Merge:Medusa

Medusa is a character in the Marvel Comics' universe. Her real name is Medusalith Amaquelin. She belongs to the race of Inhumans, a species of prehistoric earthlings mutated by the Terrigen Mists produced deep under the Inhuman city-state of Attilan, presently located in the oxygen-rich Blue Area of the moon. Medusa is married to Black Bolt and they have a son named Ahura. Crystal, the wife of the Avengers Quicksilver, is Medusa's sister.

Medusa first appeared in Fantastic Four #36, making her one of the oldest characters in the Marvel Comics' universe. At that time, she suffered from amnesia and affiliated herself with the Frightful Four, Silver Age nemeses of the Fantastic Four. After regaining her senses, Medusa returned to Attilan and later still she joined the Fantastic Four as a temporary member filling in for Susan Richards, also known as the Invisible Girl at that time, who was on leave rearing her son Franklin Richards.

Powers
Medusa possesses a long, thick head of hair, every strand of which has greater tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and shear resistance than an iron wire of the same thickness (average hair diameter: .045 inches), as well as the psychokinetic ability to animate her hair for a number of feats. Her hair, approximately 6 feet in length while relaxed, can elongate to almost twice its normal length with only about a 25% loss of overall tensile strength. One strand of hair, 2-feet long, can support 6.4 pounds, a fist-sized lock of hair can support about 750 pounds and her whole head of hair can lift about 3,200 pounds (1.6 tons). A portion of her hair must be used to anchor the rest at these greater weights, so that more than her scalp/skull is used as a brace.

Medusa can control the movement of her hair as if it were countless thin appendages growing from her head. A psionic field permeates her mutagenically altered hair-cells, causing mutual attraction across the gaps between strands. These relatively small forces operate in conjunction to develop larger forces. Through concentration, she can psionically move her hair in any manner imaginable. She can snap the length of it through the air like a whip (the tip of which moves faster than the speed of sound), or rotate it in a fan-like manner. She can bind persons or objects with it as if it were rope or use it to lift objects which weigh more than she could lift with her arms. (Her scalp, skull, and neck do not support the weight of an object that she lifts: it is held aloft by the psionic force coursing through the hair.) Medusa can also perform delicate manipulations with her hair such as lock picking or threading a needle, and such complex acts of coordination as typing or shuffling a deck of cards. Although she has no nerve endings in her hair, she can "feel" sensations on all parts of her hair by a form of mental feedback from her psionic field.

Medusa is highly skilled at interpreting the gestures and body language of Black Bolt.

Ultimate Medusa
Medusa appeared in the Ultimate Marvel Universe during the Ultimate Fantastic Four issue, Annual 1: Inhuman. This version had a head full of snakes like the mythical creature she is named after. She was still Black Bolt's wife and appeared to share the same relationship to the other Inhumans with her regular counter-part.