Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill #1

History

The six-issue miniseries was written by Michael Avon Oeming (who had also scripted the 'Thor: Disassembled' arc that set the stage) in collaboration with co-writer Daniel Berman, with pencils and covers by Andrea Di Vito and colors by Laura Villari — the same core creative team that readers of the preceding Thor run would have recognized. Editor Tom Brevoort shepherded the book under Joe Quesada's tenure as Editor-in-Chief, and the series was positioned explicitly as a satellite title within the 'Avengers: Disassembled' publishing initiative, giving Bill his own narrative thread through the broader dismantling of Marvel's Asgardian status quo. The full six-issue run was subsequently collected in a trade paperback subtitled 'Avengers Disassembled' and reprinted again in the 2017 'Thor: Ragnaroks' omnibus-style volume.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Stardust (Lambda-Zero): an Ethereal — a race of ancient, non-corporeal energy beings — who becomes Galactus's newest Herald, introduced here as the antagonist dispatched to eliminate Beta Ray Bill and exterminate the surviving Korbinites.
• First appearance of Alpha Ray: a biomechanical, pre-Beta Ray Bill Korbinite guardian created by Korbinite scientists, deemed too unstable and locked away before Bill's own transformation, reactivated here in desperation against Galactus.
• First appearance of the Ethereals as a race, established as ancient cosmic beings composed of pure energy predating most galactic civilizations.
• The story is a direct narrative continuation of 'Thor: Disassembled' (part of the 2004 'Avengers: Disassembled' event): Bill is established as the sole surviving witness to Asgard's destruction by Ragnarok, with Sif and Volstagg shown falling in flashback.
• Written by Michael Avon Oeming & Daniel Berman; pencils and covers by Andrea Di Vito; colors by Laura Villari; letters by Chris Eliopoulos; edited by Tom Brevoort.
• Galactus appears in disguise as 'Ashta,' the Korbinite name for the World Devourer — a piece of alien-mythology worldbuilding that fleshes out the Korbinite culture's relationship with cosmic annihilation.
• The issue has been reprinted at least twice: once in the same-titled Marvel trade paperback collecting issues #1–6, and again in the 2017 'Thor: Ragnaroks' collection.
• Stardust went on to appear in the 'Annihilation' event (2006–2007), cementing this issue as the origin point for a recurring cosmic character in Marvel's mid-2000s space mythology.

Cast · 7 characters

Full credits