Valkyrie: Jane Foster #8: Old Friends, Older Threats

Valkyrie: Jane Foster #8 marks a change of writer as Jason Aaron now shares scribe duties with Norwegian writer Torunn Grønbekk. But if you are worried about things slowing down for Jane without Al Ewing around, it’s actually the opposite. The issue hits the ground running with but a few panels of coffee and chat with my favorite supporting cast member Lisa, before the world seems to be ending again.

Once the action starts flowing it doesn’t stop, marking appearances of Dr. Strange, Captain America, Thor,  Spider-Man, Iron Man (over comms) and Horse, of course. The new threat is made to feel real, an invasion of unspeakable horrors from the ground below that comes complete with a background of Thor’s childhood horror tales. So much seems to be happening that requires Valkyrie that it’s easy to forget that our heroine no longer seems able to be Jane Foster.

The art is beautiful, which is exactly what I have come to expect from CAFU who is back in this issue. Jesus Arbutov on colors does an amazing job as common thread between CAFU and Pere Perez from the last two issues. The subtle details they create, from a sense of texture to the transformations of Undrjarn to the faint wisps of Jane’s breath when she senses that something is wrong, really drive home a realistic feel to the art. Which is beautiful when we’re talking about Mr. Horse and very gross when we are talking about veiny, nightmarish, creatures of darkness.