Terror to the Deep: Black Manta (David Hyde/Kane) Appreciation Thread 2021

[John Venus]

Attachment 113513

litterally the most ridiculous bad@$$ and hilarious scene all rolled into one. Like this would be a scene from Rick and Morty

Anybody working in customer service would be like this after a few years, regardless of whether their archenemy returned from the dead or not.

[Frontier]

Does this look silly?





And then there's the movie look:

[lemonpeace]

Does this look silly?

sometimes...

yes. I feel with the oval helmet it's a very thin line between menacingly uncanny and....grey watermelon with eyes. over the years they've definitely made the oval helmet work (and c'mon, have you ever seen Ivan Reis not make a design work?) but it's always been the actions of Manta that made him work, in spite of how silly the oval helmet may be.

tho, admittedly the odd (sometimes ridiculous) look of the oval helmet definitely contributed to how iconic he has become.

[Frontier]

sometimes...



yes. I feel with the oval helmet it's a very thin line between menacingly uncanny and....grey watermelon with eyes. over year they've definitely made the oval helmet work (and c'mon, have you ever seen Ivan Reis not make a design work?) but it's always been the actions of Manta that made him work, in spite of how silly the oval helmet may be.

tho, admittedly the odd (sometimes ridiculous) look of the oval helmet definitely contributed to how iconic he has become.

I think it's all in the visual (and I guess the artist), but that's true for a lot of costumes.

[Jabare]

some looks are universally passable or good amongst the majority of artists. As lemonpeace said earlier. Ivan Reis is a top tier artist that makes anything look good

[lemonpeace]

these are two of my favorite Black Manta fanart pieces

[lemonpeace]

a weird, kinda fantastical, take on Manta

[John Venus]

Love the horror vibe.

If I saw that standing in front of me I would run away on sight.

[Falcon16]

Michael Beach is the best Manta voice actor.

[Frontier]

Michael Beach is the best Manta voice actor.

Who has technically not played Black Manta. Although he has fathered him .

[lemonpeace]

Love the horror vibe.

If I saw that standing in front of me I would run away on sight.

imo I think that should be the vibe you get from Manta when he's suited up; that horror "holy ****, wtf is that!?! run away!!" sorta vibe. that's when his helmet and overall design works best. like if you look at some of his Injustice designs, Manta's helmet can make him super otherworldly and intimidating, kinda like an aquatic supervillainous Kabuto.

[The Cool Thatguy]

He's got a great design, but they really need to do something about his motivation. Just hating Aquaman isn't enough, IMO

[Frontier]

He's got a great design, but they really need to do something about his motivation. Just hating Aquaman isn't enough, IMO

I think it all depends on the execution, although they've gotten some mileage of mining him out a pirate out to plunder the secrets of the deep because he feels it's owed to him...on-top of just hating Aquaman.

Granted they got a lot out of Reverse-Flash who is 100% driven by how much he wants to screw over Barry Allen.

[lemonpeace]

He's got a great design, but they really need to do something about his motivation. Just hating Aquaman isn't enough, IMO

i mean, I've already seen people complaining about the first Black Manta issue that they're "watering him down" or "trying to make him an anti-hero" just because he's being shown as character outside of having a raging hate boner for Aquaman 24/7. it seems for some people thats all they need/want.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I think it all depends on the execution, although they've gotten some mileage of mining him out a pirate out to plunder the secrets of the deep because he feels it's owed to him...on-top of just hating Aquaman.

Granted they got a lot out of Reverse-Flash who is 100% driven by how much he wants to screw over Barry Allen.

Flash have other villains who can pick up the depth, though. Aquaman, not so much.

I mean, why does he feel entitled to the sea?

A good take might be that Manta's family worked tirelessly to reveal the existence of Atlantis, becoming experts of the deep. Only for Arthur to come along, kill his father and reveal the truth to the world without any of the work that he and his family did.