Superhero Sundays: Black Bolt
By Ian T. Wilson
Rating: G
Word Count: 365
Summary: a brief biography of Marvel’s Black Bolt
Good morning good people of the Fellowship and welcome again to Superhero Sundays. I’m Ian Wilson, Fellowship and Fairydust’s resident comic expert. This week’s hero is Marvel’s Black Bolt.
Black Bolt is an Inhuman; a human with special abilities given to him by alien DNA. in fact, he’s not just any Inhuman; he’s the king of the Inhumans. The Inhumans live hidden away in the city of Attilon, separated from the humans who persecuted them. Black Bolt reigns there with his wife Medusa, his cousins and his brother, Maximus. Now, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Attilon is located on the moon; however, in the comics, Attilon is hidden in the Himalaya Mountains. This is one of many areas where the MCU differs from the comics.
As the benevolent king, Black Bolt’s main duty is to the people of Attilon. He is a good king, however, his brother Maximus is jealous of his power and popularity with the people. At one point, he had Black Bolt and Medusa banished from Attilon, forcing them to wander the earth. It was never really explained how he did this in the comics, but I think the Inhumans TV series did an adequate job of explaining. Maximus convinced the Inhumans that Black Bolt was unfit to lead, and had himself installed as leader. When Black Bolt finally returned, let’s just say there was a disagreement.
Black Bolt is quite possibly one of the most powerful Inhumans ever. His voice is powerful enough to level cities. His slightest whisper could bring buildings down! In the comics, he also had superhuman strength, and he could glide with the aid of a wingsuit. These were removed from the TV show; I’m not exactly sure about these creative choices. Maybe they thought the voice was enough; the superhuman strength and the wingsuit were not exactly intrinsic to his Inhuman powers so perhaps the writers thought them unnecessary. There were a lot of creative choices in that show that didn’t make much sense.
Black Bolt was created by the famed writer/artist duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Fantastic Four #45 back in 1965.