History ComicBook / TheBalladOfBetaRayBill

S.H.I.E.L.D. detected an alien ship heading towards earth, and sent Thor to deal with it. Thor found a powerful alien in it, and was defeated when he became the human Donald Blake again. The ship crashed on Earth and SHIELD surrounded it. Seeking Thor's hammer to use it in his defense, the alien found just a stick, and knocked the wall n ager with it... and got the power of Thor, and the stick became Mjolnir again. But after defeating SHIELD Odin had an urgent need of Thor, and teleported him to Asgard... not realizing, in the rush, that the guy with Thor's hammer and costume was not actually Thor. Beta Ray Bill was imprisoned and Donald Blake turned to Thor and taken to Asgard, and things were clarified: Beta Ray Bill is the protector of his people, and confused Thor and Odin with the demons that were chasing him.

'''The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill''' was a 1983 storyline of ComicBook/TheMightyThor. It was the first work of Creator/WaltSimonson in the title, and the first appearance of ComicBook/BetaRayBill.

SHIELD detected an alien ship heading towards earth, and sent Thor to deal with it. Thor found a powerful alien in it, and was defeated when he became the human Donald Blake again. The ship crashed on Earth and SHIELD surrounded it. Seeking Thor's hammer to use it in his defense, the alien found just a stick, and knocked the wall n ager with it... and got the power of Thor, and the stick became Mjolnir again. But after defeating SHIELD Odin had an urgent need of Thor, and teleported him to Asgard... not realizing, in the rush, that the guy with Thor's hammer and costume was not actually Thor. Beta Ray Bill was imprisoned and Donald Blake turned to Thor and taken to Asgard, and things were clarified: Beta Ray Bill is the protector of his people, and confused Thor and Odin with the demons that were chasing him.

!!''The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill'' contains examples of:

* AnimatedAdaptation: An episode of WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes, with the same name, made an adaption of this story. SHIELD was removed (and all planet Earth, for that matter), Thor does not have a Donald Blake identity in that series, there was no death match for the hammer or negotiation with the dwarves and they moved directly to forge a new one (hey, it has to be told in nearly 20 minutes!), and incorporated the Enchantress as a slave of Surtur, a subplot absent in the original work.

* WowingCthulhu: Beta Ray Bill was the first character other than Odin and Thor himself to lift Mjolnir.

* WowingCthulhu: Beta Ray Bill was the first character other than Odin and Thor himself to lift Mjolnir, and the [[{{ComicBook/CaptainAmerica}} next one]] wouldn't do so for about another decade.

* ThisIsUnforgivable: Volstagg told Agnar that if he killed Balder, he may eventually forgive him, because he has also been young and arrogant once. Thor and Fandral may also forgive him, they have also been young and arrogant. But... what about Hogun the Grim? He has never been young. He will never forget... [[EyedScreen nor forgive!]]

'''The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill''' was a 1983 storyline of ComicBook/TheMightyThor. It was the first work of Creator/WaltSimonson in the title, and the first appearence of BetaRayBill.

* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Lady if, a woman with a sword, against an endless wave of demons. Who wins?

But there's a problem: for the first time, someone other than Thor has been worthy enough to lift the hammer, and he claims that he won it in battle. They tried to settle it in a fight to the death: Beta Ray Bill won, defeated Thor, but did not kill him. So Odin tried another approach: he made a new hammer, Stormbreaker, specifically for Beta Ray Bill. Both of them and Lady Sif returned to the ship, and destroyed the demons. Before leaving, Odin moved one enchantment from Mjolnir to Stormbreaker: Bill was now capable to turn into his normal self, that he had lost after so many modifications to turn him into a super soldier. And, on the other hand, Thor lost the power to become Donald Blake.

* AnimatedAdaptation: An episode of WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes, with the same name, made an adaption of this story. SHIELD was removed (and all planet Earth, for that matter), Thor does not have a Donald Blake identity in that series, there was no death match for the hammer and they moved directly to forge a new one (hey, it has to be told in nearly 20 minutes!), and incorporated the Enchantress as a slave of Surtur, a subplot absent in the original work.

* SuperSoldier: Beta Ray Bill was improved as such by his race.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Thor was once an arrogant jerk. Odin had once turned him into a mere mortal, who could turn into Thor with an enchantment in the hammer. The idea was to make Thor appretiate patience and helping the weaklings. The enchantment was that "Whoever holds this hammer, if he's worthy, shall possess the power of Thor". It seems that Odin was also an arrogant jerk: he had never considered the chance that someone else other than Thor may be worthy.
* FauxSymbolism: Donald Blake, crying to the skies why does his father Odin abandoned him...

* IJustWantToBeNormal: It began with Donald Blake in the park, thinking about this.

* AnimatedAdaption: An episode of WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes, with the same name, made an adaption of this story. SHIELD was removed (and all planet Earth, for that matter), Thor does not have a Donald Blake identity in that series, there was no death match for the hammer and they moved directly to forge a new one (hey, it has to be told in nearly 20 minutes!), and incorporated the Enchantress as a slave of Surtur, a subplot absent in the original work.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Bill's ship automatically decodified Thor's language and loaded it into Beta Ray Bill.

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