The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes "The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill" Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

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The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes "The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill"
Episode Premiere Date - May 20th, 2012
While searching for the fire demon Surtur, Thor is attacked by a powerful creature known as Beta Ray Bill, and the unthinkable happens when Bill lifts Thor's hammer as the two battle. Thor must ally himself with this strange warrior to save Asgard before Surtur and his demon army burn it to the ground.

Comments?

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[Avengers]

Loved this one. Bill was awesome and Surtur was menacing just as a background player. I gatta say this season is dark this is like the third planet that has been destroyed.

Great Thor episode and I hope this means he joins back with the Avengers.

 

[wakawakawaka]

so the surtur saga isn t over yet is it... i thought that loeb made all the epidoes in the 2nd half of season 2 stand alone...........

 

[ShadowBlinky]

What is this? THOR'Sday?

 

[wakawakawaka]

well it was nice having both shows of marvel universe feature Thor today..but i still dont like USM

 

[Medinnus]

so the surtur saga isn t over yet is it... i thought that loeb made all the epidoes in the 2nd half of season 2 stand alone...........

In the second half of the season; they were already finished with the first thirteen episodes.

 

[Sketch]

Woo Steven Blum as Beta Ray Bill!

Yet another character I am not the least bit familiar with but that's one of the many reasons I enjoy this show, it's always introducing me to characters I was previously unaware of.

 

[TheVileOne]

Blum playing another Marvel character especially one like Beta Ray Bill is always awesome. I liked the shifting focus in this episode to Thor and Asgard. We got to see a lot more of characters like Heimdall, Odin, and Sif which is nice since they'd mostly been background players for most of the series. Glad we got to see the Dwarf King as well and address what Surtur did to his realm and stole that sword. I wonder if we are going to see him cash in on that favor from Thor eventually. I have a feeling we are going to see Bill again soon at some point.

Now I could be off here since I completely misread what was going on with Wolverine and Rogue in Wolverine and The X-Men . . . but I almost got the sense of some type of romantic longing from Sif for Bill. I mean at the same time, I detected some jealousy from Sif over Thor and his longing for Jane Foster. She hid it beneath the idea of Thor's connection for mortals, but Sif and Thor always had that thing going back in the comics anyway. Not sure how it would work with Bill being a Korbonite and Sif an Asgardian, but heck why not.

 

[RoyalRubble]

Beta Ray Bill is introduced in this episode. While I am not that familiar with him from the comics, I have seen his previous animated appearances (Silver Surfer, The Super Hero Squad Show and the Planet Hulk animated movie) and I know that he's basically an alien version of Thor. He has the same powers, a similar costume and his own war hammer known as Stormbreaker. This episode does a great job at introducing this new character, and it gives enough backstory so that viewers who have never even heard of him before understand what he's all about. He is the champion of the Korbinites, a genetically altered alien who has to protect his people aboard the ship called Skuttlebutt from fire demons. Beta Ray Bill's design was pretty cool here, and his voice was done wonderfully by the great Steve Blum (who I hope will also get to play Wolverine whenever he'll appear on the show). The fact that the fire demons are actually the minions of Surtur makes this episode a new chapter in the Surtur story-arc (which started back in the episode "Acts of Vengeance"). And I'm glad Surtur wasn't defeated this week, because I feel that he is a threat big enough that the entire Avengers team should fight and eventually defeat, not only Thor. Even though he is an enemy from Asgard, that doesn't mean Thor should battle him alone; Loki was his greatest enemy but the Avengers fought him together in the epic season one finale. I'm hoping the Surtur saga will also have an awesome ending.

Even though this is Beta Ray Bill's spotlight episode, other characters also get their moments to shine. Most notably Thor, who personally I feel has been absent for too many episodes (the same could be said about the real Captain America) and I am glad he got an episode focused primarily on him, in the same fashion Iron Man and Ant-Man received their own episodes earlier this season ("Alone Against A.I.M." and "To Steal an Ant-Man", respectively). I was surprised however to see Sif also get some great moments here; from her fight scenes against the fire demons aboard Skuttlebutt, to her receiving some character development. By the end of the episode she understands how Thor feels being so far away from Earth and everyone he has made a connection with. She learns this after helping Beta Ray Bill protect his fellow Korbinites and offers to join him on his journey. When Beta Ray Bill refuses she returns with Thor to Asgard to prepare for the upcoming battle with Surtur. In Thor's case, the mortals he has made a connection with are obviously the Avengers, but perhaps even more so with Jane Foster. I suppose Thor will soon return to Earth to recruit the other Avengers in his fight against Surtur. Either that, or Surtur's attacks will reach Earth.

The Enchantress also returns in this episode, after the power upgrade she received at the end of "Acts of Vengeance", where she is reluctantly recruited by Surtur. This time she is too powerful for Thor to face alone, but alongside Beta Ray Bill he manages to defeat her. I figured she would rejoin the Asgardians by the end of this episode but apparently she was only temporarily free from Surtur's control. Seeing her plead Thor to "end it" while she is free was a pretty powerful moment. Unfortunately Surtur reclaims her and the scene where he is speaking through her was creepy. I wonder if she will be saved by the time the Surtur saga ends. I think it would be interesting to see a former villain forced to work with the heroes against an even bigger threat. Either way, Beta Ray Bill promised his "brother" Thor that when the final battle with Surtur will take place, he will be by his side, so we obviously haven't seen the last of him on the show.

And I thought the final scene with Surtur forging his sword was the perfect way to end this episode. There's no dialogue, but that just makes the scene more interesting. I'm looking forward to the inevitable confrontation between him and the Avengers. Overall, the episode was really good, and had some great moments. We are introduced to a new character from the comics, we get to see Thor in action again after a pretty long break and as always great fight scenes. It was a little weird seeing Thor as the only character appearing in the opening credits instead of the current team members though; even after the events of "Who Do You Trust?" there are still at least four other Avengers on the team so I wonder why Thor was alone this time. Other than that, there's also the fact that Eitri agreed to forge Beta Ray Bill's war hammer only if Thor will do a favor for him in return. I think this will lead to something interesting. I'm looking forward to the next episodes, as always.

 

[JLApe]

When entering Skuttlebutt, Sif says, "Access code 337" to disable its security.

"337" is a reference to Thor, Vol.1, #337 (Nov 1983). Beta Ray Bill's first appearance.

Other than that, there's also the fact that Eitri agreed to forge Beta Ray Bill's war hammer only if Thor will do a favor for him in return. I think this will lead to something interesting.

The favor, as shown in Thor #339, is hilarious. Sif cleaned house, figuratively speaking.

 

[The Dark Lord]

Pretty good episode. Nice to see more of Thor's adventures.

Voice acting was solid: Steve "The Badass" Blum as Beta Ray Bill was awesome, Rick D Wasserman was great as always as Thor, Clancy Brown as Odin is a perfect match of awesomeness, and Nika Futterman as Sif was cool too.

BTW, this was the first time I noticed how...nice Sif looked.

 

[Gold Guy]

I liked this episode. I like Beta Ray Bill, and Blum voicing him was icing on the cake.

But.... I was a bit saddened at the lack of Surter. Seriously, he shouls have appeared way more.

 

[HEATXZ]

Great episode
Nice to see Beta Ray Bill on the show plus voiced by Steve Blum
The action scenes were great

 

[majcvd49]

Why hasn't this episode popped up on iTunes yet? It's weird, they always pop up on there like clockwork on Monday morning.

 

[Medinnus]

Why hasn't this episode popped up on iTunes yet? It's weird, they always pop up on there like clockwork on Monday morning.

Its very distressing, and slowing down my microhero production!

 

[majcvd49]

Its very distressing, and slowing down my microhero production!

Haha ya I mean I hope this isn't gonna be a pattern.

 

[Medinnus]

Haha ya I mean I hope this isn't gonna be a pattern.

You and me both!

For those who like Asgardian lore, this episode was a treasure trove of Thor-ish goodness!

• Heimdall can use Bifrost to guide Asgardians to any place in space/time.
• Did anyone else snicker at the set up for a "...And don't call me 'Shirley'" joke?
• Beta Ray Bill's spaceship looked like the Yamato to me, and I hummed the theme to "Star Blazers" all the episode.
• We find out that Amora is a Vanir, and that the Vanir value life.
• Sif's sword does a nice little energy vortex trick.
• The Sword that was broken has been reforged! I'd say there were ripping off Tolkien, but I also wrote a 25-page term paper tracing the Norse myths Tolkien ripped off for Lord of the Rings

 

[Wonderwall]

Now I could be off here since I completely misread what was going on with Wolverine and Rogue in Wolverine and The X-Men . . . but I almost got the sense of some type of romantic longing from Sif for Bill. I mean at the same time, I detected some jealousy from Sif over Thor and his longing for Jane Foster. She hid it beneath the idea of Thor's connection for mortals, but Sif and Thor always had that thing going back in the comics anyway. Not sure how it would work with Bill being a Korbonite and Sif an Asgardian, but heck why not.

If I remember right inthe comics there was an attraction or even a relationship between the two during Simonson's run I wanna say? I'll have to look through that edition of MM as I'm pretty sure they brought that up.

 

[Medinnus]

If I remember right inthe comics there was an attraction or even a relationship between the two during Simonson's run I wanna say? I'll have to look through that edition of MM as I'm pretty sure they brought that up.

I remember that as well, but if its in the episode its very subtle; from her comment at the end, she seems to have a better appreciation for Thor more than anything else.

 

[GL Zeeguy]

Really, Apple?? Three days after the fact and you still have not put this episode on iTunes?? The only proper response is...WTF!