Aquaman Spoilers: What Is The New Aquaman/Black Manta Dynamic?

Spoilers

Aquaman and Black Manta go together like Batman and the Joker, Superman and Lex Luthor, The Flash and the Reverse Flash, Captain America and the Red Skull, etc. etc. Manta is Aquaman’s arch enemy, the one who has always historically done the most to try and harm him on a deeply personal level.

Now, in the New 52, we more or less have to assume that Aquababy never happened, which means that Manta no longer killed Aquaman’s son. So how do you rekindle the hate in the best possible way?

Dr. Shin and Aquaman don’t get along, and now we know why. After he tried to take young Arthur public, Thomas Curry withdrew Arthur from Shin and refused to let the scientist have further contact with his son. Shin, desperate to prove that he truly did find a boy from Atlantis, hired Manta to get a sample of Arthur’s blood. Thomas stepped in to defend Arthur, but suffered a heart attack that killed him several days later.

This wasn’t the end of it, as an angry Arthur sought revenge.

He killed Manta’s father, an eye for an eye, and thus we now know just the depths of this blood feud.

So much better than Manta just trying to take over the ocean for black people.

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.