—Dr. Annabelle RiggsValkyrie -- you were right. You're not just a super hero. So don't fight him like one. Look at him like a Valkyrie would.
Appearing in "The Sacred and the Profane: Conclusion"
Featured Characters:
- Valkyrie (Jane Foster) (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange)
- Damage Control
- Lisa Halloran (Main story and flashback)
- Unidentified other (Voice only)
- Dr. Annabelle Riggs
- Mr. Horse
- Skurge the Executioner (Deceased)
- Valkyrie (Brunnhilde) (Deceased)
Antagonists:
- Grim Reaper (Eric Williams) (Deceased)
- Mephisto
Other Characters:
- Valkyrior (Mentioned)
- Baron Mordo's Minions
- Bullseye (Lester) (Mentioned)
- All-Father Thor (Mentioned)
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (Mentioned)
- America Chavez (Only in recap)
- NYPD (Mentioned)
- Simon Williams (Mentioned)
- Vision (Mentioned)
- Black Knight (Dane Whitman) (Referenced)
- Various unidentified Einherjar
- Daily Bugle (Named only)
- Vinnie (Name revealed)
- Dr. Rudy Gillespie
- Mrs. Ellswortth (Mentioned) (Deceased)
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Demons
- Stallions of Hell
- Winged Horses
- Fuertonas (Only in recap)
- Asgardians
- Asgardian-Storm Giant Hybrids
Locations:
- Midgard (Earth) (Main story and flashback)
- United States of America (Main story and flashback)
- New York (Main story and flashback)
- New York City (Main story and flashback)
- Manhattan (Main story and flashback)
- Greenwich Village
- New York University
- The Institute for the Study of Ancient History
- New York University
- Midtown (Main story and flashback)
- 42nd Street (Main story and flashback)
- McCarthy Medical Institute (Main story and flashback)
- Maria Wheelock Cancer Center (Only in flashback)
- McCarthy Medical Institute (Main story and flashback)
- 42nd Street (Main story and flashback)
- Greenwich Village
- Brooklyn (Only in recap)
- Manhattan (Main story and flashback)
- New York City (Main story and flashback)
- Nevada
- New York (Main story and flashback)
- France (Cameo)
- Paris (Cameo)
- Champ de Mars (Cameo)
- Eiffel Tower (Cameo)
- Champ de Mars (Cameo)
- Paris (Cameo)
- United States of America (Main story and flashback)
- Purple Dimension (Mentioned)
- Hell (Mentioned)
- Niffleheim
Items:
- Mirror crafted from one of the Gems of Aggamon (Destruction)
- Cloak of Levitation and Eye of Agamotto
- Grim Reaper's Scythe
- Undrjarn the All-Weapon
- Dragonfang (Mentioned) (Destroyed)
- Hellfire (Mentioned)
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Sacred and the Profane: Conclusion"
As Valkyrie/Jane fights off an attack by Grim Reaper, she worries about Doctor Strange, now comatose on the floor with a death's head hanging over him and his astral form, or soul, inside a magic purple mirror. She wonders just where this Reaper is getting his powers as he is able to actually harm her while blasting away at her Undrjarn all weapon. Strangely, Reaper decides to leave and mounts one of Mephisto's stallions of Hell and rides off, promising to return. Kaecilius gets up and leaves as well.
Dr. Riggs upbraids Jane for letting them leave without continuing the fight but Jane reminds her she's not Brunnhilde or Thor, and this is a job to her. Right now she has to concentrate on saving Doctor Strange.
As Valkyrie flies off on Mr. Horse, Lisa defends her friend Jane by telling Dr. Riggs that Jane was the only one who helped her, even though she was sick with cancer when Lisa's love affair with America Chavez bottomed out. Dr. Riggs feels bad thinking how she behaved with Jane, especially when Lisa adds that Jane will be there for either of them when it's the worst day of their lives. Lisa calls up Damage Control and requests their "Atomic Steed" in preparation to pick up any leftover post-battle artifacts.
Mephisto has called in favors to open a Hell-Gate so that Grim Reaper can pass through with the soul of Doctor Strange bound into the purple mirror, thus fulfilling the requirements for Reaper to become the new Valkyrie. Speeding astride Mr. Horse, Valkyrie intercepts Reaper on the Hell stallion and as Mr. Horse attacks the stallion, Reaper is pitched off. Valkyrie shoots an arrow from Undrjarn but Reaper, backed by Mephisto's power, slices it in two. Pain channels back through Undrjarn and into Valkyrie, and she starts to feel she's going to lose this battle... and Doctor Strange.
Seeing victory in his grasp, Reaper crows to Valkyrie that once he takes her job he'll be able to make his brother human again. Suddenly Lisa shows up riding Damage Control's Atomic Steed, the same flying metal vehicle that the Black Knight once used, with Dr. Riggs sitting behind her. Riggs yells out that Jane has been fighting Reaper as a superhero when she needs to fight him as Valkyrie. Realization dawns on Jane as she sees that Reaper, in wanting to save his brother, sees himself as a hero, and, not being alive, a dead hero.
So she takes him to where a Valkyrie takes dead heroes - to Valhalla and the Halls of the Dead, where he is welcomed by Skurge the Executioner and others, telling him his struggle is over and it's time for him to rest and heal. He demands to be let go - that his job is not finished, but there's nothing he can do about it now. Jane talks briefly with Brunnhilde, who wonders what kind of hero Jane has collected. Realizing what's happened, Mephisto promises himself he'll do more than just kill Valkyrie now.
Elsewhere, Jane cracks the mirror and Strange's soul returns to his body. He thanks her and in a low voice tells her he knows she's Jane but will keep her identity secret.
Jane returns to work where she revels in the knowledge that she helps out both the living and the dead, exactly what she wants to do.
Solicit Synopsis
INTO THE ETERNAL DARKNESS!
Valkyrie’s enemy finally reveals themself to teach the guardian of the fallen an important lesson: Not every life can be saved. It’s the explosive end of the first arc as Valkyrie faces the death that’s been stalking her since issue #1!Trivia
- This issue's cover is a homage to Amazing Spider-Man #121.