History ComicBook / Valhalla

* LighterAndSofter: A lot of the darker aspects of the myths have been toned down here. While they haven't been done away with altogether, the tone is overall more positive and friendly, and there is nary a DownerEnding to be seen over the course of fifteen albums, even the ones adapting some of the bleaker myths. Who would have thought you could take the story of Balder's death, and give it a happy ending that ''didn't'' feel like a cheap cop-out?

* FamilyOfChoice: Like in the original myths, Loki is a Jotun but was adopted into the Aesir after becoming Odin's blood brother. [[spoiler:Tyr is also revealed to be the son of a Jotun, but chose to be an Aesir.]] Zig-zagged with Skadi, who marries Njord but separates from him because their needs and lifestyles turn out to be incompatible. At first it seems like she went back to live as a jotunn, but later albums show that she's still welcome among the Aesir, and when they gather in Valhalla Skadi is there too.

* BittersweetEnding: How the series ends in "The Vala's Visions", the last story. [[spoiler: Most of the gods die in Ragnarok (Loki being the only survivor) and the truth of their adventures will eventually fade and they will be seen as fictional legends. The gods went out swinging though and were able to prevent the end of the world whilst slaying Surt and his minions, it is also revealed the gods are still around in some small ways and they will continue to look after humanity.]]

* {{Bookends}}: ''The Serpent in the Abyss'' starts and ends with new arrivals coming to Valhall, and gods in disguise mingling to hear which god the warriors think is mightiest. [[spoiler:The first time around Thor blows his top when he hears the new arrivals praise Tyr, but at the end Thor and Tyr hear the new bloods praise ''Heimdall'' and simply break down laughing.]]

* MonstrousHumanoid: Jotunns and Trolls aren't really much bigger than Gods or mortals, but are definitively more ugly and grotesque, especially the male. Female Jotunns tend to be of the CuteMonsterGirl variety, with an extreme stretch for Geirrod's daughters.

* AnythingThatMoves: In ''Through Fire and Water'', Odin gets distracted when he looks on one of Geirrod's daughters from above and gets a nice visual of her cleavage, though unlike Suttung's FemmeFatale daughter from ''The Magic Mead'', those two are much more feral than sexy.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Freyja is usually barefoot.

* AdaptedOut: Due to Loki being portrayed as asexual, his wife Sigyn and sons Nari and Vali don't exist in this version -- though they do appear in a somewhat surreal nightmare sequence where Loki sees his fate from the original myths. In the dream, Sigyn looks exactly like a female Loki and the boys look like child versions of him, and Loki is seriously confused at their existence.
* AffablyEvil: Several of the jotunns have traces of this, but Utgards-Loki, one of the few jotunn characters who's actually portrayed as ''intelligent,'' is the clearest example.

%%** Baldur, who is a NiceGuy through and through.

** Quark, the ill-tempered Jotunn kid, does not appear in any of the original myths but was invented for the series. He appears in TheMovie and the two albums based on it, as well as some background appearances in other albums. For a while was considered the BreakoutCharacter, starring his own animated TV series and newspaper comic, but he avoids becoming TheScrappy largely because his actual appearances in ''Valhalla'' are so sparse. Importantly, he only really appears in one story (the one of the film and album 4 and 5) to create more drama in a myth which did not have that much to begin with.

** Deconstructed with Freya; because she is the [[LoveGoddess Goddess of Love]], she ''has'' [[LoveYouAndEverybody to love everyone]] as part of her position, which stresses out those interested in her.

* AdaptedOut: Due to Loki being portrayed as asexual, his wife Sigyn and sons Nari and Vali don't exist in this version -- though they do appear in a somewhat surreal nightmare sequence where Loki sees his fate from the original myths. In the dream, Sigyn looks exactly like a female Loki and the boys look like child versions of him, and Loki is seriously confused at their existence.

** "Through Fire and Water" was made by amalgamating two distinct tales, both of whom involved a villain with the same name (one a Jotun king and the other an evil human king). In this case both villains are the same person, with one tale (of the human king capturing Odin) leading into the other (Thor goes to hunt him down and is opposed by the villain's twin jotunn daughters).

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When the Jotun hosts of Geirrod learns that Thor's there, they immediately leave at once, alongside Geirrod's own daughters (who were badly beaten by Thor himself).

* HeroicBastard: Magni, who is the son of one of Thor's earlier dalliances before he married Sif. While initially serving as TheRival to Tjalfe and believing himself to be a lot more important than he is, he's not a bad person and [[WellDoneSonGuy is driven by much the same impulses as Tjalfe]]. Later volumes show him part of Thor's household and accepted by everyone there.

* BigBad: Several of the stories feature a clear villain who causes the events of the story, usually a jotun. Thrym is the villain of "Thor's Wedding", Utgards-Loki of "The Journey to Utgards-Loki", Thiassi of "The Golden Apples", Hrugnir of "The Big Challenge", Geirrud of "Through Fire and Water", and Surt of "The Vala's Visions". [[spoiler:Hoenir is revealed to be the villain of "The Magic Mead", though he only appears at the end, and Gymer is the antagonist of both stories that make up "The Wall".]]

* TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: Skadi and Gerd, though Skadi's father is extremely old and decrepit (he might have been much more handsome in his younger days) and Gerd's father is mostly seen in disguise or when dressed up for war (meaning he might look better if he cleaned up a bit).

* TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: Most of the Jotunn who become Aesir, such as Loki, Skadi, Magni, Gerd [[spoiler:or Tyr]] tend to be much easier on the eyes than the other true Jotunns.

** "The Wall" is similarly an amalgation of two stories, one being the tale of Skirner (here revealed to be Tjalfe under a psuedunym) courting Gerd on Frey's behalf, and the story of how the wall around Asgard and how Sleipnir came to be. [[spoiler:Gerd's father and the wall-builder is revealed to be the same Jotun, who originally tried to build the wall in order to trap the Aesir inside of it and leave the Jotuns free to run the rest of the world.]]

* TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: Most of the Jotunn who eventually become Aesir, such as Skadi, Gerd [[spoiler: or Tyr]] tend to be much easier on the eyes than the other true Jotunns.

** Vili and Ve, Odin's two brothers, are an antagonistic element "The Big Challenge" when they attempt to usurp Asgard in Odin's absence [[TyrantTakesTheHelm and make a complete hash of things]]. (The actual myths give them little to no characterisation at all.)

* OmnicidalManiac: Surtr, who [[spoiler:steals the sun and freezes the entire world just to make the Jotuns the only people who have any livable land]]. Unlike in the original myth, he's [[EvilIsPetty considerably more petty]] than in the original and [[spoiler:only invades Valhall when Loki convinces him Odin is about to find a way to return summer using his own magic, as he can't stand the thought of the gods aren't being cold and miserable any more.]]

* OmnicidalManiac: Surtr, like in the original myth.

* AdaptationalNiceness: While not in any way sympathetic or heroic, Surt in the comic is simply another Jotun warlord (although an extremely vicious one) who is capable of being FauxAffablyEvil to Loki and Roskva and has a somewhat humbler goal of [[spoiler:using Laevantein to make a tropical retreat for the Jotuns while the rest of the world freezes]], and not the DestroyerDeity he's presented as in Norse mythology. Though to be fair, extremely little is said about Surt at all outside of his role in Ragnarok.

%%** Vili and Ve, Odin's two brothers. (The actual myths give them little to no characterisation at all.)

* MonstrousHumanoid: Jotunns and Trolls aren't really much bigger than Gods or mortals, but are definitively more ugly and grotesque, especially the male. Female Jotunns tend to be of the CuteMonsterGirl variety, with an extreme stretch for [[{{Beastess}} Geirrod's daughters]].

** Thrym's wedding becomes one to Thor. The rest of the series makes it a RunningGag that he's unable to live down having dressed as a woman and flies off the handle whenever anyone mentions it.

From 1979 to 2009, fifteen albums (and one [[TheMovie animated feature]]) were produced, during which all the major and most of the minor known myths are covered in one way or the other.

** Averted with Loki; this adaptation of the myths depict him as an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist than an actual villain.

* BatmanGambit: Odin is pretty good at these. [[spoiler: In fact, he ends Ragnarok with a spectacular one: After learning that Freya was eaten by Fenris, he willingly lets the wolf swallow him too so that he can revive her, and she can turn the jotunns' power against them and save the world from annililation.]]

** Thrym's wedding becomes one to Thor. The rest of the series makes it a RunningGag that he's unable to live down having dressed as a woman and flies off the handle out whenever anyone mentions it.

** Tjalfe and Røskva also go through noticable development over the course of the series; Tjalfe gradually becomes less foolish and insensitive, and more inclined to think before he acts, while Røskva goes from a naive little child to a far more insightful and intelligent young lady.

* FunbagAirbag: Exagerrated in ''Through Fire and Water'': when found by Geirrod's men, Odin loses his balance from the beam he was balancing on and falls down face first right between the breasts of one of Geirrod's daughters, getting stuck there for a while in a perfectly vertical position before the Jotunness pulls him out.

** Odin has a definite touch of this as well. At one point he delivers a morality tale by bringing up one of Loki's previous follys, causing Loki to remark that he could very well have done this ''without'' making him look bad. Odin replies that he thinks the story is funny.

* HeavySleeper: Freya sleeps through the entire winter in order to gather enough power to rekindle the sun and start spring. During her hibernation she sleeps so soundly that it's impossible to wake her up. [[spoiler:She even sleeps though being kidnapped by Surtr, being drained by her magic and being swallowed alive by the Fenris wolf, and it's only Odin's last-minute BatmanGambit that revives her.]]

* KissingCousins: Possibly an oversight on the authors part, but since Loki is the blood-brother of Odin and explicitly calls himself "uncle Loki" around Odin's sons, [[spoiler: Baldur and Hel's relationship becomes this. Of course, Loki passionately denies being Hel's father, being rather indignant at the suggestion, claiming that he's the victim of slander. Since this particular version of Loki is pretty much [[UsefulNotes/{{Asexuality}} asexual]], and the same album also shows that thanks to his self-serving and untrustworthy nature, he ''does'' tend to get the blame for things that really weren't his fault, the comic never truly answers whether he actually is Hel's father or not.]]

* NonMaliciousMonster: The huge wolf Fenris (who was the most dangerous monster in Norse mythology) turns out to only be a over-sized dog, who was controlled and abused by the evil giant Surtr.

* {{Sadist}}: Surt. Not only he [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals mistreats Fenrir]], but he also casually mentions gratuitously brutal and savage pasttimes, such as squashing children flat or feed his own servants to Fenrir.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When the Jotun hosts of Geirrod learns that Thor's there, they immediately leave at once, alongside Geirrod's own daugthers (who were badly beaten by Thor himself).

** Same with the two dwarf brothers, Fjalar and Gjalar. Two other dwarf brothers, Eitri and Brokk, act like this in their firstappearance in ''Cry Wolf,'' but not in their second appearance in ''Gifts for the Gods,'' where Brokk gets far more screen-time and attention.

** Not sure if it was an intentional ShoutOut or not, but you can definitely see some traces of [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Marvel's Thor]] in Tjalfe's dream sequence in the ninth album, where Thor passes Mjölnir on to him and tells him that from now on he is to be the "new Thor." In this sequence, Tjalfe is wearing a winged helmet and a red cape (and of course he's already blonde and beardless), making the parallels noticable.

*** A beserker is seen brandishing a [[AwesomeButImpractical sawn-off sword]] and shouting "Does he want somehing from the sawn-off", a CatchPhrase from the classic Danish comic ''Pirelli and Firestone'' by Claus Deleuran.

* TemptingFate: In the last volume, [[spoiler: Loki claims that as the SoleSurvivor of Ragnarok he can call himself the only One God unopposed... then Christian friars appears and mention that they're moving in.]]

* AdaptationalVillainy: Vili and Ve, Odin's two brothers, though to be fair, the actual myths give them little to no characterisation at all. Likewise, [[spoiler:Hoenir]] in the eleventh album is made into an evil mastermind who is behind [[spoiler:Mimir and Gilling's murders]] and is given a complete personality reversal from the myths going from a quiet ExtremeDoormat to a JerkAss ControlFreak.

** "Through Fire and Water" was made by amalgamating two distinct tales, both of whom involved a villain with the same name (one a Jotun king and the other an evil human king). In this case both villains is the same person, with one tale (of the human king capturing Odin) leading into the other (Thor goes to hunt him down and is opposed by the villain's twin Jotun daughters).

** You'd think that Loki would qualify, but on the whole, he's more of an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist than an actual villain.
* AllLovingHero: Baldur, being a complete NiceGuy, and Freya, being a LoveGoddess. In the latter case this is given a mild deconstruction as it's shown that being the Goddess of Love she ''has'' [[LoveYouAndEverybody to love everyone]] as part of her position, which also creates some stress in those interested in her.
* AllTrollsAreDifferent: Jotuns seems to be treated as a subspecies of Trolls, who tend to look mostly humanoid, but ugly and grotesque with many varying characteristics such as tails or multiple heads. They all have in common pointy ears though.

* AmazonianBeauty: The Valkyrie Nanna is much easier on the eyes than her colleagues and wears a revealing armor.

* AnythingThatMoves: In ''Through Fire and Water'', Odin gets distracted when he looks on one of Geirrod's daughters from above and gets a nice visual of her cleavage, though unlike Suttung's FemmeFatale daughter from ''The Magic Mead'', those two are much more feral-like rather than sexy.

* ArtShift: In the last album. Roskva's visions are all presented in a painted style with no outlines.

** Both played straight and subverted with Loki: When he dressed up as Freya's handmaiden, he ''thinks'' he's incredibly sexy but is the only one who thinks so. However, when he's disguised as a mare in order to distract the jotunn horse Svadilfare, the horse finds him irresistible.
* BadassBoast: Thor, Heimdall and Loki are all extremely fond of this, but only Thor can regularly back it up.

* BatmanGambit: Odin is pretty good at these. Usually they work out too. [[spoiler: In fact, he ends Ragnarok with a spectacular one. After learning that Freya was eaten by Fenris, he willingly lets the wolf swallow him too so that he can revive her, and she can turn the jotunns' power against them and save the world from annililation -- see ApocalopseMaiden above.]]
* BerserkButton: Most of the major gods have one.

** Hoedir hates being pitied, or unfavourably compared to his brother.

*** A somewhat amusing development. In the second album the author plays around with Jotunn names along the lines of "H[insert dairy product]". The reason for this is the existence in the myths of the jotunn "Hymir", in modern danish "Hymer". [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ymer_%28dairy_product%29 Ymer]] is a dairy product ... alright stay with me fellows ... so Madsen inserts a series of names based on soured milk and the like. These include a single background gag involving a misbehaved jotunn brat someone calles [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_%28cheese%29 Hquark]] ... Dang, a joke just isn't much fun when you explain it is it? ... Anyway this kid seems to have lodged himself in Madsen's brain, springing to life in the aforementioned albums etc.

** Tjalfe and Røskva also go through noticable CharacterDevelopment over the course of the series; Tjalfe gradually becomes less foolish and insensitive, and more inclined to think before he acts, while Røskva goes from a naive little child to a far more insightful and intelligent young lady.

* ChasteHero: Balder. A lot of women are interested in him, but he's saving himself for the right one. [[spoiler: This leads to the comic's huge CrackPairing, namely Balder/Hel.]]

* CockADoodleDawn: A RunningJoke is Thor throwing Mjölnir at a crowing rooster to shut it up. This only inconveniences roosters when he's staying somewhere on an adventure, though; the Valhalla rooster has learnt to dodge.
** To be more specific: all roosters know they have to duck. The Valhalla rooster know it has to dodge Mjollnir ''twice''.
** When Mjölnir goes missing, the rooster ducks, waits a few seconds, and jumps, dodging the hammer he expects to be there. He's then puzzled that there was no hammer.

* CompanionCube: Thor has a tendency to treat {{Mjollnir}} as a pet in addition to a weapon -- most notably in the second album, where it's stolen by Thrym and Thor panics because the hammer "isn't used to being alone." May be slightly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that Mjölnir is a ''magical'' hammer and on one or two occasions (mostly for brief gags) has shown some semblance of sentience.
* CompositeCharacter: In ''The Wall'', Frey's messenger and servant Skirnir is in fact Tjalfe, operating under an assumed name.
** Freyja and Sol are combined into a single goddess, as are Frigg and Jord. But this also reflects some actual theories about these goddesses.

* RomanticAsexual: At the end of the series it is revealed that [[spoiler:Loki has had a lock of Freya's hair in his possession, in a heart shaped box]]. Røskva insists that he was in love after all, but this of course does not mean that he is not asexual. Rather it comes down to the question if he is aromantic or not, and if he is perhaps he still cannot help being in love with the goddess of love. He does tend to either react negatively or not at all when she tries to flirt with him -- in the second album there's a scene where she is naked and trying to seduce him, and he doesn't even notice.