“The death of death has come to see if death May Day.” On the first page of the seventh issue of Valkyrie: Jane Foster, writers Al Ewing and Jason Aaron may have conjured-up the most emo-goth metal thing to enter the Marvel Universe since Thanos wept at the Infinity Well over his own omnipotence at the end of the Thanos Quest back in the early 1990s. A group of magical physicians looks to save the life of Death in an issue drawn by guest artist Pere Perez. Color comes to the page courtesy of Jesus Aburtov. Ewing and Aaron give the cosmic end of the Marvel Universe a strikingly emotional core in a very satisfying issue.

Death is dying. Jane Foster, Doctor Strange, and a team of magic-based medical specialists look to save Death and, by extension, the rest of the universe. Having just saved similarly powerful entity Galactus from a dangerous illness just last year, Doctor Strange is all-too-familiar with patients of cosmic power and significance. He knows that the situation is grave. The monstrous defenders of Death that Dr. Foster referred to as its antibodies are nowhere to be found. Foster and company aren’t being attacked. Things are NOT going well. They must investigate quickly is they are to save Death.

This issue, Ewing and Aaron have found a novel interface with the cosmic end of the Marvel Universe. Death isn’t so much the purple robes skeleton as she had been. Here she’s a fusion of herself and the visage of fellow cosmic entity The Living Tribunal. That little shift keeps the cosmic beautiful and ineffable without messing with the fundamentals of the universe too much. Ewing and Aaron play with details like this quite a bit. In a story that moves along briskly...an exploration into the heart of the universe. The cleverest part of this may be the writers’ use of disbelief on the part of the physicians. There’s sharp wit in allowing the characters to engage in saving the dirty even though they don’t necessarily believe that they are actually helping out the abstract entity of Death. They don’t all totally believe in what they’re doing, which becomes a conflict. In and of itself in a story that cleverly straddles the cosmic and the drama of the individual. 

Perez and Aburtov give substance to the cosmic by mixing earthly imagery with the abstract power of the universe itself. Aburtov’s luminous art amplified the sense of power in Perez’s art. Death itself may look like a humble fusion between a couple of different Marvel entities. Still, the art team delivers the presence of the entity to the page in a way that makes it feel almost like an abstract revelation of the unknown. 

This step into further mysteries of the Marvel Universe makes the cosmic-level stuff feel all the more vital. Which is quite an accomplishment given the fact that the entire universe has had relatively regular threats to its existence pop-up one or more times per year since it first debuted in 1961. The sense of the infinite that Ewing and Aaron have instilled in the latest Jane Foster keeps a tired, old shared universe feeling fantastic over half a century since its conception. Ewing and Aaron are doing really important work with this series.

Grade: A