[1] Debuting in the Bronze Age of Comic Books, the character was initially intended to be a surprise; an apparent monster who unexpectedly turns out to be a great hero.

As such, Bill is the first being outside the Marvel Universe's Norse pantheon to be introduced as being worthy to wield Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.

Beta Ray Bill has been featured in other Marvel-endorsed products, such as animated television series, video games, and merchandise.

Beta Ray Bill debuted in The Mighty Thor #337 (November 1983), being established as an alien of the Korbinite race.

Unable to stop Thor, the sentient ship revives Beta Ray Bill, who is in suspended animation.

The remnants of the Korbinite race fled in a fleet of warships, guarded by a sentient ship called Skuttlebutt and a dedicated champion, Beta Ray Bill.

Skuttlebutt attacked Thor because the ship recognized the Asgardian magic as similar to that of the previous global threat, and assumed the Korbinites were being threatened once again.

On discovering that Bill was worthy enough to lift Mjolnir, Odin proposes a battle to the death in the fiery Asgardian realm of Skartheim to decide who will wield the hammer.

Bill's resistance to heat allows him to recover first, however, and he is deemed the winner—but he also saves Thor from falling into lava, believing he is too worthy an opponent to die, but he feels he needs the hammer to protect his people.

[10] Forming an attachment with the Asgardian goddess Sif,[11] Bill aids Thor against the Dark Elf Kurse in a two-part storyline[12] before returning to his people.

Bill remains a staunch ally of Thor and Asgard[13] before featuring in a storyline involving a creation of Galactus, Tyrant.

[20] Bill visits his people's new homeworld, where he is attacked by his insane predecessor, Alpha Ray, defeating him just as the cosmic entity Galactus and his herald Stardust arrive.

After finding an orb containing the souls of many of the Korbinites, Bill revisits a desolate Asgard, and joins forces with Stardust to battle a new demonic menace named Asteroth.

Although victorious, Bill is mortally wounded, and while near death is healed by an unknown entity that also claims the remaining souls in the orb.

Placed in the recently deceased body of a war veteran named Simon Walters (a reference to his creator, Walt Simonson) on Earth, Bill has a brief encounter with the villain Boar and the hero Spider-Man.

[22][23] During the Secret Invasion storyline,[24] Bill is wounded and captured by the alien Skrulls, who bestow his hammer Stormbreaker on a warrior Super-Skrull called the Godkiller.

[25] Bill decides to hunt the cosmic entity Galactus, to avenge the destruction of the Korbinites' second homeworld, and the seeming eradication of his species.

After a brief confrontation with the herald, Stardust, Bill is intercepted by the Silver Surfer, who is puzzled by the Korbinite's apparently futile quest to destroy Galactus.

The character's obsession with stopping Galactus eventually results in him being unable to lift his own enchanted weapon, an object that can only be wielded by the worthy.

[26] When the universe is invaded during The Thanos Imperative storyline, Beta Ray Bill joins Cosmo's select group to travel across the Fault and into the Cancerverse.

[27] Bill is recruited by Cosmo to join the Annihilators, a new super-group intended to replace the fallen Guardians of the Galaxy.

[32] Due to a misunderstanding, a battle between Bill and a cosmically powered All-Father Thor results in Stormbreaker being destroyed.

[33] Bill falls into depression as Stormbreaker's destruction prevents him from transforming back into his unaltered Korbinite form.

[34] Beta Ray Bill's life force and consciousness were transferred by scientists of his race into the body of an alien carnivorous equine-like beast that had been bionically restructured into a cyborg.

The same technology that transferred Bill's consciousness into his cyborg body was also used to transfer an unknown Korbinite's consciousness into a large combat cruiser retrofitted with medical, cargo, and humanitarian equipment and facilities to accommodate the attempt to transport Bill's people off planet to avoid the incoming attack by Galactus.

After Stormbreaker's destruction, Beta Ray Bill replaces it with the Twilight Sword, which can generate the flames of Muspelheim.