When he’s not heroically saving the children from racist cereal boxes, Saladin Ahmed’s writing craptastic comics like Black Bolt.
I haven’t been reading any Inhumans titles as I couldn’t care less about them so I don’t know if this is part of a larger storyline but Blackagar Boltagon (to use his full stupid name) has been tricked by his brother Maximus into space jail. Sounds like something that’d happen to Black Dolt, and guess wud? He gonna bust out of the pokey. Oh, hello edge of the seat, we meet again! Oh wait, I meant complete and utter boredom - I see you way too many times whenever I pick up a superhero comic these days!
Phewf. The subtitle’s right about one thing - I had a hard time reading this drek! Black Dolt’s a pantstacular character, the story is even more dull, and at no point is any part of this nonsense entertaining in the slightest. The plotting is contrived as hell - Black Dolt’s depowered when he has to be then suddenly gets his powers back when he needs them, then they’re gone again for no reason!
The villain is similarly a convenience rather than a character. It’s some thing that feeds off their whatever - it doesn’t matter, it’s just there for the Dolt and his posse to pretend to struggle against until the requisite page count is used up and they - SHOCK! - defeat it. I lost count of how many times I’d yawned at this point - it was basically one continuous yawn after page one.
Ahmed completely fails to make Black Dolt seem like a compelling protagonist. He’s stoic, capable - until the plot needs him to be otherwise - and bland as hell. I felt like we got to know Crusher Creel better than Black Dolt, that’s how underwritten our “hero” was. I know, I didn’t want to read about Crusher Creel either but that’s what you’re gonna get with this pile of horseshit!
Black Dolt, Volume 1: Hard Time was badly written and a tedious, brainless blaaaaah to read, ie. the Inhumans standard. Instead of this nonsense, I’d recommend checking out the first five volumes of G. Willow Wilson’s Ms Marvel run, which are the best Inhuman comics out there, and Warren Ellis’ Karnak mini-series was half-decent too.
S’long, Black Dolt - see you never!
