Review – Black Manta #1
Review – Black Manta #1
Writer: Chuck Brown
Artist: Valentine De Landro
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: September 8, 2021
Variant Covers: Francis Manapul, Sanford Greene
ASSASSIN OF THE SEA
Following his appearance in the Aquaman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular, the scourge of the seas now gets his own series. Black Manta is chasing a rare metal with incredible powers, and he’s not the only one who wants to get his hands on it, friend and foe alike! Torrid is a former ally who has escaped hell (literally!) to answer the call of the metal, but can Manta trust her? Hopefully so because he might need her help to fend off Devil Ray, a new competitor for the role of the biggest villain underwater. INTRODUCING NEW HERO TORRID AND VILLAIN DEVIL RAY!
Plus, both Aquaman: The Becoming #1 and Black Manta #1 feature a connecting variant cover by superstar artist Francis Manapul!
Writer: Chuck Brown
Hey, do you know what 2021 needs? A Black Manta mini-series to use as a mechanism for two new characters to establish themselves. The issue starts with Manta having an existential crisis about what he will be remembered as, before attacking a 17th-century pirate ship captained by Captain Demo (who?)
Demo is in trouble for stealing a rock that is giving Manta headaches meanwhile, a group of robbers steal money and one of them has his throat cut and turned into a black bubble. The thief that turned he uses his power to melt some of the metal Manta is affected by leading to lots of people getting headaches and somebody escaping from an underground prison.
Brown sleeps his way through this mundane script with sparkling lines like “Face the wrath of Captain Demo!” making it a very slow and boring story.
Artist: Valentine De Landro
Have a look at the poorly drawn panel above and you’ll get a taste for De Landro’s style of artwork, it wouldn’t be out of place in a 1960s Fantastic Four with the Thing dressed as a pirate. There is nothing at all to get excited about in the comic and it seems to be used to bring a couple of new players onto the board, in the laziest way possible.
Overall Thoughts
I am not sure how some of the sloppy writing and poor artwork got through the supposed rigorous editing that DC is known for (ahem) but this looks like it was scripted and drawn very hastily. It’s an OK read but I would have expected more for one of Aquaman’s main villains.
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