Black Manta #2

Black Manta #2

DC Comics 2021

Written by Chuck Brown

Illustrated by Valentine de Landro

Coloured by Marissa Louise

Lettered by Clayton Cowles

Black Manta and Gallous pursue a deadly metal, coveted across the seven seas...a metal that kills anyone with Atlantean DNA! Is it this terrible treasure that summons Torrid, a woman from Black Manta’s past, who just literally broke out of Hell to attack him? And how does it connect to Devil Ray, the new bad boy of the oceans, looking to punish the surface world?

I wasn’t all that sure that I was going to like this but these days a villain's point of view is so different than it was when I first started reading comics. They come with these amazingly complicated backstories that find a way to engage the reader and let them empathise with them in ways we’ve never expected to. Yes, Manta has a hate for Aquaman and I doubt that will ever truly go away, he’s a pirate and an opportunist that believes he’s doing what is best even if those of us watching from the outside know better. Manta also remains an old school villain so while he’s a bad guy he still has a moral code and will save innocent lives that make him so much more complex and interesting in my eyes.

I’m enjoying 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 presented extremely well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter as it does a marvellous job in continuing to establish their personalities. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story it raises more questions that generates more interest and is why we’ll come back.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is extremely well achieved. The layers open up these great avenues to be explored, Orichalcum for instance, add so much great 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 impeccably achieved.

The interiors here have some absolutely stellar moments and some meh ones as well. The detail in the woman on Themyscira, Dr. Shin’s face and facial expressions and that red panel stand out as mind blowing moments. Then there’s the lack of backgrounds throughout and the less detailed work that loses us through the heavy inking. We do see some nice use 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. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a talented eye for storytelling. There is some nice use of creativity and imagination that we see, and again that red panel and the guest appearance are the best examples of this. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of how colour works. Though I do wish we’d see the same techniques applied to the suits and the characters we see as do within the coloured backgrounds.

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I remain intrigued with this story. I think folks forget that Atlantis wasn’t always underwater and that in the time of Arion it was above sea level and they interacted with the world around them. So many surface dwellers could and would have Atlantean DNA somewhere in their genetic makeup, usually as a recessive trait. That Manta and Gallous are so quick to dismiss the idea is a mistake and one I look forward to seeing them realise they’ve made, after Dr. Shin utilises the mineral to make a weapon. This is a solid book with strong writing and characterisation alongside some interesting interior artwork that showcases how complex Manta truly is.