In every installment of Abandoned Love we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer without actively retconning away the previous story. Feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Today, we look at when the Valkyrie's bizarre restriction against fighting women was lifted.

Okay, let's get this out of the way right now. The Valkyrie's comic book career has been filled with MANY different twists and turns. Like, MANY. Like, it's practically unbelievable how convoluted one minor character's life could be. So let's just keep the discussion here to just her weird "can't fight women" restriction, okay? I'll get to the other stuff in due time in future columns!

Valkyrie (well, the one that was a longtime member of the Defenders) debuted in Defenders #4 (by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema and Frank McLoughlin)...

It's important to remember that, while we won't get into the other convoluted aspects of her character, the important thing is that her body here is basically created by the Enchantress, which is why the Enchantress can impose magical restriction upon it.

What's weird, though, is that when Valkyrie finds herself unable to attack another woman, it's unclear whether it's a magical restriction or just her own personality...

Weird, right?

That's super vague.

It was not until 23 issues later, in Defenders #27 (by Steve Gerber, Sal Buscema and Vince Colletta) that we see the restriction in action (the Defenders, like most other superhero teams, didn't fight a lot of female supervillains)...

It is not until the following issue that we learn that the problem was that those were female Baddoon that she was fighting, and she has a restriction against fighting any women of any planet (it's unclear whether this is news to her or just that she's shocked that Starhawk knows something so personal about her)...

Due to some shenanigans, Valkyrie ends up in jail in Defenders #36 (by Gerber, Buscema and Klaus Janson) and she has to quickly show off her dominance because she knows she'll only be able to do it quickly before the pain overtakes her...

A problem evident in the next issue...

David Kraft, who followed Gerber, was not a fan of the restriction, so he just avoided having Valkyrie fight women.

It was not until Ed Hannigan was writing the book that the restriction came up in Defenders #79 (by Hannigan, Herb Trimpe and Mike Esposito), when she has trouble fighting some brainwashed women...

In Defenders #91 (by Hannigan, Don Perlin and Pablo Marcos), it is now Valkyrie who is being brainwashed, and she forces herself to fight Hellcat despite the painful restriction...

Three issues later, in Defenders #94 (by J.M. DeMatteis, Don Perlin, Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott), Valkyrie mentions the restriction when she refuses to fight against a possessed Hellcat...

Okay, fast forward to Defenders #109 (by DeMatteis, Mark Gruenwald, Perlin and Sinnott) and again, we'll avoid the specifics of this convoluted story to note that Valkyrie's body is now fully her own and not controlled by Enchantress...

So the fact that she is attacking Enchantress is pretty clear evidence that the restriction is gone, right?

It's made SUPER evident four issues later, when she fights against Power Princess of the Squadron Supreme...

The silly restriction has been gone ever since!

If anyone else has a suggestion for a future Abandoned Love, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!