Hello and welcome to another great character spotlight in Marvel Snapshot! This week, we’ll be continuing with the cosmic theme, and checking out one of Marvel’s best female characters with Medusa! We all know her as the wife of the powerful, but silent, Inhuman king, Black Bolt; but she’s also been a ruler herself! A proud and dangerous woman, she has always been there for her family and the side of good, but sometimes the Inhumans’ definition of good is slightly skewed compared to the rest of the galaxy, so that leads to conflicts even with friends! Medusa was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1965 (Fantastic Four #36).
Medusa was born an Inhuman and into royalty, as well. Her family exposed her to the Terrigen Mist at a very young age, and that is how she developed her powers of her mighty hair! It’s true, her hair is strong and responds to her mental commands, to the point where she can subdue someone with the strength of Spider-Man! After meeting Black Bolt and falling in love with him, she was then attacked and fell off of a glider, resulting in amnesia. This led to her being controlled by the Wizard, and also a life of crime for a while. She was part of a team called the Frightful Four, and battled the Fantastic Four several times. She actually defeated Sue and Torch single-handedly on one occasion. She was called Madam Medusa back then, but she eventually broke free of her mental cage and was reunited with Black Bolt.
It didn’t take very long for more trouble to start up. Black Bolt’s brother, Maximus, was and still is a very large threat to Medusa and all the Inhumans. He’s mentally unstable, but a brilliant inventor, as well. He’s basically jealous of Black Bolt, and also claims to be in love with Medusa, too, so that always is a conflict. Maximus usually devises some kind of scheme using technology of some kind to outwit his brother. Well, at first anyway. Medusa has had many roles in her lifetime, but she really was best after her husband’s death in his battle with Vulcan in War of Kings
