Annihilation Scourge: Beta Ray Bill #1: Stop, Hammer Time!

I’m gonna go ahead and preface this with being 100% honest: I’m a total Stan for Beta Ray Bill so if you ain’t about that life you’re in for a rocky ride. Writer Michael Moreci gets right to it here. Beta Ray Bill is out in space destroying monsters and being the hero of the people he’s always been. Moreci also has the good sense to bring along Bill’s newest BFF Lockjaw! The pair fighting space dragons and offering up their unique buddy cop comedy is enough to make this issue worth a buy but when the Cancerverse inevitably spills into this it just gets even better.

If you recall The Sentry was the epicenter of 2011’s Siege, when Asgardians got slaughtered and Asgard itself was brought crashing to the ground. So when Sentry comes flying through a crack in reality to challenge the Oath brother of Thor you know it’s gonna get wild….which it promptly does. While the battle is brief, it’s intense – Sentry and Beta Ray Bill pounding on each other is just as thrilling as you’d expect and when Bill goes for a Stormbreaker, YOLO! Moreci’s writing just gets more interesting.

The idea of powerless Beta Ray Bill and Lockjaw diving deep into a war ravaged Negative Zone is pretty much nuts. It speaks to just how awesome Bill is that he’s never scared like Bonecrusher but also is a great example of why BRB and Lockjaw together are so entertaining. Whether it’s casual comedic dialogue or midst a bloody battle, the pair are just a pleasure to read. They’re pretty absurd by design one super angry horse man and a big doofus of a doggo yet it just works when handled this simply yet effectively.

The bottom line of it is this, the other issues are great but if this team did a full series based on just Bill and Lockjaw vs the Cancerverse I would probably do backflips. I’m not sure if there’s just not enough writers who love Bill like the fans do or what but Moreci makes why Beta Ray Bill is so dope extremely evident in just one short issue, so hopefully that reminds Marvel we need more of him.