Medusalith Amaquelin BoltagonMedusa

As the queen of the Inhuman royal family, Medusa spends much of her time fighting for the right of the genetically-altered Inhuman race to exist. She stands against anyone who opposes her people, from humanity to the Kree, to other members of the royal family, like Maximus, the brother of her husband and Inhuman king Black Bolt.

With her mane of deadly red locks, Medusa commands respect. And, as Black Bolt does not speak for fear of the destructive power his voice wields, one of Medusa's main roles as queen-consort is to interpret his wishes and communicate them to their subjects.

Inhuman Royalty

Medusa was born into the royal family of the Inhumans, and so raised as an elite, meant to be queen. However, Medusa rebelled against her strict upbringing. Though she was betrothed to Black Bolt at a young age, she flirted briefly with his younger brother, Maximus - a flirtation made easier by the fact that Black Bolt was kept in quarantined isolation for many years.

Medusa began to correspond electronically with Black Bolt in his isolation and the two bonded, developing a personal sign language for communication that only they understood. She learned to interpret Black Bolt's body language and fell in love with him. After his release and the tragic death of Black Bolt's parents, Medusa grew even closer to him.

When the Alpha Primitive worker race - the drones who performed manual labor so that the Inhumans wouldn't have to - revolted, Medusa battled their warriors, the Trikon. During the fight, her sky-sled crashed outside the Inhuman's hidden city, Attilan, and she became an amnesiac wanderer.

In Paris, she teamed up with thief Paul Dumas, learning about human society as a criminal. But when she rebuffed his romantic advances, he framed her for the crimes they committed together. Avoiding Europe's big cities, Medusa became a recluse on a Mediterranean island. The villainous Wizard found her there and convinced her to become the fourth member of his Frightful Four criminal gang, later using his mind-manipulating "id machine" technology to keep her with the team. An encounter with the X-Men ended the Wizard's influence over her and restored her memory. After the Frightful Four's very public battles with the heroic Fantastic Four, the Inhuman royal family located Medusa, who regained her memories and returned with them to Attilan.

In Medusa's absence, Maximus conquered Attilan and sent the royal family into exile, replacing Medusa's betrothal to Black Bolt with a betrothal to him. Upon their return, the royal family restored the status quo.

Follicular Forces

Medusa possesses prehensile hair, and she can not only control the growth and movement of it, but can maneuver each strand individually. Uncontrolled, her tougher-than-steel hair is naturally more than six feet long. She maintains this control even when the hair has been cut from her head. It is believed that her hair cannot be cut or broken without her allowing it. She uses her hair like extra limbs and natural tools for a wide variety of tasks, including brutal bludgeoning, fine lock picking, and snapping her tendrils like a fierce whip. She has even meshed her hair into a parachute to allow her to survive long falls. Properly braced, Medusa can lift over 1.6 tons using her hair.

Due to generations of eugenics, most Inhumans, including Medusa, are slightly superior to humans in strength, reaction time, stamina, resistance to injury, speed, and natural lifespan. Though most Inhumans have a biological vulnerability to human pollutants, Medusa lacks this weakness.

Threats to the Throne

Medusa's biggest enemies are Maximus and humanity itself, both of which tried to manipulate, trick, and punish her. The Inhumans remain greatly concerned by humanity's potential encroachment upon them, so Black Bolt sends Medusa back as an emissary to study human society. But her own ego leads her into conflict with Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and she blames humanity for the resulting fights before returning home.

Fantastic Friends

Medusa puts most of her trust in her Inhuman royal family including Black Bolt, Gorgon, Karnak, Lockjaw, Crystal, and Triton. However, she's been known to aid other hero teams outside of Attilan when they've needed help the most.

The Fantastic Four, minus Sue Richards, who left the team due to marital difficulties, aid the Inhumans against the robotic Omega and the rebelling Alpha Primitives. Black Bolt asked Medusa to join the team in Sue's place (as her sister Crystal had done before her), both out of gratitude for the team's help and to keep an Inhuman in the public eye in a positive light. Medusa aided the team against threats including Gregory Gideon, the Miracle Man, and Annihilus. Before conspiring with Namor of Atlantis, Black Bolt and her cousin Triton force Sue to realize how much her family loves and respects her; this "Project Revival" resulted in the Richards reuniting.

When Medusa needed to stay in New York City to work with the United Nations on the Inhumans' legal status, she remained with the Four for a short time. As part of the Fantastic Four, she battled Ultron at her sister Crystal's wedding to Quicksilver and fought Mahkizmo and Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom). When Xemu of the 5th dimension invaded Attilan, Medusa and the Fantastic Four came to Attilan's aid. Susan Richards returned to the Fantastic Four full-time and Medusa left the team to stay with the royal family.

As a part-time queen, Medusa substitutes with the Fantastic Four when she can.

The People's Queen

The realization that most Inhumans (though not Medusa) were being harmed by the pollutants in Earth's atmosphere, combined with humanity's increasing awareness of Attilan, left the Inhumans in dire straits. In partnership with Maximus, the criminal Enclave kidnapped Medusa and invaded Attilan, easily conquering its ailing population. When they threatened to kill Medusa, Maximus heroically sacrificed himself to save her and the city. Just as Attilan had been moved from the Atlantic Ocean to the Himalayas decades earlier, the city was now moved to the atmosphere-bearing Blue Area of the Moon. There, Medusa and Black Bolt were finally married, making Medusa queen of the Inhumans.

When Medusa became pregnant a few months later, Attilan's Genetics Council ruled that the unapproved child was potentially unsafe (due to the mental instability of Black Bolt's brother Maximus as well as the sheer magnitude of Black Bolt's powers) and ordered the pregnancy terminated. Medusa refused and fled alone to Earth, living in the desert until her son Ahura was born. As the Council feared, the child possessed great powers, confronting and defeating a being composed of earthly pollutants within days of his birth. Returning to Attilan, Medusa turned Ahura over to the Genetics Council for analysis, but the Council's Chief Justice secretly sought greater power for himself and his inner circle.

They traded Ahura to Earth scientists for testing in exchange for human technology. On the way there, Ahura's ship crashed and he was lost. Medusa sank into a long, deep depression before finally learning Ahura had left the Moon, but did not pursue her child for fear of displeasing her husband. Her cousins Gorgon and Karnak angrily went after the child themselves. Ahura, who had grown at an unnatural rate, was returned to Attilan, where the Genetic Council demanded custody of him, and again Black Bolt agreed and Medusa reluctantly went along. The Genetics Council's power grab was soon exposed and Medusa finally acted against them, but in the aftermath both the Royal Family and the Genetics Council surrendered their leadership roles. A new, popularly-elected Genetics Council soon replaced both groups and examined Ahura, who was declared insane and uncontrollable. An anguished Medusa found herself holding her son down so the Inhumans' Pacifiers could suppress his powers. Ahura was placed into isolation as Black Bolt had been as a child. Black Bolt ordered that his son's name never be mentioned in his presence again and the royal family left Attilan.

The royal family was forced to return and resume control when Attilan was briefly returned to Earth. During this time Black Bolt asked Medusa to be captured by Maximus as part of a plan on Black Bolt's part to protect the city and its populace from humanity. This captivity ultimately included having her hair shorn, though she quickly regrew her locks, as well as a number of physical acts that she feared her husband could never forgive her for, despite his having put her into that position himself. Shortly thereafter, the city was taken by the extraterrestrial Kree and the Inhumans were enslaved, a servitude that many Inhumans voluntarily chose rather than live under Black Bolt's chaotic rule. Medusa, the royal family, and the Inhumans who rejected the Kree soon returned to the Blue Area of the Moon where they began rebuilding Attilan. Medusa subsequently led an effort to bring Inhumans and humans together, beginning with a cultural exchange between the two societies' youth. She and Black Bolt returned to Kree space and convinced almost all the Inhumans who remained there to return home. Along with various heroes and villains, Medusa was also briefly kidnapped by the Stranger (masquerading as the Beyonder) for experimental purposes, but they all soon fought their way home.

Inhuman/human relations broke down when Quicksilver stole many of the Inhumans' Terrigen crystals and took them to Earth, where the U.S. government stole them. Their refusal to return the crystals led to a cold war between America and Attilan. During this period, Black Bolt and Ahura were kidnapped by Skrulls and replaced by impostors. Increasingly lost and isolated in the chaos around her, Medusa (possibly under Maximus' mental influence) turned to the imprisoned Maximus for comfort. With her aid he escaped and freed Ahura (who was still secretly a Skrull). Terrigen-powered human soldiers destroyed Attilan with an explosion so powerful it could be seen from Earth with the naked eye. In the aftermath, Maximus reclaimed control of Attilan and began its reconstruction, arming the city for all-out war with Earth, with Medusa and Ahura at his side.

When the Skrull Black Bolt impostor was exposed, Iron Man (Tony Stark) returned his body to Medusa, who angrily demanded of Attilan's Council that they support her in attacking the Skrulls. After they declined, Maximus took the opportunity to claim sole control of the Inhumans. When Skrulls invaded Attilan and the false Ahura was exposed, Medusa's torture of their warriors failed to determine her husband and son's locations. She ordered Crystal, Triton, Karnak, Gorgon, and Lockjaw to accompany her in stealing the Skrulls' transport ship and traveling to the Skrulls' eternal enemies, the Kree.

Medusa promised their leader Ronan the Inhumans' allegiance in return for his aid in locating Black Bolt, cementing their alliance by betrothing her sister Crystal to Ronan. Medusa led her family in rescuing her son and husband, but the vengeful Black Bolt contended that Medusa had overstepped her bounds in dealing with Ronan. In their absence, Maximus led the defeat of the invading Skrull force, and rather than simply ally with the Kree, Bolt employed Maximus' genius to convert the city of Attilan into an interstellar warship and brought the Inhuman race into space. After taking revenge on the Skrulls and taking control of the Kree Empire, the Inhumans won a massive war against the Shi'ar. However, Black Bolt was killed by the massive bomb detonation that ended the war, tearing a hole in space and allowing an invasion from the Cancerverse on the opposite side. Medusa went on to lead the Kree, Shi'ar, and Inhumans in resistance of this invasion.

When Black Bolt feigned death battling death-worshipper Thanos, he simultaneously ended up destroying Attilan and releasing a Terrigen cloud that empowered latent Inhumans worldwide. As Inhuman and human factions competed to control or destroy the "Nuhumans," Medusa established New Attilan and strived to protect her new subjects.