Marvel.Com Interview: Black Bolt

He’s the strong, silent type—literally.

Boasting powers that can level entire cities with just the slightest whisper, Black Bolt ranks among Marvel’s most powerful heroes, wisest leaders and serves as a bedrock character for the Inhumans, a group fast becoming among the most important in the Marvel Universe. Now, players of the upcoming DeNA and Marvel real-time co-op brawler “Marvel Mighty Heroes” will get to experience three variations of Black Bolt in the game that will be available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android phones and tablets, among others.

“Marvel Mighty Heroes” lets players choose their favorite Marvel comic book characters such as Groot, Captain America, Star-Lord, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Spider-Man, and scores of allies and nemeses. Players can put together a customized team of super heroes and super villains, each with different skills, abilities and powers to clobber, shoot, smash and blast the path to victory.

Multiplayer in “Marvel Mighty Heroes” will give players a chance to test their skills against competitors and earn a spot on the leaderboard or combine forces with friends to save the universe one battle at a time.

DeNA art director Forrest Schehl tells us that with his long history in Marvel Comics alongside his preference for deeds, not words, Black Bolt proves a character that brings brute force and precise power to the game.

**Marvel.com: Black Bolt is raw power personified; what role will he play as a character in the game?**

**Forrest Schehl:**I think the citizens of the Marvel U are quite lucky he's a man of few words. Black Bolt is one of our more powerful Blasters with a twist that suits the characteristics of his powers. In our game Blasters have a lot of long range direct damage powers, but lack a large area of effect; we generally save those sorts of powers for our Bruisers. For the King of the Inhumans, we wanted to play up the fact that his voice can really fill a room, meaning he can do a lot of damage in a large area. He’s really great for defending an objective or clearing out a group of enemies without getting yourself in too much danger.

**Marvel.com: He's got three different levels of power to go with each incarnation of the character: primal whisper/modern, Earth X/sonic whisper and War of Kings/Pressure Wave. Given his history in the Marvel Universe, what was the selection process like for those variations in outfit and power?**

'*Forrest Schehl'***:** His look is so classic and iconic that it’s survived relatively unchanged since the ‘60’s so, of course, his classic suit was first on the list, but he’s also the king of an entire species of human/alien hybrids and a ruler like that needs vestments. So naturally giving him his royal armor from *War of Kings* seemed like a no-brainer. For his third suit, we knew we needed a departure, something that added variety of color and silhouette. With that in mind we chose to use the Earth X version of his son, Ahura Boltagon, with his fully enclosed helm that is reminiscent of a medieval knight and glowing red accents. We knew we had to make this one of his suits. I mean, how could we not? It just looks so cool.

**Marvel.com: Did you and the team have a specific style or artist in mind when bringing Black Bolt into the game?**

'*Forrest Schehl'***:** While the overall style is dictated by the style of the game, I was heavily inspired by Joe Madureira’s run with the character. The way he structured his face was very strong and stoic, but expressive at the same time. That was something we looked at a lot when designing this character.

**Marvel.com: In Marvel Comics, Black Bolt is among the upper echelon of heroes with amazing power. Does that translate in the game in terms of play and dominance?**

'*Forrest Schehl'***:**As I talked about before he’s a powerful Blaster—meaning he’s a master at long range DPS—but more of his attacks have a larger area of effect than other Blasters meaning he can do massive damage to a greater number of enemies. This makes him an invaluable part of any team. Personally, if I need to bring a Blaster along, he’s my first choice. There’s nothing like clearing a cluster of enemies with waves of sonic force.

**Marvel.com: Gamers and comics fans who want to play “'***Marvel Mighty Heroes'***” can pre-register to get updates and notices about limited-time prizes when it launches by visiting www.MarvelMightyHeroes.com, including voting for Hulk or Rocket Raccoon as a free special hero at launch. How’s the voting? Is Rocket finally in the lead? Are there any write-ins that could throw the contest in disarray?**

'*Forrest Schehl'***:**Hulk is still, ahem, smashing the competition but it’s getting closer. If you're a fan of the underdog—or under-raccoon in this case—get out there and vote!