Bolt (DC Comics)

Bolt is the name of several unrelated fictional characters appearing in American comic books published DC Comics. Although the characters vary in being both superheroes and supervillains, some versions of the characters are related to one another.

Bolt first appeared in Blue Devil #6 (November 1984) and was created by Gary Cohn, Dan Mishkin, Paris Cullins, and Ernie Colón.^[1]

Larry Boltiansky is a special effects artist and assassin.^[2] He designed a special suit that gives him the power to teleport and project energy blasts. Now calling himself Bolt, he has faced the superheroes Blue Devil, Captain Atom,^[3] and Starman (Will Payton).^[4] Bolt appears in Suicide Squad #63–66 (March through June 1992) as part of a more villainous version of the Squad propping up the dictatorship in the island of Diabloverde. Amanda Waller and her Squad take out him and his colleagues while attempting to remove the dictator.

He joins a sub-group of assassins that call themselves the Killer Elite. One of their many battles puts them up against the merc team called the Body Doubles. Bolt is hospitalized in an off-panel battle.^[5] He joins the third incarnation of the Suicide Squad and apparently dies on his first mission alongside Killer Frost, Putty, Eliza and Larvanaut. He falls through a shaft, breaks his leg and is attacked by killer ants. He is seen dead in the hands of Killer Frost.^[6] He later turns up alive again in the pages of Identity Crisis #1 and is badly injured by two street kids, suffering a punctured lung and two punctured kidneys.^[1] He has since joined The Society.^[7] His seemingly miraculous resurrections have been noted by other characters, most notably during his recovery from his gunfire-related injuries.^[8]

Bolt is member of Luthor, Joker and Cheetah's Injustice League Unlimited and is one of the villains featured in Salvation Run. He is one of the villains sent to retrieve the Get Out of Hell free card from the Secret Six. Bolt is later killed by his son Dreadbolt who uses his own suit's teleporting ability to send him into a brick wall.^[9] He has been identified as one of the deceased entombed below the Hall of Justice. He was subsequently revived as a member of the Black Lantern Corps.^[10]

Following DC's "Infinite Frontier" relaunch, Larry appears as a member of the Suicide Squad under Peacemaker. He is immediately killed by an unstable Talon of the Court of Owls the team was meant to rescue.^[11]

Bolt's son Terry Boltiansky appears in Teen Titans #55.^[12] He initially attempts to befriend Blue Devil's former sidekick, Kid Devil, before revealing he is following in his father's footsteps as Dreadbolt.^[13] He tries to persuade Kid Devil to join his team, the Terror Titans, but when Kid Devil refuses, he joins the rest of the Terror Titans in defeating him. Later, at the request of the new Clock King, he is sent to help defeat Ravager, who already took out Persuader and Copperhead. He threatens to kill Wendy and Marvin, but Ravager calls his bluff and defeats him alone. He regroups with his teammates and attempts to take her down again, but is apparently killed in the ensuing explosion caused by Ravager breaking a gas pipe. He is later revealed to have used the teleportation system in his suit to get himself and his teammates to safety.

In the Terror Titans miniseries, Dreadbolt is tasked by Clock King to kill his father, thereby proving himself worthy to lead his fellow Terror Titans.^[14] Clock King then renames him Bolt when he finally does.^[9] Disruptor, having lost favor from Clock King to Ravager, tried to manipulate Terry into killing her, but Terry was not fooled.^[15] When Clock King sets in motion his plan to destroy Los Angeles with an army of brainwashed metahumans, Ravager sets out to stop him. Bolt and the Terror Titans battled her, only to be outmaneuvered. Miss Martian, who had posed as one of the metahumans, freed the others from their brainwashing, and they came after the Terror Titans. Retreating to Clock King's lair for help, Bolt and the others are aghast to see Clock King kill Disruptor for her failure, and leave them at the mercy of the oncoming metahumans. Bolt offers to hold them off while his teammates get away, but they insist on fighting together and are eventually subdued, with Dreadbolt being defeated by electromagnetic-powered superhero Static. Two weeks later, Bolt and the remaining Terror Titans escape from custody, planning revenge on Clock King.^[16]

This version is a metahuman speedster similar to the Flash whom lost their legs to pay off her parent's debts. With specialized prosthetic running blades and a connection to the Speed Force, the character is a becomes a notable student within Teen Titans Academy.

Malik Adam White (sometimes referred to as Malik-Adam) is a fictional superhero in American comic books published by DC Comics, created by writer Christopher Priest and artist Rafa Sandoval. He first appeared in the comic books and is depicted as an African-American man of Egyptian/Kahndaqi heritage. Malik is a descendant of the antihero Black Adam. Throughout his comic book appearances, Malik adopts two different codenames, initially known as White Adam and later settling on Bolt.

In the eponymous Black Adam series, Malik is introduced as a medical student and aspiring surgeon who sometimes works as a doctor illegally and is on his way to flunking medical school. When Black Adam contracts a dangerous disease, he seeks out his descendant to grant him his powers and pass on a legacy in an attempt for atonement for his crimes, making him officially his heir and successor. As the plague rages with Teth, Malik resolves to understand the mysterious plague that infects Teth in his human form but ends up catching it himself, later learning both of them are alergic to Nth metal and affects their human form through metal toxicity. Malik also navigates his normal life possessing superhuman powers and works alongside Black Adam in combatting the Akkad pantheon resurrected through alien bacteria assuming their forms, Ibac, and the Oni Grace, who has connections with the old Circle of Crow and seeks to usurp Teth's rulership. The character later assists Mary Marvel in the Lazarus Planet event, with the pair learning of Billy's dilemma with the Rock of Eternity becoming one with him and resolving the problem.

Larry Boltiansky is a skilled electrical engineer and thief. Thanks to a special suit that he designed, Bolt can teleport or fly short distances instantaneously. The suit contains an energy blaster, which can also be used as a weapon.^[17] Terry's suit has all of the same abilities.

Knowledgeable in medicine to act as an unlicensed physician prior to his empowerment, Malik possess the same powers as Black Adam in which he derives his power from, which includes:^[18]