Wait, so if Wan wants to do a lovecraftian style, why'd he choose Black Manta as the villain?

Wait, so if Wan wants to do a lovecraftian style, why'd he choose Black Manta as the villain?

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Manta and Orm are the only Aquaman villains worth anything

I hate to admit it but it's basically true.

Dude needs some great new villains.

Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and guess: we're getting the Trench, plus Black Manta, with neither having much to do with one another. Manta will be the more personal conflict, the Trench, the bigger threat overall.

Because the greatest monster is MAN.

Is Wan doing this or MK first?

Manta will summon chthulu

This. Mk is after

I got more worries for MK really

I always thought that would be a good interpretation for Manta. An old god using someone who died due to Aquaman's negligence/interference using his body to enact spite. An Elder God of spite.

Alright thanks

I always saw Manta's costume as similar to Batman's: When you get a clear look at it it's pretty goofy but in action it's terrifying.

Because H.P.Lovecrat was a Racist who thought the most terrifying thing on the planet was Black People.

This is assuming the DCEU stays alive long enough for us to see him
Mantas suit is a technical marvel even by DC universe standards. Hell Atomica couldnt shrink down small enough to penetrate it

You can fuck RIGHT off.

Because Black Manta would be the retard that unleashed Cthulhu unto the world.

Siren is pretty cool.

She could be

But she seems to be in Manta's camp where she's entertaining but she's an incredibly shallow character
Having one villain like that is fine but when 2/3 of them are, then you got a problem
Imagine half of Batman's villains like the Joker where they're shallow like him, that would be shit

I mean Black Manta is basically Ahab and Aquaman is his White Whale. Obsession can definitely play into Lovecraftian shit

Eh, who honestly gives a shit as long as they are entertaining in some way and not too similar to one another. It's definitely better than only having 2 good villains.

What does Siren appear in?

Not very many good things

Because he's black.

>Black Manta's treasure hunting led him to discover the Trench or some Lovecraftian horror
>He releases it purely to attack Atlantis or something Aquaman loves (maybe Amnesty Bay) while he fights Aquaman head-on


It's a tad similar to Lex's Doomsday plan, but it'd fit Manta better. Would you guys like this?

>Manta will summon chthulu

I think it will be something along this. I hope it is Manta trying to summon a dead Atlantean god just because he fucking hates Aquaman so much.

The levels of spite in this movie need to be off the chart.

What origin will they use for Manta: raped by pirates as a kid while Aquaman played with dolphins nearby and did nothing, or locked in an asylum because of autism? Both might be hard sells

Johns' father thing

There's literally nothing wrong with Lovecraft being racist. If he wasn't who he was, the word "eldritch" wouldn't exist.

You know we're talking about an american man in the late 1800s and early 1900s, right?
Racism was just the norm. Always keep historical and cultural context in mind.
Now, I'm not defending it, but he wasn't racist for his time. He was normal, I guess. Hell, you could say Dickens was racist too, by today's standards

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Wasn't he actually far, far more racist than most people were, even back then?

I mean, considering some of his writing...

don't really know...
Honestly I haven't read that much of him yet, but the racist points I remember are all related to sailors and foreign men, and I think it was to make a point about the exoticism of the setting...
Then again, there's that cat's name...

racism is still racism regardless of history, or did you forget guys like fredrick douglass existed then?

Lovecraft was a racist, but that was arguably the least of his personal problems. There's no need to demonize him for it when you consider who he was born into and what he created.

He literally wrote a shitty poem called, "On the Creation of Niggers."

en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Creation_of_Niggers

That is some edgy Sup Forums bullshit.

James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were racist. Guess we should just burn the constitution.

Black Manta was fucking awesome and genuinely terrifying in the Flashpoint Paradox movie

The Eel became awesome once he switched over to Aquaman instead of Batman.

HOLY SHIT I NEVER NEW ABOUT THAT
>pic related is mfw dat ending

His hateboner for Aquaman is enough to do something that retarded

I liked the suggestion that Manta will get morphed into his monster form, but it'll be all Lovecraftian and shit.

Funniest shit I read in the last couple of months.

Hey Sup Forums, drawfag here, I've been meaning to do some Black Manta fan/concept art myself since I've recently found myself loving his character after reading a lot of his appearances (both old and new). So yeah this news surprised me (and worried me) but then hey Aquaman won't come out until 2018, so I thought why not take a shot at making some concept art then?

I would honestly be pissed if they somehow fucked up Manta's unique design so I'm curious to try my hand at coming up with various designs for the film version as "suggestions" or ideas if you will. I want to try and keep his design unique to his own without aping MCU's tacticool style so that his look still actually feels like it's Manta and not some random mook.

Should I go for it Sup Forums or is it useless and too much trouble?

Based Lovecraft

black dive suit armor
ant helmet

wew

Edgy.

I don't think has was more or less racist than it was common in the early 20th century. Also, it has to be noted that Lovecraft wasn't a white supremacist. He harbored prejudice against certain white nationalities too, like Germans and I believe also the Irish. By contrast, he didn't mind Jews and Hispanics.

Go for it

Though frankly, if it were up to me, I'd give him a 'tacticool' look like in the MCU. Something that were basically his Ivan Reis look but with a bit of added gear like a Navy SEAL.

Because "lovecraftian" is a hacky setting and tone, much like steampunk.

oh, come the fuck on, man.
It's funny in a ridiculous way. I never expected anyone to write this seriously. I'm not actually agreeing with it.

for fuck's sake...

>Something that were basically his Ivan Reis look but with a bit of added gear like a Navy SEAL.
I actually have a couple of MCU concept art books. I think I'm capable enough to replicate the sort of realistic style these films tend to gravitate to (as you mentioned, like Ivan Reis) while keeping Manta's classic helmet and making it look as menacing as his Brightest Day/New 52 appearances.

I'll be coming up with different designs anyway (e.g. classic-inspired, Young Justice-inspired, etc.) so I'll keep your suggestion in mind.

Lovecraft was a product of his environment. Both of his parents ultimately went insane and died in asylums/hospitals, and his grandfather (the man that wholeheartedly encouraged his love of reading and may have provoked Lovecraft getting interested in such weird tales to begin with) died when he was in his early teens. He was frequently ill, which prevented him from proper socialization through schooling, and suffered chronic sleep paralysis. His grandfather's estate was mishandled and they were left in a far poorer situation. He eventually suffered a nervous breakdown and never graduated high school.

Ultimately, everything added up in just the right way to create an individual who was profoundly isolated from humanity in more ways than one. Now add in preexisting views on race that would have been prevalent at the time and compound them with the fear of the "other" that he had cultivated over the years and you have someone who is, yes, going to be quite racist even for the time in which he lived.

While it is important to understand the context in which he wrote his stories, burying any discussion on his works due to his racism is just tiresome, because everyone who knows anything about Lovecraft will have already heard it all before.

The far more interesting thing about Lovecraft is his letter writing. The man wrote so many letters over the course of his life that entire volumes have been put together collecting them all. He's written letters longer than most of his stories in sheer page and word count. He interacted with the wider world through the written word and cultivated a large group of followers that would ensure that the man who never received any acclaim in life would be remembered long after his agonizing death by intestinal cancer, helping lay the foundation for horror in the 20th century.

If Sup Forums had existed back in the day, I have no doubt that he would have been an absolutely glorious shitposter.

Alright, fine.

Yeah, I'd like to see my idea if that were fine?

Otherwise, just do what you want since you want to do more than one design.

Should I go ahead and post some Manta designs?

What is MK?

Supposedly, Wan is directing a Mortal Kombat reboot as well. A movie one.

Yes.

As many people have said: Black Manta summoning a lovecraftian God just to fuck with Aquaman sounds fucking spectacular!

When I post them up, I'm sure it'll be obvious enough where to find them since Manta isn't exactly the most popular villain out there anyway.

>Should I go ahead and post some Manta designs?
Sure, I mean why not?

That Black Manta can wreck my ass any day.

Go for it.

Even if it doesn't end up being used it is always cool to see more Black Manta stuff because he does have a fucking glorious design.

Because to Lovecraft, humans can be just as horrific as the Elder Gods.

Specifically the jews, the blacks, the inbreds, the rurals, and the sodomites.

Black Manta could be all of those combined in this iteration.

Ah fuck it. I'll start with my favorite image of my favorite 'canon' design.

Better look.

Also, if you look at some of the stuff him and the guy who created Conan (his name is alluding me right now) were buddies and they actually had a shared universe in the draft of their stuff.

When I found that it it's always been my head canon that the reason Cthulu is "dead" is because Conan slew him and threw his body into the ocean.

But yeah, Lovecraft was a mad racist even for his time. He talks about how seeing black people on the subway makes him want to vomit.

youtube.com/watch?v=dRqC9GzodtI

I really like the added detail here.

Do I see a penis right there?

I wasn't making excuses, user. I'm just saying it's gotten old, and if we're going to talk about the context of his works, we might as well talk about the entire context instead of just saying he was racist in a vacuum.

I don't like this one much, honestly.

...

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Yeah, that's a lame design in my opinion.

Keep the helmet rounded so it has weird connotations of an old-school divers helmet.

...

Saved.

Capped. Thanks, user.

>If Sup Forums had existed back in the day, I have no doubt that he would have been an absolutely glorious shitposter.
This, absolutely.

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>water-themed hero has one of the most SHALLOW archenemies of all time

Brilliant!

poetry

>Even if it doesn't end up being used it is always cool to see more Black Manta stuff because he does have a fucking glorious design.
This is true. Black Manta simply needs more love and honestly I'd just be happy to contribute more art showcasing his awesome design (both in fan art or concept art form).

Love those ones. Personally this cover from Brightest Day is still one of my favorites.

Because "Lovecraftian" stopped meaning something a long time ago.
I'm sure you've got an informed opinion.

>the guy who created Conan (his name is alluding me right now)
Robert E Howard. AFAIK, Lovecraft and him never met in person, but they wrote each other a lot. HP was quite distraught when he learned that Howard had committed suicide.

Black Manta could serve as a pretty good "face" human villain to some kind of twisting elder thing below the sea, given his whole motive is twisted, mad obsession that frequently doesn't have an actual cause.

I remember someone screen capped a really good piece of writefaggotry depicting Manta as becoming completely inhuman and hungry for revenge against the sea after being trapped in an air pocket aboard a sunk ship, driven mad by the steady sound of mindless fish consuming the bodies of his friends and family. I seem to have lost it or forgot to save it though. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Black Manta is one of the best villain designs in comics, period.

I've got you famalama.

I really like this one actually.

I really think all three of those look really cool, actually.

Drawfag again , it's funny how I actually first discovered Black Manta through Alex Ross's art from way back (still love it to this day).

It was only after I saw him in Brightest Day that I backtracked and finally read up on him.

No, Lovecraft was racist even for his time; some of his peers/readers found a lot of what he wrote to be too far. Keep in mind, as well, not all of his ethnic discrimination was anti-black.

Though one thing that I will say about this design is that I really do wish the helmet were black like the rest of his suit.

Some gunmetal silver can easily fix that. That way, it still looks dark while maintaining that metallic look on his helmet to keep that "deep sea diver" motif he has going.

I like the trench but they were overused last run should have stuck to there single arc.

Agreed. Manta just looks absolutely terrifying and menacing. His pitch-black form and big, red eyes remind me of creatures like the Mothman.

Wait fuck i just realised we are talking about the movie.
Yeah im fine with the trench being in that.

Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking of, thank you!

This is a perfect summary of Manta and how he should be written. Aquaman was born from the sea and became part of the human world through love for his lighthouse father and his sense of justice, while Manta is a surface human twisted by hate who drowned himself in the sea and became as mindlessly and mercilessly destructive as a hungry shark or a crashing tidal wave. I love it.

I think one of the best things about manta is you can change his reason for hating aquaman to get a new angle on a story without interfering with the core of the character.

>red eyes remind me of creatures like the Mothman
I can see that. Funnily enough, he reminds me of pulpy sci-fi designs of old. Stuff like War of the Worlds or The Day the Earth Stood Still come into mind.

What's stopping Aquaman's crazy ass psycho wife from just straight up killing Manta since she has none of her husband's all ready meager restraints?

Those are good and fitting associations too. His suit might as well be a Martian's armor from a 50's or 60's sci-fi story.

>Stuff like War of the Worlds or The Day the Earth Stood Still come into mind.

Definitely. There's something very alien about his helmet. I could very easily see something similar being used by a bunch of Martian invaders or something.

And yet, there's just something enduring about it. It's a concept that stands the test of time and requires only small revisions here and there to really mesh well with the constantly evolving visuals of modern comics.

I like the idea of that. Though I'd still prefer gunmetal black.

>Mera, you have to rape the Manta.

i dont see how that would change anything?

i think when you all hear lovecraftian you are getting the wrong idea of it all

For some reason this reminds me of the time manta pretended to be a black supremist.

I think it's the inhuman aspect of it all. Unlike say, Doctor Doom's mask or Darth Vader's helmet, it's not shaped like a human head, and even if you know there's a perfectly biologically normal man underneath it the outer armor still presents the image of an otherworldly, dark predator, striking from the shadows of the deep.