Black Bolt’s Scream Explained: How Does It Work & How Powerful Is It?

Inhumans are a superhuman race that first appeared in 1965 in Marvel Comics. They are a product of Kree experiments, which, millions of years ago, took in the primitive Homo Sapiens and developed a new race called Inhumans. The reason why Kree started the experiments was that they wanted to use the new race against Skrull. However, they abandoned the project when they realized that the race would eventually become stronger than them and defeat them. Many experiments brought in Inhumans with many enhancements but with a cost – multiple deformities and genetic damage. One of them was Black Bolt, the leader of Inhumans, whose whisper could destroy countless things. In this article, we will discuss Black Bolt’s powers, his scream in particular – how strong it is and how it works.

Black Bolt’s Scream is essentially a “quasi-sonic” scream. The leader of the Inhumans has his electron-harnessing ability linked with his speech, making even his whisper an uncontrollable disturbance in the particle field. Black Bolt’s Scream can destroy planets at full strength, as shown in Inhumans Vol. 2 #6 from 1999, while his whisper can rock a literal battleship. Overall, his scream also depends on his emotional state – if he is really upset, his scream can get even stronger.

We will discuss Black Bolt’s scream in more detail, why it is so fascinating, and what happened when the leader of Inhumans screamed his lungs out. If you are interested, stay with us until the end.

Black Bolt’s short introduction to powers

Inhumans are a superhero race that first appeared in Marvel Comics in the 1960s and, since then, has become one of the most popular superhero teams in comic book media.

Their origins are also interesting, including the Kree-Skrull War that occurred millions of years ago. Kree set their headquarters on Uranus, a strategic decision during the vicious war when suddenly they realized that there was sentient life on nearby Earth, whose potential was invested by the Celestials. Kree started taking homo sapiens to their headquarters and experimenting on them by genetically upgrading their physical aspects and using them as weapons against Skrulls.

The experiment was a success since Kree really created a human race with exceptional abilities, but because of the future parameters and predictions of Inhumans potentially destroying Kree’s Supreme Intelligence, the “makers” abandoned the project.

Since then, Inhumans have lived and developed their civilization over hundreds of thousands of years, which leads us to the race we know today, and Black Bolt as a ruler.

The son of two of Attilan’s top geneticists, Blackagar Boltagon, was born and, since his birth, showcased energy-manipulative abilities, including the quasi-sonic energy of destructive potential, which he would let out through his voice. His enhanced powers came from exposure to mutagenic Terrigen Mist while he was still an embryo.

Black Bolt was taught from birth to mentally control his destructive power, preventing him from speaking one word, awake or in his sleep, making him communicate with others via sign language.

So yes, Black Bolt is famous for his primary superhuman ability, officially named “Ambient Particle & Electron Harnessing,” or simply Black Bolt’s scream. As you can tell, Black Bolt’s scream is more than just a sound.

His scream is more than just a basic scream. The official explanation goes something like this: Black Bolt’s speech part of his brain contains the unique, organic mechanism that produces an unknown particle that interacts with harnessed electrons which helps him produce mentally-controlled spectacles. Now, this might sound like a “mumbo-jumbo,” but it makes sense in the long run.

Basically, the Black Bolt speech center in his brain releases special particles that combine with his electrons and release immense powers. The most devastating part of these effects is his quasi-sonic scream, while the antenna he wears on his forehead is what controls his mental powers.

With his sonic scream, Black Bolt has superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and durability thanks to his exposure to Terrigen Mist, which makes him much stronger than the regular Inhuman.

Energy and matter manipulation, gravitational flight, and particle and electron manipulation are also part of Black Bolt’s arsenal, making him extremely powerful. However, let’s discuss his scream in more detail.

Black Bolt’s scream destroyed planets in Marvel Comics

Interestingly enough, if it wasn’t for Terrigen Mist, Black Bolt would be a “regular” Inhuman with usual powers. The mutagenic substance, specifically a vapor from Terrigen Crystals, was able to alter Inhuman biology.

While carrying Black Bolt, Rynda was exposed to the Terrigen Mist, which kickstarted her baby’s genetic mutation. The scream was an issue since Black Bolt was a baby, and the parents had kept the enhanced Inhuman in a special soundproof chamber. Moreover, the baby had to wear an energy-harnessing suit – combined with controlling his powers, Black Bolt was restricted from his youth.

However, Black Bolt’s first scream is what shocked the Attilan, especially since he was indirectly at fault for killing his parents. After discovering his brother is dealing shady business with Kree, Black Bolt uses his scream to knock the ship out of the sky, which crashes on Earth and kills their parents.

However, this is only a drop in the ocean for Black Bolt’s destruction with his quasi-sonic powers because Black Bolt can destroy anything in his path when he is angry. For example, the Terrigen bomb in his home city, Attilan. One of Black Bolt’s biggest feats was against no other than Thanos, who invaded the Earth with Black Order to find his son Thane. Knowing he can’t fight The Mad Titan alone, weakened Black Bolt screams in Thanos’ face and simultaneously triggers the Terrigen Bomb, destroying the whole city.

Another great storyline doesn’t revolve around Black Bolt but is still worth mentioning. During the “Thanos Wins” storyline, where he conquers the entire universe and recalls his feats, one of them being killing the Celestials. However, he wasn’t the one who killed them – it was Black Bolt and his dying scream. When Thanos killed Black Bolt, the ruler of Attilan screamed in agony, destroyed the Celestials, and even cracked their whole planet.

However, one feat was extremely impressive because Black Bolt merely whispered this time. In Fantastic Four issue #375 from 1993, the Fantastic Four are battling Doctor Doom, who managed to steal the powers from Aron, the rouge watcher. Doom made things much worse for the heroes when he created the armor that could harness incredible cosmic powers, but even the Cosmic Doom couldn’t defeat the mighty Inhumans and Fantastic Four.

Reed Richards created a machine designed to channel massive powers into one place, in this case into Doom, and Black Bolt just had to say one word to release the immense sonic power and kill the cosmic threat.

There have been more amazing Black Bolt feats since his first appearance in 1965, and his character has been one of the fan favorites in the last few decades. Black Bolt’s Scream became iconic in Marvel Comics, and hopefully, we will see him more in other fictional media, like Marvel Cinematic Universe, because the Inhumans group definitely deserves real love from Marvel Studios.