Aquaman #23.1 Black Manta

[superfangirl1]

Black Manta amongst the villains who gathered for the Crime Syndicate’s coming out party, in fact, he scored Aquaman’s trident in the “get the heroes gear before someone else does” contest. Manta is definitely interested at first, as they’ve shown him that his greatest foe is stoppable…but as soon as they claim to have killed the League, Manta quits caring. He walks off as Ultraman kills Monocle without even turning to look. He throws that Society coin right out in the water. They took his kill, they took his vengeance.

He goes to his father’s grave to say that it’s finally done, and to try and make peace with himself.










The entire town is destroyed, and his father’s remains are gone. Manta has found a new outlet for his rage.

Ultraman and the Crime Syndicate

Comments

[arilou_skiff]

Okay, this is supposed to be funny, right?

Because I'm kind of laughin at the entire "the moving the moon floods a grave" thing and Manta's RAAAYYYYYGEEEE.

[lissa_quon]

I'm finding this funny. But doubt that was the intent. Still it's pretty HILARIOUS.

[damar148]

So Manta is going to become an anti-villain/hero by taking up Aquaman's trident instead of his helmet and having a reason for revenge against Ultraman?

[big_daddy_d]

Yep. For as long as Forever Evil lasts, then it's back to our regularly scheduled program of "How am I gonna kill my nemesis this arc?"

[freezer]

"I hadn't considered... that moving the moon might have consequences."

Ultraman isn't very bright, yes?

[kuronotenshi]

Given he's apparently become the -exact- opposite of Superman (Weakened by Sun, powered by Kryptonite)

I'm going to guess he has the intelligence of the average Toaster. Or maybe that's just the writing to not bother measuring ...science.

Silly science. You've never worked in DC before.

[freezer]

So basically "Fuck thinking, I can punch planets?"

[kuronotenshi]

That's kinda what I've gotten from it so far. It may end up different, but...so far that seems to be the gist of Ultraman.

It's almost Silver-age in the simplicity. I had a brief flashback to "Many Happy Returns" when Silver-Kara tried to save Earth from a meteor by trying to push Earth out of Orbit..much to Kon and Linda's dismay of explaining all the things wrong with that.

[doodleboy]

And the moon is in orbit... and so is the Earth... so how are you going to keep it there... and eclipses don't affect the entire planet at once.... Mr. Burns's sun-blocker is more plausible.

[kuronotenshi]

We come back to my earlier comment.

Silly Science, you've never worked in DC before.

Or the alternate version

MAGIC OF FOREVER EVIL!

[donnblake]

Mostly I imagine Ultraman constantly going, "Hang on a sec, moon's drifting out of orbit, be right back," during Crime Syndicate meetings.

[coldfiredragon]

This. Our heroes will win in the end because he is spending so much time in space!

[sir_razorback]

Ok, there is exactly *one* way for this to work, and even then it'd be half-assed for what Ultraman needs.

Take the moon, and push it to the Earth-Sun Lagrange point, where their mutual gravity creates a neutral point in space. We have a solar observatory sattelite there now, actually. It would actually stay there and block the sun without, you know, FALLING TO THE PLANET. The reason this is only a partial solution though is because it's farther out than the moon's normal orb it, so the moon would be smaller. Instead of a full eclipse, you'd have this permanent evil eye hanging over the planet.

[silicondream]

Sunlight must not weaken him that much, since he was bathing in the stuff while flying to the moon, unfiltered by the atmosphere no less. I guess it just smarts.

[coldfiredragon]

I agree that it is more of an inconvience than an actual threat. The world he comes from is basically destroyed sland more polluted so the atmosphere probably filters more light.

That's just a guess mind you but I would imagine it at least factors in.

[shadowpsykie]

it seems more like he gets a power BOOST from Kyptonite. Like how Kryptonite makes our clark weaker, this one makes him stronger.

No Endor Holocaust?

[blue_bolt]

One town destroyed?

Ultraman significantly changed the moon's orbit.
That wouldn't destroy just ONE town, it would displace at least 40 million people.

New Meme:
"Comicbook Science. A wizard did it."

Re: No Endor Holocaust?

[donnblake]

Well, we're seeing the effects on one town because this is Black Manta's motivational story. No particular reason, just from the scans posted, to assume that that's the only town affected.

On just out of curiousity, where are you getting the number forty million from? That seems oddly specific.

[benuben]

You know, the whole Black Manta's daddy issues is pretty big Geoff Johns cliche, but i think it plays well with what I consider one of the main themes of Aquaman. Family.

[shadowpsykie]

true dat

[silverzeo]

At least it wasn't over done like in Ultimatum... and hopefully LESS confusing...

[shadowpsykie]

WE DO NOT SPEAK OF THAT HERE!

[akodo_rokku]

Ultraman's "Meh" reaction is hilarious.

[chrisdv]

Man, Ultraman would be done for if Bob "Throw it into the sun" Reynolds were here.