This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
- NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Black Manta from the DC Extended Universe film series. The mainstream version can be found here: Black Manta (DC).
|
“ | I'll show you the same mercy you showed my father. And gut you like the fish you are! | „ |
~ Black Manta expressing his hatred to Aquaman. |
“ | Ok, Doc. You want to know my plan so bad? Here it is. I'm gonna kill Aquaman and destroy everything he holds dear. I’m gonna murder his family and burn his kingdom to ash. I will avenge my father, even if I have to make a deal with the Devil to do it. | „ |
~ Black Manta to Stephen Shin. |
David Kane, also known as Black Manta, is the secondary antagonist of the 2018 DC Extended Universe superhero film Aquaman and its 2023 sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
He is a ruthless treasure hunter and a high-seas mercenary with a flair for creating deadly technological innovations who came into conflict with the being known as Aquaman after the latter refuses to aid him in saving his father Jesse Kane during one of the assaults they committed. thus, He is also the arch-nemesis of Aquaman.
He was portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who also played Doctor Manhattan in the Watchmen HBO series and Candyman's form of Anthony in Candyman (2021).
Biography[]
Aquaman[]
David Kane was a pirate just like his father, Jesse Kane, who helped him steal a military stealth sub. At some point, they were hired by King Orm Marius to take over a Russian nuclear submarine to help unite the kingdoms of Atlantis and declare war on the surface world, but they are foiled by Aquaman. After a brief battle, Aquaman deflects a rocket from Jesse, which caused a torpedo to topple over, trapping him as the submarine became flooded. Kane begged Aquaman for help but was told that they kill innocents and should not expect mercy from the ocean. Kane was forced to flee, while Jesse perished, and started to bear a deep grudge.
Kane later targets Atlantis at the behest of Orm, who uses the attack as an excuse to declare war on the surface, which he was eventually paid for, but David instead wants weapons to kill Aquaman. Orm later provides David with a high-tech prototype suit of Atlantean armor and plasma rifle, which Kane uses and modifies them into a high-tech suit. He also gains a squad of elite Men-of-War soldiers.
Now calling himself "Black Manta", Kane confronts Arthur and Mera in Sicily, Italy, with Murk and elite Men-of-War soldiers. Manta mostly manages to match and even dominate Arthur, as the king not only has to contend with his new-found Atlantean weapons and superhuman armor, but also has to protect the civilians. However, in the end, Manta was ultimately overpowered by Arthur's combat prowess and own tremendous superhuman physical abilities, as he has slammed away several feet with enough force to damage his jetpack after just having been stabbed by Manta's Atlantean blades and Aquaman proceeded to throw a pair of chained balls at him, successfully heavily damaging his armor by the reflection of his blast and the subsequent fall. In the mid-credits scene, Kane is rescued by Dr. Stephen Shin, a scientist obsessed with finding Atlantis, and agrees to lead him there in exchange for his help in his revenge on Aquaman.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom[]
Kane resurfaced from his injuries and preserved his suit. He is shown working with Dr. Shin along with other researchers in Antarctica and fell through into the ravines, followed by the researchers who had been dragged into the cave. Kane and Shin lead a team further down into the ocean over the melted cave. Kane leaves much of his team to be attacked by a Kaiju octopus, where he fuses the two pieces of the black trident and was spoken through by Kordax in a vision who manipulates him into seeking vengeance towards Aquaman in exchange for more power. After this experience, Kane's eyes shone green with power as Shin finds him.
Kane repairs his suit and soon tracks down Aquaman during a conference and attacks. Engaging in a battle with Aquaman, he then retreats after injuring Mera through his ship. Eventually after Aquaman and his brother Orm go after his base after forcing an imprisoned crime lord named KingFish into revealing his whereabouts, Black Manta confronts his enemies after Orm reveals his plans to let their guard down as Manta sends his team to attack the brothers. However, as both Aquaman and Orm defeat Manta's forces, their foe appears out of the smoke and easily forces Orm away towards Aquaman. Manta then launches the black trident towards Aquaman, but it misses and almost strikes Orm, who would attempt to touch the trident and learns of Kordax's plot and collapses. Aquaman takes his brother away to shore to learn how to destroy the trident.
Later, Manta approaches Aquaman's house and adopted father as he stands silently in front with eyes emitting red, as he begins to set the house on fire and taking Aquaman's son while leaving Tom Curry in the inferno to tell his son about the event. Black Manta retreats back to his base and plans to reach Necrus to release Kordax from his imprisonment in his kingdom and prepares his men to set fleet. Kane stands as his ship tears through the ice barriers of Antarctica and requests that his men would take Arthur's child to Kordax. Manta's ships arrive at Necrus after destroying the Necrus kingdom to access Kordax's imprisonment which Manta drives his pot towards the caves of the prison, leaving his ships overwhelmed by Aquaman and his race, including his brother.
As the latter confronts Manta who attempts to sacrifice the child to release Kordax, it goes into a sudden confrontation as Manta greatly overpowers his foe with the black power of the trident and attempts to land the killing blow, only to be stopped by Mera who hurls Manta away and knocks him down. After the destruction of Kordax, including the trident, Kane awakens and hangs onto the rupturing floor as, despite Aquaman's reluctance to save his life, instead of accepting this act of heroism and filled with grudging resentment since he has failed at killing Aquaman, Manta decides to commit suicide by letting himself fall to his death along with the destruction of Necrus falling, ending his threat towards Atlantis once and for all.
Personality[]
As a pirate, David Kane is a ruthless individual who does not hesitate to kill those who stand in his way. Loving fighting, he is ready to fight whatever enemy even if said enemy is stronger, as seen with Aquaman. Initially obsessed with treasure like a typical pirate, David conspired with King Orm and helped him to declare war with the surface as long as he was paid, showing he was greedy. He makes no reservations about his profession and was perfectly aware what he does is not moralistic by any means. Despite his cold nature, however, Kane greatly appreciates his family lineage, as he immediately cherished his grandfather's knife after hearing about it and was protective of his father Jesse. When the latter was trapped by his own torpedo, Kane desperately begged his nemesis Aquaman to save him and initially refused to leave his father behind, trying to save him. Because of Aquaman's refusal and his father's death, Kane became vengeful and lived only to kill Aquaman to get revenge of his father.
Kane is pragmatic, ready to continue working with Orm despite not caring about the Atlanteans, as he knew he would get powerful weapons from them. He later agreed to work with Dr. Stephen Shin, knowing his knowledge would help him find Aquaman and get more powerful equipment.
Upon becoming Black Manta, Kane became more bloodthirsty and heartless than he was before, being completely dedicated to murdering Aquaman at all costs and not caring if other humans die in the process. Kane was brave, as observed when he continuously attacked Aquaman until a hit was landed, leaving the Atlantean-hybrid on the defense through most of their battle and relentlessly attacking Arthur ignoring the damage his suit had taken during the battle. When having the upper-hand on Aquaman, Manta often taunted his mortal enemy. One taunt he addressed to him was directly from Lovecraft, proving he is somewhat sophisticated.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Black Manta Suit: Kane possesses an armored suit that gave him a number of abilities:
- Enhanced Strength: Kane's armor grants him immense physical strength, allowing him to kick Aquaman off his feet, successfully headbutt him, kick him out of a house, and with the help of his jetpack, is capable of ramming him off a building.
- Enhanced Durability: Kane's armor grants him incredible durability, allowing him to survive tremendous underwater pressures, withstand, albeit not unscathed, mighty blows from Aquaman and survive a direct explosion followed by a large fall off a cliff.
- Energy Beams: The helmet of Kane's Black Manta suit fires thick beams of red laser energy from its eyes. They are so intense, that Aquaman was sent flying an immense distance by them, with his body left slightly blackened.
- Flight: Kane's suit incorporates the firing mechanism of the plasma cannon onto its back and legs, allowing him to fly and hover in mid-air as well as to cover immense distances rather quickly.
- Black Trident Empowerment: To be added
- Physical Augmentation: To be added
- Energy Blasts: To be added
Abilities[]
- Genius-Level Intelligence: Kane has been a skilled pirate and tactician in his youth along with his father that they managed to steal difficult vehicles. When employed by Ocean Master, Manta was able to become adaptable to Atlantean technology that he was able to learn to modify his suit following his first defeat with Aquaman, even creating advanced weaponry to ambush Aquaman's kingdom.
- Marksmanship: He is skilled at aiming his weapons, as demonstrated with Stephen Shin when he threw a knife at a picture of Aquaman during his recovery.
- Master Tactician and Strategist: To be added
- Combat Proficiency: To be added
- Swordsmanship: To be added
- Leadership: To be added
- Master Engineer: To be added
- Pilot Skills: To be added
- Weapon Proficiency: To be added
Relationships[]
Family[]
Allies[] |
Enemies[]
|
Quotes[]
“ | I'll make you a deal. I don't tell you how to captain and you don't tell me how to pirate. | „ |
~ Black Manta killing the Russian Captain. |
“ | I waited a long time for this. | „ |
~ Black Manta first meeting Aquaman. |
“ | Orm: (through a water projection activated by one of his Atlantean commandos shortly after the latter and his three cohorts arrived before Black Manta at their meeting point carrying a chest full of new prototype Atlantean equipment which they then opened) You were defeated the last time because your surface weapons failed you. Ours will not. (watches as Black Manta walking past his hologram for a closer look on equipment presented to him and giving the sword inside experimental swings) It's prototype armor for the next generation Atlantean soldier. Revenge is something we Atlanteans understand. You will lead my finest commandos as your personal army to hunt down the half-breed abomination. I cannot touch them, but you can. He's fled to your world. Kill him and the woman he's with, and you will be rewarded. Black Manta: Killing him is my reward. Orm: (refers to Atlantean plasma cannon Black Manta picks up) The crown jewel. Still experimental. Converts water into beams of energized plasma. (one of Orm's commandos pours a conch of water into the weapon, activating it and allowing Black Manta to blast a rock formation a distance away into smithereens) Orm and Black Manta: (exchange acknowledging smile, cementing their deal) |
„ |
~ Orm providing Black Manta his finest commandos and new prototype equipment for next generation Atlantean army, ensuring the latter's rise of power as Black Manta. |
“ | Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men. | „ |
~ Manta quoting H.P. Lovecraft. |
“ | Aquaman: You're the guy from the sub. Black Manta: That's right! But now I have Atlantean steel. Call me, Black Manta. |
„ |
~ Manta introducing himself to Aquaman. |
“ | You can't run. You owe me blood! | „ |
~ Black Manta to Aquaman |
“ | Never. | „ |
~ Black Manta's last words before falling to his death while refusing to grab Aquaman's hand. |
Trivia[]
- In the comics, Black Manta was the primary archenemy to Aquaman and a member of Lex Luthor's supervillain teams. Unlike this version, however, he has no redeeming traits at all.
- James Wan revealed that Black Manta was planned to be the main protagonist in the cancelled film, The Trench.
- James Gunn revealed that Black Manta was originally considered to be featured in The Suicide Squad as part of the team's lineup but later opted out of the idea, feeling his power set wouldn't be useful to his story.
- The Lovecraft quote he recites is a foreshadowing to the consequences his actions in the sequel almost had on the world, and to the plot point of Kordax being imprisoned in the deep.
[]
Villains | ||
Comics Movies Television Video Games |