Some Valkyrie discussion in another thread made me want to storytime her early appearances.
Mostly I just love this Avengers issue. It's the best of those "women's lib" stories that comics were all doing in the early '70s and the cover is one of the best of the era.
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Lady Liberators > A-Force
Trivia: this was the next-to-last issue of Avengers to keep the old comic book tradition of ending every sentence with an exclamation point.
Even though this issue makes fun of feminism, I've known feminists who enjoy it unironically because a) the women kick ass b) everything Valkyrie says about the way women were treated in '60s Marvel is true.
> Flying horses
> Science
Yes, Roy Thomas and his wife at the time are canonical characters in Marvel.
These Rutland, Vermont stories were basically excuses for the writers to write themselves in.
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I think this was also the last Masters of Evil appearance for a while. They kind of sucked. (The whole point of Under Siege was "what if the Masters of Evil stopped sucking?")
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So this is Valkyrie #1, who's just the Enchantress in disguise.
At this point Enchantress has already been rejected by Thor, Hercules and Skurge.
I'm starting to doubt her credentials as the world's most irresistible woman.
It's not a Roy Thomas story without some continuity wanking.
But how did Wanda get out of that freezing spell?
Now we move onto Incredible Hulk 142, special guest Tom Wolfe (really) and Valkyrie #2.
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So this is Valkyrie #2, women's lib socialite Samantha Parrington.
I don't think she came back much after this though Kurt Busiek (of course) used her in the early '00s.
Hulk vs. cocktail party waiters is the greatest Hulk adventure.
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And there goes Samantha Parrington.
Next up, the longest-lasting version of Valkyrie.
Because the Defenders needed a chick, basically.
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Poor Barbara really gets violated a lot in this story line.
And here we have Valkyrie #3, the most familiar Valkyrie, a warrior lady in the body (but without the memories) of a mortal woman.
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And that's all I got for today. But Val continued to be part of the Defenders for quite some time.
Thanks!
> UP AGAINST THE WALL MALE CHAUVINIST PIGS
Is the greatest catch phrase of all time.
bump
Batman is in the crowd illegally.
This is actually a funny bit. Not the sort of thing you'd usually see in a superhero comic. It looks a bit like something Tom Wolfe might draw himself.