Ymir (Earth-616)

Ymir
Name	Ymir
Aliases	Aurgelmir, Y'mir, the Living Winter, the Cosmic Giant, Ymik, Imir (possible typos)
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Ice Giants
Relatives	Siblings: Mitra, Lir ("half-brothers") Children: Atali (possible daughter); Atali's brothers (possible sons, deceased) Descendants: Bergelmir (grandson); Ice Giants, Frost Giants, Mountain Giants, Rime Giants, Storm Giants (descendants); Frostlings (descendants); Hoarfen, Iceworm (descendants); Jack Frost (possible descendant) Other Relatives: Bori, Mannanan ("nephews"); Morrigan ("niece")
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	1000′ (304.8 m)
Eyes	Irises: White
Hair	No Hair At All
Unusual Features	Since Ymir is an Ice Giant whose body continually generates intense cold, Ymir's body is always thickly covered with snow and ice.
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Ice Giant deity, also considered a Demon, and progenitor of the Giants
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Ginnungagap, Niffleheim
Personal Information
Identity	No Dual
Citizenship	Niffleheim
Occupation	King of the Ice Giants, lord of storm and war, chief of all gods
Education	No formal education
Base of Operations	Niffleheim, formerly Jotunheim
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Robert E. Howard, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
First	Journey Into Mystery #97 (August, 1963)
First	Journey Into Mystery #97 (August, 1963)

History

Origin

Ymir came to being on Niffleheim, one of the Ten Realms. He was the progenitor and the most powerful of the Ice Giants (Hrimthurs), a race from which the Giants of Jotunheim (among them Storm Giants, Mountain Giants, Rime Giants, and most notably the Frost Giants) descended. Like the other Ice Giants, Ymir was covered with snow and ice, and constantly generated intense coldness from his body. The huge size, durability, and colossal strength of the Ice Giants made them formidable foes to the gods of Asgard over the millennia. Except for the Fire Giant Surtur, Ymir was the oldest known being in the Ten Realms.

It has been said that millennia ago, warm air from the realm of fire Muspelheim crossed a dimensional barrier into the location of the magical Well of Life. Enormous amounts of ice from Niffleheim, the realm of ice and cold, formed above the Well of Life. In time, the warm air from Muspelheim caused the ice over the Well to transform into the living, sentient Ymir. Another being appeared from the ice, the enchanted cow Audumbla. Audumbla fed off the ice itself, and Ymir subsisted on the milk Audumbla produced.

Early years

During a battle between the Ice Giants and the Asgardians, the young god Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve slew Ymir. In return, the Ice Giants and the Giants of Jotunheim declared war on the Asgardians for slaying their progenitor. Meanwhile, Ymir's blood was used to produce a wine of which Lerad managed to acquire many barrels. After Ymir succeeded in regenerating himself, Odin created a chasm containing an interdimensional nexus through which Ymir's army plunged into Muspelheim, where the native demons took the Giants prisoners. Odin then entrapped Ymir himself within a circle of flame within a volcanic area.

Hyborian Age

At some point before 10,000 BC, humans began to worship Ymir and his first daughter as deities. Among these humans were the Vanir of Hyborian Vanaheim people whose members would include Ulysses Bloodstone.

Conan the Barbarian once met Atali, who claimed to be a daughter of Ymir, and set a trap for Conan. Conan was able to kill Atali's Frost Giant brothers, before he was struck.

Modern Age

Centuries later in modern day, the Midgard Vanir captured Iceman of the first class of X-Men in order to use his powers and him as a sacrifice to bring back Ymir, for them to rule a frozen Earth. Helped by Donald Blake, the X-Men were able to save Iceman, but Vanir's minion Ulf the Ice Troll served as sacrifice in his place, awakening Ymir. This one rejected the Vanir, while Blake turned into Thor. While the Odinson was able to stop him and exile him to the nether realm of Asgard, Ymir could now easily breach the gaps between worlds, becoming a more pressing matter for Earth's safety. He was later fully returned by Bellos of the Bold Eye who murdered the Frost Giants children in his village and used their blood to fully complete the ritual before he himself was killed by Utand and the rest of the villagers.

A member of the mystical cult called the Sons of Satannish used the so-called Spell of Fire and Ice to bring both Ymir and Surtur to Earth, where they began wreaking havoc. While Ymir attacked Wakanda, Surtur wreaked havoc in Antarctica. Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Stephen Strange, used the Crystal of Conquest, which contained part of the mystical power of the demons known as Satannish and Mephisto, to transport Surtur and Ymir magically into each other's presence at the very instant they were lashing out with their weapons. Ymir and Surtur thus struck each other's weapons, creating a mystical "implosion" in which each being temporarily cancelled out the powers of the other, and each was returned to his home dimension, Surtur to Muspelheim and Ymir to Niffleheim.

Surtur vs. Ymir

Ymir escaped again and started working with the Frost Giants, led by Bjorn the White, and Storm Giants, led by Grim Graybeard. He launched an attack on Asgard. However he was stopped by Thor and his brother Vidar. After Ymir reached freedom once again, Surtur disguised himself as Odin as part of a plan to destroy Asgard and told Heimdall that Ragnarök was upon them and Ymir had to be be stopped. After warriors were sent to fight Ymir, Odin transformed into Surtur and fought Ymir. With Surtur and Ymir locked in combat, Thor retrieved the Twilight Sword from the Sea of Eternal Night. After Thor lit the Twilight Sword in the Eternal Flame, Odin's control over Surtur started to vanish. Surtur and Ymir fought over the Twilight Sword, and while they were distracted, Thor transported them both into the Sea of Eternal Night, where they would be frozen for all time. They remained there for many years.

Many years later, under unrevealed circumstances, Ymir resurfaced on Manhattan in Midgard, and used his powers to merge Midgard with Niffleheim. When the New Avengers and the Avengers tried to confront him, Ymir banished them to the in-between of the merged planes. The heroes found Ymir's stronghold, and Ares retrieved the Twilight Sword from it. Releasing the sword from its containment caused Ymir to retreat, undoing the merging for the worlds as well.

Ymir's subsequent attempt at taking over Midgard saw him use a duplicate shell of himself to command an army of Frost Giants. He was intercepted by Thor and Iceman and, during battle, Ymir tricked Thor into using his lightning to power his newly-constructed Casket of Future Winters, unleashing the icy winds of oblivion itself. The power of the casket and the ice it released allowed Iceman to power up and summon golems of ice to single-handedly defeat Ymir's army. Iceman blasted the casket out of Ymir's hands, while Thor summoned a lightning to shatter Ymir's proxy.

During the War of the Realms, the Frost Giants allied themselves with the Dark Elf king Malekith the Accursed to take over Midgard. To help the campaign of conquest, the Frost Giant king Laufey confined Ymir in a stronghold in Miami, Florida from which enslaved locals were forced to mine and harvest pieces of Ymir's flesh to spawn Ice Giants from them. When a group of Earth's heroes, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Giant-Man (Raz Malhotra), Goliath (Tom Foster), and Atlas (Erik Josten), infiltrated Ymir's prison, they destroyed the shackles keeping him prisoner. Ymir fled from Midgard back to his home realm.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

Ymir possesses vast superhuman strength, greater than that of any other Frost or Ice Giant. He is extremely long-lived, and possibly immortal. His body greatly resembles ice in various ways, and if it was not for his ability to generate intense cold from his body, Ymir would melt when exposed to high temperatures. Ymir's body is extraordinarily resistant to injury, and although it can be shattered, as ice can, Ymir can cause the fragments of his form to reassemble.

Ymir continually generates extreme cold from his body in an unknown, perhaps magical fashion. If he so chooses, Ymir can cause anything he touches, including the air, to freeze.

• Superhuman Strength: Ymir can lift things up to 100 tons. His strength is greater than that of any other Frost or Ice Giant.
• Frost Immunity: As the King of Jotuns, Ymir is immune to coldness: His body is made of thick ice.
• Cryokinesis: Ymir can generate intense cold from his body. Ymir can cause anything he touches, including the air, to freeze.
  • Cryokinesis Inhibition: Ymir proved to be able to prevent other from using their elemental powers.
• Immortality: Ymir is extremely long-lived, bordering on immortality.
  • Regeneration: Ymir can cause the fragments of his form to reassemble.

Abilities

Although intelligent and capable of speech, Ymir is not particularly cunning, and attempts to win his battles through brute force.

Weaknesses

Ymir is vulnerable to extreme high temperature. It would caused him to melt down.

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Ymir carries an enormous, ice-covered club, which he uses as a weapon. Possibly the club is entirely composed of ice.

Transportation

Extra-dimensional teleportation, usually under his own power.

Notes

• Ymir was the progenitor of all giants in the Norse mythology.
  • Based on this mythological figure, Robert E. Howard created Ymir, the god of the Vanir in the Conan short story "The Frost-Giant's Daughter (published posthumously in 1953), adapted in Savage Tales #1 (May, 1971), written by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith.
• Legends also state that he was once a human with elemental powers of winter.

See Also

• 24 appearance(s) of Ymir (Earth-616)
• 7 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Ymir (Earth-616)
• 4 minor appearance(s) of Ymir (Earth-616)
• 45 mention(s) of Ymir (Earth-616)
• 6 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Ymir (Earth-616)
• 132 invocation(s) of Ymir (Earth-616)
• 15 image(s) of Ymir (Earth-616)
• 1 quotation(s) by or about Ymir (Earth-616)
• 1 item(s) used/owned by Ymir (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Ymir on Marvel.com