WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Beta Ray Bill #1, by Daniel Warren Johnson, Mike Spicer and VC's Joe Sabino, on sale now.
Asgard has weathered many threats over the years, from dark elves to recently one of the sinister shadows of Thor himself. During the crossover event King in Black, a familiar foe comes back to the mythical realm, radically transformed to become even more monstrous than usual: Fin Fang Foom.
And as the extraterrestrial dragon comes calling to reduce Asgard to fiery ruins, his longtime enemy Thor is conspicuously absent, leaving Beta Ray Bill to face the wrath of the dragon head-on. The formidable Fin Fang Foom was further upgraded by one of the dark god Knull's insidious symbiotes in Beta Ray Bill #1.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1961's Strange Tales #89, Fin Fang Foom was an alien resembling a dragon that went into a lengthy stasis in China after landing on Earth. Originally a villain so fearsome that he forced Iron Man to team up with his longtime nemesis the Mandarin, Fin Fang Foom also struck up a particularly noteworthy grudge against Thor. The God of Thunder slayed the dragon's physical form, but Fin Fang Foom's soul lingered and would eventually reform his body while continuing to harbor a deep-seated animosity towards Thor.
While Thor was preoccupied with confronting Knull back on Earth, Fin Fang Foom attacked Asgard, seeking to raze it to the ground while its greatest champion and current king were away. Covered in the black symbiote with Knull's infamous symbol seen on his forehead, it's unclear if Foom is operating under orders from Knull himself or simply taking advantage of the symbiote upgrade to continue his vendetta against Thor. Beta Ray Bill rallies the Asgardian military to confront Foom, but with his new power boost thanks to Knull's symbiote, Foom easily clears out the opposition while battering through the walls of Asgard like a one-dragon wrecking crew.
As history has proven, symbiotes are vulnerable to electricity and Thor returns to his home realm from Midgard just in time to blast Fin Fang Foom with his divine lightning. Despite Foom's superiority on the battlefield over Bill and the Asgardians, all it takes is a single, triumphant blast of lightning from Thor to bring the dragon to his knees. The symbiote is visibly blasted off of Fin Fang Foom and the dragon is rendered completely incapacitated, leaving Asgard to welcome Thor back as the true hero of the day. Meanwhile, Bill is left to glower in the shadow of his best friend, quietly underscoring just how strained their friendship has become since Thor took the throne of Asgard.
Asgard just can't seem to catch a break these days, with enemies from the outside and within constantly driving the realm to the brink. Fin Fang Foom has certainly brought the fury to Asgard's gates in the past, but the dragon's most monstrous transformation nearly costs Beta Ray Bill his life. With Foom bonded to one of Knull's symbiotes, the beast is the largest, most iconic symbiote dragon in an invading army populated predominantly by other symbiote dragons. Fin Fang Foom has been defeated by Thor once again, but given the lasting effects of being bonded to a symbiote, it'll be interesting to see if there are any lingering consequences to the symbiosis.