Real Name: Blackagar Boltagon
Occupation: Monarch of the Inhumans
Identity: The general public does not believe the Inhumans exist.
Legal Status: Citizen of Attilan
Place of Birth: Island of Attilan, Atlantic Ocean
Group Affiliation: Royal Family of the Inhumans
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Medusa (wife and first cousin), Agon (father, deceased), Rynda (mother, deceased), Gorgon, Karnak, Triton (cousins)
Base of Operations: Attilan, Blue Area, Earth’s Moon
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #45
History
Black Bolt was born as Blackagar Boltagon to two of Attilan’s top geneticists, Agon, head of the ruling Council of Genetics, and Rynda, director of the Prenatal Care Center. Subjected to the mutagenic Terrigen Mists while still an embryo, Bolt was born with strange powers surpassing even the Inhumans’s norm. As an infant, he demonstrated certain energy-manipulative abilities which he could not yet control, particularly that of producing quasi-sonic energy of great destructive potential. To protect the community, he was placed inside a sound-proofed chamber and given an energy-harnessing suit. Agon then tutors his son in how to control his powers, until permitted to re-enter society as a young man, having promised to never speak of his powers. His younger brother Maximus attacks Black Bolt upon his release from confinement, in an attempt to prove that Black Bolt cannot control his sonic powers.
A month after being awarded his freedom, Black Bolt discovered that his younger brother, Maximus Boltagon, was in the process of making a treacherous pact with emissaries of the alien Kree.
Black Bolt
Attempting to stop the Kree ship before it escaped, Black Bolt used the forbidden power of his quasi-sonic voice to knock the ship out of the sky. When the ship crashed to Earth, it landed on the parliament, killing several key members of the Council of Genetics, including his parents, Agon and Rynda. The reverberations of his brother’s shout affected Maximus’s sanity and suppressed his nascent mental powers. Despite his guilt and silent protests, Black Bolt was obligated to accept the mantle of leadership of the Inhumans at the age of twenty.
Black Bolt’s first crisis in leadership came when his cousin Triton was briefly held captive by humans. Learning of Triton’s encounter upon his escape, Black Bolt decided that the Inhumans’s island of Attilan was in imminent danger of discovery by humanity. Black Bolt scouted out possible sites to which to move, and settled upon the remote Himalayan mountains. After the great migration, Black Bolt faced his second great crisis when his brother Maximus, who had by now become psychotic, unleashed the Trikon, three of the Inhumans’s worker drones, who were transformed into energy-beings. The Trikon enabled Maximus to wrest the rule of the Inhumans from his brother and send Black Bolt and the other members of the Royal Family into exile.
Medusa
For the next few years, Black Bolt and his kinsmen wandered Asia, Europe, and finally America, in search of Medusa, his betrothed mate, who had been separated from the others during the battle with the Trikon. Eventually Black Bolt was reunited with Medusa and the Royal Family returned to Attilan and resumed the crown. The Inhumans’ home, Attilan, was moved to the blue area of the moon after Mr. Fantastic diagnosed pollution as the source of a plague among the inhumans. When the Kree refuges came to Attilan for refuge, they actually came to kill Black Bolt and the rest of the Inhuman Royal Family. Black Bolt was seen along with Gorgon, Medusa, Ahura and Karnak in a garden since the Inhuman Royal Family renounced their claim of power. The Kree refuges were in the woods and had a pick of who to shoot and they chose Black Bolt. Before they can shoot Black Bolt senses them and sends a bolt of energy towards their way. Black Bolt is contained by an ion field. Black Bolt is then freed from the field by his son Ahura. He then attacks the soldiers. He is teleported with the others outside of Attilan and held at gun point by the Kree soldiers. He attacks them until their boss comes and tells him the situation. He then goes with the others to the Genetics council to hear the decision. Black Bolt is teleports to the mists to attack the Kree. He makes a wall to the mists so no other Kree can get to them.
He attacks and knocks out all normal Kree. Black Bolt is then battled with the most powerful transformed Kree. He takes it outside and when the Kree was about to explode from not being able to control the energy he grabs Black Bolt. Black Bolt uses his master blow and knocks him away into space to explode. Black Bolt has led the Inhumans through some of the most turbulent times in their history, including several more attempts Maximus has made to usurp the throne, revolts amongst the worker class, attacks from human renegades, the kidnapping of Medusa, the destruction and rebuilding of Attilan, the revelation of the Inhumans’s existence to humanity, and several more relocations of Attilan. Following the traditionally lengthy period of betrothal, Black Bolt and Medusa were wed.
King of the Inhumans
His role as king of the Inhumans has been tumultuous. The first major crisis when he and Medusa conceived a child. Medusa bore the child in defiance of the Genetic Council, whose members felt that Black Bolt’s bloodline was too dangerous to pass on. The Council nonetheless took the child to examine, and forbade parental contact. Black Bolt was torn between his love of family and his duty to respect the Genetic Council, and it was only when the Councilors were revealed to be evilly using his son in a plot against him that he finally turned against the Council. With that, he also gave up the crown as king of the Inhumans. For a while, they lived away from Attilan, but returned in times of need. After the Heroes Reborn arc, he seemed to have been reinstated as monarch without much further explanation, but was subsequently exiled after Attilan’s forced adventure with Ronan in space. He returned again to the moon with his Royal Family after being banned from Earth, and again it seemed that the rest of the Inhuman population soon rejoined them there and reaffirmed his role as king without much ado. He has been described as “never defeated in battle.” This is technically true for the times that he has allowed himself to use his powers to the fullest.
However, there are examples where an opponent has temporarily disabled him when he has chosen not to use his voice, likely for fear of destroying the surroundings. Of late, there has been an exploration of the ongoing inequities and injustices of the caste-bound Attilan society, and Black Bolt does seem to turn a blind eye to much of it. It could be that as a product of that environment, he accepts the status quo as a given: this would make him a benevolent yet flawed ruler. Given his exposure to the outside world and his own previous stand against the Genetic Council, this seems unlikely. Given his ever changing status as ruler, he likely sees limits to any further changes that he could realistically make to the social fabric at this point; after all, it was only not so long ago during his reign that the Alpha Primitives were emancipated. He has been a great leader in ensuring the survival of Attilan against threats from outside and in; perhaps he is biding his time, awaiting a period of stability before again turning his considerable leadership skills to issues of social justice.
With Medusa Black Bolt goes into the ship realizing its the Kree that’s attacking. There he sees Ronan The Accuser. Black Bolt flies to see the defenses that are upon him. He sends an order to Medusa, but she is captured. He goes straight for Ronan but is caught in a stasis field only for his powers to be turned against him. Black Bolt doesn’t make a sound knowing it might be the end of his people. He is put into a machine that hurts him he then screams. The Kree’s machine uses his sonic ability and blast Attilan out of the ground. He is sent on the Shiar ship to destroy it. He is then sent to Sparto to kill Lilandra with Medusa and Gorgon. Not knowing Triton and Karnak are part of the Imperial Guard. During the wedding Black Bolt approaches LIlandra first but is frozen in his place. She then tells her Imperial Guards to take them and the traitors in their group. He is commanded to scream but holds it in. His first scream was low but killed the Lilabdra impostor. The second one he said into the ground which shook continents across the planet and let volcanoes blow. He then teleports the Inhumans away. Black Bolt challenges Ronan to a duel to win the Inhumans freedom.
Overall, Black Bolt’s combination of overwhelming power with self-imposed silence, as well as his responsibilities as both “super-hero” and monarch, has made him one of the more intriguing creations of Kirby and Lee. An air of mystery surrounds Black Bolt, maintained by his silence, and accentuated by the convention of not grafting thought balloons onto him. Finally, even in a universe of super-heroes, Black Bolt stands out as an icon of nobility. The mythic nature of this being was well highlighted in the second Inhumans series written by Paul Jenkins, who, in fact, was able to derive much tension from Black Bolt not using his incredible powers to annihilate his kingdom’s attackers.
In the story arc, Silent War, Quicksilver stole the Terrigen Crystal form the Inhumans, that in turn, was in the possession of the US Army. Black Bolt then declared war with the army when they wouldn’t return the stolen crystals and kidnapped one of the royal family, Gorgon. Black Bolt lead a rescue to their fellow Inhuman and they were successful. But Maximus took advantage of his absence and once again usurp the Inhuman throne and overthrows Black Bolt.
During the Civil War, Black Bolt remained neutral to the conflict but also rejected the Super-Human Registration Act and decided not to get involved with the heroes’ problems. Prior to Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, Black Bolt and the rest of the Illuminati decided to send the Hulk into space, so that he could not hurt anyone again in earth. However, when Hulk returned to Earth shortly after Civil War, Hulk engaged and defeated Black Bolt in combat and captured him. After all of the Illuminati were captured (except for Professor X and Namor), he made them all fight for their lives and against each other.
Secret Invasion
Captured by the Skrulls
When the Illuminati was assembled to discussed about the recent Skrull impersonator of Elektra, Black Bolt suddenly voiced out his opinion to his fellow Illuminati members. It was revealed that Black Bolt is a Skrull in disguise. He fought the Illuminati, showing off that it has the combined powers of the Illuminati. He was later killed by Namor and was it was also revealed that the Skrull had been impersonating Black Bolt since the end of the Kree-Skrull War. Black Bolt is being held captive by the Skrulls on a ship marked with the Inhuman crest. The Skrulls planned to use his scream as a deadly weapon for the Skrull Empire. While they navigate closer to their destination, Attilan is attacked by infiltrators and super-skrulls, causing a battle to begin inside the city. Black Bolt was eventually rescued by Medusa and the rest of the royal family. He then took an aggressive counteraction against the Skrulls and the city of Attilan became a weaponized vessel. They destroyed the Skrull ships which were trying to flee, as well as Shi’ar vessels trying to intercept. As he breached Kree defenses to accomplish his goal. The Kree thought that the Inhumans were coming back in order to take revenge for what the Kree had done to them many years back. Instead, Black Bolt forced Ronan, leader of the Kree, to pledge allegiance to him. When the Emperor of the Shi’ar, Vulcan, found out about what the Inhumans had done to the Shi’ar vessels, he said that the attack of the Inhumans was an “invitation”.
War of Kings
As the Starjammers were fleeing from a Shi’ar ship, they landed on the Kree home world to escape. The Shi’ar ship was destroyed as it clashed with the barrier surrounding the home world and the Starjammers arrived safely. They were invited to attend the wedding of Ronan the Accuser and Crystal of the Royal Inhuman Family. As Polaris and Crystal talked about the wedding, Ronan over heard them as Crystal said that she was only marrying him to gain power and influence for the Inhumans and not for the sake of love. Lilandra, once empress of the Shi’ar empire, went to talk to Black Bolt to as for asylum. As Medusa speaks for Black Bolt, Lilandra begs her to offer her sanctuary in their empire. As the wedding was about to start, kree guards were attacked by a shape shifting suicide bomber of the Shi’ar. The wedding was interrupted by the Shi’ar and the rest of the Imperial Guard. Black Bolt was attacked by Gladiator who was heading the assault as Vulcan watched from his ship. Gladiator instructed White Noise to scream at Black Bolt. Her scream wasn’t on par with the scream of Black Bolt but it was enough to stun him for a second. As he was stunned, Gladiator punched him and took Black Bolt out. Princess Lilandra was then taken captive by the guard. Crystal was attacked but Ronan came to save her. However, Ronan was double teamed and ended up falling as well. Gladiator said that they have made their point and the Imperial Guard departed. Medusa, standing by Black Bolt, screamed that the Shi’ar have made a mortal error and that they shall pay in blood.
On the first day of the Shi’ar-Kree war, a world gets cremated by one of the Shi’ar Nega-Bombs. Gladiator delivers Lilandra to Emperor Vulcan as he is in a good mood after seeing what the Nega-Bombs have done. Vulcan tries talking to Lilandra but she refuses and instead he watches as worlds burn. Back on the Kree home world, there is unrest and confusion across the heartworlds. Medusa, speaking for Black Bolt, addresses everyone to remain calm and to attend to their duties. The Inhumans discuss what is happening and know that the Kree are blaming them for what has happened. They decide that they should strike the Shi’ar hard and fast. Meanwhile, Polaris and Crystal watch over Ronan, Crystal’s husband, as he is in an infirmary after the attack of the Imperial Guard. Ronan tries talking to Crystal but they are escorted out of the room as onan needs rest. outside the room, there are countless people all waiting to be attended to. Kree were sick and injured from the attack. The Kree worry about Ronan but Crystal tells them that he has not given up and that he believes in Black Bolt. Crystal then opens a vent to bring the Kree fresh water as they need it. The Kree then praise Crystal for her kindness towards them. Meanwhile, Maximus readies the echo-weapons they have rpepared. They plan to strike a counter-offensive on the Ski’ar with them. A war between the Kree and Shi’ar broke through and it lasted for quite a while. But then, the chorus of sentries were launched from carrier ships of the Kree. And they were singing with their batteries charged with the echo of their king, Black Bolt. Nothing withstands the attack of the sentries. The Starjammers run through the Shi’ar ionclad with their superior firepower. They went under a Shi’ar ship and Havok unleashes charged plasma and fries the gravity generators of the ship. The new Inhuman elite then board the ship and defeat the Shi’ar inside as they mastered zero-gravity combat. The Inhumans then get information from the Shi’ar data sphere and figure out where they are keeping Lilandra. Back in the Shi’ar imperium, Vulcan hears about the news that his second battle group was entirely obliterated by the Kree and Inhumans. Vulcan gets angry and says he will kill them all, starting with Lilandra.
As Vulcan threatens to kill Lilandra, he is stopped by Admiral Ka’Ardum. He explained to Vulcan that if he killed her, she’d be a martyr and they should keep her alive in order to make sure there is no successor to her throne. Back in Hala, Crystal watches over Ronan and she tries to make him feel better and tell him about them having the upper hand in the war.And she confirms to him that their wedding ceremony was completed and they truly are married. The Kree needed the Uplift Program which would further evolve them to make them superior. Ronan embraced the offer that he, along with the Kree race, were given. Crystal then goes to the Royal City in Attilan. She sees Maximus in the Chamber of Devices but Maximus is busy as his projects get set back from many different requests and he has no time to talk to Crystal.The Uplift Program hasn’t been working and Crystal asks what is to happen to the Kree now. Medusa explains that they’ll just care and rule over the Kree. Crystal then goes to Black Bolt to give her daily report to him. She tells him that she is concerned with the Kree people and she feels that they are using them. Back in the Shi’ar Warbird, Gladiator checks on Lilandra. The Imperial Guard then assembles as they have been attacked. The Starjammers have come to save Lilandra but this time they brought extra help, The Guardians of the Universe. Rocket Raccoon keeps Gladiator distracted while the others take on the rest of the Guard. Gladiator then realizes that Rocket Raccon is attacking his mind and not his body with the help of Marvel Girl’s illusions. Gladiator easily defeats the Guardians and flies off to Lilandra/ Smasher tries talking to Gladiator, but Gladiator kills him as he says that they should kill her. Gladiator then says that he serves at the pleasure of Empress Lilandra.
Powers and Abilities:
Ambient Particle & Electron Harnessing: Black Bolt’s primary superhuman ability is the power to harness free floating electrons. The speech center of his brain contains a unique organic mechanism that’s able to generate an unknown particle that interacts with the electrons he absorbs to create certain phenomena that are determined by his mental control.
Quasi-Sonic Scream: Black Bolt’s most devastating offensive weapon, and one of these phenomena based upon the particle interaction, is his actual voice. A whisper can level a city, cause distant dormant volcanoes to become active once more, and generate tremors on the far side of the planet. A hypersonic shout has been said to generate enough force to destroy planets. Due to the constant and extreme danger posed by his voice, he has undergone rigorous mental training to prevent himself from uttering even the smallest sound, even while asleep. Recently it has been shown that Black Bolt’s scream is tied into his emotions, especially anger. This in turn would mean that the power of his scream would depend on his emotional state in at least some way. It would explain the fluctuation of the power released by his quasi-sonic scream. While at ease, a spoken word from Black Bolt has destroyed mountain ranges in the past, but while under more strenuous circumstances, it was stated that a single word would be capable of annihilating half a planet. .
Particle & Electron Channeling: Black Bolt wears a metallic, fork-shaped antenna upon his brow that allows him to focus and channel his powers in more directed and less destructive ways. This antenna monitor’s the speech center of his brain and allows him to direct quantities of the unknown particles to create controlled phenomena, such as enhancing his physical strength beyond his normal limits. He can also channel all the available energy he has into one arm for a single, massively powerful punch called the Master Blow. The exertion from this, however, taxes his ability to employ the energy to its limit and leaves him somewhat vulnerable for a time.
Particle & Electron Manipulation: Black Bolt can also direct the unknown particle outwards without the use of his vocal chords. He can route the particles through is arms and create small yet very powerful blasts of concussive force. He can also form a field of highly active electrons around his body with a wave of his hand. This field can deflect projectiles up to the mass of a large meteor. Black Bolt can also create enough iteration between the electron and particle energies to generate fields solid enough for him to travel over.
Matter & Energy Manipulation: Through an unknown method, Black Bolt has shown numerous times that he has the ability to manipulate matter and energy to an unknown degree. He has shown the ability to transmute the elements, such as water into ice by re-arranging the molecular structure. He has destroyed a Solar Flare powerful enough to annihilate the Earth.
Anti-Gravitational Flight: Black Bolt can also harness the unknown particles his brain generates to interact with electrons to create anti-gravitons that enable him to defy gravity. By emitting a jet of rapidly moving particle / electron interaction by-product while enveloped by anti-gravitons, Black Bolt has been shown to fly faster than a 1000 miles per hour for a period of 10 hours. The anti-graviton field also serves to protect Black Bolt from the detrimental effects of rapid movement through the atmosphere.
Alternate Versions
Age of Apocalypse (Earth-2950)
Black Bolt and the Inhuman royal family were all killed by Maximus, and were later cloned to serve as his personal bodyguards.
Earth X (Earth-9997)
In this reality, Black Bolt releases the Terrigen Mist to Earth’s atmosphere, giving all the humans superpowers.
House of M (Earth-58163)
In this reality, Black Bolt is an ally to the Wakandan king, Black Panther. Black Panther called Black Bolt to come so he can defeat Apocalypse. When He came Black Bolt shouted and killed Apocalypse. Here he also is an ally of Magneto and destroy bombs that were headed towards Genosha.
Mutant X (Earth-1298)
In this reality, Black Bolt assembled the Inhumans and the Externals to battle against the Beyonder and Dracula.
Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610)
In this reality, Black Bolt used his voice to destroy Attilan, that was being infiltrated by the Fantastic Four.
