Having a non-traditional name, even as your alter ego, doesn’t exactly make you noteworthy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After all, this particular universe is populated by people with names like Groot, Korg, and Talos. But when your superhero name is Black Bolt, and your real name is Blackagar Boltagon, you probably deserve at least a little side-eye from the fans.
Twitter user and writer @jordananimate recently addressed the fact in a post that proclaimed the name “the most ridiculous name in comics.” A pretty fair claim when you consider that the rumored baddy for the later part of phase 4 is called “Kang.”
To be fair, Black Bolt isn’t really the catchiest superhero name (or, as Peter Parker correctly called them in Avengers: Infinity War, “made-up names”). Maybe it makes sense that he’s just shortening his handle to a more user-friendly form. Several of Boltagar’s Inhuman family members go by shortened versions of their proper given names, such as his cousin Crystal (aka Crystallia Amaquelin) and his wife Medusa (aka Medusalith Amaquelin Boltagon). Other family members, such as Gorgon and Triton, may seem like they’re adopting cool superhero tags, but in reality, those are their given names.
In other words, as Zestworld Comics content manager Ron Cacace points out (probably with his tongue firmly in cheek), it’s a normal name. If you’re an Inhuman, that is.
But it’s still very much, almost terribly on the nose. So what came first? The chicken or the Boltagon? Did the wacky name inspire the kind of wacky superhero moniker or vice versa? When the Inhumans made their debut in the pages of The Fantastic Four comic book in 1966 they simply went by their “made-up names” (yes, we know all names are made up, but you know what we mean). Creator Jack Kirby didn’t christen them with any other “proper” name, nor did writer Stan Lee — a man who knew how to come up with some extremely on-the-nose names.
So whence Boltagon? Deadpool co-creator Fabian Nicieza has a pretty good idea. He believes the name actually came from legendary Marvel editor and writer Mark Gruenwald (the basis for the Loki character Mobius). Gruenwald was responsible for creating the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe in the 80s, an encyclopedia of every character in the vast Marvel Universe that predated the internet by a decade or so. Gruenwald was the editor of the project and could have easily created “real” names for the Inhuman royal family. He also had a “whimsical” sense of humor.
“Boltagon.” It really does get funny the fiftieth time you say it.
Fans can catch a brief and potentially traumatizing glimpse of Black Bolt in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, now streaming on Disney Plus.
