Ahura Boltagon - Blog Posts

Ahura Boltagon and Misidentified Child-Age Psychosis

Schizophrenic psychosis in childhood is extremely rare.  It’s not unheard of, but is highly uncommon.  Children can demonstrate psychotic features, but more often than not these symptoms are the result of other factors.  Psychological trauma, clinically significant troubles with anxiety and/or depression, and even the natural organic development of the brain can bring about transitory states that look like schizophrenia.  And yet properly distinguishing such features from true psychosis is crucial in that it informs treatment approaches.  Prescribing neuroleptic antipsychotic medications to child-aged patients can have the affect of quelling the overt aspects of the difficulty while further compounding the root cause. 

I had a patient during my training who had been diagnosed as child-onset schizophrenic.  He was allegedly hearing voices and demonstrating highly destructive acting-out behavior.  At the time of this initial diagnosis, however, he had just been removed from his biological parents due to physical abuse and placed in foster care.  He was prescribed a high dose of the medication, Aripiprazole (a newer generation neuroleptic often used in the treatment of schizophrenia and Bipolar 1 Disorder).  This left him in an almost zombie-like state. 

Fortunately, shortly after I began working with this little guy I was able to get him reevaluated by a new psychiatrist who opted to discontinue the antipsychotic medication.  This led to a return of the acting out behaviors, but also left him cognizant enough to participate in psychotherapy and learn new, more effective coping skills.  The ‘voices’ never returned and the acting-out soon abated.  Through out work together, he was able to better work through his anger, sadness, and anxiety over the abuse he had endured and the trauma of being removed from his birthparents - progress we would have never been able to achieve were he still on the Aripiprazole. 

Anyways, all this has a lot to do with why I am such a fan of the character of Ahura Boltagon.  He has been just a terrific representation of the complexities of childhood psychopathology.  As a mere toddler, Ahura was misidentified as mad, and this ‘madness’ coupled with the nature of his powers made him a threat to those around him. 

At first he was sent into foster care with a kindly family of farmers (as seen in Daredevil #s 279-283 by Nocenti and Romita Jr).  This didn’t work out so well in that his symptoms were mistaken for demonic possession.  Ahura was ultimately returned to Attilan and handed over to the Pacifiers.  These mystical pacifiers were able to suppress Ahura’s powers (and psychopathology) but at the cost of rendering him into a zombie-like state.  This was shown in Hine and Irving’s terrific mini-series, ‘Silent War.’  There is a haunting scene in the series where Medusa goes to visit her son in the care of the pacifiers.  Ahura is all but catatonic and barely recognizes his own mother.  The scene was especially striking to me in that it so reminded me of the first time I had met the patient mentioned above. 

Thanks to Medusa and Maximus’ intervention, Ahura was eventually removed from the Pacifiers and returned to his mother’s side.  This was shown in Fraction, Allred and Quinone’s current run on FF.  Ahura continues to have difficulties with behavioral acting out (he released Maximus from his prison and has caused all sorts of trouble in the Baxter Building), but the psychotic features have yet to return.  In hindsight, it seems obvious that Ahura’s so-called madness was merely the result of normal cerebral development, an adjustment to his super-human powers, and the traumatic stress of being removed from his parents. 

The anti-psychotic meddling of the pacifiers only acted to quell and suppress the symptoms of Ahura’s difficulties, while leaving the root cause unaddressed; and it is only now that he has been taken off of psychotropic medication that his true recovery is being facilitated. 

I was doing something completely unrelated when I came across this

I had no idea

Don’t think about their age.

Sorry if I asked you before. So the passage of time that is the 616 universe has always been questionable. Almost as the older one gets the slower their time is. Still if 2 characters are the same age it can be assumed that they will both get older the same year (when that year happens, no one knows). Since it looks like from Kamala Khan's recent stories she is pretty much 18, being introduced 16. So Ahura Boltagon should also be close to 18, and as a Royal should look for a partner. Anyone you would pick? Myself, Treste.

While there isn't anyone specific I would pick, I have seen your posts on Ahura and Treste, and it is a very good ship! They're the same age and while they are of different Inhuman classes, they still run in the same circles, so it's likely they know each other! She's a great choice honestly! Also, since she isn't much of a character, you can practically do anything with her, which is great. I don't think she has a set superpower yet, but they could do something great with her. Do you know what her powers are? Or do you have any headcanons on what her powers are? And I love the idea of Ahura breaking out of his own class when he marries since I think he's pretty opposed to all the class issues Attilan has. I think you said it before, but Marvel would be really smart to start focusing on the second generation of Inhumans and their attempts to fix the issues in their society. I mean, I personally, would love to see what would happen if Ahura actually got to be focused on and became king of Attilan.

Oh great points! I never thoughts about the fact that Ahura and Luna are really the only Inhuman kids that have been looked at in detail, and Luna isn't even a full Inhuman. Treste and Irelle do support that idea though. We really do have no idea what the typical Inhuman aging cycle looks like. The only thing that's weird about that is that Ahura is calling himself 16 (?) when he wouldn't be 16 by actual years, but by physical age... Unless Inhumans age quickly as kids and then start aging slower as they reach their teen/adult years? Well now I'm confusing myself lol

the fact that Luna Maximoff was literally born before Billy and Tommy but bc of the retro-reincarnation* the twins are full grown adults and Luna is still a middle-schooler.

*nobody in the mid-2000s was playing close enough attention to the timeline, also because Luna is the Franklin Richards of Atillan and will never age.

we're going insane tonight (aka thinking about my little characters)

Luna: Ok, maybe playing ‘whose family is most dysfunctional’ wasn’t the best idea we’ve had. Ahura's been crying in the bathroom for an hour. We can’t get him out…

Ahura: In light of what you did for me, you can hug me for four to five seconds.

Luna: FORTY FIVE SECONDS?!?

Ahura: No! Four to five seconds!

Luna: Too late!!!

Ahura Boltagon has zero chill and I love him. He and Luna just gossip about the Inhumans and how Medusa and Black Bolt are terrible parents. Also, they’re empathy buddies, so just them looking at each other in Inhuman court meetings like, “the vibes in this room...they ain’t good, cuz.” 

I’m going to have to start the Ahura & Luna Empathic Cousins with Terrible Mothers fandom aren’t I? Them just being like, “Yo, when our parents die, we are going to make a great team. You will be my right hand woman. It’ll be great and we root out all the lying nobles and it’ll be incredible.”

The Potential of Luna Maximoff

Before we start... I’m going to focus mainly on Luna’s modern appearances (Son of M-current) since I haven’t read all of her comic appearances, and she was either a baby or a plot device with no personality (other than needing to be rescued) in those past comics. 

A lot of this is also speculation about her character (obviously) and how I see her, so there will be a lot of unanswered questions that I pose about her.

Luna Maximoff has the potential to be such an interesting character and comic book authors are missing out by not using and developing her. 

First, her powers. She’s an empath. Empathy is a power that we really don’t see a lot in comics since telepathy is favoured over it the majority of the time. (It’s a nice alternative with so many telepaths.) But empathy is a really good power because of the (obvious) emotional depth it has. A character with empathy can be someone who is very emotionally intelligent. 

It’s already been touched on in both Son of M and All-New X-Factor, but Luna has been shown to not quite understand why she shouldn’t just heal people of their emotional trauma. 

This would be such an interesting arc for her. Just to watch her come to terms with the fact that people have to go through pain to grow and that she also has to go through pain to grow. 

As an empath, it would also be extremely interesting to see how Luna herself deals with emotions. Does she embrace them? Can she force herself to feel happy with her powers? Does she get overwhelmed by the emotions of others around her? How does she deal with knowing everyone’s emotions? Does she try to help them? Does she leave them alone? There are just so many questions here that I just want people to explore.

Luna has also been shown to be very understanding of other people (mostly due to her empathy), and I love this as a trait in characters. She loves people and wants to help them. But this could also lead to her giving away her energy to people trying to help them and burning out because she doesn’t have anyone to support her.

And that leads into my next point. I think Luna is a lonely character. Does she even have any friends on Attilan? The only times we’ve seen Luna with other kids around her age is when she was with the Future Foundation, X-Factor and when she was on Hala with Crystal. But  none of these friends turn out to be long term for her.

She did go to the Braddock Academy for a while too, but we never saw this, and it didn’t last long. That’s the thing with all of the friendships Luna has had, they never seem to be lasting. By all rights, she should be close friends with Franklin and Valeria Richards, but they’re almost never seen together. I think it’s been a missed opportunity there. 

The only person who Luna could potentially be friends with on Attilan (other than Lockjaw) is her cousin, Ahura Boltagon. He’s the closest family member in age to her. Ahura is also an interesting character, who I think should be used more, but I think he and Luna compliment each other well. They both are empaths to a certain degree and both have grown up in the Inhuman royal court. Luna cured him of insanity when he was a child, and I think they could have a really close bond. Ahura is also kind of angsty and dark, while Luna tends to be more happy and optimistic. 

Speaking of Luna’s interactions with her family, let's talk about the other side of the family. Luna has somehow never met Billy and Tommy and I think this is a travesty. We already know that Erik loves Luna a lot and Lorna and her get along great. We haven’t seen her with Wanda recently enough to know how she feels about her though. I just wish we could get a comic with all of them in it. But also regarding the Magnet family, I feel like Luna is the only one in the family who is good with emotions. It would probably hurt her to see all of them fight as much as they do. She loves them all so much and doesn’t want to see any of them hurt. 

And on the topic of loving her family. I really think Luna should be allowed to spend more time with her dad. 

Pietro loves her so much (despite his past errors) and he loves her the same. I think now that Pietro has been trying to be a better person, she should be able to see him more. This would also be interesting because you could explore what it’s like for her to be the child of divorced parents. Who does she like living with more? How did she feel about her mom marrying Ronan that one time? How does she feel about her dad dating other women? Does she want her parents to get back together? There’s just so much under the surface.

And about the Inhuman side of her family. It would be so interesting to see how Luna’s relationship changes with them as she grows up. Would she come to realize that a lot of the ways that the Inhumans do things are wrong? Would she start to fight back against Crystal about these kind of things? Would she start to want to leave her home for good, or would she want to stay so she can try and change it for the better? Does she start to rebel against them in small ways, by bringing things from earth to Attilan like books with more modern ideas and music?

Luna’s relationship with Crystal has the potential for a big fallout between the two of them. Crystal hasn’t always been the greatest mother, especially recently.

Luna has been shown to love her mother a lot and to want to be with her desperately, but I think that in some ways this is just Luna’s want to be comfortable. Luna was kidnapped a bunch as a child (which she probably has trauma from), so she probably feels the safest with her mother, something that is completely understandable. But as she grows up, things will change. Luna might start wanting to leave home more and to make more friends, but Crystal is quite protective of Luna, and might not let her. And if Luna’s outlook on the Inhuman way of life changes, there could be a lot of differences that might push them apart.

Another thing I want to touch on is how despite all the hardships she’s gone through, Luna is still a sweet and kind character. She’s been through so much, and she feels so much beyond just her own feelings. It’s amazing that she hasn’t broken down or that she isn’t pessimistic. She’s just kind and wants to help people as best she can. She’s still learning how to help these people, but she has good intentions. It’s really just a nice breath of fresh air to see a character that has gone through so much, but is still able to smile and love the way that Luna seems to love. 

Luna is the kind of character who would hardly get angry, so that when she does get angry, you feel it. She knows the power that emotions hold. She could literally radiate anger. But I don’t see her as one to hold grudges. She knows what that can do to a person.

Luna knows how actions make people feel. She doesn’t want other people to ever feel the ways she’s had to feel. I think this is evident in the kinds of friends she has made. Both Georgia (All-New X-Factor) and Adolf (Future Foundation) were both lonely people. Georgia was mourning and new to the team, and Adolf was still finding his place among the Future Foundation. Luna reaches out to the lonely people and the outsiders because she herself has felt lonely and been an outsider. 

And speaking of Luna feeling like an outsider… We have to remember that Luna grew up as a human in an Inhuman world. There’s this really great post by @writingcaterpillar that talks about how Luna didn’t know she was human, and how in Son of M she points out that some of her friends hate humans. So from this we can infer that those who did know that Luna was human would not have liked her very much. And even after she gained her powers, I doubt this would change things very much. 

Another post by @imperiuswrecked goes deeper into this and talks about how the Inhuman genetic council might have actually denied Luna terrigenesis more based on her being a “half-breed” of a mutant and an Inhuman than based on it being a risk to her. (Another thing is that the genetic council sucks in general. They don’t have a good record of treating people well, just look at Ahura.) I feel like there is a lot you could uncover about Luna and how her family treats her. She’s not a pure blooded Inhuman. Do they discriminate against her? Do they deny her things and rights since she is not a “true Inhuman”? 

And Luna has only just started to defend herself. @imperiuswrecked​ has another post that talks about how in Son of M Luna defends herself physically for the first time. And in All-New Inhumans, Luna starts to argue a little bit with her mother. She’s learning to stand up for herself, but slowly. In All-New X-Factor, she even goes to see Pietro without Crystal’s permission, doing something that she wants, not that her mother wants.

That was longer than I expected, (no it wasn’t, who am I kidding) but I just really love Luna. I wish Marvel would look into her more. I feel like she hasn’t been explored nearly enough. She is a character who is kind and feminine. She is very in touch with her emotions, but lonely. She is compassionate towards others and still learning to fight for herself and for how she feels. 

I just have so many ideas about Luna and where she could go and how she could grow as a character, but clearly Marvel isn’t as interested in her as I am, so I guess I’ll have to write some fanfiction. :D