Black Manta is a fictional supervillain appearing in DC Comics, and is the archenemy of Aquaman. The character debuted in Aquaman #35 (September 1967) and was created by Bob Haney and Nick Cardy. For most of his published history, Black Manta had no definitive origin story. The first was given in #6 of the 1993 Aquamanseries. In this origin, the boy who would become Black Manta grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and loved to play by the Chesapeake Bay. As a youth he was kidnapped and forced to work on a ship for an unspecified amount of time, where he was sexually abused by his captors. At one point, he 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, whom he saw as its representative), the boy was determined to become its master (source of information: Wikipedia).
Black Manta creates under-water terrorism and frustrates the valiant Aquaman with his clever vehicles and gadgets designed to catalyze vertigo and panic.
If Aquaman (DC Comics) is the ultimate terrain diplomat of heroics creativity, a true planetary sailor, then Black Manta is the bane of peaceful solubility.
I'd like to see a collection of Black Manta stories presenting villain ideas that cast this super-villain to the level of Nuclear Man (DC Comics), Brainiac (DC Comics), and Red Skull (Marvel Comics).
Is Black Manta the great white shark of the comic book world?
We should have a presentation of environmentalism-symbolic Black Manta stories (i.e., water toxicity, ocean-quakes, etc.).
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