Black Manta #1

Oh so now your reviews are also about mine? Man, am I living in your heads. :))

Just dispelling falsehoods. You're entitled to your opinion of the book. But if you post lies why wouldn't I address them?

"Your children will know only power, not oppression". The same tune as in the Aquaman anniversary. You're wrong.

It's not a falsehood if it's true.

Wait... LMAO. You thought that was Manta who said that? That was a brand new character lmaooooo He had nothing to do with Manta, he's a new villain with his own agenda. Manta CLEARY has facial hair and a scar, this guy was a young black man with none of that Holy cow bro, you either skimmed this book like I alleged, didnt read it at allows, or you think all black people look the same. Neither of which would surprise me. SMH lol can't believe you formulated an entire opinion on that BS

Its a falsehood if it's false, unsurprisingly you don't see those right in front of you. Go back and look at those pictures more closely next time and you can avoid these mistakes.

Ok, so I got that wrong, I'm man enough to admit that. Honestly, it's not that I think "all black people look the same" (nice try there), it's just that the art is pretty weird. But read the Aquaman anniversary. Gallous says to Manta he says he is amassing power and wealth for "the people". And all throughout the comic you can see that Manta is starting to shift as a character and thinking about legacy. The direction is pretty visible.

Also, I may not pay 100% attention to weird art but at least I'm not so petty to rate a comic better just to spite others.

Im glad you can admit that at least. But for the people can have a whole lot of different meanings, that doesn't mean he's fighting oppression necessarily. He's got designs we have yet to see. And he threatened to kill Gallous in this issue anyway so there's no indication their goals are even aligned. A character who was previously defined only for his enmity with a hero getting more depth and development upon getting a solo series in par for the course.

So I'm not sure what else you were expecting, but a shift in character isn't in and of itself a bad thing for anyone who cares about writing. And given your review is in part scored based off of false pretenses that you admit to, I'll say my score more than makes up for it. Either way it's there to stay.

He threatened to kill Gallous because I think he's trying to pull her away from him since he thinks he's on the brink of dying. It was more of a "cold shoulder" type of treatment for her own good.

I can always edit my review (and I sometimes do). I stand by it. You remain as petty as ever.

I stand by it because I always tend to give first issues better ratings than they deserve. If this would've been issue #3 I would've rated it lower. So I already rated it higher than it deserved, I'm leaving it at that.

So lemme get this right. You scored badly based on a reading error of no fault to the book, ranted about that error and how it disagrees with your politics(of which there are none in this book unless you think black people are political) and now you insinuate that you give issues higher scores for literally no reason other than them being the first?

And you think IM the petty one? You realize we can see your other reviews right? You dock books points because a character casually wears a mask in them. Calling me petty because my arbitrary score counters your arbitrary score which you admitted was arbitrary is hilarious irony.

I give a slightly better score to ALL first issues because the story is just starting to develop, as in, for "encouragement" if you catch my drift. I didn't like the book overall, the rating isn't 4 just because of that, it's boring all along and to say that this isn't political when ALL the characters are black, instead of the villains who are white is pretty stupid on your behalf. Not surprising, really.

And yeah, you're right. I should adjust my rating. Since you're giving it a 10 just to "spite" me, I should give it a 1, right? To spite you. If that's the measure of a book, just to annoy other users, I should play your stupid game. But no, I'm not that petty, that's your thing.

And what does "fake news review" even mean? Do you think you're battling fake news here? Are you really this insane? :))

You complaining that the only book has white villains when the book is literally about a black villain, with his black villain sidekicks, introduces two new black villains one of whom you didn't even realize existed is hilarious man.

Further, your complaint about having all black characters is just as silly as I would be if I ever complained that a book had all white characters. Diversity is great and all but when you're dealing with characters who were mostly made during more racist times the changes of them being white is increased exponentially anyway. Race makeup shouldn't really factor into the quality of writing or anything. At least I don't consider that when reviewing unless the book.

They're not villains HERE. As in, Manta and Gallous aren't the villains of this story. That's what I meant, didn't think you needed translation.

Itd be one thing if the book is trying to make a statement on diversity and yet wasn't diverse but thats not the case. Its literally an arbitrary made up complaint. But im not bothered by white people in my books like you are blacks so....

Finally its fake news because its a new review and its based on fake conclusions. :P

I really don't care what score you give it, I was just concerned about dispelling the misinformation

If you show me ONE book these days where all the characters are white and the villains are black, I promise you I will rate it with 1 and rant that it's racist. Spoiler: you won't.

I'm so, so bothered by black people in books that I rated both Icon&Rocket issues with big ratings. But don't let that ruin your "you're racist" narrative. Continue your war on "fake news" with fake statements. :))

Masters of the Universe Revelation #3 has all white people and a few non humans. Didnt even have to go back one week. Batman #112 also from this week has one black guy for 2 panels, ghostmsker who is implied to be some other race but we don't know, and mayor Nakano who is implied Asian but is a villain. Womp womp.

Not that it matters because if you read my post you'd see that I said I wouldn't review a book badly just because of that unless that was actualy material to the books content or narrative. I dont care what race is shown in a book, white or black it doesn't matter if the book is good. How can you not fathom this?

Icon and Rocket had mostly black people too, but I agree those were good issues, they had even less white people than this one so what changed? Either the book was so good you couldn't fall back on that or its just something you made up for this review. Either way it's inconsistent.

Are you sure you can read? I mean, I missed some weird art, but you seem to miss words. I said a book where black people are villains and white people are the good guys. The opposite of this here. How do you see that in Batman? Where is the black villain? And I'm not sure Nakano is a villain necessarily, not that he has anything to do with what I was talking about. Womp womp.

*actually i was referring to batman #111 from a month ago. My bad

What the fuck did I "made up" for this review, are you insane? The difference was those were good issues, this wasn't. That's the only difference. I don't care how many white, black, Asian people are in a book but when it's done in a clear deliberate manner, like this here, you can't ask me to pretend I don't see the clear racial undertones.

In #111 PK-01 is clearly a villain, he tries to kill a kid. Still doesn't fit my criteria. Womp womp.

Oh you want a book that literally doesn't even apply to the book we both reviewed today because there are both black and white villains in it you mean? Including the MAIN CHARACTER my guy? What a clown show lol And btw, I wouldn't even care if only the bad guy was black either, if the book is good. Its a little outdated but that doesn't justify a 1 star either.

Your standards are inconsistent and made up. Its beyond obvious because you dont apply them equally, you do it when you need to complain about politics that aren't there. Saying one issue is good and one isn't doesn't change the fact the racial makeup of this matches exactly that, and yet you complain about it here. So again. Which is it? Did you make it up or did you just mistake a few more obviously different characters?

Again, Black Manta here isn't the villain of the story. Usually supervillains aren't villains in their own books. Not that hard of a concept to wrap your mind around, give it a go. And I didn't give it a 1 rating, it's 4. Are you sure you're not having similar problems with paying attentions? :))

No, a story with a black villain and white leads isn't automatically racist. Its about how the portrayal is done. You are way too focused on surface level racial demographics instead of story narrative and so on

Again, it's not just the racial makeup that annoyed me here, it's the story itself. It isn't good. The Icon story is. That's it, that's all, stop trying to invent weird theories.

You completely miss the point when you say you'll rate book sone star for arbitrary stuff like this. It really reflects on the mindset you go into this with. You're looking for things to be offended by and will use any excuse to justify them being there. And btw the art wasnt weird you just didn't pay attention. Dude looked nothing like Manta at all. Different hair, no beard, no scar.

If you think that a black writer who writes the black characters as fighting oppression and fighting for the people while the whites are the bad guys is not intentional...boy do you need some glasses.

I said I'll rate it like that if it was done with obvious racial undertones, as in if it was racist. You didn't get even that?

You said quote "If you show me ONE book these days where all the characters are white and the villains are black, I promise you I will rate it with 1 and rant that it's racist." Nothing about undertones. You seem to think the very existence of that as a plotline is in and of itself racist which is nonsense. Not to mention that Icon and Rocket issue 2 had a black hero literally try to liberate slaves against white slave owners ending with him killing them all, yet that gets a pass.No consistency

At this point idk why I'm even still commenting on this. Niehter of use are changing the scores and I accomplished my goal of pointing out inaccuracies. I dont review things trying to guess at political motives nor do I give negative scores when I disagree with the writers politics. I have no need to.

Not much else to say on the matter. You and I have fj dsmentsllg different ideas of what a review should constitute so I guess it is what it is.

Well, sorry if black heroes killing white slave owners doesn't bother me, how racist of me. :))) You're killing me, man. It's like you're trying to prove my points better than me. Yes, I review bad books with low ratings (again, not 1, it's 4) and good books with good ratings. If that's bad I'm really sorry.

Thanks for dispelling the lies so I don't have to bother with it. Merlyn and those like him are incredibly bad at reading, and because they can't read, they also can't analyze what they've read. It's better to ignore them.

Also some of the enslaved people on that slave ship were white btw.

I suppose that's fair

There is this AquaMEN event in 2022 that DC just teased that's going to be written by Brandon Thomas (the guy who writes Aquaman The Becoming) and Chuck Brown, the guy who writes this. Now I don't think DC will make Manta the Aquaman, it's like making the Joker the Batman but DC is in a crisis right now, and not the Infinite or Final type of way, so that wouldn't shock me either. I'm sure, though, that Arthur won't matter much in that storyline.

We'll see.

Just because a character is black doesn’t mean they are a milestone character. That’s like saying only white characters can be from the Dc universe. Black Manta has always been from DC comics … who are you? haha lol

Yeah, you're right. Only difference is ALL the characters here except the pirates aka the villains were black. That's not the same thing. That's happening more in a Milestone book. You can pretend that's not happening here but it is.

You mean the way black people were always portrayed as villains? Yea you're right it's terrible 😏

They weren't always portrayed as villains. I don't remember John Stewart, Black Lightning, Mr. Terrific or Icon being portrayed as villains. Also, I could argue that most of the villains are white. Lex Luthor, Joker, Riddler, Bane etc. are white. Not that it matters, just to show how your point is idiotic. So nice race-baiting, but I don't bite, sorry.