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 Real Name | Blackagar Boltagon |
| Current Alias | Black Bolt |
| Aliases | Celestial Messiah, Celestial Redeemer,[1] Midnight King[2] |
| Relatives |
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| Affiliation | Illuminati, Universal Inhumans, Inhuman Royal Family, Inhumans |
| Base Of Operations | Attilan, Blue Area of the Moon |
| Status | |
| Alignment | Good |
| Identity | No Dual Identity (Black Bolt is a shortened form of his full name)[4] |
| Citizenship | Attilan |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Occupation | Monarch of the Inhumans, former Prince, Emperor of the Kree Empire |
| Education | Traditional Inhuman Education; Royal tutors of Attilan[4] |
| Characteristics[5] | |
| Gender | Male |
| Height | 6' 2" |
| Weight | 210 lbs (95 kg) |
| Eyes | Blue |
| Hair | Black |
| Origin | |
| Origin | Inhuman exposed to the Terrigen Mists while in the womb |
| Universe | Earth-616 |
| Place of Birth | Island of Attilan, Atlantic Ocean |
| Creators | Stan Lee, Jack Kirby |
| First Appearance | |
| Fantastic Four #45 | |
HistoryEdit
I. Am. AWAKE! 
- -- Black Bolt src
Exposed to the Mists during pregnancy
Origin
Black Bolt was born 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 Mist while still an embryo,[6] 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 through his voice. To protect the community, he was placed inside a sound-proofed chamber and given an energy-harnessing suit.[6] There he was schooled in the art of controlling his powers until the age of nineteen, when he was permitted to enter society.A month after being awarded his freedom, Black Bolt discovered his younger brother Maximus in the process of making a treacherous pact with emissaries of the alien Kree. Attempting to stop the Kree ship before it escaped, 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 age 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 Inhuman' 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 now mad brother Maximus 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 Inhuman 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[7] and the Royal Family returned to Attilan and resumed the crown.[8]
Black Bolt led the Inhumans through some of the most turbulent times in their history, including several more attempts by Maximus to usurp the throne, revolts by the worker class, attacks by human renegades, the kidnapping of Medusa, the destruction and rebuilding of Attilan, the revelation of the Inhuman existence to humanity, and several more relocations of Attilans. Following the traditional lengthy period of betrothal, Black Bolt and Medusa were wed.[9]
His role as king of the Inhumans had been tumultuous. The first major crisis occurred when he and Medusa conceived a child. Medusa bore the child in defiance of the Genetic Council who 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 Council was revealed to be 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.
By the time the Avengers and the Fantastic Four returned from Counter Earth following the Onslaught crisis, Black Bolt was re-instated 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.
There was very little exploration of the ongoing inequities and injustices of the caste-bound Attilan society during this time, and Black Bolt seemed to turn a blind eye to much of it. It could be that as a product of that environment, he accepted 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 stand previously against the Genetic Council), this seems unlikely. Given his ever changing status as ruler, he likely saw 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 was a great leader in ensuring the survival of Attilan against threats from outside and in; perhaps he was biding his time, awaiting a period of stability before again turning his considerable leadership skills to issues of social justice.
Black Bolt
Silent War
After Quicksilver stole a cluster of Terrigen Crystals, Black Bolt and other Inhumans followed him to Earth in pursuit. Quicksilver evaded capture however, and the crystals fell into the possession of the US government, who refused to hand them over to the Inhumans. This led Black Bolt to declare war on the United States. He sent a strike force led by his cousin Gorgon to capture several high standing members of American society who were attending a charity opera. The operation went awry however and several civilians were killed and the team was captured by the Fantastic Four.The US government began experimenting with the crystals, exposing Gorgon to them once again, causing him to undergo a second terrigenesis. Black Bolt journeyed to Earth to find Quicksilver in search of the Crystals and found that Quicksilver had embedded several of them in his flesh. Black Bolt lost his composure and began savagely beating Quicksilver until Medusa stopped him from killing him. Quicksilver revealed that using the powers the crystals had granted him, he had traveled into the future where he witnessed an explosion on the surface of the Moon visible from Earth, deducing that it was Attilan.
Matters were further complicated by the fact that Black Bolts brother Maximus who as part of a very long plan managed to exert control over Medusa and force her to kiss him, leading Black Bolt to believe she was having an affair. Maximus also manipulated Luna into freeing him and Black Bolts son Ahura. Meanwhile, Black Bolt traveled to the Pentagon with other members of the royal family to free Gorgon and get the crystals. They defeated the facility's defenders and the Avengers who arrived to stop them and reclaimed the crystals. The United States retaliated by sending a marine squad that had been mutated by the crystals to Attilan. The Inhumans engaged them, and the squad surrendered. While inside the city, one of the squad members used her powers to detonate herself in a giant blast that devastated Attilan.
Maximus confronted Black Bolt amidst the rubble, declaring himself king and telling his brother that he'd be taking care of everything now. Black Bolt was jailed, and while imprisoned was approached by Luna who told him that everyone except Black Bolt and she herself were being manipulated by Black Bolt, and asked him what to do.[10][11]
Secret Invasion
Black Bolt was ambushed by the Skrull Empire, while unaware and surprised and was then taken captive by the Skrulls and held prisoner aboard the Skrull Battleship Ryb'ik. The Skrulls planned to use his quasi-sonic scream as the their deadliest and most powerful weapon.[12] A Skrull began impersonating Black Bolt.During this time, the Hulk, embittered over being placed into exile on the planet Sakaar, returned to this star system and attacked the Skrull impostor who he believed was Black Bolt because of his role in the Hulk's exile. Even though this "Black Bolt" was able to knock the Hulk back at first, the Hulk got back up and savagely beat him up. Hulk enslaved him with a slave disk and forced him to fight as a gladiator.[13] Later, the Illuminati discovered the Skrull impostor among them.[14] Black Bolt was rescued by Medusa and the Inhuman Royal family, and returned to Attilan to co-rule with Maximus.[15]
He then took aggressive counteraction against the Skrulls, and deployed Maximus-designed inventions to tap into his quasi-sonic powers for military purposes. The city of Attilan became a weaponized vessel that tracked down and destroyed the fleeing Skrull ships, as well as some Shi'ar vessels trying to intercept. He breached Kree defenses and forced Ronan and the Kree to pledge allegiance to him.[16]
The Inhumans had plans to lead a benevolent future with the Kree. Crystal was promised to Ronan to further unite the Kree and the Inhumans even offered the Terrigen Mists to enhance the evolution of the Kree. However, the Shi'ar declared war on the Kree.
At the very climax of the War of Kings, both Black Bolt and Vulcan appear to be killed and the Shi'ar surrender to the Kree Empire, despite heavy losses on both sides, leading to the Realm of Kings.
The War of the Four Cities
Black Bolt in fact survived the explosion. It was revealed that he likely represents the anomaly of the Kree Inhuman genetics program that had been predicted hundreds of thousands of years ago. The genetic prophecy was that this anomaly would bring about the end of the Supreme Intelligence. To prevent this outcome, the Kree Supreme Intelligence had ordered the destruction of all the worlds where the genetic experiments took place. Only five colonies escaped, including Earth's: these were the Universal Inhumans. After his return to Attilan, Black Bolt joined the Universal Inhumans and was presented with four new brides, one from each of the other colonies.[17]They returned to Earth to help defeat the last four Reeds of the Interdimensional Council. They then faced the Kree Armada, who had been ordered by the resurrected Kree Supreme Intelligence to wipe out Earth and the Inhumans.[18] After the Kree fled in defeat, the Inhumans followed in pursuit.[19]
Infinity
Black Bolt was visited by Thanos' Cull Obsidian in order to demand a tribute, the heads of Inhuman younglings between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two, or the annihilation of Earth's inhabitants.Using the Terrigen Codex, Black Bolt discovered Thanos used the tribute demand as a cover for his true mission, to kill his secret Inhuman-descendant son whose identity and location were unknown even by his father.[20] After the Inhumans denied the tribute to Corvus Glaive, Thanos personally visited Black Bolt in Attilan. Finding the Inhuman city empty, with only Black Bolt left, Black Bolt unleashed a powerful scream which tore down Attilan itself and activated a Terrigen Bomb which spread the Mists across the Earth.[21]
The Mad Titan survived however, and found Black Bolt still alive in the rubble, and demanded to know the location of his son. Black Bolt refused, and continued attacking Thanos with his voice, until an enraged Thanos knocked him out.[22] Black Bolt was held captive, for Thanos to use his power to activate the Illuminati's anti-matter bombs to destroy the Earth.[23] When the Illumianti arrived in the Necropolis, they found Thanos' general Supergiant, with Black Bolt under her control, whom she used to defeat them. When Supergiant activated the bombs, Maximus appeared with the trigger. He triggered the bombs, but also used Lockjaw to transport the anti-matter bomb along with Supergiant to a distant uninhabited planet where she died in the explosion.
Black Bolt was liberated, and left the scene along with Maximus and Lockjaw. In the ancient location of Attilan in the Himalayas, Black Bolt hid the Terrigen Codex, and made Maximus understand his survival and that of his brother were to be kept a secret. Maximus also deduced that Black Bolt was always going to activate the Terrigen Bomb, irrespective of Thanos' arrival, to herald a new age of the Inhumans.[24]
After being examined by Maximus, they discovered that the Terrigen Bomb had greatly diminished Black Bolt's powers. The two agreed to keep this a secret.[25] Using exogenetically charged waters, Maximus was able to help Black Bolt recover from this weakness.[26]
Powers and AbilitiesEdit
Powers
Black Bolt
- Quasi-Sonic Scream: Black Bolt's most devastating offensive weapon, and one of the 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, shake entire continents apart 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 somewhat significant difference of the power released by his quasi-sonic scream.
- 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 full power for a short 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 vastly 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. 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, turn water into ice, create multiple toys out of thin air[27] by re-arranging the molecular structure. He has destroyed a Solar Flare powerful enough to annihilate the Earth, and was able to block the powers of others through his abilities and in turn denying them the access to their abilities.
- Telepathy: Black Bolt has strong psychic resistance, as evident when he was able to easily resist the mental abilities of his powerful brother.
- 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, and to fly beyond escape velocity. The anti-graviton field also serves to protect Black Bolt from the detrimental effects of rapid movement through the atmosphere although it's not needed.
- Superhuman Strength: Black Bolt, like all Inhumans, is superhumanly strong. According to his bio, under normal circumstances, he is able to lift about 1 ton. However, he can augment his physical strength by channeling the necessary particle energy through his body. At his peak, he is listed at class 60. However, he has been observed fighting opponents as physically strong as Thor and Gladiator in hand-to-hand combat.
- Superhuman Speed: Black Bolt can run and move at speeds that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete, as he has been able to catch directed miniature missiles even when attacked from below and unaware with ease,[28] move at a speed so great he is invisible to the human eye,[28] move at such a speed he can travel vast distances before a human can finish processing a thought,[28] and has been able to catch Quicksilver.[29]
- Superhuman Stamina: Black Bolt's Inhuman musculature generates less fatigue toxins than the musculature of a normal human, even the finest human athlete. At his peak, he can exert himself for several days before the build up of fatigue toxins in his blood begins to impair him.
- Superhuman Durability: Black Bolt's body is incredibly resistant to all forms of physical damage. Black Bolt is resistant to great impact forces, such as falling from a height of several stories that would severely injure or kill a human being unharmed. He has survived blows by beings with vast superhuman strength such as Hulk, Namor, Gladiator, and Thanos. Black Bolt is capable of withstanding extreme temperatures, such as the cold in space, or the heat from re-entry.
- Superhuman Agility: Black Bolt's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Black Bolt's reflexes are beyond those of the finest human athlete.
- Superhuman Longevity: Like all Inhumans, Black Bolt has a natural lifespan that is at least twice the average lifespan of a human being.
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