quote:

I always felt that The Black Manta was a serious contender in the Most Complex (and Loathsome) DC Super-Villain Sweepstakes.

Two reasons, chiefly:

1.) The Black Manta was an unregenerate, no foolin' kid killer, having engineered the scheme during which the infant son of Aquaman died a slow, agonizing death by means of asphyxiation.

Even in the over-heated four-color world of the mainstream American adventure comic... actual (and intentional) infanticide is -- I trust we're all agreed -- a pretty heavy "black mark" to carry around upon the ol' "rap sheet" ledger.

2.) The Manta's primary motivation for undersea rapine and pillaging was (so far as I'm aware, at any rate) pretty much unique within the comics canon, overall: to garner enough ill-gotten lucre to establish an underwater separatist "home land" for "his people."

Oh... did I forget to mention it? The Black Manta was... ummm... you know...

... black.

"Minority" status; one of the most blood-curdling crimes imaginable to his "credit"; and a genuine (if bizarre) socio-political dimension to his motivations.

The Manta was one of DC's most complex and fascinating two-legged monsters.

quote:

It was in this adventure that Black Manta revealed his true face to Aquaman, and the fact that he was indeed black. Most of his henchmen were also African-Americans. Racism was not his motive--there is no profit in prejudice--but Manta felt that blacks, oppressed on the surface for so long, would fight well for the chance to rule below the waves. During this battle, Manta captured Aquaman's year-old son and imprisoned him in a bubble of air, forcing Aquaman and Aqualad to fight like gladiators for the boy's life. Seeing no alternative, Aquaman truly fought to kill Aqualad to save his son. The duo soon overpowered Manta's guards and defeated the villain, but too late to save Arthur Jr; the boy had suffocated in his bubble of air. Aqualad's confidence and friendship in Aquaman were shaken to their foundations by his efforts to kill him to save his son; and the tragic death of their child marked the beginning of the end of Aquaman and Mera's marriage. But in spite of all this, Aquaman could not bring himself to exact the ultimate penalty on Black Manta. (ADVENTURE COMICS #452/AQUAMAN #57)