Samantha Parrington

Samantha Parrington is a fictional comic book character featured in titles published by Marvel Comics. She is best known by the code name Valkyrie and has been featured in titles such as Defenders, Volume 2, Heralds and The Order. She first appeared in Incredible Hulk, Volume 2 #142 in August, 1971 in a story titled "They Shoot Hulks, Don't They?". The character was created by writer Roy Thomas and artists Herb Trimpe and John Severin.

Biography
Born into a wealthy family of eccentric philanthropists, Samantha Parrington grew into an idealistic feminist. When her parents adopted the monstrous Hulk as their latest pet cause, Samantha formed a rapport with the misunderstood brute and helped talk him down from the Statue of Liberty, though her father took all the credit for this feat in the media. Miffed, Sam led her women's group in an anti-patriarchal protest that attracted the attention of Hulk's enemy, Amora the Enchantress. Amora magically transformed Samantha into a raging, man-hating facsimile of the Asgardian warrior goddess Brunnhilde the Valkyrie, whose form and might Amora could replicate at will, having trapped Brunnhilde's soul in a mystical crystal centuries earlier. As the ersatz Valkyrie, Samantha battled the Hulk to a standstill until the spell wore off, returning her to normal just as Hulk reverted to his human form of Bruce Banner. The confused pair parted awkwardly, neither fully recalling their battle, with Samantha half-convinced it was all a dream.

When the rogue god Pluto sought a Valkyrie pawn, he had Amora's sister Lorelei transform Samantha Parrington into the Valkyrie again. However, Pluto tricked Lorelei though, erasing her memory, draining her powers and turning her into a duplicate of Valkyrie. While Samantha was used by Pluto to turn Earth into a realm of the dead, Lorelei was found by the Defender Nighthawk, who believed she was the real Valkyrie and made her a Defender, though she never spoke. Mean while a mind-controlled Samantha served Pluto and Lorelei until they ran afoul of the reunited Defenders and Brunnhilde, who routed Pluto and Lorelei but only after Samantha battled Lorelei, she was restored to her former self and shook off their control. Happy to have a worthy successor on Earth, Brunnhilde returned to Asgard and Samantha joined the Defenders as their new Valkyrie. Her parents have tried to support her new superheroic pursuits by offering the Defenders funding, equipment and well-intentioned meddling.

Brunnhilde, sadly, was among the many slain during a recent Asgardian revolt staged by Loki in fulfillment of the Ragnarok prophecies; but her proud heroic legacy lived on through Samantha Parrington. Brunnhilde has since seemingly returned following Thor's resurrection of the Asgardians; Samantha has apparently dropped out of sight.