8 Reasons Why We Loved ‘Black Bolt’

At the end of 2017, ComicBook.com celebrated the new Marvel Comics series Black Bolt by naming it our Best New Series. In spite of lackadaisical sales and reviews of various Inhumans titles for several years, this collaboration between writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Christian Ward launched like a rocket and stunned superhero fans of all stripes. Our opinion of the series has not lessened at all as it continues to follow Blackagar Boltagon across the cosmos with his strange band of friends and allies.

Unfortunately, the series is drawing to a close. Black Bolt #12 will be the final chapter of Ahmed and Ward’s series. We can be grateful that this is their choice and not an untimely cancellation, but nothing entirely removes the sting from the end of a favorite series. Rather than dwell too much on what we’ll be missing in the months to come though, we’re going to focus on what made Black Bolt great. At the end of the day, we will all still have 12 stellar issues to read and reread, as well as the same creators and characters ready to tell even more great stories down the road.

So without any further ado, this is why we loved Black Bolt.

Returning the Midnight King to Greatness

Black Bolt is one of the most outstanding creations from the legendary run of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee on Fantastic Four. Both as a leader and individual character, he remains stacked with potential. It’s almost impossible to imagine any Inhumans story without referencing the Midnight King. Even when Medusa led the kingdom, the absence of Black Bolt was a potent element in all of their stories. He’s a wonderful solo character as well, examining the balance of power and action. His inability to speak due to possessing so much destructive potential is the sort of central metaphor Kirby excelled at creating. Black Bolt is an iconic Marvel Comics character, and it feels like he’s finally back in the spotlight where he belongs.

Lots of Love for Lockjaw

Just as you can’t imagine the Inhumans without Black Bolt, you can’t imagine Black Bolt without Lockjaw. This pairing of a boy and his dog is more iconic than any other in comics; Krypto and Ace can only hope for second place. Lockjaw didn’t appear until about midway through Black Bolt, but the joy in that moment and tone of the series would radically altered by his arrival. Lockjaw makes everything just a little bit better and the origin story of their relationship in this series shows a lot of love for the role of dogs in our lives. We simply can’t get enough of Lockjaw, and Black Bolt delivers on that front.

A Fantastic Supporting Cast

You can’t give Lockjaw all of the credit in a series with so many great supporting characters though. Who would have thought Crusher Creel would have a bunch of Marvel readers tearing up a year ago? Yet that is exactly what happened in Black Bolt as the series revealed new depths to classic villains and added some great new additions. Both Absorbing Man and Titania have been stars of the series. So has Black Bolt’s new alien ward Blinky, capable of seeing the future with the help of some extra eyes, who will hopefully stick around for many more Inhuman stories to come.

A Great New Villain

Black Bolt, Lockjaw, and the rest of their crew wouldn’t have much to do without a great villain though. Rather than looking at the dustbin of Inhumans history, Black Bolt has created a chilling new antagonist to imprison and then chase its heroes. The Jailer is as much a thought as he is a physical menace. On his own planet the creature was able to morph reality and blur the lines of life and death, torturing his prisoners in terrible fashions. It’s not entirely clear how The Jailer functions, but there are few better embodiments of what he represents, a loss of autonomy and freedom, in all of superhero comics.

Christian Ward at His Trippiest

Any series that encourages artist Christian Ward to stick to reality is squandering potential. That wasn’t the case with Black Bolt though. The adventure began in a prison that was composed of metaphor as much as anything else. As the series continued it explored the beauty of the cosmos, and has even found room for abstraction back on Earth. Every issue featuring Ward has provided him with ample opportunities to do his best work, resulting in many stunning new pages and sequences.

Introducing Saladin Ahmed

Black Bolt is the breakout series for new comics writer Saladin Ahmed. Ahmed was already an award-winning novelist and poet of science-fiction and fantasy when he first crossed paths with Marvel Comics. Together they’ve really hit things off, and Black Bolt promises to be just the first of many future successes. Ahmed is already working on other great miniseries like Abbott at Boom! Studios and will soon launch a new series at Marvel in Exiles. We’re looking forward to everything Ahmed does after Black Bolt given just how well his big debut turned out.

(In)Human Storytelling

While the series has featured titanic villains, spacefaring trips, and more superpowers than the entire Justice League, the thing that really makes Black Bolt special is the humanity at its core. When in prison the story focused on the regrets of its inhabitants and found common cause between kings and petty thieves. It has sought out how such vastly different characters could empathize and support one another. That exploration of character before all else has crafted a series that is about solidarity and how we achieve it.

A Story That Knows Its Ending

No comics fan wants to say goodbye to their favorite series, but deep down we all know that it’s better to end when the going is good. When it was announced that Black Bolt would end with issue 12, Ahmed made it clear that had always been the plan. Ahmed, Ward, and their other collaborators have told exactly the story they planned from the start, and now get to end it on their own terms. That planning is a key part of why Black Bolt has been so well received, with each new chapter building on what has come and leading to this big finale. It’s a complete story with every important element in place. That’s difficult to find in superhero comics, and we are lucky to have found it with Black Bolt.