Black Manta est un personnage de fiction, un super-vilain de DC Comics créé par Bob Haney & Nick Cardy dans Aquaman #35 en septembre 1967. C'est l'ennemi juré du super-héros Aquaman.

Biographie

For most of his published history, Black Manta had no definitive origin story. The first was given in #6 of the 1993 Aquaman series. 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.

A second origin was given in #8 of the 2003 Aquaman series. In this origin, the boy who would become Black Manta was an orphan and was placed in Gotham City's Arkham Asylum. He felt comfortable in freezing cold water, while cotton sheets were excruciatingly painful. Because the attendants at Arkham did not know how to deal with autism, they would end up restraining him to the bed as he struggled and screamed whenever they tried putting him there. The boy was also fascinated when he saw Aquaman on television.

The boy would end up being subjected to experimental treatments. One treatment seemed to clear the boy's head, but left him violent as a result; he killed the scientist who had administered the treatment and escaped from Arkham.



As an adult, the man who would become Black Manta designed a costume (primarily a black wetsuit with a bug-eyed helmet, that was able to shoot blasting rays from its eyes) and fashioned a high-tech submersible inspired by manta rays. Taking the name Black Manta, he and his masked army became a force to be reckoned with, engaging in at least one unrecorded clash with Aquaman prior to his first appearance as a rival to the Ocean Master (and before joining the short-lived Injustice League in the retcon Silver Age third week event).

His first name was later revealed to be David in the 2010 Brightest Day storyline, although his last name has not been revealed.

The fearsome Black Manta and Aquaman battled repeatedly over the next several years. During one of these clashes, it was revealed that Black Manta was actually black, whose stated objective at one point was for black people to be dominant in the ocean after having been oppressed for so long on dry land (though this goal was revealed to be a ruse he used to trick Cal Durham into following him, and this objective was not at all evident in either his earlier or later appearances). During most of his appearances, his main goals were defeating Aquaman and gaining power for himself through the conquest of Atlantis. Finally, Manta kills Arthur Curry, Jr., Aquaman's son, which left Aquaman obsessed with revenge.

Black Manta was later transformed into a manta/man hybrid. After a while he went back to wearing his original outfit, which covered his new appearance. At one point he took to drug smuggling from his new base in Star City, where he was opposed by a returning Green Arrow and Aquaman.

In a later confrontation, Aquaman, sporting the Lady of the Lake's Healing Hand, reversed the alterations to Black Manta, and rewired Manta's afflicted brain, making him neurotypical for the first time in his life. Unfortunately, Manta remained a violent criminal, lulling Aquaman into a false sense of partnership and almost killing the Sea King in the process.

In later events, Black Manta was used as a test subject to make water breathers, using genetic manipulation. This succeeded and since then Black Manta has returned to the oceans to face Aquaman once again.

Black Manta caused a disturbance in Sub Diego in which Captain Marley was severely injured. Aquaman summoned various predatory sea-life to attack Black Manta and left him for dead. It was later revealed that he was able to survive by generating an electric charge with his suit.

One Year Later, he took over Sub Diego but was forced to flee when King Shark bit off his face.

When Aquaman died at the end of the 2003 series, Black Manta went to work for Libra as part of the Secret Society of Super Villains. However, after Libra betrayed the group and helped Darkseid conquer the Earth, he somehow quit.


Brightest Day
In the Brightest Day storyline, Black Manta retired from super-villainy and opened a fish market to earn an honest living. When he discovered that Aquaman had been resurrected following the end of the Blackest Night, he murders the customers in the store and later burns down his shorefront house, as he resumes his criminal career and vendetta against Aquaman. Black Manta is seen later at the grave of Thomas Curry, Aquaman's father, where he is approached by Siren and her Death Squad after demolishing the tombstone. The Death Squad began fighting Black Manta but before the fight could get too far along, Siren stops them. She tells Black Manta that they need to work together to find his son, as she makes a hard water image of Jackson Hyde. Black Manta and Siren track down Jackson and attempt to kill his foster father. Jackson (using his ability to create hard water constructs) defends his foster father, but cannot stop Black Manta from shooting a trident-shaped dart at his foster father. Aquaman then arrives on the scene blocking and crushing the dart. Black Manta prepares to face his old nemesis again. During the battle, Aquaman pulls Jackson and his foster father to safety from Black Manta and Siren. In the flashback that Black Manta was a treasure hunter, who along with his wife were captured while exploring the Bermuda Triangle. Captured by the other-dimensional residents of Xebel, the two were tortured mercilessly and Black Manta's wife, who was pregnant, was experimented on to give the unborn child powers similar to those of the residents of Xebel. Fearing the child would be used as a pawn in an invasion of Earth, Xebel princess Mera kidnapped the child and took him to Earth, where she arranged him to be adopted and raised far away from water in order to keep him from her people. Black Manta ultimately escaped from Xebel, though the fate of his wife remained unknown.

After Jackson learns the truth behind his origin, Aquaman and Jackson (now calling himself Aqualad) are ambushed by Siren and the Xebel soldiers on a California beach, where innocent citizens get caught in the crossfire. As Aquaman is about to strike back at Siren, Black Manta springs from the water and severs Aquaman's right hand. Jackson attacks his father and berates him for siding with the people who killed his own wife, only for Black Manta to throw Jackson to the ground and coldly states that both he and his mother mean nothing to him. When Black Manta is about to impale his son with one of his blades, Mera arrives with Aquagirl, who saves Jackson by striking Black Manta square in the face. Jackson and Mera are able to work together to seal Black Manta, Siren and the rest of the invaders away in the Bermuda Triangle. Black Manta vows to get his son, Jackson.


The New 52
In The New 52 (a reboot of the DC Comics universe), Black Manta kills a woman named Kahina the Seer who is a former teammate of Aquaman and steals her specific Atlantean relic. He then vows to kill her entire family before getting his revenge on Aquaman. A flashback shows that Aquaman created a team known as the Others (forged of six Atlantean relics from the Dead King's tomb) who are trying to catch Black Manta, but it fails and Black Manta escapes. Black Manta went after Aquaman's former teammate Prisoner-of-War in Heidelberg. It is revealed that Aquaman had killed Black Manta's father by accident for attacking Aquaman's father. Seeking revenge, Black Manta will attempt to kill all of Aquaman's family (where Aquaman's son was murdered) and friends. When Black Manta chases Prisoner-of-War, he is confronted by Aquaman in a battle. During the attack, Black Manta steals one of Ya'Wara's Atlantean relics and teleports to Stephen Shin, Aquaman's former friend. Black Manta tasers Mera and pulls Shin to teleport away. Meanwhile, the Others are reunited and discover that there is the seventh Atlantean relic in the Dead King's tomb. Manta has Shin captive in the Dead King's tomb to find the seventh relic. They then locate the seventh relic in the Dead King's throne. Manta prepares to kill Shin, but is thwarted when Aquaman and the Others attack his henchmen. Black Manta kills Vostok-X and escapes with the relic scepter. After Vostok-X's death Aquaman, through tears, swears that he is going to kill Manta for this. Black Manta delivered the relic scepter to a mysterious Atlantean, who was revealed to be the Atlantean who hired him, but the Others sprung in and attacked. The mysterious Atlantean managed to grab the relic scepter and escaped while Black Manta is to battle the Others. Black Manta and his henchmen are taken away by the authorities. While in Belle Reve Prison, Black Manta refused to join Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad.

During the Forever Evil storyline, Amanda Waller approaches Black Manta again to join the Suicide Squad. Black Manta declines again at the same time when Deathstorm and Power Ring invade Belle Reve. After hearing Amanda Waller's offer to join the Suicide Squad, Black Manta retrieves his equipment during Belle Reve's prison break as well as accepts the Secret Society's coin. At the Justice League's Watchtower after claiming Aquaman's trident, Black Manta tosses the coin in the ocean. Black Manta takes the trident to his father's grave stating his quest to kill Aquaman is over. Looking up, he sees Ultraman moving the moon in front of the sun which creates massive tidal waves. The waves washes the grave of Black Manta's father away which gives him a new purpose: to destroy the Crime Syndicate. After retrieving Black Adam's body from the ocean, Black Manta meets up with Lex Luthor, the Kryptonian clone that Lex Luthor created, and Captain Cold where he tells them what Ultraman's actions did to his father's grave. Lex Luthor realizes that with the help of his Kyptonian clone, Black Adam, Black Manta, and Captain Cold, he may be able to stop the Crime Syndicate.

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