How Aquaman Changed the Origin of Black Manta's Armor

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Aquaman, in theaters now.

In James Wan's Aquaman, Arthur Curry's (Jason Momoa) main nemesis is his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), who tries to take the throne of Atlantis and turn it into a symbol of peace. However, even as a secondary villain, Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) gets a fair amount of screen time as a mercenary Orm hires to help him eliminate the usurper.

As he tries to assassinate Aquaman, fans see Manta transition from the sea pirate and submarine hijacker known as David Kane into the fan-favorite DC villain. However, in order to amp up the villain's threat, Wan made a crucial change to Manta's origin in terms of how he acquires his signature black suit and iconic helmet.

Black Manta first appeared in 1967's Aquaman #35, already suited up and feuding with an amnesiac Ocean Master as well as Aquaman. Over the ensuing decades, his origin would be revised several times, reshaping his reasons for hating Arthur and Atlantis. Wan's film takes lead from the New 52 era of comics, where Manta (aka David Hyde) caused Arthur's dad to die of a heart attack, which resulted in the Aquaman killing David's father in return. This is somewhat altered for Wan's movie, as Aquaman leaves David's terrorist dad to die on a submarine early on, kickstarting David's vendetta, and giving Orm the opening to recruit the soldier. In doing so, it's Orm who is responsible for the rise of Black Manta, recognizing him as a weapon born of hatred.

When Orm realizes Arthur is going after Poseidon's Trident, the one weapon that could stop him, he sends his Atlantean kill-squad to attack Aquaman and Mera. Knowing he needs someone on the surface to lead them, and seeing as he trusted David to help him fake a terrorist attack from the surface against Xebel previously, Orm instructs his legion to recruit David for this mission. However, to do the job properly and increase the chances of killing Arthur, Orm offers up Atlantean technology in the form of a war-suit for David to wear.

Before he dons the armor, David, being a tech savant and engineer a la the comics, retrofits the suit and its weaponry. In their first fight on the submarine, Arthur was impervious to David's guns and knives, but now the suit's blades and lasers can actually harm the hero. As Orm told his men, this is an advanced prototype he planned to gift his soldiers in the future, but now, he's found a more urgent purpose for it -- the deaths of Arthur and the traitor, Mera.

David marvels at the suit, which also uses water as fuel and turns it into energy, building off of the science that Atlan/Poseidon's Trident first introduced Atlanteans to centuries before. Clearly seeing it as a weapon of mass destruction, David still decides to tinker with its weaponry in a Tony Stark-esque scene, making a few changes.

Firstly, he paints the gear black, clearly not a fan of its white coloration, and also makes an adjustment to the helmet. He believes it should be bigger (to increase the blast range of its eyes) and as ridiculous as that may sound, it actually translates brilliantly from the comics to the big screen.

Having this Atlantean-powered arsenal puts him on level pegging with Aquaman, and knowing Arthur will finally vulnerable to his attacks, David sets off seeking revenge, no longer as a man, but officially as the Atlantean war machine, Black Manta.

Directed by James Wan, Aquaman stars Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Amber Heard as Mera, Patrick Wilson as Ocean Master, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, Temuera Morrison as Thomas Curry, Dolph Lundgren as Nereus and Nicole Kidman as Queen Atlanna. The film is in theaters now.

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How Aquaman Changes the Origin of Black Manta's Armor