Marvel Universe stuff

Singh'sSpot said:

Imagine the big twist in the movie is that he's gay, also the movie will have a message about freeing Tibet and liberating the Uyghur population.

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Youre smoking crack if you think their Chinese masters would allow anything remotely like that.

Conefed said:

All I know about BRB was that he was made to look monstrous to intentionally setup from the get go a switcheroo of him not actually being bad, but good.
The name was basically a clue that he was good because it was southern white inspired, the least threatening archetype of the time. The rest was him being maguffin powerful including being able to use the hammer and wear the same clothes.
In short, super duper lame. But you and others like him and his lore, so I ask what's the deal. What's his story that leads to his appeal?

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As with any attempt to explain why one person likes something that another doesn't, it can be difficult to put into words. But I'll try.

First, you have to put yourself into that time period. I was barely a teen when this came out, and I had limited allowance money to buy comics every week. I had bought a few comics with Thor in them, mainly the ones with Silver Surfer and Mephisto because those were fucking awesome, but in general Thor kind of sucked at that time. He had his mortal secret identity (Donald Blake) and that stupid stick that was Mjolnir's disguise. So like half of every Thor comic dealt with is shitty mortal story and how he was conflicted and upset and blah blah. Who gives a fuck. I certainly didn't. Thor was pretty much an automatic pass for me at the Comics & Comix in the mall.

Then, I see the cover to Thor #337.


I'm instantly hooked. Holy shit, who the fuck is this weird looking guy with Thor's hammer, and why is he smashing the logo??

Then I open it. Walt Simonson started his run with this issue, and the art was dramatically different (and better I'd imagine) than what had been on his book before.




I mean, seriously, if that doesn't get you hard, nothing will. It instantly made a hard pass comic into a must-have in 4 fucking images.

Ok, so you might say, sure the art is cool and dramatic, but it's still just a horse-faced alien with a stupid name and a stupid mechanic of giving him the hammer when you take the art away. Well, again, it is really tough to put into words why Bill is awesome. At the time, he was sort of like...the Thor that Thor should have been, if that makes sense? He is noble and dedicated and virtuous, and you can tell very quickly that this is a fucking good guy. Check that, a GREAT guy. He makes Thor look like a whiny little bitch...which is exactly what Thor had turned into with all that Donald Blake shit. He was tired and boring and dull. Beta Ray Bill was what the God of Thunder should be. He'll give his life for someone without even debating it, but if you get in his way, he will fuck you up. Even when he doesn't have the power of the hammer, he's fighting and striving and willing to die if that's what it takes. Thor was pretty selfish back then, which is the whole reason Odin "cursed" him with his mortal form, so he'd learn some humility. It wasn't working as a comic book. This fucking worked.

And let's not forget, this was also the first time EVER that someone else had picked up the hammer and used it. Now, we've got Vision and Cap that have picked it up in the movies, and multiple, multiple people in the comics since this first time, so it is no big deal to hear that Bill picked it up. But he was the first, and it was a huge deal at the time.

On top of all that, the entire run was fucking marvelous. Here's a better synopsis than I could give, that I found when looking for those pics above.


I suppose another thing that makes me love Beta Ray Bill is that he hasn't really been used much at all in the 35+ years since he was first introduced. He's had a couple of limited series, and has appeared here and there, but usually only briefly. So he hasn't been over-saturated with exposure like a lot of other characters.

Honestly, if you didn't experience his "birth" in real time, I can totally see where he doesn't seem like anything special. But he was a huge deal at the time. So hopefully that explains a little bit of what makes him one of my favorites.