Black Manta
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Black Manta is a fictional character, a supervillain appearing in DC Comics, primarily as an archenemy of Aquaman.
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[edit] History
[edit] Background
The boy who would become Black Manta was an autistic youth who grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and loved to play by the sea. As a youth he was kidnapped and forced to work on a ship for an unspecified amount of time. At one point he apparently saw Aquaman with his dolphin friends and tried to signal him for help but was not seen. Finally, he was forced to defend himself, killing one of his tormentors on the ship with a knife. Hating the emotionless sea (and Aquaman, who he saw as its representative), the boy was determined to become its master.[1]
As an adult, he designed a costume (primarily a black wetsuit with bug-eyed helmet that was able to shoot blasting rays from its eyes) and fashioned a high-tech submersible inspired by black manta rays. Taking the name Black Manta, he and his masked army became a force to be reckoned with, engaging in at least one unrecorded clash with Aquaman previous to his first appearance as a rival to the Ocean Master (and before joining the short-lived Injustice League in the retcon Silver Age third week event).
[edit] Nemesis
The fearsome, 6'4" Black Manta and Aquaman battled repeatedly over the next several years. During one of these clashes, it was revealed that Black Manta was actually an African-American man (which is why he called himself Black Manta), whose stated objective at one point was for black people to be dominant in the ocean after having been oppressed for so long on dry land (though this goal was revealed to be a ruse he used to trick Cal Durham into following him, and this objective was not at all evident in either his earlier or later appearances). During most of his appearances his main goals were defeating Aquaman and gaining power for himself. Finally, Manta killed Arthur Curry, Jr., Aquaman's son, which left Aquaman in a depression but also obessessed with getting revenge against Black Manta.[2]
Black Manta later sold his soul to the demon Neron in exchange for more power, and transformed into a Manta/Man hybrid. He took to wearing a new costume that completely covered his appearance, and inexplicably stopped tormenting Aquaman and instead indulged in drug smuggling from his new base in Star City. Here, he was opposed by Green Arrow and Aquaman.
In a later confrontation, Aquaman, sporting the Lady of the Lake's Healing Hand, reversed Neron's alterations to Black Manta, and rewired Manta's afflicted brain, making him normal for the first time in his life. Unfortunately, Manta remained a violent criminal, lulling Aquaman into a false sense of partnership and almost killing the Sea King in the process.
In later events, Black Manta was used as a test subject to make water breathers, using genetic manipulation. This succeeded and since then Black Manta has returned to the oceans to face Aquaman once again.
He was apparently killed by Aquaman in anger, after causing a disturbance in Sub Diego in which Captain Marley was severely injured (Aquaman v4 #39). Aquaman summoned various predatory sea-life to attack Black Manta and left him for dead. He appears, however, in Villains United #1 and Infinite Crisis #7, even gracing the cover. Vice President—Executive Editor Dan DiDio later confirmed that he is not dead.[3]
Black Manta appeared as one of the major villains in the 2005-2006 Justice mini-series by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger.
[edit] Other version
Black Manta appeared in animated style in Justice League Unlimited issue 26. He is aided by Felix Faust in attempt to conquer Atlantis. Because of Felix Faust's appearance, the issue is out of continuity.
[edit] Other media
- Black Manta appeared as a regular villain on the Aquaman cartoon in the The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure were he was voiced by Ted Knight. Manta also appeared on The All-New Super Friends Hour, where he was referred to simply as "Manta" and his suit color was now olive brown. Manta also became a part of the Legion of Doom in Challenge of the SuperFriends where he was voiced by Ted Cassidy.
- Black Manta was originally supposed to make an appearance in an early Justice League episode The Enemy Below, Part 1. He was intended to be the one that Orm hired to assassinate Aquaman. They changed it to Deadshot, however, since it wouldn't have been suitable for his character.[4]
- Devil Ray, a character that is based off of Black Manta, debuted as a member of the Secret Society/Legion of Doom in the animated series Justice League Unlimited. According to writer Dwayne McDuffie,the reason behind this is because the rights to Aquaman characters were no longer available.[5]
- Black Manta appears as the main villain in the video game Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis for Xbox and Gamecube. He is also an unlockable character in the game.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Biography of Black Manta
- Black Manta's profile A humorous and cynical analysis of Black Manta's character in the Super-Friends cartoon
- A blog on Black Manta
- Alan Kistler's Profile On Aquaman - A retrospective by comic book historian Alan Kistler of www.MonitorDuty.com tracing Aquaman's history from 1941 all the way to the present day.
- Devil Ray's Bio from the The DCAU wiki
