(Thor I#348 (fb) - BTS) - Eons ago a man who would become known as Eric Willis learned of the power of the casket of ancient winters. He managed to steal it from Malekith the Dark Elf who planned to unleash its power. Willis kept the casket hidden for thousands of years. As the artifact's guardian, he did not age.
(Thor I#345 (fb) - BTS) - Sometime in the early 20th century, Eric Willis married and fathered a son, Roger Willis. When the child was growing up, Willis made arrangements that Roger would receive instructions on where to find the casket should Eric perish. Eric instructed his attorney Mr. Strother to contact Roger via mail.
(Loki: Agent of Asgard I#15 (fb) ) -
Before leaving his family, Eric showed his young son the casket of
ancient winters and explained that bad men were out to get it. He gifted
him with a magical ring that once belonged to Andvari. He instructed
Roger on its use: it can see through lies and illusions but should only
be worn when someone is offering him food. Roger failed to understand
what his father meant, but accepted the ring. He always carried his
'lucky ring' with him, but never on his finger.(Thor I#346 (fb) - BTS) - Roger Willis served in the military during a conflict in Korea. He saw action with his platoon at Hagaru-Ri.
(Thor I#347 (fb) - BTS) - Willis suffered a head injury during his time in Korea. Surgeons saved his life through cranioplasty, placing a metal plate in his head.
(Thor I#353 (fb) - BTS) - After the military, Willis served as a policeman and settled in the town of Roslyn on Long Island.
(Loki: Agent of Asgard I#15 (fb) - BTS) - Willis eventually met and married a woman called Eloise. They had a daughter called Verity.
(Loki: Agent of Asgard I#15 (fb) ) - When Verity was a toddler, she got a hold of her father's magical ring when it fell through a hole in his pocket. When she swallowed it, her parents rushed her to the emergency room where the doctor concluded the gold band had somehow dissolved into her system. This gave Verity the ability to see the truth in anything.
(Loki: Agent of Asgard I#15 (fb) ) - Willis and Eloise grew apart over time and decided to get a divorce. When Willis told Verity, he insisted to his daughter that the break up wasn't her fault, which her powers told her was something he believed to be true. Verity and Eloise moved out together.
(Thor I#345 - BTS) - When his father got arrested on trumped up murder charges by servants of Malekith, the family attorney Mr. Strother made sure Roger Willis received documents detailing the location of the casket of ancient winters.
(Thor I#345) - After reading the letter, Roger Willis accepted his father's request and headed from his Long Island home to New York city armed with a .45 Colt handgun filled with steel jacketed bullets.
(Thor I#346) - Willis arrived in Manhattan, changing cabs and taxis often to throw off anyone who might be following him. In Greenwich Village he was almost ambushed by servants of Malekith, but he was nimble enough to get the drop on them. Willis escaped by getting in a cab and then disappearing into the subway. As he made his way to the Lower West Side, he made peace with his current dire predicament: thinking to himself he'd had 53 swell years, though he wouldn't have minded 20 more. Following the instructions left by his father, Willis eventually retrieved the casket of ancient winters from an abandoned section of the West Side Highway. After checking the artifact's authenticity, he quickly put it in a Macy's shopping bag to avoid unnecessary suspicion.
(Thor I#346 - BTS) - Minutes after Willis had left, Malekith appeared on the scene (after killing Eric Willis and absorbing his memories) to find the casket was gone. Figuring its resting place had only recently been disturbed, he sounded the faerie hunting horn to summon his forces for the wild hunt. Unbeknownst to him, the sound was picked up by Thor.
(Thor I#346) - Malekith's faerie hunting dogs caught up with Willis and the casket in midtown. He fired his gun, finding the steel bullets exceptionally effective against the magical creatures. Willis soon faced Malekith, disguised as the master of the hounds. Willis managed to kill Malekith's steed, but was unable to defend himself against the Dark Elf himself. However, Thor's arrival changed the tide of the conflict. The thundergod managed to seriously injure Malektih by hitting him with a steel beam from a nearby construction yard. Malekith announced his retreat to his ancient realm in the Cotswolds.
(Thor I#346 - BTS) - On
his way to the Cotswolds, Malekith abducted Thor's ladyfriend 'Melodi'
(secretly Lorelei), leaving a facsimile in her place.(Thor I#346) - After helping Willis dispose of the corpses of the mystical faerie beasts they killed, Thor brought him to his apartment where they soon discovered Lorelei had been taken hostage. Malekith's demands were simple: come to the Cotswolds and bring the casket.
(Thor I#347) - When he approached the Cotswolds, Willis was attacked by the Dark Elves who are largely invisible to mortal eyes. Thor defeated them and took some of their oil of vision. He anointed Willis with the oil, allowing his partner to see through the illusions surrounding the realm of the faeries. Upon entering the netherworld, they were attacked by water elementals who quickly tried to drown Willis. They were no match for Thor who led his ally to the great gates that led to the kingdom of the fairies. Roger wondered if they shouldn't have come with more men, but the lovesick Thor would hear nothing of it and stormed in, blinded by his passion and Malekith's magics.
(Thor I#347 - BTS) - In spite of Willis' warnings, Thor lost his self control and started fighting illusions until he wound up buried in an avalanche Malekith had set up for him.
(Thor I#347) - Roger was quickly taken prisoner by Malekith and his servant Wormwood. Malekith took the casket from him and then blasted him with magic to take his eyesight so he would never get to gaze upon the faerie realm again. Malekith allowed the blinded, freaked out Willis to run off into the tunnels, figuring he would make for an entertaining hunt later on.
(Thor I#348) - The
steel plate in Willis' head dispersed a significant portion of
Malekith's blast, causing the blinding spell to be only temporary.
Willis recovered soon enough to shoot Malekith in the arm with his last
steel jacketed bullet to prevent the Elf from opening the casket.
Malekith spotted Willis and led the search against him. Willis was busy
finding his way back when he came across the site where Thor was buried.
Moments later, the thundergod freed himself. After Willis filled him in,
he pretended to be Willis and hid in the shadows, waiting for Malekith
who fell for the ruse. Thor managed to defeat his foe by illuminating he
cavernous tunnels with lightning so the Dark Elf had no shadows to
retreat into. (Thor I#348) - Thor and Willis decided to exchange Malekith for Melodi but once they reached the heart of their domain, Willis' anointed vision showed him 'Melodi' was actually Wormwood in disguise. Out of bullets, he decided to act by throwing his gun at Wormwood, breaking the illusion. Thor grew furious and hurled his hammer to the sky, exposing the Dark Elves' realm to direct sunlight. Malekith regained consciousness during the confusion and lunged for Willis' gun. Though handling the steel caused him great pain, he managed to hurl it at the casket of ancient winters, breaking the artifact and achieving his goal: freeing the Fimbulwinter of Ymir.
(Thor I#348 -BTS) - The Fimbulwinter weakened the portal keeping the fire demon Surtur out. He used his massive sword Twilight to breach the gates and begin his invasion of the nine realms.
(Thor I#349) - Thor
returned Willis, 'Melodi' and the unconscious Malekith from the
Cotswolds to his apartment in New York where they began to plan how to
counter the eternal winter Earth was facing. Willis noticed how Thor was
fawning over 'Melodi', suspecting she was drugging him with the golden
mead she served the thundergod. However, before he could share his
suspicions with Thor, 'Melodi' managed to plant a kiss on him that
magically prevented him from speaking out. Willis was not powerless to
act, though. He sneakily diluted the leftover golden mead with water and
honey, figuring that would decrease its potency. (Thor I#349 - BTS) - Odin observed the events from Asgard and quickly realized 'Melodi' was actually Lorelei. He decided not to act, relieved that his son had not fallen in love with a mortal woman for a change.
(Thor I#349) - Willis and 'Melodi' saw Thor off when he returned to Asgard with Malekith.
(Thor I#351) - Willis joined the heroes of Earth and Asgard on the snow covered streets of New York, using his gun to fight off Surtur's invading hordes. He believed he spotted Thor, only to be surprised it was actually Beta Ray Bill who had been sent to Earth to lead Asgard's forces in Thor's stead. Willis told Bill he had a way to beat the weather: reassemble the broken casket of ancient winters. Mr. Fantastic overheard Willis talking and saw merit in the plan. He ordered the Human Torch to take Roger back to the Cotswolds in England using the Fantastic Four's new gravity acceleration vehicle the Riproar I.
(Thor I#352) - After the Human Torch
melted a way inside the ice covered realm of the Dark Elves, Roger
started to look and assemble the broken pieces of the casket. Johnny was
forced to leave him alone to engage some of Surtur's forces who had
gathered outside. Roger dutifully continued to put the casket together,
but his fingers grew too cold and numb to free one final piece stuck in
the ice.(Thor I#352 - BTS) - Surtur channeled the full power of the Fimbulwinter and directed it against Odin, freezing the ruler of Asgard in place. As a result, all the ice and snow vanished from Earth. Which also meant the frozen Dark Elves were now free.
(Thor I#352) - Roger Willis was surprised to see the ice vanish before the casket was complete. Moments later, elation turned to horror when he witnessed the newly revived Dark Elves rising against him.
(Thor I#353) - Grabbing the missing piece of the casket, Roger ran away from Wormwood and the other Dark Elves who were relentlessly chasing him. Roger was rescued by the Human Torch who returned in time from fighting the fire demons to carry Willis to safety. Once inside the Riproar I, Willis glued the missing piece in place and showed Johnny that the box was fully restored. When he closed the lid as part of the demonstration, the casket's magics instantly sealed the Fimbulwinter away inside the box.
(Thor I#353 - BTS) - As a result of
Roger's inadvertent rescue, Odin was now free to face Surtur in final
combat. 