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History

I may not be a native son of the realm eternal, but the power in my hammer comes from Odin himself. So Beta Ray Bill fights for Asgard! On this day and all the tomorrows! -- Beta Ray Bill src

Early Life

The Burning Galaxy was destroyed through the machinations of Surtur and his Fire Demons. The surviving Korbinites decided to choose a champion whom they would follow to their new home. That champion, known as Beta Ray Bill, was successful and was transformed into a cybernetic being resembling a fierce creature. The Korbinites then massed their fleet, put themselves into stasis, and followed Bill's ship, Skuttlebutt. Bill fought legions of demons sent by Surtur.[6]

At one point during this exodus, Surtur's fire demons managed to breach and completely overrun Skuttlebutt. Unable to fight them all off, Bill resorted to opening up the airlock in a desperate move to force all of them out of the ship to protect the Korbinites. This almost cost Bill his life, but he was saved at the last second by a passing Nova Centurion.[7]

Thor

As the fleet approached the Milky Way galaxy, it was detected by a S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite. Nick Fury asked Thor to investigate. Thor was deemed a threat by Skuttlebutt, so Bill fought him. During the short battle Thor was separated from his hammer, Mjolnir, and when he reverted to Donald Blake, Bill knocked him out. Curious, Bill picked up the hammer and gained the power of Thor. Skuttlebutt landed on Earth, but Odin transported Thor and Bill to Asgard to resolve the problem.[6]

Bill claimed the hammer as spoils of battle. Odin decreed that the two would battle to the death in Skartheim for the right to keep the hammer. Bill's Korbinite physiology gave him an advantage in the lava-filled realm and so he won again - it was later revealed that Odin gave Bill the advantage on purpose, so he could defeat the weakened Thor. However, he refused to take Thor's life. Odin may have chosen that arena to further test Bill's worthiness and to teach Thor a lesson; regardless, he returned the hammer to Thor and had a new hammer made of Uru, Stormbreaker, forged for Bill.[6]

Solo Adventures

In the following months after he was given his hammer Stormbreaker, Bill continued to protect his people, and he assisted the Asgardians as well. He grew particularly close to Sif, who accompanied him to battle Surtur's demons.

He joined his fellow hammer wielders Thor, Thunderstrike, and Thor (Dargo Ktor) in the Thor Corps.[8][9]

For a brief time, because of an agreement between Odin and the Silver Surfer, he used cosmic rather than mystical powers, and Bill spent time in space as part of the Star Masters.[10][11]

Bill returned to Asgard during Ragnarok. He fought ferociously, willing to die alongside the Asgardians in the climactic final battle against Surtur's forces. Thor, though, sent him back to his people, asking him to keep the memory of Asgard alive.[12]

Beta Ray Bill found the Korbinites on New Korbin, but in danger due to an approaching foe. The other Korbinites chastised him for spending too much time with the Asgardians, and his old rival Alpha Ray tried to replace him as the race's guardian.[13]

Their foe, Galactus (as Ashta), consumed the new planet. His new herald, Stardust, fought with Bill and inadvertently freed the evil Asteroth by opening a portal. Alpha Ray reappeared, empowered by Galactus, and helped recapture Asteroth by pushing her into an event horizon. Bill then awoke in a white room, where he was quick reunited with Skuttlebutt and both were spirited back to the ruins of Asgard. [14]

While en route, Skuttlebutt began to malfunction and the Meta-Orb, which housed the spirits of the Korbinites, was on the fritz. After arriving on Asgard, Bill was confronted by Omega Ray, who was Asteroth in the form of a dark, demonic version of himself. Omega Ray then told Bill that s/he had hidden in the Meta-Orb and consumed several souls to sustain its energies, which enraged Bill considerably. In an attempt to kill the beast once and for all, Bill summoned a massive 'godblast'-type energy which killed Asteroth and supposedly himself as well.[15]

He then awoke in the body of a homeless war veteran named Simon Walters. With the assistance of the hero Spider-Man, Bill was able to take down the villain, Boar. While sharing some pizza together on the roof of a New York skyscraper, Bill tells Spider-Man his story and says that he was approached by a man in a white cloak. The cloaked figure took the Meta-Orb and then bonded Bill's dying spirit to that of Simon's body. After parting ways with the web slinger, Bill set off to find a new purpose on Earth.[16]

Led by a series of peculiar and symbolic dreams to Toronto, Canada, Bill encountered the recently formed Canadian superhero team Omega Flight, and aided them against the supervillain team the Wrecking Crew, who released the supernatural Great Beasts. During the battle, Talisman sealed the evil entity Tanaraq in her father's bag. Bill took it upon himself to take the bag with him into the Realm of the Great Beasts, where he became trapped and was seemingly forced to fight the demons for all eternity.[17]

Through means unknown, Bill had somehow become separated from his mortal host and returned to his mortal Korbinite body. He was also freed from the Realm of the Great Beasts, but in turn ended up as a prisoner of the Skrulls. After running a gamut of experiments on him and torture, they shot Bill down to Asgard in his mortal body with a warning that they would attack Asgard soon.[18]

Although both Thor and Balder believed Bill to be real, the Asgardians had suspicions that their alien visitor was a Skrull agent in disguise, a fear preyed upon by Loki, who riled the citizens up enough so that they wanted to murder Bill. Intervening for his friend, Thor tossed Mjolnir to Bill, who successfully caught the hammer and transformed into his cyborg form, with Don Blake stating that he 'knows a brother' when he 'sees one'. Entrusting Bill with helping Balder lead the Asgardians in their fight against the Skrulls, Bill took Don back to Broxton and returned just as the alien invaders began their assault on the city of Asgard.[19]

Bill and Balder, along with the other warriors, fought against the invading Skrull armada that threatened Asgard. He was soon confronted by a female Super-Skrull, who was in possession of an altered Stormbreaker that had been sliced in half. Overpowered by the Super-Skrull, Bill proved to be no match for it. It was then, did Don Blake arrive and, after turning into Thor, fought the Skrull himself. When the Skrull reforged Stormbreaker back into one whole, she hurled the hammer towards Broxton, barely stopped in time by Bill's oathbrother. Thor, tossing the hammer back to its rightful owner, says that he is 'needed', and the two go under Asgard to stop her.

After Asgard fell down and killed the Skrull, both Thor and Bill lifted the city back above the ground as it was before. Thor then asked Bill to help him battle the invasion elsewhere on Earth, but he declines. He told them that he was in 'limbo' and was determined to find answers 'amongst the stars'. With that, Bill parted ways with his allies and returned to the cosmos.[20]

During his time in space he rescued the Remnants from a false god, after which he met a group of alien monks who needed Bill's protection. After arriving at their meteorite home the monks were revealed to be Skrulls, and were the same Skrulls who had previously tortured Bill. They however had repented and saw Bill as their new god, which Bill refused to be seen as. The attackers were then revealed to be more Skrulls and after fighting the newly made Warrior's Three Skrull. After knocking out the attackers, Bill left, with the monks proclaiming they will try and join back with the others and unite the Skrulls again.[21]

Godhunter

Bill decided to hunt Galactus to avenge the destruction of the Korbinites' second homeworld, and the seeming eradication of his species. After a brief confrontation with the herald, Stardust, Bill was intercepted by the Silver Surfer, who was puzzled by the Korbinite's apparently futile quest to destroy Galactus. During a brief battle, Bill explained that while he understood he could not hope to destroy Galactus with his power alone, he intended to destroy Galactus by annihilating any and all worlds Galactus sought to feed from, thus starving him to death. Bill's obsession with stopping Galactus eventually resulted in him being unable to lift his own enchanted weapon, an object that could only be wielded by the worthy. Bill equipped himself with alien weapons taken from Voidian and found Galactus but discovered the entity already under attack by another race. In a moment of conscience, Bill saved Galactus. The grateful entity rewarded Bill by creating a Korbinite mate for him, with Bill also regaining the ability to wield Stormbreaker.[22]

Bill entered the Cancerverse along with Gladiator, the Silver Surfer, Ronan the Accuser, and Quasar as part of Nova's elite squad to find and rescue the prisoners of the alternate reality. They escaped it before its destruction.[23]

Following the war with the Cancerverse, and upon the urging of Cosmo, Bill joined the Annihilators.[24] They defended Galador from the threat of the Dire Wraiths, resulting in the peace between the two races.[25]

After Beta Ray Bill had crashed with another spaceship when travelling, he crash landed on an asteroid. Then, Sif, who was transporting Gaea and her garden through space with the other ship, also landed on the asteroid and encountered Beta Ray Bill, but his mate had mysteriously died. Beta Ray Bill was filled with grief, but Sif went to find Gaea. Gaea had collected one of every race of the galaxy, in order to heal herself. However, due to the technology of Stark Industries on the asteroid, Gaea was mutated into a monstrous being. Beta Ray Bill helped Sif to stop Gaea from crashing into Earth and instead in Asgard, which rejuvenated her.[26]

Working with Nova

Some time later, Beta Ray Bill had entered the ship of the slave trader, Captain Skaarn, who had captured some Korbinites and he witnessed Sam Alexander using his Nova force to power Skaarn's ship, which made Beta Ray Bill think that Sam was evil. He tracked Sam down to his school and started a fight, but eventually they sorted out when Nova realised that he had helped a villain and promised to Beta Ray Bill to help him defeat Skaarn. They were able to track down Skaarn to Knowhere, but the pirate threatens Beta Ray Bill that he would airlock the Korbinites and Beta Ray Bill is then transported by Skaarn in Jotunheim, after informing Sam of the situation. When Nova started to battle some Spaceknights paid by Skaarn, he transports them to Jotunheim, where Beta Ray Bill battles them. Beta Ray Bill and Sam are able to transport to the secret weapons vault, but were too late, since Skaarn had already raid it and get a sword. Beta Ray Bill went to help the Korbinites, while Sam battled and almost killed Skaarn. When Nova threw the sword into the sun, Beta Ray Bill retrieved it in order to not let the weapon in the wrong hands and then the two heroes departed ways.[27]

Unworthy Thor

After Thor had become unworthy of Mjolnir, he out of desperation went to an old Asgard to find a supposedly another hammer. Beta Ray Bill arrived and offered to Odinson his Stormbreaker,[28] only for Odinson to refuse it stating that it belonged to him. However, after approaching some alien spaceships, they were captured by the Collector, who wanted Odinson to lift the Mjolnir from Earth-1610.[29] After forcing Odinson to battle hordes of alien warriors, Beta Ray Bill was able to escape and free Odinson. However, Odinson went into his berserker rage mode and fought Beta Ray Bill in order to steal his hammer. The two were suddenly attacked by Proxima Midnight, Black Swan, and a hooded figure, who came to steal the alternate Mjolnir for Thanos. Along with Thori,[30] they freed all of the Collector's prisoners[31] and defeated the Black Order. Afterwards, Beta Ray Bill and Odinson talked and the Asgardian revealed to his friend that the reason of him becoming unworthy was because of Gorr the God Butcher's ideals. The two friends then had a beer together.[32]

Death of Inhumans

When the Kree begun to force the Inhumans to join them or to be killed, Medusa and other surviving members of the Inhuman Royal Family asked Beta Ray Bill to help them against the Kree and their Super-Inhuman, Vox, and saving Black Bolt, to which he agreed.[33] Upon finding Black Bolt and Vox battling, Beta Ray Bill helped the Inhuman King defeat his opponent, who was revealed to be a brainwashed Maximus. Beta Ray Bill and the Royal Family witnessed as something in Maximus' suit killed him and teletransported Crystal away.[34]

Joining the Guardians of the Galaxy

Beta Ray Bill and other prominent cosmic figures attended Thanos' funeral where Eros revealed to them that Thanos had uploaded his mind into a body. Then the Black Order arrived and stole Thanos' corpse, while opening a rift in space creating a black hole which sucked in almost everyone. Thankfully, the Silver Surfer managed to tie the Rider's chain onto Beta Ray Bill's Stormbreaker, which allowed Bill to pull out Moondragon, Captain Marvel, Star Lord and Groot from the rift.[35][36] Then, Gladiator with the Shi'ar Empire arrived and saved everyone.[35] Groot decided to reform the Guardians and save Gamora, since she would be suspected to be Thanos' new body. As the Guardians were able to find her,[37] she suddenly attacked them. After sorting everything out, Richard Rider arrived to warn them, but found out that they had already found Gamora. Then, the Dark Guardians arrived, having followed Richard, and were able to defeat them[38] and capture Gamora. In order to stop Eros from killing Gamora, Beta Ray Bill summoned Lockjaw and was able to arrive at Eros' base, only to find out that the Black Order had already taken down the Dark Guardians and revealed that Eros was Thanos' new body.[39] The Guardians were able to defeat the Black Order and stop Thanos' resurrection.[40]

When Star Lord's father, J'Son of Spartax sent the team a distress call, the Guardians arrived at the temple where the call originated, but were captured by a future version of the Universal Church of Truth lead by J'Son under the alias of Patriarch. The Patriarch started using their life energies to power the temple, which incapacitated them by forcing them to have feelings of apathy and despair.[41] Moondragon and Groot were able to escape and convinced Rocket Raccoon and Magus to help them, they all attacked the temple, however, the brainwashed heroes and villains, and a horde of clones of Drax overwhelmed them with Bill destroying Rocket's mech suit which also doubled as his life-support. Thinking that Rocket was dead, J'Son sent the Guardians away, unaware that Rocket was still alive and ready to fight.[42] He, along with the other prisoners, were all freed from the Church thanks to Rocket, who reprogramed the temple's engines to instead use the energies of the Destroyer Horde. The heroes fought the church and were able to banish them for good to their timeline. After that, Bill and the heroes payed a recovering Rocket a visit at a hospital, informing him that nothing happened in his absence.[43]

After Beta Ray Bill, along with Lockjaw, helped the people of Gyrax by defeating a Dragon, suddenly, some Ballurian ships carrying creatures emerged from the Negative Zone. The Cancerverse monsters attacked them, while Doctor Strange from the Cancerverse turned the Gyraxians into the monsters. Strange summoned a beast to kill Bill, but Lockjaw got in its way, protecting Bill. Then, Beta Ray Bill faced the Sentry, the leader of the forces of the Cancerverse, who had just emerged from the Negative Zone in order to pursue Annihilus. Beta Ray Bill fought the Sentry, but seeing that there wasn't no other way to defeat the Sentry, he launched his hammer at him, sending him back to the Negative Zone. Beta Ray Bill reverted to his original form and nearly died, until Lockjaw saved him. After that, the two decided to go to the Negative Zone in order to retrieve Bill's hammer.[44] Upon arriving in the Negative Zone, they were ambushed by the Cancerverses Forces, but luckily they were joined by the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer merged with Bob Reynolds. After retrieving his hammer, the heroes went to the planet where the refuges were. However, the Void arrived and attacked them. Mr. Fantastic used his Dimensional Anchor for the various heroes to arrive and battle the Cancerverses Forces. During the battle, the Surfer managed to remerge Bob with the Void, while Richard Rider sacrificed himself in order to defeat the monsters. In the aftermath, everyone returned to their lives.[45]

Against the Herald of Thunder

When All-Father Thor began helping Galactus in consuming the necessary planets to empower him to defeat the Black Winter, Beta Ray Bill arrived to stop Galactus.[46] Unaware of the cause, Bill assumed that Thor was under the influence of Galactus, but after finding out that Thor was helping Galactus on his own will, Bill then thought that Thor was a traitor. Refusing to listen, Bill attacked Thor, but was no match to the cosmically powered Thor. Bill got hold of Mjolnir during the fight, and didn't allow it to return to Thor, leaving Thor to instead grab Stormbreaker and smashed it on Mjolnir. This caused Bill to release Mjolnir out of shock, and when Thor was about to struck his brother, Sif the All-Seeing arrived to stop Thor from hurting Bill.[47] Following the argument between Thor and Sif, she transported herself and Bill back to Asgard.[48]



Powers and Abilities

Powers

Beta Ray Bill has powers and physical attributes similar to Thor's, which augment his already powerful cyborg body. He possesses incalculable strength, near invulnerability, immunity to disease and other ailments, and virtual immortality. He was deemed to be an Alpha Plus threat by the Galadorian Spaceknight Ikon.[24]

Transformation: By tapping his enchanted hammer on the ground, he is transformed from his Beta Ray Thor form to his mortal form. For his Korbinite body, it is transformed into a cane. He can transform back into his Beta Ray Thor form by tapping his cane upon the ground or when he was in the body of Simon Walters, by pounding his fist on the ground.



Superhuman Strength: Bill is phenomenally strong. He was capable of matching Thor pound per pound in their first encounter as foes to a certain extent. Bill has claimed to possess enough strength to crush entire moons with his fists[4], and to shatter entire planets with the force of his blows.[49] In fact, combined with Thor's help, his hammer thrown was powerful enough to destroy a portal that dwarfed stars in size.[50]

Superhuman Speed: He is capable of running and moving at speeds greater than even the finest human athlete. With Stormbreaker, he can fly at speeds faster than light.

Superhuman Stamina: Bill has superhuman stamina which can allow him to function at full capacity for many days at a time without tiring at the very least. In hot climates, his stamina is limitless.

Superhuman Reflexes: His reaction time is superior to the finest human athlete and most superhumans.

Superhumanly Dense Tissue: As a Korbinite his skin, muscle, and bone tissues had 3 times the density than the same tissue of a human being. This contributed, to his superhuman weight. He is immune to penetration wounds, tremendous impacts, and falls from great heights.

Superhuman Durability: Bill's body is far more resistant to physical injury than the body of an ordinary human. He is capable of withstanding great impact forces, temperature and pressure extremes, surviving in the heart of a Sun without even a slight discomfort, and even survive at point blank range, powerful energy blasts capable of destroying entire planets without any visible physical injury.[51]

Regenerative Healing Factor: If injured, his body can heal itself with superhuman levels of speed and efficiency. However, he cannot regenerate missing limbs or organs.

Extended Longevity: In his cyborg body, he is immune to the effects of aging making him effectively immortal. When he was in the body of Simon Walters, he was the same as a mortal.

Allspeak: Thanks to the Allspeak, he can communicate with and be understood by all races.

Abilities

Korbinites excel in hot climates. Bill is a very skilled and fierce warrior and is able to detect any other Korbinites regardless of their location.

Strength level

Class 100+. Bill possesses enough strength to shatter entire planets and so on.



Paraphernalia

Equipment

Armor of Asgardian design, including a helmet

Transportation

Skuttlebutt: his sentient warship. It was lost after Bill had "died" and reborn bonded with a mortal named, Simon Walters.

Weapons

Former Weapons Stormbreaker: a hammer similar to Mjolnir. Bill can use it to fly, manipulate weather, absorb and channel various energies, teleport, sense various energies and project the God Blast beam.

Notes

It seems that Beta Ray Bill's cyborg appearance is linked with Stormbreaker, as when Bill was left powerless he reverted to his original Korbinite appearance.[52][44] Yet he remained in his cyborg form after the destruction of Stormbreaker.[47]



Trivia

In the Modern Masters: Walt Simonson book, it is revealed that Beta Ray Bill was originally going to be called 'Beta Ray Jones'. This was quickly jettisoned as, according to Walt, there were 'too many Joneses' in the Marvel Universe at that point in time.

book, it is revealed that Beta Ray Bill was originally going to be called 'Beta Ray Jones'. This was quickly jettisoned as, according to Walt, there were 'too many Joneses' in the Marvel Universe at that point in time. The former soldier turned homeless man that Bill inhabited, named Simon Walters wore dog tags with the serial number '123 45 6789'(an obvious impossibility) and lists him as a Catholic with B Positive blood.[2]

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