Jane Foster: Valkyrie – Glimpsing Transcendence in Death

The centerpiece of Jason Aaron’s epic seven year run writing Thor: God of Thunder/The Mighty Thor/Thor was Jane Foster lifting Mjölnir when the Odinson found himself unworthy to do so.  She became Thor, the Goddess of Thunder, and the stories that followed were the best Thor comics I’ve ever read.  It may be the best executed single story arc I’ve ever ready in any comic ever.  When the Odinson eventually reclaimed his title as the God of Thunder, Jane returned her focus to her civilian life, medical career, and – most importantly – fighting the cancer raging inside her.  However, her superhero career was far from over and the stories Jane Foster now finds herself in (written first by Jason Aaron and Al Ewing and now by Jason Aaron and Torunn Grønbekk) dance along the mysterious, wonderous, frightening, sacred threshold that is the dividing line between life and death.

Star Wars ComLINKS: Rogue One Favorite Scene

By now the dust of the holiday madness has settled and we’ve all had the chance to see (and geek out over!) Rogue One at least once (or, you know, four times).  In honor of alllllll the time Star Wars fans have spent thinking about the new film, this month Jenmarie – from Anakin and His Angel – has dedicate the Star Wars ComLINKS post to a discussion of our favorite scene in the film.  Coolio!  It seems obvious, but this piece will have some spoilers in it.  They aren’t major ones but a scene will be described.  Hey, I just want to make sure we all go into this with our eyes open okay?

Contemplating Infinity

The Marvel Cinematic Universe made movie history in 2012, bringing all of the characters from their solo franchises together in the shared-universe extravaganza The Avengers.  (And every other movie studio has been trying to play catch-up and duplicate it ever since.)  The MCU will try to make history once again as the size of the team-up and the danger of the conflict both escalate dramatically in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War.  Inspiration for this major movie event will (most likely) be drawn from 1991’s The Infinity Gauntlet miniseries, a story as epic as it was anxiety-producing.  At least it made me anxious!