outside will surely be her death. That’s when she notices a strange blue glow around the woman, something that she has seen before as well. She dismisses it as nothing, trying to convince herself that she didn’t see a thing.
Still, she can’t get the thoughts of this other woman out of her mind, even when she eats breakfast and chats with her friend Paulie, who is working the counter. Paulie has been concerned about Barbara and the two agree to hang out for a bit once his shift ends in 15 minutes. As the pair head outside, they pass by the homeless woman who has since died. Barbara feels a compulsion to approach her and this time she reaches out to the blue aura around her. This aura then turns into a ball of light in her hands. Sensing that it is the old woman’s spirit, she lets it free and tells the woman to reach her great reward. The sensation Barbara feels doing this feels right to her.
Paulie saw none of this as he was busy checking the woman’s vital signs and confirming that she is dead. Seeing Barb looking up into the sky, he asks if she is ok. She tells him he is fine and they call the police to collect the body. Afterwards, the pair head back to Pauli’s apartment. Along the way, he continues to express his concern for Barb, saying that he got really worried when she disappeared for a week. Barbara admits that she doesn’t remember much and tells him about her strange dreams. The only thing she can remember clearly is waking up in Barbara’s bed that morning. Paulie finds is peculiar that she is now referring to herself in the third person.
Inside Paulie’s apartment are his bandmates, the Junk Food Junkies, are practicing for their next gig. While Cody and Isaac jam, Alice is strung out on the floor after shooting up with some heroin. Barbara lectures Alice about doing dangerous drugs but her warnings fall on deaf ears. Barb decides to head home and that’s when she notices the same blue auras hovering around both Paulie and Alice. This freaks her out and she runs away. As she makes her way back home she bumps into a business man who also has a blue aura, upsetting her even more as Barb can’t understand why she is seeing people’s souls all of a sudden. Ducking into an alley to get her head together, Barbara tries to make sense of what’s going on. She is then approached by a man who comes to check on her and make sure she is ok. Barbara composes herself and thanks the man for his concern but insists that she is fine. When he helps her up, she notes how cold his hands feel, but is soon on her way again. She thanks him again and insists that she is fine. The man, however, opens a newspaper and looks at a headline about a young woman who committed suicide recently and muses that Barbara shouldn’t be too sure about that.
That evening, Barbara has the same dream again and wakes up just as the Valkyrie is about to battle the unruly shades. By this time, the dreams are less frightening and more monotonous. Wondering why the same dream recurs every night she goes to her bedroom window to think. That’s when she spots Aragorn, the flying horse from her dream, and calls it to her window. Impulsively, Barbara leaps out her window and onto the horse’s back. They then fly over the city, and Barb is completely taken away by the sight of the city from this vantage point. After a while Barbara starts thinking that none of this is possible. The moment she starts doubting what’s happening, Aragorn bucks her off his back. Filled with an urge to keep fighting to stay alive, Barbara surprises herself when she is able to grab onto the ledge of a passing building and pull herself up onto the roof with strength and skill she never knew she even had. More confused than over, she calls out to the night sky, still confused about who she really is.
These thoughts continue to occupy Barbara’s mind until she has to report for her bartending shift at the Gates of Hell, a rough and tumble biker bar. When some of the patrons become belligerent while waiting for their drink orders, Barbara warns them against speaking out of turn to her. When one of the bikers decides to get violent with her, Barb surprises herself once more by being able to defend herself against them. After beating two of the men things calm down again. That’s when Alice shows up and is impressed by how Barbara defended herself. Still worried about her friend’s drug use, Barbara drags Alice outside and pleads with her to kick the habit as her drug abuse is going to kill her sooner or later. Alice tries to justify her addiction, saying that she came from an abusive family and that the drugs help her feel like she is in heaven. Barbara knows a thing or two about heaven, from her dreams, and tells Alice she won’t find it in a needle. She isn’t sure about the afterlife either and says that Alice needs to find heaven for herself here and now while she is still alive. Alice breaks down and asks Barbara to help her.
Heading back inside, Barbara pulls Paulie aside as his band is setting up for their performance that evening. She tells him about her talk with Alice and suggests that they try to convince her to get into an rehab. That’s when she notices the man who checked on her in the alley the other day hanging out at the bar, this time she can see an aura of darkness around him as he begins to leave. She then goes up to the bar and takes a look at the newspaper he left behind. She gets a look at the headline about the suicide and is shocked to see herself in the picture. When she looks back up at the man, she briefly sees him as a skull face apparition before he returns to normal. However, before she can confront him, someone tells Barbara to come to the women’s washroom as quickly as possible.
Barbara and Paulie race inside and discover what they feared most: Alice has died of a drug overdose. As Barbara tries to make sense of this, the strange man enters the room and tells them that Alice gave in to despair. He then pulls Alice’s soul out of her body through her forehead and the mystery man assumes his true form and introduces himself as the demon known as D’Spayre. Demanding her friend’s soul back, D’Spayre instead bombards her with his power, filling Barb with her own brand of despair. D’Spayre demands to know who “Barbara” really is since the real Barbara Norris is dead. He concludes that she is nobody, using his powers to make Barb’s face disappear. Fighting back against the demon, Barbara suddenly unlocks her hidden power, transforming into her true self, Brunnhilde the Valkyrie.[1] However, D’Spayre is not looking to fight, as he has accomplished everything he sought that day. He then relinquishes Alice’s soul to her and departs, promising that he will return again some day.
Valkyrie then returns Alice’s soul to her body, restoring her to life. However, without medical attention she won’t last much longer. Valkyrie then summons Aragorn and flies her friend to the nearest hospital. This all happens before the stunned eyes of Paulie, who convinces Val to let him come along with her. They get Alice just in time, much to their relief. With the crisis over, Valkyrie takes Paulie up to the roof so they can talk about what is going on.
Valkyrie explains that the woman he knew as Barbara Norris is dead and that she is Brunnhilde one of the Valkyrie of Asgard. Paulie also learns that Asgard has been destroyed and Valkyrie is now trapped on Earth all alone.[2] When asked what she will do next, Valkyrie decides that it is time for her to leave her mortal life behind. That’s when she notices that Paulie has the same blue aura around him as those who are about to die. Placing her hand on his cheek, she senses that he is dying of an auto-immune virus. She is surprised to learn this, and Paulie explains that he hasn’t told anyone and doesn’t see much point in undergoing treatment and hoping for a cure might be discovered. That’s when D’Spayre appears again and gloats over Paulie’s misfortune, telling Valkyrie that the suffering never ends. It always exists in the darkness. As the demon vanishes, Valkyrie tells Paulie not to give up hope as his future can change, just as it has for Alice.
She decides to show him what is in store with him in the afterlife. Pointing her sword at the sky, Paulie suddenly sees a bright light with the orbs of spirits flying freely across the sky. They join them in the air by riding on Aragorn. Seeing how free and and peaceful the souls all are makes Paulie feel wonderful and restores his will to live and reminding him why life is so precious.
Recurring Characters
Valkyrie (Brunnhilde and Norris), D’Spayre, Aragorn
Continuity Notes
If your confused about the whole Barbara Norris/Valkyrie thing, you’re not the only one because this premise doesn’t make sense when you look past continuity. This is what I can make sense of:
As explained in Defenders #109, the Enchantress trapped Valkyrie’s essence in the Orb of Souls. Her body remained under guard in Niffelheim. This allowed Amora to transfer Brunnhilde’s essence and/or powers into others. The Enchantress later took her form in Avengers #83, while she bestowed Brunnhilde’s power to Samantha Parrington in Incredible Hulk #142. Later, Brunnhilde’s essence was transferred into the body of Barbara Norris, a former cultist who was driven mad by the Dark Gods in Defenders #3. Because Norris was bat-shit insane, Valkyrie’s persona asserted control over Barbara’s body.
Later, in Defenders #107-108, the team stopped the Enchantress from using the Rose of Purity to make the embodiment of Love fall in love with her. After the Enchantress defeated her, Love restored Brunnhilde to her original body and took Barbara Norris’ spirit with it so it could finally learn peace and love for all eternity.
During a battle with the Dragon of the Moon, Brunnhilde and a number of the Defenders sacrificed their lives to stop the creature. Brunnhilde’s body then crumbled to dust, as seen in Defenders #152.
When the Dragon of the Moon returned, the deceased Defenders — including Brunnhilde — were given new bodies from human hosts. Valkyrie took possession of the body of a woman named Sian Bowen. See Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #3-4.
This story happens after the events of Thor #491-494, which saw Asgard fall when a device called the WorldEngine tried to force Ragnarok from happening. In order to save his people, Odin banished all the Asgardian’s to Earth which (according to this story) also included Valkyrie. They were all cast into mortal identities with no memory of their past. This was to protect them until the people of Asgard were reformed. This task was carried out by Red Norvell in Journey into Mystery #503-513.
What’s not clear is how Valkyrie became Barbara Norris again, particularly since Norris was already dead for years and Val had been possessing the body of Sian Bowen. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #12’s profile on Valkyrie states that the whole Barbara Norris part of this story might have been a deception created by D’Spayre, but this explanation is merely a suggestion. I have a better idea of what happened listed below….
I already mentioned how Asgard was destroyed above. It will later be fully restored in Thor (vol. 2) #12.
Topical References
In this story, Paulie is revealed to be dying of HIV. This story was published at the time for treatment for AIDS and HIV was poor. Those who caught the virus back then usually didn’t live more than a few years after the fact. Now there are a number of treatments that abate the virus’ effect on the human immune system, allowing those infected to live fuller lives. You can even get medication that blocks infection, effectively a vaccine. It is no longer the death sentence it used to be and scientists that there could be a cure within our life times. That said, Paulie’s illness should be considered a topical reference now. Modern readers should interpret Paulie of suffering from an undefined terminal illness.
Explaining the Valkyrie/Barbara Norris Plot
As explained above, there are questions as to how Valkyrie could be Barbara Norris again when the real Barbara Norris had died years earlier Defenders #109. Also unanswered is what is the status of Valkyrie’s previous host body, Sian Bowen. The most recent handbook entries for Valkyrie presumes that D’Spayre is responsible for all of this, but I don’t think that’s a clear enough answer.
A better answer can be gleaned from what was going on in the Thor title at the time this one-shot was published. The issues in question are Thor #491-502 and Journey into Mystery #503-513. When Asgard was wiped out by the WorldEngine, Odin banished all the Asgardians to Earth in mortal guises with no memory of their past. In order to sell their false identities, some of the Asgardians were cast into the past so they could build new lives to further cement the ideas that they were ordinary people. In the case of Odin, for example, he ended up going back in time 30 years into the past where he lived as a homeless man named Wad up until Thor found him again shortly after the false Ragnarok.
Following Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #4, Sian Bown is never mentioned again. To me, what makes more sense is that when Odin cast his banishment spell it also affected Brunnhilde and restored her original body. This makes sense in the context of Thor #294, which shows that the Asgardians go through cycles of death and rebirth. Since the WorldEngine storyline was technically a Ragnarok cycle, I don’t see how this wouldn’t have restored Brunnhilde’s original body.
The second thing about Odin’s banishment spell was that all the Asgardians were cast into mortal lives. It would make sense to me that Odin’s spell would cast Valkyrie into the identity of Barbara Norris since she lived in Barbara Norris’ body for years. Why create a brand new identity when one already pre-existed? It’s not like anyone was around to report Barbara Norris dead following her last appearance in Defenders.
So I think that Val being Barbara Norris had less to do with D’Spayre and more to do with Odin’s spell. Her being Barbara Norris was likely a clue to her true identity for anyone trying to reunite the people of Asgard.
I think the only deception at play here is the newspaper article that claims that Barbara committed suicide a week before this story. I base this on a few things: First, the only people who are depicted seeing this news paper are D’Spayer and Valkyrie herself. Second, the newspaper has a photo of Barbara Norris’ dead body on the front page. As someone who studied journalism in college and read the Associated Press guidebook, no newspaper would publish something that graphic on its front page, especially someone who died of suicide. It’s a matter of respect to the victim and their family. Also, suicides happen in New York City all the time, according to 2022 statistics, 285 people took their lives that year and unless any of those were high profile deaths (like a celebrity, or a politician, etc.) any mention of these deaths were probably restricted to the obituaries and those are submitted by the surviving relatives of the deceased. Why does that matter? Well if Barbara’s death was news enough to end up on the paper, then her friends would have heard about it.
Early in this story, Paulie knows Barbara hadn’t contacted anyone in a week, but is unaware of her apparent suicide. Even if it didn’t make the newspaper, I think Paulie would have at least gotten a visit from the cops investigating the death while the ruled out any other probably cause. More over, is “Barb” killed herself, her employers would have known about it, which would have raised questions when she showed up for her shift at the Gates of Hell.
Later, when Valkyrie tells Paulie the truth about her, he summaries what she just told her. It’s important to point out that Paulie says “Barbara is dead…” and not “Barbara committed suicide.”, which is an important distinction. Like, Valkyrie could mean “Barbara is dead” because Valkyrie’s personality is back, or that the Barbara Norris she knew has been dead for years. The statement made her is vague enough to leave it open to interpretation.
So in conclusion it’s my opinion that: Valkyrie was cast back into her original body when Odin banished the Asgardians to Earth. She was also cast down and into a civilian identity of Barbara Norris. She was sent into the past far enough that she could establish her friendships with the Junk Food Junkies and get a job at the Gates of Hell. The suicide was fake and the newspaper was fake. D’Spayre must have noticed there was something unusual about “Barbara” and created this fabrication to torment her. That would explain why her friends and co-workers are oblivious to her alleged death.
