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You kids today. No sense of history.
Black Bolt (real name: Blackagar Boltagon—oh, Jack Fucking Kirby) was the reigning king of the Inhumans, an evolutionary offshoot of humanity who were the result of genetic tampering by the Kree a bazillion years ago. This unique tribe seueestred themselves in a hidden city (Attilan by name) first on an island, then in the Himalayas.
A thousand years ago, an Inhuman scientist discovered a substance (Terrigen) that could trigger radical mutations, thereby (he theorized) speeding up the overall evolutionary process of the species by bestowing the end result of thousands of generations of gradual mutation onto a single individual, instantly. Inhumans were allowed to expose themselves to terrigen on a voluntary basis. As you can imagine, some of the results weren't pretty.
Back to Black Bolt. His parents were scientists, and purposely exposed him to terrigen in utero (so much for "a voluntary basis"), so he ended up with soopa powahs: in fact, he ended up a little too powerful for his own good. Aside from that destructive voice of his, he absorbs "free-floating electrons" and emits destructive zaps—again on an involuntary basis: his special gimp suit is specially-designed to damp down his energy powers and help him control them (the antenna on his forehead is part of his suit).
On the plus side, he can fly on his cool armpit glider membranes.
The Inhumans were introduced in the mid-60s FANTASTIC FOUR, and had their own series in the 1970s (with george Perez art!) and later in the 90s. In the 60s and 70s, anyway, there would always be these dramatic build-ups where Black Bolt would be forced to speak—to knock an alien spaceship out of the sky, or to destroy a rampaging robot, or once, memorably, when tortured beyond endurance by the sight of his beloved people being herded into a slave-spaceship—and of course he would, and the walls of jericho would come a-tumblin' down. It seemed like every time the city of Attilan appeared it was being rebuilt (rather like the X-Mansion) after some disastrous royal-voice-related incident. You've got to wonder about the citizens of Attilan: are they gluttons for punishment, or are they just really hard-up for a king?
So, to sum up: Can't talk or get naked without causing unbridled destruction (little wonder that the boy has intimacy issues); is "king" of a principality of about 1,200 citizens, with no trade, no growth, no foreign relations, and no meaningful economic system; subjects are a bunch of eugenics-obsessed superpowered high-tech hillbillies; racial gene pool, never particularly deep, is continually shrinking (Medusa is Black Bolt's cousin as well as his wife). Plus the city of Attilan is constantly getting destroyed, relocated (after the Himalayas, it was on the Moon for a while: now it's on an island again, I think), or shut behind an energy barrier; he's got an insane brother who's always plotting to usurp him; and he can't even sing in the shower without bringing the fucking roof down.
So yeah, it kinda sucks to be Black Bolt. |
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