Man Ray is the fictional supervillain who serves as one of villains in SpongeBob Squarepants. He is Mermaidman and Barnacle Boy's greatest arch-nemesis who first first mentioned in Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy before eventually made his first appearance in Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III.
Appearance
He is one of the main villains in SpongeBob's favorite Saturday morning show, The New Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy. However ,despite he appears in the TV series, he also exists in the real world of Bikini Bottom, and appears as one of the antagonists in the Nick show SpongeBob Squarepants.
He is voiced by John-Rhys Davies and Bob Joles (who also voiced X-Brawn from Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 cartoon)). Man Ray has a belt that is controlled by a remote. When you press the button it tickles him. His name is a reference to manta ray, yet episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants rarely feature a manta ray.
History
Nothing is really known about Man-Ray's past or how he became a supervillain, including what his true identity.
Many decades ago possibly prior to the events of the SpongeBob show, Man Ray had attempted to use his weapons to rule Bikini Bottom, but this thing was eventually foiled by the superheroes Barnacle Boy and Mermaidman of the past, because they poured on him tartar sauce, which made him unable to move.
But then, when the future Mermaid Man, Barnacle Boy, Spongebob, and Patrick come to the past, Patrick eats the tartar sauce that trapped Man Ray and creates the Man Ray Timeline where Man Ray defeated Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy and took over Bikini Bottom. Fortunately Spongebob and Patrick go back and time and (after a complicated series of time travels) defeat Man Ray and restore the timeline.
Man Ray then appears in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III." He was trapped in tartar sauce by Mermaid Man (unknown if it was the same tartar sauce from the past) until Patrick frees him. He is about to destroy SpongeBob and Patrick, but he has the Tickle Belt so he can't do anything. In order to get Spongebob to take the belt off, he convices him that he wants to become good, so after many aggregating tests Spongebob finally removes the tickle belt giving Man Ray a chance to escape. Man Ray then attempts to rob a bank but can't because he has lost "the urge to do bad".
At some point Man Ray regains the urge to do bad and begins committing crimes again.
Personality
Man Ray is a real super-villain with typical traits of one; He extremely powerful, ruthless, sophisticated, violent, destructive, sadistic, devious, egotistic, selfish, and most of all, which is his best known trait is the fact that he is a pure megalomaniac from possibly the most diablocial kind, because all what he wants is just to take over the world.
He managed to rule the world when Spongebob and Patrick played Mermaidman and Barnacle Boy's time machine, and interferes the two superheroes' endeavor to seal him within frozen tartar sauce that allowed Man Ray the chance to become ruler of the world by present. As seen in this timeline, Man Ray transformed the entire globe into a dictatoric and tyrannical rule, and acts much like the Big Brother from 1984 novel; he oversees every single thing the citizens are doing.
While this alternate timeline revealed what will happened if he succeed, indeed Man Ray still pose considerable threat due to still wished to take over the world in original timeline. In doing so, he is also bent on killing his enemies, especially his enemies Mermaidman and Barnacle Boy as well as SpongeBob and co. Despite this, he had other goals in his life where some turned out trivial: In alternate timeline when he managed to conquer the world, he wanted the production of Krabby Patty remained smoothly since he favored Krabby Patty and even went so far to have the burger become popular food.
After released by SpongeBob and Patrick from his frozen prison, Man Ray attempted to rob a bank, but having too much undergo rehabilitation to become good guy made him lost his urge for evil that he decided to retire for a time being: During his retirement, he once worked in supermarket and become efficient worker there as well as made a laundry. But afterwards, he lost his faith and regained his passion as villain. More than that, as supervillain, he enjoys wreaking havoc, causing destruction, and had no restrain from killing his enemies in spite of having mundane qualities like eating Krabby Patty.
It should be noted that what made him lost his urge for the first time was also contributed by special belt Mermaidman and Barnacle Boy put on him before sealing him, which allowed them to tickle him and left him vulnerable. SpongeBob and Patrick, who accidently released him later used this advantage in full effect to keep him from escaping. But because Patrick angrily abused the belt that he and SpongeBob broke it's remote and caused the belt gone haywire in process, Man Ray still feeling the ticklish sensation even the belt removed from him, which made him lost his passion for crime.
Powers and Abilities
As a super-villain, Man Ray possess many powers and abilities such as:
Powers
- Superhuman Physiology: Man Ray, much like any supervillain or hero, possess special superhuman physiology which grants him with;
- Great Superhuman Strength: Man Ray has incredibly powerful physical strength in major superhuman levels.
- Superhuman Durability: Despite that tickles are his greatest weakness, Man Ray is extremely durable to physical attacks.
- Superhuman Speed & Agility: Man Ray was shown to be pretty fast individual. He uses his speed and agility to escape from enemies.
Abilities
- Exceptional Intelligence: Man Ray is an extremely intelligent, smart and sophisticated genius individual, able to know how to outsmart his enemies easily. For example, in the episode where Spongebob and Patrick were tasked by Mermaidman & Barnacle Boy to guard on their secret place while they are in vacation, he used his intelligence to outsmart the sponge and the sea star to release him from his prison cell.
- Master Combatant: Possessing superhuman strength and extreme intelligence, Man Ray has great skills of fighting and hand-to-hand combat which enabling him to fight and defeat his enemies.
- Master Strategist: With this ability, Man Ray managed to manipulate Sponge and Patrick to release him by knowing how to deal with this situation.
- Master Tactican: After being released from the cryo cell and from the tickling belt, Man Ray devised a tactical plan to go against them.
Gallery
Trivia
- In fact, it was officially confirmed that Man Ray is actually an exact parody of the Aquaman villain Black Manta, with Mermaidman being a parody of Aquaman himself.