Supervillain Name: Black Manta
Civilian Name: Due to Black Manta's tendency to fabricate new identities on a whim, his real name is unknown. However, he does have a peculiar habit of using the name 'David' whenever a new persona is needed.
Origin city: Supposedly, Black Manta was born on his father's boat off the coast of Baltimore, Maryland.
Hometown/Base of Operations: He's working on that.
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Height: 1.93 metres
Weight: 113 kg
Age: Somewhere in the 30's-40's range.
Birth Date: While he presumably knows his own date of birth, Black Manta isn't the sort to talk about it.
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Costumed Appearance:
Civilian Appearance:
Icon: Outside of his helmet, Black Manta doesn't really bother with identifying marks.
Costumed Personality: Black Manta is a ruthless, immensely petty, and all-around vile individual. All of his joys, his hates, and his very purpose as a living being revolve around his campaign of vengeance against one man: Aquaman, and everything the Atlantean King cares for. Everything must be done at the expense of Aquaman, no matter how pointless or minuscule. Given that Aquaman ruined his life, Black Manta sees it as only right that he return the favour.
On occasion, however, he will unveil personal tragedies or a noble ambition, giving the impression that there is more to Black Manta than he lets on. Naturally, these are always hoaxes, fabricated by Black Manta solely to yank at his foes' heartstrings. He takes great joy in finding new ways to make his nemesis feel bad, after all.
Be that as it may, he's not entirely devoid of humanity, and did genuinely love his father. At times, he can display an almost paternal -albeit incredibly harsh- attitude towards those working under him. Perhaps Black Manta could settle into a semblance of normality one day, but not before Aquaman and everything he stands for is gone.
Civilian Personality: Deep down, in his most secret heart of hearts, Black Manta is still a totally depraved sonofab**** whose main goal in life is to watch Aquaman die.
Super abilities: -
Skills:
Athleticism: Black Manta is in impeccable physical condition, largely due to his harsh childhood and years of intensive training. His strong points are largely his strength, stamina, and explosive bursts of speed. Additionally, he is an excellent swimmer, able to rival even the finest Olympic contenders without his equipment. However, Black Manta is limited by his purely human physiology, and while he remains incredibly dangerous, suit or no suit, there's only so much he can do against metahuman abilities.
Combat training: Black Manta was taught to fight at a young age, and continues to refine his martial talents on a regular basis. If one were to describe his approach to fighting, direct and savage would be among the first words to come to mind. He cares little for sophisticated forms or honourable combat, preferring to simply brutalize his opponent by whatever means are available. Furthermore, Black Manta is proficient with a broad variety of weaponry, ranging from the mundane (primarily knives, katars, harpoons, firearms, and his own body) to the bizarre, like coins and helmet-mounted optic lasers.
Terrifying Presence: Between his demeanour, temper, and reputation for lethality, Black Manta possesses a remarkable aptitude for scaring the daylights out of most people. Unless you're exceptionally brave, strong, or stupid, you do what the angry man with the comically gigantic helmet says.
Nautical Artisan: As a former employee of STAR Labs, Black Manta has developed quite the affinity for metalworking and electronics, especially in the realm of nautical armaments. In fact, he served to spearhead a number of technological innovations, all for the sake of killing Aquaman. Thus, Black Manta is more than capable of performing field repairs, modifications, and the occasional upgrade for his arsenal. However, as his new line of work precludes access to the resources he once had, there are definite limits on what he can whip up.
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Powers:
-
Gadgets:
Black Manta's Suit: Once a humble diving suit, Black Manta has painstakingly remodelled it to better combat Atlantean scum. As a result, it provides him a wide range of, shall we say, 'superhuman' abilities. They will be described below.
- To better protect Black Manta from the elements, his suit sports a hermetic and bio-electric seal, preventing even microscopic intrusions. This also serves to shield him from Atlantean telepathy and hydrokinesis, as they rely on transmission via moisture and bio-electric signals.
- Having enhanced its deep-sea diving capabilities, Black Manta's suit can easily withstand both extreme temperatures and levels of water pressure sufficient to kill a normal man several times over.
- By way of a turbine-based propulsion device mounted in the suit's 'backpack', Black Manta can achieve speeds that would make most forms of marine life envious. It also has the added bonus of enabling Black Manta to launch himself out of the water and reach substantial heights, for those occasions in which such a feature would be useful.
- The suit is equipped with artificial gills and an internal oxygen supply, permitting Black Manta to breathe underwater for an indefinite period, and spend extended intervals in similarly dangerous environments (space, toxic atmospheres, etc.).
- Through largely unspecified means, Black Manta's suit provides him with superhuman strength and durability on a level comparable to Aquaman. As no single part of the suit seems to be the source of these enhancements, 'depowering' Black Manta usually requires that one destroy or disable the entire suit.
- Black Manta's distinctive helmet serves as the centrepiece to his ensemble, providing a suite of utilities. The shell is fashioned out of exceptionally durable metal, and serves as the 'cap' on the suit's seal. As for the optics, in addition to the iconic energy blasts, they're also fitted with infrared vision and a digital scope for precision shots. While the power of its blasts are variable, the more powerful ones are capable of melting Atlantean armour and scorching the flesh of superhumanly durable individuals.
- The gloves on Black Manta's suit can produce electrical discharges sufficient to harm most metahumans, and can potentially knock them unconscious in the right circumstances.
- The right glove in particular sports a wrist-mounted harpoon launcher, a personal favourite of Black Manta. In addition to normal harpoons, Black Manta will also utilize explosive, electrified, and grappling varieties.
- Two pairs of knives are stored within compartments on the suit's 'backpack' and sheaths on the boots. Whatever they're made of, they can pierce Atlantean armour and flesh with ease; moreover, much like his gloves and harpoons, they can generate substantial electrical discharges.
- A recent addition to the arsenal, Black Manta's suit has been fitted with a 'chameleon mode', allowing him to replicate the appearance of anyone to near-perfection. However, the lack of proper voice modulation does limit its capabilities somewhat.
THE MANTA-SUB: Black Manta hasn't actually built this yet, but he plans to.
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Weapons:
Note: This mainly covers the weapons that aren't integrated with his suit.
Katars: They're sharp, silly-looking, and used to stab people. They don't do anything overly special, but Black Manta likes to use them every once in a while.
Harpoon Gun: A bigger, but still man-portable variation of the harpoon launcher on his wrist. It functions in largely the same way, just with more stopping power.
Trident: A placeholder for when he decides to make one to spite Aquaman.
Civilian Occupation: Hating Aquaman
is his day-job.
Biography---------
Character History/Origin: If one were to ask Black Manta for his life story, the answer would almost assuredly be a lie, albeit a strangely creative one. Now, entertaining as it would be to cover Black Manta's concocted tragedy of the week, there is a time to indirectly accuse Aquaman of hating minorities, and now is not that time. Instead, it's time to directly accuse Aquaman of being a violent murderer. Let's get to it, then.
The child that would become Black Manta was born, fittingly enough, off the Atlantic coast of the United States of America. His parents were just returning from a personal cruise of sorts when his mother went into labour. Unable to reach a hospital in time, his father was forced to conduct the delivery himself. In spite of frankly horrid conditions and the absence of either trained medical professionals or sufficient medical equipment, the child was delivered without issue.
This, like much of Black Manta's early childhood, is largely irrelevant to the man he is today. The only event of real impact on his history would occur a few years later, when the boy's mother left them over something his father was never overly keen on discussing. Thus, the lad was raised solely by his rather austere and nautically-inclined father.
As the man wanted his son to be strong, his expression of fatherly love oft took the form of strenuous exercise and sparring, interspersed with casual fishing, rudimentary homeschooling, and the occasional 'dad talk'. Eventually, in the interest of ensuring his son's future, the man sent him off to receive a formal education. The boy fared surprisingly well, and eventually worked his way into the field of mechanical engineering. Lamentably, the family's shaky finances prevented the boy from further exploring his talents, at least for the time being.
Once the boy grew old enough, he began assisting his father with -and ultimately embarking on- deep-sea dives for buried treasure. It wasn't the most comfortable existence, sure, but it was idyllic in its own way. Some time later, however, it all came crashing down.
The boy was now a man in his prime, and had largely taken over the diving end of the business from his aging father. On one such dive, the man attracted some unwanted attention, that of an Atlantean. Unbeknownst to the two men, their latest find was an ancient Atlantean tomb, and someone had been sent to apprehend these 'grave-robbers'. The Atlantean went for the ship first, and caught the father by surprise. Old as the father was, the struggle proved too much for him, and his heart gave out.
The suddenness of the father's death shocked the Atlantean, and delayed any further action just long enough for the son to return. On arrival, the man was treated to the sight of his father's dead body, held in the arms of the apparent culprit. While the murderer appeared human, something seemed wrong about them. Though the man would soon learn of the reason behind this apparent wrongness, his attention was focused more on the immediate. Whoever, whatever they were, they'd killed his father, and they had to pay.
Unfortunately, the Atlantean proved too slippery for the young man, and escaped before proper retribution could be meted out. For a time, he simply stewed in a mixture of rage and grief, unsure of what to do. However, the man eventually regained his composure, and so began his quest for vengeance. First, the son buried his father, and assumed full ownership of the 'family business'. Next, he sold their house and most of the family's extraneous belongings, retaining only what he deemed necessary for his plan.
By way of and relentless bribery and lies, the man wormed his way into a leading position in STAR Labs, under the name of 'Cornelius Carver', a rising star and visionary in the realm of deep-sea exploration. To say that his tenure at STAR was corrupt would be an understatement. During his rampant exploitation of STAR Labs' patronage, he would gladly pawn off the plans for promising inventions to such disreputable conglomerates as the Death Syndicate and Lundgrau. For the sake of his revenge, 'Professor Carver' would gladly stoop to anything, caring little for the consequences.
Over the years, the man's work slowly bore the fruit he desired. With the assets and manpower of STAR Labs at his disposal, 'Professor Carver' headed the development of several seemingly innocuous technologies (Such as mechanical gills, 'breech-proofed' rubber, underwater mining lasers, etc.), whilst secretly incorporating them into a personal project, jokingly nicknamed 'Project Devil Ray' by his closer co-workers.
Once the project was complete, 'Professor Carver' went on vacation, and the man re-entered under the guise of a humble janitor. When the time was right, the next step of his plan was put into action. First, he systematically purged all records and blueprints of his work, seeking to prevent 'copycats'. Next, he covertly eliminated any of his co-workers with extensive knowledge of the project, mostly via cleverly arranged accidents while in the field or laboratory. Finally, he donned the suit, and departed from STAR Labs to pursue his true calling: vengeance.
Declaring himself
Black Manta, the man embarked on a hunt for another one of those 'aquatic men'. This would prove surprisingly simple, as one of the poor sods had wandered off alone in pursuit of a particularly colourful octopus.
After dragging his target to the surface, Black Manta proceeded with an interrogation, intent on uncovering as much as he could regarding this mysterious species. From the thoroughly terrified creature, he learned the following: their kind were known as Atlanteans, and they lived in a kingdom hidden beneath the seas. Most notably, their ruler was one Orin, a man beloved throughout all of Atlantis. He also learned a great deal about their biology, such as how long it takes for the average Atlantean to start suffocating in open air. Once he'd learned all he could from the Atlantean, Black Manta gutted the creature, and abandoned the carcass in a nearby dumpster.
Since then, Black Manta has become a shadowy terror of the depths, engaging in everything from bombing runs to simple murders. But, this does little to satisfy his thirst for vengeance, and the chances of him encountering the killer after so long are slim to none. Thus, Black Manta made a resolution: If he couldn't find whomever was responsible, he'd simply have to make all of Atlantis suffer the same pain. With that in mind, what better target was there than the father to all of the nation's people, King Orin?
At present, Black Manta is off the coast of Somalia, seeking to expand his enterprise.
Optional information
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Nemesis: Aquaman, Aquaman's family and friends; and, by extension, the entire Atlantean race.
Allies:
Team:
