Black Manta #1

Black Manta #1

DC Comic 2021

Written by Chuck Brown

Illustrated by Valentine de Landro

Coloured by Marissa Louise

Lettered by Clayton Cowles

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!

Working with DC has afforded me a chance to read a lot more of their titles than I would be able to on my own. I’m eternally grateful for that too because I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I was going to. The opening is phenomenal and as he muses what his legacy is going to be there’s one thought that stood out above all others and that’s “Here lies a Rogue of Aquaman” and you could just hear the sarcasm dripping from that comment. Right then and there I was hooked on this issue.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is exceedingly well rendered. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. What this does is really give their personalities a chance to rise to the forefront and shine. I’m looking forward to seeing them explored as people. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages introducing the story, the characters and the world they live in we’re caught off guard by the power behind the story.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge, grow and strengthen we see how well this is being told. The layers really open up the different avenues and add this beautiful depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is exceptionally well achieved.

The interiors here are very interesting indeed. The linework creates a very unique style and when we see moments like the yacht and the pirate ship and how the detail is utilised to bring them to life is superb. There is a decidedly different take on the characters and honestly it gives them some uniqueness to their appearance that separates them from everyone else. Backgrounds are utilised fairly well, we could definitely see more of them, and how they enhance and expand the moments is nicely rendered. They also work well within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is well done. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilsied to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a solid eye for how colour should be utilised. I like the coloured light sources change the hues and tones, that’s remarkably well done.

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There will never be a time we don’t think of Black Manta as a villain but perhaps now we can see him from a different viewpoint as well. He’s not a nice man but, there’s always a but, how we feel about him can change, this will be thanks to the writing, characterization and these incredible interiors.