WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Beta Ray Bill #2, by Daniel Warren Johnson, Mike Spicer and VC’s Joe Sabino, on sale now.
Ever since Thor was crowned the King and All-Father of Asgard, Beta Ray Bill has had an especially rough go of things. A skirmish between Thor and Bill over his decision to temporarily ally himself with Galactus to confront a mutual threat in the Black Winter resulted in Thor breaking Bill’s mythical weapon Stormbreaker.
Without his trusty hammer, Bill was unable to revert back into his normal, humanoid form, leading him to search for a way to restore himself. And as Bill grows increasingly desperate in Beta Ray Bill #2, he learns that the key to his quest may come at a fiery cost.
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Odin forged Stormbreaker and imbued it with a portion of the Odin Force, so Bill reasons that the former All-Father possesses enough power to forge a replacement. Bill searches the backwater planets and dingy dive bars in the rougher parts of the galaxy where Odin was last seen prior to briefly returning to Asgard to confront his wayward creation, Donald Blake. While Bill is successful in eventually locating Odin, who is now resigned to brewing cosmic beer in his exile from Asgard, he is shocked to learn that Odin transferred the Odin Force to Thor when his son was crowned as the new All-Father, thus making him unable to forge a device capable of restoring Bill.
However, not all hope is lost for Bill, as Odin advising his old ally on a different means of regaining his normal self. Odin tells Bill that the tools he is searching for lie within the fiery realm of Muspelheim, with the domains reigning fire giant Surtur wielding the mythical Twilight Sword. Odin explains that the sword is capable of restoring Bill to normal and notes that its sheer destructive potential led him to construct an entire fortress around it, overseen by four mighty Asgardian warriors, to prevent Surtur and the blade from ever leaving Muspelheim and endangering the other realms. Undeterred, Bill and his companions set out to steal the Twilight Sword.
Surtur and the Twilight Sword are prophesied to trigger the cyclical destruction of Asgard through Ragnarok, with Thor reluctantly allowing this to come to pass in an effort to break the never-ending cycle of destruction and rebirth for good. When Asgard was reawakened from its latest Ragnarok cycle, Thor discovered Odin trapped in an eternal battle against Surtur. Since then, Surtur has kept a relatively low profile, save for an attempt to completely burn down Yggdrasil. Since his last defeat, his daughter Sindr now reigns over Muspelheim.
Bill is venturing into the heart of Muspelheim and the lair of Surtur where the Twilight Sword is kept, with Surtur and Sindr unable to wield the blade for unknown reasons. Traveling to the blade’s location through the Stygian Gate, Bill and his companions are about to traverse deeply into a realm that leaves all who enter it changed from the fiery ordeal. And with Bill as determined as ever, he may free a weapon that is capable of leaving Asgard a smoking husk, potentially leaving it vulnerable for less noble figures to commandeer for their own destructive ends.
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