Wednesday, October 28, 2009

What Black Bolt Can Tell Us

I grew up with superheroes (we were largely a Marvel household). For some reason, I took a liking to Black Bolt, leader of the Inhumans. The Inhumans are a race of super beings, the outcome of genetic experiments conducted by the alien Kree on Stone Age humans. (There's also a bunch of stuff about the mutating effects of the Terrigen Mists. Suffice it to say, "Terrigen Mist" isn't something you can pick up at the liquor store.)

Technically, "Inhumans" refers to the entire race; however, it is often used to denote the Inhuman Royal Family, which includes:
  • Black Bolt, the king
  • Medusa, she of the living hair
  • Karnak, the martial artist
  • Gorgon, he of the hoofed feet
  • Triton, the fish man
  • Crystal, one-time girlfriend of Johnny Storm/the Human Torch, younger sister of Medusa, able to manipulate the four elements (seen below with Lockjaw, the Inhumans' teleporting dog)

















Each member has his/her unique power. However, Black Bolt's may be the most unsettling.








His bio on Marvel Universe notes that


Black Bolt has the ability to unleash great destructive power through the use of his voice, but even the slightest whisper will release his power. Therefore, for the most part, he remains silent. This "quasi-sonic" scream is powered by electron energy that he draws in from the environment. At maximum the force is equal to that caused by the detonation of a nuclear weapon.
You can be sure that Black Bolt's teachers never asked him to speak up in class.

A little background: the Inhumans first appeared in Fantastic Four #47 (February 1966).






















During the '60s, the Fantastic Four served as a veritable Skunk Works for the super team of
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (the Lennon and McCartney of comics). In one year, in an amazing burst of creativity, Lee and Kirby introduced not only the Inhumans but the Silver Surfer (issue 48) and the Black Panther (issue 52). So not only did we get the first black superhero...








... and the first superhero as Christ figure...








... but we got, for all intents and purposes, the first mute superhero.









Black Bolt and his kind hail from Attilan (a.k.a. the Great Refuge), shown below in happier, prehistoric times.

















Interestingly enough (as reported in Wikipedia)

the city of Attilan, was first mentioned years earlier, in a "Tuk the Caveboy" story written and drawn by Jack Kirby that appeared in Captain America #1, 1941. The city was described as the home of a race that was evolutionarily advanced when human beings were still in the caveman era.
(The moral here: never let a good idea about an evolutionarily advanced race go to waste.)

So what's the appeal? Black Bolt speaks to the morose adolescent in all of us (maybe more so than angst-ridden Peter Parker/Spider-Man). That glowering look. That grim veneer. More than merely "distanced" or "stoic."
If he was growing up now, Black Bolt would definitely be goth.

One suspects that Black Bolt never cracks a smile (believe me, you don't want him to laugh) because, as many teens would attest, "nothing's funny." Not only does he bear the burden of royalty, the burden of ruling, but he shoulders that so-serious burden of silence (a monastic quality, a strength of self-control, that many a geek would consider exculpatory and honorable).


Vastly superior. Woefully misunderstood
. Aloof, reserved, but with earth-shattering powers (so don't provoke him by telling him one... more... time to get out of the bathroom). Black Bolt is the embodiment of a self-conscious teen's self-image. And the Inhumans... that's any band of oddballs, freaks, outcasts (for many kids of my era, pariahs took comfort in a claque instead of a clique -- the basement rec room was their Great Refuge).

Plenty here for marginalized teens to gravitate toward, to relate to. But it's not all negative. Black Bolt is a king.
Remarkable. Restrained. Resolute. He defeats evildoers. He behaves responsibly. He watches out for others. He's got that neat tuning fork on his forehead (a great conversation starter). And, in the hands of Jack "King" Kirby, he assumes some mighty awesome poses.

1 comment:

  1. I grew up around comics. I'm sorry about that now. I wish I had grown up in a Marvel household, too.

    Well-rendered post....

    ReplyDelete