The Valkyrior are female demigods from Asgard who ferry the souls of heroes that died in battle to Valhalla, aka the afterlife. They were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, based on the Valkyries of Norse mythology. The warriors, who are often led by Brunnhilde, were introduced 60 years ago in Thor #133 (October 1966).

They started as nine warrior goddesses who rode winged horses across battlefields to find fallen warriors. In the past, the Valkyries also operated on Earth, transporting German and Scandinavian from battles. This ended when Odin made a vow to the Celestials to restrict Asgard’s contact with Earth.

Hela took over Valhalla and transformed it into a world similar to her realm, Niffleheim. Odin sent the Valkyrior to stop her, but Hela’s soldiers killed all of them. When Odin arrived and saw what she had done, he pleaded with Hela to bring the Valkyries back to life. She admitted that an encounter with Thor and Lady Sif made her want to experience things like compassion. But that wasn’t possible because she was the goddess of death.

Odin and Hela settled on a compromise in which he gave her the knowledge she wanted. She went back to Niffleheim, returned Valhalla to its original form, and resurrected the Valkyries. Though in this version of the team, the Valkyries only had physical forms in Valhalla, but everywhere else they were only in astral form.

During Malekith’s War of the Realms, Thor asked the Valkyries to help fight Sindr, the queen of Muspelhiem when she invaded Niffleheim. When Odin summoned them to Manhattan to help defend the city. Unfortunately, Doctor Strange’s evacuation spell went awry and most of the heroes were teleported away from the fight. This left the Valkyries alone in the fight against Malekith’s forces. They were all killed in the battle with Brunnhilde – the team’s first leader – falling last.