If you saw a man dressed in a black diving suit wearing a comically large, red bug-eyed helmet, you may think the person was related in some fashion to the character Dark Helmet (played by Rick Moranis) from the film Spaceballs. Do not let his odd appearance fool you: David Hyde, also known as Black Manta, is as deadly on land as he is underwater. He has no superhuman powers, but he does have a suit that can withstand the deep depths of the ocean, gauntlets that can shoot out electricity and a giant helmet that has the ability to fire optic blasts. Still not convinced of his awesomeness? Besides being strong enough to physically take on such characters as Aquaman and Deathstroke, he's a skilled tactician who has lead the Suicide Squad on several occasions. Still though, what's up with the super big helmet, Manta?
Black Manta has a past that is intimately connected to the origins of his greatest enemy, Arthur Curry. It's a Shakespearian tale of revenge, politics and family drama. For a character that's been swimming around since 1967, do you truly know everything there is to know about Black Manta? Why did they have to change his name in the Justice League animated series? What's his connection to SpongeBob Squarepants? How did he actually transform himself into a giant manta ray? Was he the only super-villain to ever officially retire from being a criminal? These answers and more as we take a look at 20 murky revelations about Aquaman's greatest threat.
20 ONLY TOOK 26 YEARS FOR AN ORIGIN
Black Manta first made his appearance in Aquaman #35, which made its premiere back in 1967. Although he would grow to become the nemesis to Arthur Curry, his first appearance was not a spectacular one. He was a villain who had henchmen that wanted to make trouble for Aquaman, and that was about it.
Although he made appearances over the years, a version of his backstory wasn't presented to readers until Aquaman #6, which came out in 1993! A second version of Black Manta's origins was printed two months later! Granted, his continuity isn't has complex as Hawkman's, but it certainly gives him a run for his money!
19 DEVIL RAY
Remember a time when Marvel didn't have the legal rights to use all of their characters in movies and television shows? In Justice League Unlimited, we saw an underwater villain who wore a high tech diving suit. His name was... Devil Ray! So why couldn't they call him Black Manta? Was there a legal issue that prevented JLU from using his name?
Believe it or not, DC initiated an "Aquaman Embargo" due to the fact that Aquaman at the time was appearing in Smallville, mentioned as a running gag on the HBO series Entourage and the Aquaman pilot Mercy Reef was about to launch. DC thought it best to limit the usage of the Black Manta name but still allowed the character to appear on the show.
18 MULTIPLE ORIGINS (ALL SAD)
When DC Comics rebooted its universe with the New 52, some characters stayed the same, whereas other characters went through big transformations. Black Manta had received an update to his origin that changed his beginnings significantly. The latest version had Black Manta avenging the death of his father, who was killed by Aquaman.
An early version of Black Manta depicted him as a boy growing up in Maryland near Chesapeake Bay. He was kidnapped and forced to work on a boat where he was abused by his captors. The newer version had Black Manta as an autistic boy in Arkham Asylum who was subjected to numerous experimental treatments. Both versions had a young Black Manta escaping after killing his tormentors.
17 BECAME A LEGIT MANTA
Batman is not a hybrid man and bat (although at one point he was) and neither is Spider-Man (although at one point he was too). Black Manta is a vicious dude sporting a high tech diving suit, but does he have any super-powers? Thanks to a deal with the devil, he actually did and it was kind of weird.
The demon Neron was released in the DC series Underworld Unleashed. Black Manta made a literal deal with that devil to gain more power, which resulted in him ditching his iconic bug-eyed helmet and instead mutated into a hybrid man-manta, granting him the ability to breathe underwater as well as enhanced strength.
16 RETIRED
What's a supervillain to do when their nemesis dies? Retire, of course! After the death of Aquaman, Black Manta made no more attempts at villainy since his main foe was finally defeated for good. Black Manta worked at a fish store and all seemed calm in his life. Until one day, when Manta learned about Aquaman's resurrection during the series Brightest Day.
Upon hearing that his archenemy had returned, Black Manta promptly killed all of the customers in his store. He burned down his house and with speed returned to a life of crime, re-dedicating his life to killing Aquaman a second time.
15 AQUAMAN KILLED HIS DAD
Heroes can often face an enemy, but sometimes they'll have to go up against an archenemy. Heroes fight an archenemy due to deeply personal reasons, and the only thing worse than an archenemy is a nemesis, someone who will not rest until the hero is put down for good. Villains come and go, but a nemesis ain't going nowhere.
Why is Black Manta the nemesis of Aquaman? Manta was hired to obtain a sample of young Arthur Curry's blood to prove the existence of Atlantis. Black Manta encountered Curry and his father, with the conflict resulting in the death of Aquaman's dad. Aquaman sought out Black Manta to get revenge, but in the process accidentally caused the death of Black Manta's father. This time, it's personal!
14 HE KILLED AQUAMAN'S SON
Black Manta was never afraid to play dirty. Before the New 52 reboot, Black Manta was still the antagonist to Aquaman's protagonist. In a move that was both personal and evil, Black Manta, in a single action, got Aquaman to lose his partner as well as his son.
Black Manta kidnapped Arthur Curry, Jr. also known as Aquababy. Manta said he would release Aquaman's son if he fought his own partner, the original Aqualad. Even though Aquaman went ahead with the battle, Black Manta put Aquababy in an air bubble, and without water to breathe, Arthur Curry, Jr. died. This cruel act was something that Aquaman never forgave or forgot.
13 WON'T KILL AQUAMAN
There's been some long term debate about why won't the Joker just doesn't kill Batman and vice versa. The answer to that question was somewhat discussed in the 2008 film The Dark Knight, in which the Joker says that Batman completes him as a person, and since Batman has a no-kill policy, they were destined to be in each other's lives forever.
In the comics, Aquaman and Black Manta have done terrible things to each other. Not only was Aquaman responsible for the death of Manta's father, Manta was responsible for the death of Aquaman's dad and son. Manta has admitted that if he killed Aquaman his life would be empty. But just because he won't kill Aquaman, doesn't mean he won't cut off his hand!
12 SUPER-POWERS
Although he has often been the butt of jokes due to his ability to talk to fish, Aquaman is a powerhouse and has been shown to be strong enough to be able to fight Superman. So if Aquaman is that powerful, then kudos to Black Manta, a supervillain that fights Aquaman with frequency yet possesses no superhuman powers.
In the comics, he briefly gained powers thanks to a deal with a devil named Neron. In the animated series Justice League Unlimited, Black Manta was not only named Devil Ray, he was also a villain in the show to Wonder Woman, not Aquaman. Thanks to augmentations by Lex Luthor, his strength and stamina were increased high enough to take on the Princess of Themyscira.
11 AQUAMAN ORIGINS
Thanks to the reboots that the DC Universe has had over the years, characters like Black Manta have had their origins radically redesigned. Fortunately, there has been one constant in Black Manta's life, and that has been the presence of his nemesis: Arthur Curry.
In one version of Black Manta's origins, Black Manta was kidnapped and forced to work on a fishing boat. He made attempts to contact Aquaman for help but he never answered. Another version of young Black Manta placed him in Arkham Asylum. As a boy with undiagnosed autism, young Black Manta was exposed to numerous experimental treatments. Besides being comfortable in freezing cold water, he also enjoyed watching Aquaman on television.
10 HEALING HAND
Black Manta, in his quest for more power, transformed himself into a giant hybrid human/manta ray creature with super-strength and the ability to breathe underwater without a suit. Help came for Manta from the one place he never thought to receive it from: his nemesis, Aquaman.
Aquaman had lost his hand and although he had a mechanical replacement, it was eventually swapped out for a magical water hand that was gifted to him by the Lady of the Lake. It had destructive abilities, but also the ability to heal. Not only did Aquaman revert Black Manta back to his full human form, he also took away his autism.
9 ALTERNATE UNIVERSE
It's hard to keep track of who's who in the DC Universe. With all of the reboots and alternate universes out there, you may get confused by the different versions of characters. Characters like Blue Beetle and Hawkman have had multiple, diverse origins. In the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold, we saw a version of Black Manta we had never seen before.
In the animated episode Deep Cover for Batman! the Caped Crusader traveled to a parallel Earth to capture the Red Hood. On Earth-23, Black Manta was named Sting Ray and was a member of the Justice Underground, a group that fought the Injustice Syndicate. Interestingly enough, this version of Black Manta rocks the same suit colors Aquaman does!
8 MAN RAY
Behold! The ultimate villain! A man wearing a weaponized diving suit that evokes the properties of a manta ray and menaces a hero that lives at the bottom of the ocean. The hero we're referencing isn't Aquaman... it's SpongeBob Squarepants! And the villain we mentioned? It's not Black Manta, but a parody of the character named Man Ray.
Man Ray doesn't wear a giant bug-eyed helmet but instead wears a manta ray-shaped mask/head covering. Man Ray also opts for a more colorful suit, as opposed to the black suit that Black Manta wears. Although Man Ray menaces SpongeBob from time to time, he is not as villainous or murderous as his comic book counterpart.
7 TIES TO AQUALAD
During the crossover series Brightest Day, audiences were introduced to the new Aqualad. Aqualad had hydrokinetic abilities, which is a fancy way to say he had the power to telekinetically control water by making it take shapes, such as weapons. His real name was Jackson Hyde, and the big reveal was that he was the son of Black Manta.
Jackson was never told who his real father was and as a precaution, his adoptive parents told him to avoid going near the water. Eventually he would learn about his powers and his heritage, resulting in a battle with his biological dad. Black Manta was not thrilled that his own son would ally himself with Aquaman and take the name Aqualad.
6 FACE OFF
Black Manta has been relentless in his pursuits of defeating Aquaman, but even Manta has switched up his goals from time to time. Besides trying to destroy Arthur Curry, he's also made attempts to have people of color dominate the ocean, tried to destroy Atlantis and take over the sunken area known as Sub Diego.
The DC series One Year Later consisted of stories that took place 12 months after the crossover Infinite Crisis. In the series, we learned that Black Manta made attempts to take over Sub Diego, a sunken piece of San Diego inhabited by Atlanteans and genetically modified humans. Black Manta's takeover of Sub Diego was halted by King Shark, who bit off Black Manta's face!
5 BLACK MANTA REDEMPTION
SpongeBob Squarepants may have gone a little bit obscure when they created the villain Man Ray as an homage to Black Manta. However, the award for weirdest usage of Black Manta would probably have to go to an episode of the Adult Swim series Robot Chicken.
In the episode The Arkham Redemption, DC characters appear in a parody of the Stephen King story turned movie entitled The Shawshank Redemption. The part of Andy Dufresne, originally played by Tim Robbins, was now played by the Joker. Oddly enough, the character of Red originally played by Morgan Freeman was played by Black Manta!
4 UNDERWATER NATION
Although Lex Luthor is constantly finding ways to defeat Superman, he also has other goals and aspirations. At one point, Luthor became the President of the United States of America! What about Black Manta? Surely he has to have other goals besides trying to take down the King of Atlantis?
In the comics, Black Manta found himself monologuing after capturing Aquaman. He stated that his goal was for black people to dominate the sea to avoid oppression on land. This was later retconned to get him re-focused on defeating Aquaman. His original claim was dismissed as a fake political stance to recruit Cal Durham, the future mayor of the Sub Diego.
3 ALLIES!
In the series Flashpoint, we're introduced to a new DC Universe. In this new world, things were quite different: Barry Allen wasn't the Flash and underneath Batman's mask was not Bruce Wayne but his father, Thomas. Amazons and Atlanteans were at war and Superman was nowhere to be found. The series was also made into an animated movie entitled Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.
In the animated movie, the Amazons and Atlanteans battled it out with Wonder Woman leading the Amazons and Aquaman leading the Atlanteans. Among the allies of the Atlanteans was none other than Black Manta himself! We guess anything is possible in an alternate universe!
2 NO HERO? NO PROBLEM
Black Manta doesn't have super powers, just a weaponized diving suit and a real bad attitude. Sounds like a good person to join a team of supervillains. However, Manta doesn't have the time to conspire with other villains; he's too busy terrorizing Aquaman! Then one day, Aquaman died...
Once his nemesis was gone, Black Manta realized that he had no other goals in life. Seeing how empty and limiting that was, Black Manta decided to join the Suicide Squad after previously declining an offer by Amanda Waller. He even led the team after Deathstroke was unavailable to be field commander.
1 UNDERWATER TREASURE
Buying a wetsuit with diving gear can cost you over $500. What about a diving suit that shoots lasers out of the eyes of the helmet along with gauntlets that can fire harpoons? These suits are expensive, and unless you have Tony Stark money, you may have to cough up a small fortune to make one. Fortunately, that's exactly what Black Manta has.
After the New 52 reboot, Black Manta was introduced as David Hyde, a young diver who lived with his father on a houseboat. The two made their living by searching for underwater treasure. After Aquaman killed David's dad, he invested the money he made from treasure hunting to construct a suit capable of producing electric shocks and shoot lasers from the helmet's eyes.