Warning: contains a preview for Beta Ray Bill #4!
While Thor may have recently become the new All-Father of Asgard, that doesn't mean he knows all Odin's secrets, and Beta Ray Bill #4 just revealed a horrifying monster hidden away in the depths of Muspelheim that the God of Thunder should really know about. While the War of the Realms saw Odin cede his position to Thor, the two have been at odds ever since. Odin's secrets recently led to the escape of Donald Blake, Thor's former human persona, and now the new God of Lies. Thor promised Odin a reckoning for his dark deeds, and Beta Ray Bill has been further exploring the threats Odin hid from his son.
Recently, Thor and Beta Ray Bill clashed, with the new All-Father destroying Bill's hammer, Stormbreaker. Unfortunately, Stormbreaker was the only thing that allowed Bill to return to his more humanoid form, leaving him in the hulking body that he would usually only adopt for battle. Wanting to regain his transformational abilities, Bill set out on a quest for Twilight, the Sword of Surtur, with Odin directing him to a secret interstellar gate to Muspelheim, guarded by a cadre of Asgard's greatest warriors.
In the past, Odin has used the Muspelheim gate to dispose of threats he either could not kill or didn't want the wider galaxy to know about. In Beta Ray Bill #3, perhaps the most powerful of these threats was revealed, as Beta Ray Bill's crew pursued the greatest energy source in the realm, believing it must be Twilight. Instead, they discovered a towering monster veiled in shadow. Now, in a Marvel Comics preview of Beta Ray Bill #4, the creature's true form is revealed, along with a terrifying power that explains why Odin hid it away in the deepest part of Muspelheim.
The monster Odin hid away is revealed to be a vast, squid-like monstrosity - one capable of putting biological entities into a trance. Before they entered the Muspelheim gate, Beta Ray Bill and his team were warned that everyone who returns does so changed, and that, "a blackened hollow burns in their eyes." It seems this horrifying creature isn't just huge, but capable of warping the souls of those it captures, sending them back out into the galaxy as its thralls. While Beta Ray Bill is freed from his trance by Skuttlebutt - the humanoid AI who controls his ship - he still has to find a way to escape the eldritch monstrosity and reach Twilight. There's also the risk of the warriors manning the other side of Odin's gate, who are charged with killing anything that falls under the creature's influence.
Beta Ray Bill #4 - from Daniel Warren Johnson, Mike Spicer, and VC's Joe Sabino - is coming June 30, and will hopefully see Thor's closest ally break free of this incredibly powerful monster in the penultimate chapter of his journey to regain his former body, or at least come to terms with the one he has. But the series has also explored the dark secrets Odin hid away from his people as the ruler of Asgard, showing that when Thor's promised day of reckoning comes, he may find that his father has even more to answer for than he ever suspected.