10 Comics That Took Their Characters To New Heights In 2017
2. Black Bolt
As far as riches-to-rags tales go, novel author Saladin Ahmed could hardly have hoped for a more successful entry to the comic book world than with his run on Black Bolt since May 2017.
Through a ruse executed by his brother Maximus, the King of Attilan loses his crown and finds himself incarcerated in his sibling’s place, lobbed in alongside the kinds of criminals he would have not long ago helped put away.
The relationships he fosters with his fellow inmates, Crusher Creel a.k.a Absorbing Man in particular, explores a side of the hero/villain dynamic not often seen in the much more colourful Marvel comics.
There, Blackagar Boltagon gets in touch with his pauper side in a fresh take on an otherwise regal character, while Queen Medusa and the rest of the Inhuman race search for the salvation their withering race is seeking.
Ahmed’s injection of humanity into the man whose whisper can level a city provides Black Bolt with a voice he has, until now, never had.