Black Bolt

Origin

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’ 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 tutored his son in how to control his powers, until he was permitted to re-enter society as a young man, having promised to never speak of his powers.

Black Bolt’s younger brother Maximus attacks him 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 discovers that his younger brother, Maximus Boltagon, is in the process of making a treacherous pact with emissaries of the alien Kree.

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’ 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.

Creation

Black Bolt was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby.

Major Story Arcs

Leader of the Inhumans

After the origin events that led to the death of Black Bolt’s parents, he had accepted to mantle the throne as leader of the Inhumans. 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’ 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’ 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.

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. This attempt of assassination was foiled by Black Bolt himself.

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’ existence to humanity, and several more relocations of Attilan. Following the traditionally lengthy period of betrothal, Black Bolt and Medusa were wed.

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.

Return to the Moon

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 Shi’ar 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 Lilandra 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.

Silent War

In the story arc, Silent War, Quicksilver stole the Terrigen Crystal from the Inhumans, that in turn, was in the possession of the US Army. Black Bolt then declared war on the United States when they wouldn’t return the stolen crystals and kidnapped one of the royal family, Gorgon. Black Bolt led a team to rescue 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.

Civil War

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

When the Illuminati was assembled to discuss the recent discovery of a Skrull impersonating Elektra during the Skrull Secret Invasion, Black Bolt suddenly voices his opinion to his fellow Illuminati members. It is revealed that Black Bolt is a Skrull in disguise. The Skrull fights the Illuminati, showing off that it has the combined powers of the Illuminati. He is later killed by Namor. It is revealed that the Skrull had been impersonating Black Bolt since the end of the Silent 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

For More Information: War Of Kings, Realm 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 heart-worlds. 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 Ronan 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 prepared. They plan to strike a counter-offensive on the Shi’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 ironclad 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 Raccoon 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.

The tides of war may now have shifted with Gladiator now serving under Empress Lilandra instead of the rule of Vulcan. The Inhumans and the Kree are now trapped in a war that they do not want to fight. Vulcan meets and discusses with his admirals that they are in a war which they may not be able to afford. As they meet, a sentry from the Kree/Inhuman army which was made in the image of Black Bolt, attacked Vulcan. the admirals ordered their men to protect Vulcan but he decided to take down the sentry himself. Before he engaged with the sentry, Talon from the fraternity of Raptors, destroyed the sentry. He says that the Shi’ar Majestor, Vulcan, is under his protection. That means trouble for the Inhumans, Kree and Black Bolt as they now have a new enemy on their opposing side. Meanwhile, Crystal and Ronan talk about how they must approach Black Bolt and tell him about how they feel. They feel that the Inhuman program to uplift the Kree isn’t working and that if Black Bolt hasn’t been taking the right decisions by not acting aggressive and capitalizing on their opportunities is the war.

Lilandra then faces the Shi’ar people and tells them that she is now back and in control of the throne. Some people are happy about this but others are angered as they support Vulcan. Lilandra and the Starjammers then head to the temple in order to renew her oath. However, they are then confronted by the Death Commandos (a network squad serving under one of the chancellors who support Vulcan). They continue to fight but once the dust clears, Lilandra is seen in the arms of Gladiator and seemingly dead, after getting shot by another Raptor, Razor, who was currently in control over the suit of Chris Powell. Powell later takes control over the suit again, but as soon as he regains control, he gets attacked by Gladiator and Havok as they think it was him who killed Lilandra.

Black Bolt and the rest of the Inhumans and Kree are severely saddened by the death of Lilandra. The Inhuman Royal Family meets up with Black Bolt to get orders on what to do now that their plan has failed. They have decided and the city of Attilan launches into the sky. Meanwhile, Vulcan meets with Talon and his Admirals to discuss on their next move. Vulcan is told by Talon to stay and to pull back his troops. Vulcan doesn’t listen to Talon and decides to take action. Ronan, Crystal and Maximus barge into the room where the Royal Family was staying.

They inform Ronan of their plan to launch the T-Bomb which is weaponized Terrigen. They say that the uplift of the people through the mists will result in peace within everyone. Ronan and Crystal are unhappy with this as the Kree are not able to adapt to the mists and they will be left behind and underclassed. The city of Attilan finally reached Shi’ar space and they decided to release the T-Bomb. Medusa greatly supported the plan to launch the T-Bomb until she started to wonder where Black Bolt was. Maximus explained to her that Black Bolt’s voice powers the bomb and that he would have to be sacrificed for it to take effect. Medusa is greatly angered but she says her final goodbyes to Black Bolt through a communication device. Black Bolt whispers goodbye to his queen and powers-up the bomb. The defense sentries were launched in order to protect the bomb and help it arrive at its destination. But Vulcan comes and flies through the sentries and into the bomb where Black Bolt was as well and challenging king of the Inhumans.

As Vulcan and Black Bolt begin to fight, Crystal disagrees with Medusa over the bomb killed the king and forcing the mutation of millions. Medusa (who was distraught and actually attacked Karnak when she found out the plan) wants to just trust her husband, but Crystal teleports with Lockjaw into the ship. Meanwhile, Vulcan had been edging out Black Bolt, so the Inhuman shouted, “No!” at him. This activated the bomb, but Vulcan was reduced to a skinned, tiny, corpse. Crystal then appears and tells Black Bolt that forcibly mutating people is wrong, and while sometimes making hard choices is the job of a king, other times not making hard choices is a king’s job. Black Bolt seems to agree, and Crystal removes the mutation device, but it is still a very powerful bomb. The two are going to teleport back to Ronan’s ship (where the Inhuman royalty is), but then a somewhat regenerated Vulcan attacks Black Bolt, saying that he couldn’t kill an omega-level threat. Crystal is forced to teleport out only with Lockjaw, and the bomb goes off with Vulcan and Black Bolt still fighting. The two monarchs are apparently killed, though the explosion blew a hole through space-time and damaged the Shi’ar ships to the point that the Inhumans got an unconditional surrender.

Black Bolt returned, years later, and became the king of Inhumans once more. He also got four more wifes, besides Medusa, who belonged to the Universal Inhumans. He and his race faced the might of Kree, once again, but they survived it. Currently, Black Bolt rules the Inhumans once again.

Infinity

During the events of Infinity an Outrider is send to Earth to find information that its master Thanos is looking for. The Outrider arrives on Atllian and searches the mind of a sleeping Black Bolt. In its search the Outrider discovers Black Bolts involvement with the Illuminati as well as hidden Inhuman kings and queens of the past. Before it can find the last of the information it needs the Outrider is attack by a now conscious Black Bolt. The Outrider tries to escape but with the help of Lockjaw Black Bolt is able to catch up to the Outrider and use one of his sonic screams to injury it but the now badly injured Outrider is able to escape back to Thanos with the information it learned from Black Bolt.

One of the members of Thanos Black Order arrives on Attilan and tells Black Bolt that Thanos is demanding a tribute of every Inhuman between the ages of sixteen and twenty two if the tribute is not given Thanos will kill every Inhuman. Black Bolt enters a pocket dimension within Attlilan and calls the New Avengers for a meeting. The New Avengers are shocked to hear Black Bolt speak and Black Bolt explains that this pocket dimension was found by his brother Maximus and in this dimension all sound is reduced to a single pitch which allows Black Bolt to speak without his powers being unleashed. Black Bolt explains the demands to the New Avengers made by Thanos and hands Reed Richard an archived record of past Inhuman kings and queen and tells the group that inside it is what Thanos seeks. Black Bolt reveals that the true reason for Thanos being on Earth is to kill his son.

Black Bolt orders the evacuation of Attilan before Thanos arrives and also orders his brother to arm the terrigen bomb. Thanos arrives on Attilan and asks Black Bolt if he will give him what he wants which Black Bolt responds with a sonic scream that triggers terrigen bombs that destroy Atillan. Attilan falls onto New York and both Thanos and Black Bolt battle in the ruins. Black Bolt unleashes several sonic screams but Thanos is able to defeat Black Bolt.

Thanos arrives on Necapolis were he and his Black Order find the New Avengers antimatter weapons. Unable to arm the weapons Thanos has one of the members of the Black Order take the information they need to arm the weapons from Black Bolts mind. The New Avengers arrive at Wakanda but learn that the alarm systems at Necapolis have been triggered. The New Avengers fight there way into the bomb room but are stopped by a now mind controlled Black Bolt. With the help from Maximus and Lockjaw they are able to defeat Supergiant and free Black Bolt from her mind control.

At the end of the event we see Black Bolt and Maximus near the Himalayan mountains were Atllian once stood. Black Bolt leaves behind the codex and we learn that Black Bolt was always going to detonate the bomb ushering in a new age of the Inhumans.

New Avengers

Black Bolt is called up once again to join the ranks of the illuminate to help stop the incursions that are destroying multiple Earths from parallel universes. Each member tries to come up with their own way to stop the incursions but soon find that they must stop a incursion from occurring and stop their work. Black Bolt with the rest of the team travels to a parallel Earth to see if they can find that universe’s own set of infinite gems. But Black Bolt points out to the team that Galactus is already feeding off the planet. The Terrax of that universes soon finds that team and states that they can either leave or stay and fight and lose, the team stays and fights Terrax. Terrax seems to be have the upper hand, until Black Bolt hits him with a sonic scream.

While the rest of the illuminate continue to work on their own ways to stop the incursions, Black Bolt and his brother Maximus are working on a different project. Black Bolt is now preparing the t-bomb and hopes that it will give way to a new age for the Inhumans. Black Bolt is approached by Medusa who asks what he is up to and when she enters his mind in order to speak to him, Black Bolt destroys the space in his mind that allows him to talk to Medusa in order to keep the secrets of what he is doing with the T-bomb and the illuminate secret. Black Bolt also asked Maximus to build him a machine where he can travel to a dimension where he can speak and his sonic scream would not hurt anyone, because the dimension they are in, all of the sound is one single pitch tone.

After the events of Infinity Black Bolt and Maximus (both presumed dead), continue their work on trying to stop the incursions. Black Bolt is seen in a healing tank and Maximus states that his powers are close to being to full power. Black Bolt and the team travel to a world where they must a superhero group called The Great Society. One of the members of the Great Society goes back to the 616 universe to get the antimatter bomb, but Black Bolt flies behind her. He eventually catches up and is able to stop her from getting the bomb. When the time comes to blow up the parallel world none of the members of the team are able to destroy the world, not even Black Bolt. But Namor does making the team furious that Namor was able to destroy a world. The team decides that they can’t do this again, they can destroy another world and decided to allow the next incursion to happen. Black Bolt along with Lockjaw travel to the Moon to watch the last incursion to happen. Black Bolt crying screams with anger in the fact he wasn’t able to stop this from happen. But the incursion never appears. It is soon found out that Maximus and Namor have stated a new Cabal and that they were reason the incursion didn’t happen.

In the eight months later story line, it is shown that all of the New Avengers including Black Bolt are wanted criminals. But Black Bolt is shown to be missing and unaccounted for.

Personal Information

Characteristics

• Height: 6’0″
• Weight: 210 lbs.
• Eyes: Blue
• Hair: Black

Status

• Identity: Secret
• Occupation: Ruler of the Inhumans
• Citizenship: Attilan
• Place of Birth: Attilan, Atlantic Ocean
• Education: Traditional Inhuman education
• Marital Status: Married
• Known Relatives: Agon and Rynda (parents, deceased), Maximus (brother), Gorgon (cousin), Karnak (cousin), Triton (cousin), Crystalia Amaquelin (Crystal, sister-in-law), Medusalith Amaquelin-Boltagon (Medusa, wife), Ahura (son), Luna (niece)

Powers and Abilities

Cosmic Awareness

Black Bolt later manifested Cosmic Awareness. This ability allows him an omnipresence consciousness to know exactly what he feels he needs to know at any given moment. This could range from what his current location is to discovering an opponents weakness, to cosmic threats in the universe. This first appeared in FF #18 – What Do You Call the Opposite of a Field Trip?

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 hyper-sonic 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 (his baseline strength allows him to lift/press 2 tons). When using enhancing his strength, he was able to trade blows with The Thing, who possesses Class 100 strength. 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 his 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 Realities

Age of Apocalypse (Earth-2950)

Black Bolt and the Inhuman royal family were killed by Maximus (as Death, Horseman of Apocalypse), and were later cloned to serve as his personal bodyguards. He used his sonic blasts to knock back Sabretooth and Blink but is unwittingly attacked by Nightcrawler, who teleported multiple times while punching him thus leaving him out of action. It is not clear what happened to him, but supposedly he died when Sunfire destroyed Apocalypse´s ship.

For more information see: Age of Apocalypse

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 destroyed 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, which was being infiltrated by the Fantastic Four.

Other Media

Television

Fantastic Four: The Animated Series (1994)

Black Bolt makes his first appearance by breaking through a brick wall at the end of the episode “Inhumans Saga Part 2: The Inhumans Among Us”. Black Bolt appears again in the following episode, “Inhumans Saga Part 3: Beware The Hidden Land”. Thing charges at Black Bolt but Black Bolt punches Thing through a wall and the two get into a fight. The fight ends when Karnak tells Black Bolt to use the “master blow” on thing but this only stuns thing and leaves Black Bolt weak due to depleting his electron charge. Lockjaw teleports the Inhumans to Attilan to confront Maximus, now the ruler of the inhumans. Black Bolt and the inhumans fight off Maximus and his inhumans and receive help from the fantastic four. They defeat Maximus’s inhumans and Black Bolt allows the Fantastic Four to leave as long as they promise to never speak of what they saw. Angry, maximus uses his doomsday gun to kill all humans on the planet but fails because humans and inhumans are not as different as maximus thought. Maximus’s gun fails and starts to react creating the negative barrier trapping the inhumans but the fantastic four are able to escape.

Black Bolt makes another appearance in the episode “Sentry Sinister”. The inhumans are still trying to find a way to escape the negative barrier but face the problem of dying from running out of oxygen to breathe. The royal family has been spending time trying to find a weak spot to break the barrier but have failed. Black Bolt calls all the inhumans to the great square and tells them to go to the shelters underneath the city.

Black Bolt flies down and is confronted by maximus who tells him that he only wanted to be king and did so by trapping everyone in the negative barrier and he would become king because he knew how to break it. Black Bolt shelters maximus and uses his voice which destroys the negative barrier but also destroys attilan in the process. All the inhumans come out of the shelter and some are pleased to be free while other are saddened by the destruction of their city. Black Bolt allows crystal to go to johnny and begins the rebuilding of attilan. Black Bolt is voiced by nobody.

Disney XD shows

Black Bolt appears in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. (voiced by Clancy Brown), Ultimate Spider-Man (voiced by Fred Tatasciore), and Avengers Assemble (voiced again by Tatasciore) and Guardians of the Galaxy (voiced by Trevor Devall).

The Inhumans (2017)

Black Bol appeared in the live-action Inhumans TV series, portrayed by Anson Mount. The series was originally going to be a movie before the movie was downgraded and removed from the studio’s schedule.

Video Games

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (2006)

Black Bolt appears as a NPC in this game. He allows the player to make base in Attilan. Deadpool has a unique conversation where he attempt to get Black Bolt to say “spatula” but fails. Black Bolt is voiced by nobody.

Marvel Avengers Alliance (2012)

Black Bolt is an unlockable character in this mobile game.

Lego Marvel Superheroes (2013)

Black Bolt appears as a playable character in the game. He does not appear at all in the main story, but you can unlock him in New York City. He has the ability to fly and use his supersonic voice.

Marvel Contest of Champions (2014)

Black Bolt appears as a playable fighter in the game.

Marvel Heroes (2016)

Black Bolt appears as a playable character in the Marvel Heroes 2016 update of the game.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order (2019)

Black Bolt appears as an NPC in the Attilan stage, voiced by Liam O’Brien.

Merchandise

• ToyBiz produced a Black Bolt figure for their Fantastic Four: The Animated Series lline.
• ToyBiz also produced a Black Bolt figure for the Modern Age line of figures.
• Hasbro released a Black Bolt figure for the Marvel Legends Nemesis Build-a-Figure wave.
• Hasbro released a Black Bolt figure for the Marvel Universe line as part of an Inhumans box set with Medusa and Karnak.
• Black Bolt was featured in The Classic Marvel Figurine Collection from Eaglemoss Publications.
• Funko produced a Black Bolt figure for their Pop! line of bobbleheads.
• Hasbro released another Marvel Legends figure of Black Bolt as part of a Thanos Imperative box set. The set as a Comic-Con exclusive.
• Hasbro later released another Marvel Legends Black Bolt figure as part of the Okoye wave for the Black Panther movie.