Black Bolt's History
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, 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. 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 and the Royal Family returned to Attilan and resumed the crown.
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 relocating of Attilans. Following the traditionally lengthy period of betrothal, Black Bolt and Medusa were wed.
His role as king of the Inhumans was 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.
More recently, Black Bolt declared war against the US in order to recover stolen Terrigen Mist crystals. During that incident, Maximus managed yet again to usurp his throne.
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. 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. Later, the Illuminati discovered the Skrull impostor among them. Black Bolt was rescued by Medusa and the Inhuman Royal family, and returned to Attilan to co-rule with Maximus.
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.
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 are killed and the Shi'ar surrender to the Kree Empire, despite heavy losses on both sides, leading to the Realm of Kings.
Recently he returned and joined the Universal Inhumans.
