It surprises no one that the X-Men are always under the threat of extermination, but it’s evident by the flawless plan they used to take out Black Bolt that they are well equipped to survive. This, of course, happened in the very first issue of Inhumans vs. X-Men. The book was written by Charles Soule and Jeff Lemire while Leinil Francis Yu handled the art.
Before the war, the Inhumans and mutants were already in a contentious state. After discovering that the two terrigen clouds were poisonous to mutants, Scott Summers destroyed one of them, which set the two groups up for conflict. They eventually formed a truce to try and figure out a way to solve the dilemma between them peacefully. After months without a solution, Hank McCoy learned that the last remaining cloud was growing and would soon cover the planet. The mutants were left with two choices: leave the earth forever or become extinct. They chose a third option to destroy the cloud and fight instead.
The Inhumans are a very formidable adversary. The X-Men knew to beat them they had to strike first and hard. This meant taking out their strongest fighters first, and nobody is a stronger Inhuman than their king Black Bolt. To take him by surprise, Emma Frost hatched a plan to attack him at his nightclub called The Quiet Room. It was neutral territory, so he wouldn’t be expecting an attack there. Emma had the mutant singer Dazzler booked at the club the night she went to see Black Bolt. Then, after breaking the truce, Dazzler drew a gun, which caused Black Bolt to attack her with his unbelievably strong sonic voice. But one of Dazzler’s powers is to absorb sound waves, rendering Black Bolt’s attack mute. Emma then donned her diamond form, crushed his larynx, and just like that, Black Bolt was taken out.
Some might say it was a dirty trick to attack Black Bolt on neutral grounds, but the mutants were left with little choice. They were facing extinction. Besides, Black Bolt isn’t just an Inhuman king. He’s also a member of the Marvel universe’s Illuminati, a powerful group of Marvel heroes that aren’t easy to defeat on their own. Emma knew she had to attack him hard and fast if the X-Men were to have any chance of winning a war with the Inhumans.
What’s even more impressive is that he was taken down by Dazzler, a mutant that is often overlooked as having nothing more than “light show” powers, but she was oddly enough the perfect foe to take down Black Bolt. Her ability to sing at his nightclub and absorb sound waves made her uniquely qualified to catch the king off guard and neutralize him before he could mount a defense. An extra nice touch was the gun she drew to force him to attack. It shows that the X-Men aren’t just a powerful physical force but a dangerously strategic one as well.
