A Hero With Heart: Should You Be Reading ‘The Blue Valkyrie?’

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No one in our world can get superpowers, but anyone in fiction could. The Blue Valkyrie is the story of someone who gets superpowers and decides to become a superhero. It's a familiar story, but the Blue Valkyrie is a transgender woman, which adds a new wrinkle to it all.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT?

In the fictional setting of Cream City, and in the life of one of its citizens, there is unrest. After a reunion with an old friend turns sour, Chloe realizes she can control a personal force field --- using it to shield herself or others, to propel herself great distances, and to grant herself great strength. When you have superpowers, superheroics seem the logical next step, and, with the help of her girlfriend, she soon springs into action --- as the Blue Valkyrie.

Where there’s one superhuman, soon there are many, and the Blue Valkyrie is drawn into a web of intrigue, civil unrest, and an examination of what it means to be a superhero.

WHO'S IT BY?

The Blue Valkyrie is written by Emily Riesbeck and drawn by David Mitchell. Emily is a writer living in northern Illinois. She studied journalism at Marquette University before turning her attention to writing comic books, including this one and the werewolf comic Howling Night.

David is a freelance illustrator based in Chicago, Illinois, who has done a lot of freelance work, including children’s book illustration, background paintings for animated films, posters for theater companies, and concept art for contemporary artists’ project proposals.

WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL?

The Blue Valkyrie is a hero in the modern, Ms. Marvel/Squirrel Girl/Kamen Rider Fourze mold, who likes to talk to her villains and adversaries instead of (or in addition to) punching them out, making her a likable character, and casting her adversaries in a light that forces them to be fleshed out better and be more than just This Month’s Punching Bag.

Chloe is a transgender woman, and she’s written by a transgender woman and the writing benefits from that lived experience, with Chloe talking about getting “clocked” and dealing with how her social status has changed since coming out and starting transition. Everyone deserves to have a hero who’s a person like them, and who feels like a person like them ought to feel.

WHO SHOULD READ IT?

Fans of superheroes, which might be a full 90% of the world’s population at this point, with Disney and Warner Brothers focusing on converting that last 10% to the New Ways.; anyone who is trans and likes reading about a person like them; any fan of comics with a good heart.

WHERE CAN I READ IT?

The Blue Valkyrie updates weekly at bluevalkyriecomic.tumblr.com. The comic’s Patreon can be supported here. You can find Emily Riebeck’s Twitter here, and her blog here.