BLACK MANTA (EARTH-7)

Biography 

Early Life

David Hyde grew up aboard a colossal mining vessel, an oppressive ship where valuable minerals were collected. His father was a humble fisherman who had been hired to help in the facility's kitchen, while David was the only child living aboard the vessel.

Because of his position, David was treated as little more than a servant to the high-ranking officials who controlled the facility. His childhood was defined by the harsh conditions of the ship and by the way those around him treated him as inferior. More than anything, David wanted to escape. He dreamed of leaving the vessel behind and living somewhere far away from the people who treated him like human trash.

For a time, David believed he might actually be able to achieve that goal. During the last few months he spent aboard the vessel, he secretly went on expeditions to collect precious minerals. He intended to gather enough of them to escape with his father and eventually build a life together in a coastal town.

His plans ended when a cleaning woman discovered the place where he had been hiding his findings. She reported what she had discovered to her superiors, who believed that David's father was responsible for stealing minerals from the facility.

As punishment, they beat David's father to death. Before David could escape, they captured him as well. His arms and legs were tied together, and he was thrown into the open sea.

The water filled his lungs with a burning sensation. His muscles contracted as though they had returned home, and David struggled beneath the surface, unable to breathe. Then, suddenly, light returned.

David found himself on a beach, coughing up water as he gasped for air. As he recovered, he saw a mysterious, slender figure returning to the sea—the person who had saved his life.

The figure was a blond teenage boy, a servant of the sea who had intervened to save him.

Years later, David Hyde was released from Arkham Asylum. He had spent the remainder of his childhood and all of his adolescence as one of the facility's patients.

During his time there, the staff studied the case of a mute, psychotic boy who could survive only underwater. Whenever he was exposed to the air, David experienced nothing but needles piercing his skin and absolute agony.

The doctors claimed that David had been cured. He learned, however, only to pretend that he was.

The King of the seas

After his release from Arkham Asylum, David Hyde learned to speak and behave like a normal person, allowing others to believe that he had recovered from his condition. Beneath that appearance, however, his way of thinking remained fundamentally different.

David no longer believed that he belonged to the human world. He considered himself unlike anyone else and carried the conviction that his existence was connected to the sea.

He came to believe that he was destined to become the ruler of the seas.

David would eventually become known as Black Manta, a ruthless pirate. His history also became connected to Atlantis and its royal family.

Black Manta was identified as the biological father of Kaldur'ahm, an Atlantean of hybrid blood. Kaldur eventually discovered the truth about his origins and learned that his biological father was the ruthless pirate known as Black Manta.

Black Manta had kidnapped the Atlantean Supreme Council and abused Kaldur's mother, a Councillor Major. He then negotiated the life of the council in exchange for the life of the newborn prince.

The truth surrounding Kaldur's birth was eventually revealed to King Arthur. Kaldur's origins were formally acknowledged, and the king authorized the councilors to adopt the child, refusing to condemn him for the sins of his father.