 |
| Imagine seeing that while swimming. (shudder) |
It took me a little while but I
finally figured out who to do next. If you read the title you know it is Black
Manta, longtime foe of Aquaman. You’re probably thinking, “Why the heck is he
wasting time on a lame hero’s lame villain.” To that I must remind you that
Aquaman is being played on the big screen by Jason Mamoa, he is officially not
lame until Mamoa is no longer in the role. And, of all the supervillains out
there, Manta really takes the cake on a weird background story. No more delays,
here’s Black Manta’s profile. As always, I’m going to go over this following
the characters chronology not the chronology of the comics. So, here we go.
Manta’s life was pretty difficult
from the earliest stages. First off, he’s an orphan… which is pretty standard
by this point, not going to lie, but here’s his interesting hook, he’s Autistic.
And not the more easily managed Asperger’s either, no, he was on the can barely
communicate end of the spectrum. Furthermore, this was at a time when Autism was
a disorder that wasn’t particularly well known or understood. Even worse, for
Manta, he for some reason could not stand the feeling of cotton sheets. Or
cotton in general from the sound of it. Think of that feeling when you have a
bit of hair stuck in your collar or something, but all over your body. Sucky.
He only felt really comfortable in freezing cold water. Huh, weird. Well, being
at the fine institution of Arkham Asylum, the doctors felt it best to strap him down most of the time no matter how loudly he shrieked… Why does Batman keep sending
Arkham the criminally insane?
A few years later, one of the
various scientists working at Arkham finally figured out a cure for the unnamed
orphan boy. The future Manta could now communicate with ease and no longer felt
extreme discomfort from cotton. The down side being that he was now filled with
homicidal rage and made him super strong. Sounds like the list of side effects
from stroke meds, sheesh. He turned his now incredible feelings of anger and hate towards Aquaman, who got to live all the time in the cold water that Manta craved. The now evil Manta spent years designing a full costume,
a black wetsuit and a giant helmet with huge bug eyes capable of firing energy
beams. He also built a giant submarine in the shape of a big black manta ray,
and amassed an army of minions. The dude plans ahead, I'll give him that.
 |
| Like he needs the lightsaber to make himself look awesome. |
Over the years he’s been a constant
threat to Aquaman and his ocean home of Atlantis. He even killed Aquaman’s son in
one confrontation, which lead to the end of Aquaman's marriage. Dick move Black Manta. But, unlike your pretty standard
motives of greed or power, it is eventually revealed that Manta wanted to
conquer the ocean to give his people a place to rule. Yeah, turns out that “Black”
in Black Manta was a reference to the fact Manta is himself African American.
Been in comics over twenty years before they decided to drop that particular
bomb. Odd. I wonder how he reacts if he hears that stereotype of black people
not being able to swim… Probably something to think about another time. Despite
Aquaman recently using his magic water hand to cure Manta of his Autism, the
two are still bitter foes. I guess Manta is one of those guys who won’t let an
act of kindness keep him from getting what he thinks he deserves.
Black Manta is a pretty tech heavy
character. His highly advanced scuba suit lets him dive to unspecified depths,
breathe underwater, fire a number of small projectile weapons, and swim at high
speeds via jet boots. His helmet fires a high powered energy pulse, and comes equipped
with a scrambling device that screws up Aquaman’s aquatic based telepathy. Dude
also comes prepared.
Like Captain Cold, a powerful demon
by that name of Neron made a bargain with Manta, the terms of their deal being
the surrender of Manta’s soul for more power. This turned Manta into a giant
Manta Ray/Human hybrid but was later reversed.
 |
| His monster mode which, like Captain Cold's magic powers, was later removed for being stupid. |
Black Manta is perhaps Aquaman’s
most persistent and deadly foe. He even beats out Aquaman’s own villainous brother, Ocean Master, for the top spot of biggest Aquaman hater. He appears in just about any series
that shows Aquaman in one form or another.
He was a recurring villain on the Justice League: Unlimited TV series, although
his name was changed to Devil Ray due to copy right complications. Once again,
damn lawyers excluding my brother and those I know personally. He also appears
several times in Batman: The Brave and
the Bold again to mostly harass Aquaman. He had a small cameo in Smallville, but like that Universe’s
Captain Cold he didn’t really do anything besides sit at a table. He was also
one of many aquatic villains shown to side with the much more brutal version of
Aquaman during the Flashpoint Paradox movie.
Again, he didn’t say anything but did kick a few butts.
I’d say his most interesting role was
in the Young Justice TV series. In
that particular show he was not only battling Aquaman but his own son Kaldur’ahm,
that show’s Aqualad. Side note, they are both played by Khary Payton, which is
just a smart use of resources. During the five year time skip between season
one and two, he apparently told Kaldur of their connection and convinced his
son to join him. While the former Aqualad (Should he be called Mantalad now?)
did his best to seem ruthless and evil as his father, later episodes showed
this was a ploy by Kaldur to infiltrate his father’s organization and find out
the Light’s (think Legion of Doom or the Injustice League if you don’t
recognize the name) plans. Upon discovering this treachery during what turned
out to be the series finale, side note screw you Teen Titans Go, Manta and
Kaldur face off and Manta utters one of the most awesome speeches I’ve ever
heard. He tells his son, “Ignorant boy! This is not a world, a universe, in
which a free man can afford to be soft. I will teach you to be ruthless,
Kaldur'ahm, even if I must beat that lesson into your skull!” Rough Parenting techniques
there, Manta. But this version did seem to have the same Freedom Complex that
Elsa did in Frozen. He just beat
people up instead of singing an unbelievably catchy song about it.
Not sure if he’s going to be on the
big screen yet but it’ll be interesting to see if he does.
Black Manta is just kind of a cool
bad guy. My favorite versions of him are typically soft spoken and ruthless. He
doesn’t pontificate as much as most baddies, he just stands there and looks
intimidating for the most part. Awesome. He has a somewhat original backstory
and motivation, if you can name one other supervillain with homicidal tendencies
derived from an Autism cure I’ll give you a shiny nickel. His costume is cool
with those creepy giant bug eyes. He gets ten points in the original costume
category. I hope to see more of him in the near future. Next time, Black
Panther, the Avengers resident charismatic, diplomatic, brilliant, savage, and
at time mystic king. Talk about a jack of all trades.
 |
| He looks pretty civil without the helmet. Just saying. |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Manta
http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/black-manta-vs-bleez-1492885/
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Manta_%28New_Earth%29
http://youngjustice.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Manta
No comments:
Post a Comment