Black Manta

Black Manta

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Dark Water

Rising out of the depths of the ocean, cutting thru the skies
and menacing the 7 seas.
Mercenary, treasure hunter, anti hero true Buccaneer.


Mikko Bermudez did this mock cover and definitely has the right idea. Black Manta #1 is overdue mates. With the resurgence of Aquaman, David Ray has emerged to cause havoc in the DCU.  Blood is in the water. He has positioned himself on Young Justice as one of the holders of the light (regrettably). Black Manta also looks to be the newest member of the Suicide Squad . Him and the Legion of Doom are lurking in the shadows looking to destroy the Justice League in their coming issues and basically Black Manta is poised to set the comics world on fire.


So really who is this guy?



If you read the bat files; It's hard to believe that the intellect of the Dark Knight himself couldn't conceptualize that a true son of the father would not only want to inherit the throne, but would do whatever it takes to be King. And as far as brutality is concerned

"Crush your enemies see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women"

War



I don't know if that was the right speech but lets look at what's happened to him.
Aquaman killed his father, his wife was experimented on and killed, him tortured and imprisoned and his child kidnapped experimented on and passed around in the underwater social system. This guy is a little upset, his MO is NOT racially motivated. He just wants some get back.

We also learn that Mera supposedly saves the kid, gets married to Arthur and they end up with Kal'dur as one of their own-- curious right? Were suppose to believe that Manta and Mera wasn't lovers first and conceived little Kal.?.and her turning from Aquaman regret of  having a kid with him and her rage against the machine was caused by what?


See your man OA1 has been around a block or two, and the weak love/hate triangle between Manta, Mera and Aquaman didn't ring true to me. Geoff should have got his hands dirty on this one, or will the truth come out later?




Black Manta  has proved he's an A list character, a real kick ass pirate that has a serious fan base. He's ready for his own anti hero ongoing.
Young Justice has also set it off and done Manta right... so far.
Who needs the light? Black Manta, Aqualad and an attack on Xebel is its own self contained epic saga. Throw in the bad blood between them Sports Master, Cheshire and Arsenal (clone Roy) and we have the super villain equivalent of the Hatfields and McCoy's.

We can go even further. The way Black Manta kicked the shit out of the Others, lets make them chase behind him and Aqualad as they kill bad guys and try to deal with being father and son. People I'm kind of expectant on what we might get a chance to see from Manta.


Dark Water
I think describes who the man is.
No one being able to see what's under the surface.

















17 comments:

  1. Yeah man, Black Manta is that guy.

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  2. Very nice post Omega. Been awhile man!
    I like the topic and person you tackled here, as Black Manta is indeed a major character. Sure there are parts to of history that make him sympathetic, as the really good villains should make you feel slightly sympathetic to their cause, i.e. Magneto, Venom or Captain Cold(pre-reboot) if you read about his fucked up childhood.

    Still, Black Manta's as fucking evil as they come. He chose to be a ruthless killer no matter how tragic his past, instead of growing and moving beyond that in positive way. But yeah, the dude's a total bad-ass for sure, am I'm really surprised that he's joining the Squad. Makes no sense to me, but then that's DC for ya' nowadays.

    The idea for a series or mini-series is interesting, could work.

    Speaking of YJ, that shit's getting good huh? Can't wait until the inevitable clash between Sportsmaster's family vs. Black Manta's. That might be either this week or next, not sure.

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    1. Young Justice is so good dude, every saturday morning I'm in front of the TV like a little kid. Coffee and all.

      It's amazing how perfect the characters are. Nobody, I've seen in my long years of comic reading and cartoon watching have gotten every character they put on screen right.

      You have this guy that knows how to write a good Batman, then you have another guy that can write a good Black Adam but not Captain Marvel.

      Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti have gotten every f@in one them right, except Captain Marvel. And Hell we can over look that cause they got 30 other characters dead ass perfect.

      I know it's a whole unit of collaborators on YJ but I'm giving the most credit to the producers.

      If YJ pull off a good Sports Master vs Black Manta. The rest of this month on my blog is there's.

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  3. great Black Manta posting! i remember the character way back when i was watching the original Superfriends cartoon but despite that over the years i never became that familiar with the character. but so far i'm digging him on Young Justice and i'm anxious as Hell to see how it goes does with him and Sportsmaster among other things. a couple of weeks ago when i blogged about him in Belle Reve i thought he was pretty bad ass then. i remember at least one Justice League Unlimited episode with him in it to.

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    1. Down time is that episode you were talking about. You know it's in my top 5 favorite episodes. When I use to watch the Superfriends I always wanted to know more and see more of this guy. My cousin thought he was an alien. Damn if it aint a real post and comparison out there. Who knew?

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    2. no, that's a YJ episode. just go to Youtube and put Justice League Unlimited To Another Shore in the search field.

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    3. King Faraday is also in the episode by the way.

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    4. My bad still got YJ on the mind. Justice League Unlimited is in the collection my friend. To another shore is in the JLU OA1 top five.

      Faraday is my guy too, him, Ben, Richard, and Flagg could restablish the C.B.I. or G.O.O.D.

      Devil Ray did his thing on JLU. Aqualad could become this alter ego since he might be mind wiped.

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    5. check my reply to your comment today on the SS blog i wanna see if you can help me out with something.

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  4. My 3 brothers, Black Manta is not only the first African American super villain but pretty much my favorite. You know how I look into comics and with this guy it's a lot of stuff I want thrown out.

    @LJ Panther: I know you like Manta as well as I do, what version do you like best?

    @Dale: The way Manta's been written he is pure evil and I hate that. I hate that they don't even write him as a real person. That needs to be changed immediately.

    @Shlomo:Young Justice is the definitive Black Manta and we havn't even truely seen him yet. Man I'm praying they do this right. I'd hate to have to turn on them like you did Adam Glass. Wait a minute he has him in his book as well. Come on Adam don't let me down.

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  5. Posted a response, and it said it was published, but nothing showed up. See, I told you were shit like was happening lately...to me anyways;)

    Anyhoo, I know you don't like BM(ha ha) being portrayed as pure evil. Maybe he didn't start out that way, given the extreme amount of tragedies and circumstances that drove him to become a super-villain. Again, he definitely has back-story that makes you feel sympathetic towards, no doubt about that. But he chose to do the things he did afterwards instead of moving on in a more positive and constructive manner. He could've risen above those tragedies and become a positive force for change in the world, but he didn't. But hey, I'd rather see him as a cool villain, than a lackluster anti-hero like we saw with Catwoman, Magneto, Venom, and Deadpool in the 90's. Only Deadpool's face-turn seems to have stuck and lasted due to the strength of his writers.

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    1. I think Manta's something more and we might get to see it in Young Justice. The very first indication came with Sportsmasters meeting with the light, the second from the manta sub. And your right, it is something to be said for good creative writing.

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  6. Nice post, Omega. Really liked the mock-cover, and thought that all the info a nice recap of Manta's origins.

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    1. Jay, glad to hear from you man. Black Manta's stepping out in big ways lately. And thanks for stopping by it's always good to hear from the reviewer.

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  7. That's too bad, that I can't get this comic book in Poland (as usual!) :( Happens all the time ;)

    I wanna thank You for Your comment on my blogspot. Me and my Friend (Kolektor) - one day we decided to create a short movie "Figures in Polish" to show our "homies" the real history of many action figures series. Because in the early 80s, was no original toys in Poland (or they were hard to find). Now is a little bit better situation :) So you're so right! Nostalgia is the right word! :)
    We working on part 3 (Part 1 - TMNT, part 2 - MOTU) - this time "G.I.Joe" :) You wanna join us as a Patron? Or maybe you would like to show some pics of your collection? Anything? Just let me know!!
    Have a nice day my Brother :*
    - Ewelina

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    1. Hello Ewelina G. I'm always at your spot looking around. I hear MOTU is pretty big in Poland. Who's your favorite figure? And I'll send you some pics of a few figures in my collection.

      I'll be waiting to see part 3 (part 1 TMNT and part 2 MOTU).

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  8. Good day! This is the first time anyone has ever appreciated my work thank you even though this post is old i would still like to say thank you! ����

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