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Monday, September 15, 2008

The Origin of Black Manta - 2007

sg
Black Manta got the Secret Origin treatment in the back of an issue of DC's weekly series, 52, courtesy Scott Beatty, Mike Norton, and Rodney Ramos.

While its tough to condense an entire character's history in just two pages, this one does hit most of the major moments, even the, er, less-than-stellar time when DC changed his appearance into an actual manta-like creature.

To me, you just can't beat the big giant metal head.


And I'm not the only one who feels that way--this photo of Adam from Dispatches From The Arrowcave
and the mysterious undersea villain himself proves that even a costume as hard to build as Black Manta's is no match for true fanboy devotion:
sg

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh, which issue of 52 was this? I want to track it down!

Anonymous said...

I must say, I don't like the modern method of drawing Manta's helmet so large. I know the artists are taking a realistic approach, because there is no way Manta's head could fit in the old helmet, but the new method makes him look like a bobble head. Just like Clark Kent's glasses and Batman's over-the-cowl rubber disguises, Manta's helmet just works because it does. No need to overthink it. Toth's Manta design for Super Friends was just the right size, IMHO.

Chris

Adama said...

I was wondering when you'd find an excuse to post that picture!

Awesome