Aquaman #35

Aquaman #35 (1967)
by Bob Haney & Nick Cardy

Aquaman has basically only two classic villains: his half-brother Ocean Master and the far more recognizable Black Manta. So it’s quite interesting that the latter’s first story is actually a team-up with the other aquatic nemesis.

We begin with a weird-looking ship approaching Atlantis…

…much to the shock of Aquaman’s supporting cast.
We’ve already seen his sidekick Aqualad before, but we also have his wife Mera and his awkwardly named son Aquababy.
Yes. He’s constantly referred to as just “Aquababy” throughout the entire story.

As much as the whole “Aquaman sucks” meme is tiresome… even in his own book he has to defend his worth as a hero.

Aquaman approaches the ship, and when he’s attacked by “Manta-Men” he reasons that the menace is his old enemy Black Manta.
No, I didn’t skip anything: this IS Black Manta’s first appearance. Exactly like with Ocean Master, Aquaman is already familiar with his villain… but unlike last time, we WON’T get any sort of origin story for Black Manta here.

As I’ve said previously, I have very limited knowledge of Silver Aquaman. So I have no idea WTF these “Manta-Men” are, or how significant they’ll be, or how the heck they can shoot “stun blasts”.

This was all just a decoy to get Aquaman out of Atlantis, and we get our first look at Black Manta.
Who I have to admit looks truly badass.

Aquaman is having trouble dealing with the Manta-Men, so Mera volunteers to rescue him!
She occasionally gets stuck being the damsel in distress, but this is why I really like Mera: she’s not just the love interest, she gets things done!

Helped by the fact that she has superpowers of her own. Arguably, BETTER superpowers than Aquaman has!!!

Atlantis is protected by a transparent shield that is supposed to be nearly indestructible…

…but Black Manta has found a frankly ingenious way to work around that!
Since the shield is transparent, it means that light can get through it… but thanks to a Photon Transducer Ray™, Black Manta can use light itself to BOIL ATLANTEANS ALIVE!!!

This is a great plan! Even if the Atlanteans can easily protect themselves by pumping out all the water inside the dome… they can only survive without breathing water for one hour.

With Black Manta’s ship disabled by Aquaman and Mera (but mostly Mera), the water is pumped again inside Atlantis… which turns out to be a very, VERY bad idea.

Black Manta’s plan was more complicated than it looked: his attempt to boil Atlantis was just a second decoy (!!!!!) to contaminate the dome itself with a substance that reacts catastrophically with water.

So… yeah. Didn’t expect Black Manta’s first story to involve ATTEMPTED GENOCIDE.

I can’t imagine why this aspect of the character was left out from his most famous adaptation.

Aquaman’s solution to the fact that Atlantis can’t be filled with water again? Turn all Atlanteans into air-breathers!!!
This is thanks to supporting character Dr. Vulko, in his first appearance in this series (although he already showed up a week earlier on “The Brave And The Bold”).

You know, from the limited number of appearances I’ve seen him, Aqualad is EASILY the most annoying sidekick of the early Silver Age.

Aquababy wins the “most weirdly creepy” category, hands down.

Black Manta is having none of this air-breathing nonsense!

The story STARTED with Aquaman falling for one of Black Manta’s distractions and leaving Atlantis unprotected… so he immediately falls for it AGAIN, leaving Mera to defend herself.

She’s definitely less effective this time around.

She doesn’t play the damsel in distress role, however: that’s Aquababy’s job.
Considering the kid’s eventual fate (more on that later)… this is all kinds of disturbing.

However, as Black Manta returns Aquababy to Atlantis in exchange for Aquaman surrendering, another villain enters he picture: it’s Ocean Master, in his only third appearance to date.

Since Aquaman only has two decent villains, he immediately figures out that Ocean Master is the other threat.

(also: I swear Aquababy fluctuates between looking like a toddler and an eight year old depending on the panel)

So this has now turned into a naval battle to determine who is the superior underwater menace.

Black Manta wins.

Black Manta deploys his Manta-Men to finish off the villain… but Aquababy has inherited Mera’s powers!!!

This results into Ocean Master fighting Black Manta, both out of professional jealousy and to protect the child who saved his life. And who is his nephew, even though Ocean Master still doesn’t recall he’s Aquaman’s half-brother.

And that’s the last time we see Black Manta in this story.

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Historical significance: 7/10
As far as Aquaman is concerned, it’s an easy 10/10. Not so much for the DC Universe at large, but Black Manta has a larger presence than Ocean Master.

Silver Age-ness: 3/10
Pretty low all things considered.

Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
This holds up REMARKABLY well. Aquaman himself is not particularly interesting, and he’s a bit naïve to trust Black Manta’s word when he just threatened genocide, but his kid was in danger so he can be partially excused. Plus Aquababy and Aqualad were very annoying.
But despite all that, it’s a VERY solid introduction for a surprisingly deadly villain: it’s not often that you can fear for the hero’s life in the Silver Age.
Black Manta himself is just great: his plan is quite ingenious, complex and ruthless. Despite completely lacking any backstory or motivation, if anything that makes him MORE terrifying.

How close is this to the modern character?
I don’t know enough Aquaman to give a sincere score.
Black Manta’s origin is… weird, to put it mildly. For the longest time we had absolutely no idea what his deal was.
I haven’t read many Black Mantas stories, but I think keeping him a complete mystery like he was in the early Silver Age might have been for the best. A guy with a slightly inhuman helmet who wants to kill people without saying why is far more terrifying than any backstory you could come up with!

We wouldn’t even discover what he LOOKS like beneath the helmet until 1977, in Adventure Comics #452 by David Micheline & Jim Aparo.

Which is also the same issue where Black Manta MURDERS AQUAMAN’S SON by drowning him with air.

He’s apparently gone through a lot of retcons over the years, some of which haven’t aged terribly well… ESPECIALLY the 2003 version where he turned into a supervillain because he had been subjected to experiments to cure his autism (WTF!?)…

…which was later magically cured by Aquaman (double WTF!?), and once he no longer was autistic he wasn’t evil anymore (all the WTFs in the universe!?!?).

Let’s never talk about the time in the 90s where he was turned into a half-man half-manta monster.

I don’t have to take much speculation for why Black Manta is BY FAR the most recognizable of Aquaman’s villains.
There aren’t that many to begin with, he received a massive popularity boost by showing up in the Super Friends cartoons…

…and let’s face it. HE LOOKS AWESOME.