Basically, I think what I’m doing and what Brandon is doing will definitely have some effects on the Aquaman universe as a whole. Grunenwald: Any crossover between this and his series?īrown: Um… yes. Grunenwald: You mentioned Jackson, is he going to play a role in the series as well?īrown: Um, he’ll pop up, he’ll definitely pop up. And there may be somewhat of a budding relationship between him and Torrid, but only time will tell about that. Her hands definitely aren’t clean, but she has somewhat of a code, you know, where she kind of tries to bring Black Manta back from the darkness every now and again.Īnd Torrid is a new character that, I don’t want to give too many spoilers, but she kind of rivals Black Manta, as far as being ruthless, and getting the job done by any means necessary. And she’s also somewhat of a moral compass for him in the book, in a sense. Gallous is what Black Manta hoped Jackson would be. There’s Torrid, and there’s also Gallous, Gallous the GOAT. So that’s how he kind of connects to Manta. And the Devil Ray character is a younger man, a younger African-American male, and Black Manta’s actions in the past directly affected this young man, and set him on an even darker path than Black Manta’s. He’ll never really actually say it, but it’s definitely gonna be a factor in this miniseries. I pulled him out of the archives and put him in Black Manta and kind of repurposed him.īlack Manta’s son is very important to him. I think he created Devil Ray because at the time, they couldn’t use Black Manta, so they used this character called Devil Ray. What can you tell us about them and their relationship to Black Manta?īrown: Well, Devil Ray actually already existed in the animated world. Grunenwald: You’re introducing a few new characters in Black Manta in Gallous, Torrid, and Devil Ray. Definitely in the first issue that comes up. And that does stay true to his character. Grunenwald: I was going to say, it’s not a Black Label book.īrown: Trust me, I’ve gotten some emails about, you know, ‘can’t do that, you know, we can show a shadow, but we can’t quite do that.’ He is a supervillain, you know, he is an assassin. So that’s definitely going to be a theme carrying over, not holding back on the gore and the violence, as much as DC will allow of course. Dealing with a character like Black Manta, blood’s gonna spill. Bitter Root was a bit more PG, but some of my other books are a bit darker, a bit bloodier. When I was writing On the Stump, my creator-owned property, and also another book I did, The Quiet Kind, those are very dark, violent books. So that will definitely be a thing in Black Manta. It’s important, and it’s just a part of me, it’s always in my writing. In everything I write recently, race is definitely going to be something that I’m going to touch on. very popular character, but not a lot is known about his roots, and where he came from, and giving deeper meaning to his motivation. I’m really bringing that aspect of things to Black Manta as well. How do you think this book is an extension of themes you’ve been exploring in your creator-owned work?īrown: In Bitter Root one of the things we played around with was Black empowerment, and knowing your roots and your origins, and finding out who you are, and how you fit into the world. Grunenwald: Black Manta is your first full series work for DC. From there, I’ve kind of gravitated towards him really curious about who he is and what made him tick. Even though he was in things, I had no idea he was a Black character. And for ages I found the character interesting, but it wasn’t until recently, maybe in my mid-20s, where I realized the character was Black. He can go toe-to-toe with a character such as Aquaman. He really does believe in acquiring power for the people in a sense, but his selfishness, his grudge against Aquaman kind of got in the way. What to you are the essential elements that make him who he is?Ĭhuck Brown: I think any good villain, in his head, he thinks he’s doing good. Joe Grunenwald: Black Manta has been a lot of things over the years. Check that out, along with an unlettered preview of the first issue of the series, below. The Beat had the opportunity to chat with Brown about the forthcoming Black Manta series, the trio of new and reimagined characters who’ll be appearing alongside the classic Aquaman villain, and how the title connects to the miniseries starring Manta’s son, Brandon Thomas and Diego Olortegui‘s Aquaman: The Becoming.
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