History Characters / PreFlashpointAquaman

* BeastMaster: He's shown the ability to command humpback whales.

* AdaptationDeviation: Jackson was created for the Young Justice show first and adapted into the comics but he has a very different path in each version.

* {{Flanderization}}: His initial appearance after his deal with Neron makes it clear that he drawback is that his trident's energies run out of control if Orm is not consciously wielding it, which can harm him and those around him. Later appearances treated it as if letting go of the trident directly caused him physical pain and nothing more.

* ArchEnemy: One of the top contenders for the title, alongside Ocean Master.
* ArchnemesisDad: To Jackson Hyde.
* AxeCrazy: Manta's not quite sane and each appearance only ratchets up the level of violence he's prepared to employ.
* BaldOfEvil: In the Post-Crisis era he's usually portrayed as either shaving his head or being naturally bald.
* BewareMyStingerTail: In his demonic form he had several stingray like tails ending in venomous barbs.
* BigBad: He's usually this when he appears in an Aquaman story. If not he's a PsychoForHire [[TheDragon Dragon]].
* BreakoutVillain: He started out as a minor recurring villain, but eventually established himself as Aquaman's main enemy and since then has had more media exposure than any Aquaman character aside from Aquaman himself.
* CardCarryingVillain: See the caption quote.
* ClothesMakeTheSuperman: Designed for optimum performance both underwater and on land. In a more literal similarity with the TropeNamer, the laser blasts from his helmet are a close analogue to Franchise/{{Superman}}'s heat vision.
* ColorAnimalCodename: A black manta ray.
* CombatPragmatist: Manta cheats. A lot.
* CoolHelmet: His visual trademark. It allows him to breathe underwater and can shoot the EyeBeams mentioned below.
* DealWithTheDevil: Sold his soul to Neron in order to become a literal devil-ray, and gain dominion over the lower depths of the ocean. During this period he acted as gatekeeper of Devil's Deep, a trench in the ocean that supposedly led to Neron's realm in Hell.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: Neron turned him into a manta-man in ''ComicBook/UnderworldUnleashed''. After Aquaman made him human again, Manta used a serum to grant himself the power to breathe underwater.
* EyeBeams: His signature weapon. They're usually heat-based laser blasts.
* FreudianExcuse: He has had two vague excuses. The first one was that he was kidnapped and enslaved for an unspecified amount of time. He saw Aquaman and called out for help, but Aquaman didn't hear him. The other one was that he was autistic and underwent experimental treatment that left him angry and hateful. Neither excuse really worked and both were quietly ignored by later writers.
* HollywoodAutism: Manta's depiction bore next to no resemblance to genuine autism, especially once Aquaman started suggesting that his violence and sadism were caused by it. While autistic people can certainly become violent just like anyone else (and may suffer from high levels of frustration), they are not the empathy devoid lunatics that Manta is portrayed as.
* HornsOfVillainy: In his demonic form Manta had an impressive set of demonic horns.
* LackOfEmpathy: More or less goes without saying once you're dealing with somebody as sociopathic as Manta.
* LukeIAmYourFather: To Aqualad II.
* MadnessMantra: When he was "autistic" the previously articulate Manta was suddenly reduced to repeating "Swim! Swim!" and nothing else while attacking Aquaman.
* MalcolmXerox: In the 1970s, Black Manta revealed that he is African American seeking a homeland for his race, but that motive turned out to be a self-serving lie. During the "Sub Diego" arc, writers decided to revisit this as a motivation, and had Manta trick Aquaman into assaulting him in front of a group of black men who had apparently never heard of infamous terrorist Black Manta, and started to riot because Aquaman had attacked "a brother".
* MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency: When a writer in the early 2000s decided to give him a case of HollywoodAutism that left him totally incapable of communicating with anyone around him, then had Aquaman come to the conclusion that Manta's evil was caused ''by'' his autism. After being magically cured by Aquaman, Manta was, thankfully, still evil, but even the suggestion was pretty ableist.
* MysteriousPast: There's a lot of things about Black Manta that aren't revealed. He did have a girlfriend at one point, who was kidnapped and experimented upon by the people of Xebel, which is implied to be part of the reason he hates Aquaman, and he's also apparently has a history with Mera's sister, who called him by his first name...
* NoNameGiven: His full name has never been given.
* {{Pirate}}: He envied this quite often.
** RuthlessModernPirates: He's a submarine pirate and has no scruples at all.
** SubmarinePirates: See above.
** SwordAndGun: Some versions of the character have him using a gun along with his swords.
* PowerArmour: His suit verges on this at times.
* PsychoForHire: Often found working in the employ of others, for the chance to hurt some people.
* PsychopathicManchild: When "autistic".
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Manta's helmet comes equipped with glowing red laser emitters where the "eyes" appear to be. In his demonic form his actual eyes turned red.
* SanitySlippage: Supposedly his deal with Neron and transformation into a demon caused his "autism" cure to wear off, resulting in him reverting to a PsychopathicManchild who could only repeat a few words. He was cured of this when Aquaman rewired his brain.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: He track anyone anywhere in the water. There is little that he can’t find.
* ScaryBlackMan: Upon hearing Aquaman is still alive, he butchers everyone in a fish market with a carving knife, burns the entire place down, silently wades into the ocean, and rises back up in his armor. This was even worse back in the day when he was portrayed as a MalcolmXerox type and his scariness and blackness were positioned as linked.
* ShockAndAwe: Electrical powers to neutralize his opponent.
* TheStrategist: Plans ahead every step of the way.
* TheSociopath: The comics might have once claimed he was autistic, but Manta was always a psychopath at his core.
* SuddenlyEthnicity: Noted under "Malcolm Xerox", Black Manta was revealed African-Americans in 1977, ten years after he appeared.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Wally West does so in JLA #68, just to get Black Manta's EyeBeams on his face.
* WouldHurtAChild: It's his major claim to fame among supervillains.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Ocean Master (Orm Marius)]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/736759-ocean_master_large_4840.jpg]]

-->''"Do you know what I like '''most''' about the ocean, little pretender? There are no '''laws''' here. No policemen, no '''municipal courts''', no stultifying "societal standards." It's a place for the '''strong'''. For men bold enough to '''take''' what they want. To '''take''' what they want -- and to '''kill anyone''' who '''stands in their way!'''"''

Ocean Master is Aquaman's jealous brother who wants to rule Atlantis. Originally depicted as a fully human pirate, utilising advanced technology, Orm became the son of Atlan the wizard and an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%C3%B1upiat Inupiat]] woman post-Crisis, and a powerful sorcerer to boot. Whether he is human, Atlantean, or a mix varies, but one thing about Orm remains consistent: he wants the throne, and will trample anyone who gets in his way.
----

* RuthlessModernDayPirates: The Scavanger is definitely a pirate, but is no kind of romantic rogue. He pefers to sink ships and loot them at liesure later.

[[folder:Shalako]]
[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shalako.jpg]]

-->''"The Gods protect us! The Gods love us, and their prophet... Shalako!"''

The brother of King Orin I of Atlantis, Shalako was a sorcerer who grew jealous of his brother's position and power. Leading a group of exiles to live in Tritonis, Shalako manipulated events to transform them into fishlike merpeople. When it was revealed that this mutation was his own fault, his people ultimately killed him.

* SuperiorSpecies: Much like Aquaman, though significantly weaker than he, Aqualad is at least four times stronger and faster than the average atlantean.

** TouchOfDeath: the reverse effect of his restorative abilites (See Above) done by sucking the moister out of another living being on contact.

A kindly benefactor who guards the [[MagicalLand Secret Sea]] along with her mystic sea nymph hand maidens who wait on her as well as doting seafarers who've passed on the oceans as servants and occasional concubines. Having had ties [[Characters/TheLadyOfTheLake too Arthurian legend]] she aided then disposed king of the seas; Orin of Atlantis when his own people left him for dead and after [[NebulousEvilOrganisation a mystic cabal]] enchants the sea life against him, making Arthur her champion by gifting him with her particular seas power.

** SuperSenses: Enough to navigate the deep trench’s.

* PurpleEyes: Which is one of the reasons why he was abandoned.

[[folder:Prime Minister Hagan]]

* AffirmitiveActionLegacy: He's black in contrast to the first Aqualad who is white.

[[folder:Magneto]]
[[/folder]]

* CanonImmigrant: He was originally created for the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' cartoon, but DC liked him so much they integrated him to the comic ''before the show even came up''.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Feels like this every time he's around Arthur but only pronounces itself the most during the Waterbearer saga. Once when AC undid a astral projection spell he cast and again when his magic couldn't touch The Thirst, who is immune to it due to being of the secret sea.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: With his last words, he claims that all his actions were motivated by love for his people and a desire to protect them. The truth is a little more complex. The curse he placed on the people of Tritonis (which transformed them into proto-mermaids) was out of jealousy that they loved his brother Orin, even if it did help the Tritonians to survive underwater.

* InTheBlood: Would seem to have inherited Shalako's egoism and cruelty, which he then passed on to his own son, Kordax.

* FantasticRacism: Like most if not all Xebelians, Hila is an incredibly perspicuous speciest towards Atlanteans, half-breeds and especially surface dwellers due to her prison home upbringing. The former is due to right wing bigoted supremacy thinking the world and everything spawned from the sea belongs to her people. The latter of which because the reigning power of Atlantis' life imprisonment sentence,

* InTheBlood: His father Dardanus, and his grandfather, Shalako, were as bad or worse than he was.

* ArcWelding: Later stories show that Qwsp is an imp from the Fifth Dimension of Comicbook/Superman's enemy Mister Mxyzptlk.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Followed the same suit as Aquaman in the 90s [[InvokedTrope on purpose]].
* EvilTwin: In the 1960s, he had a pair of nasty brothers who appeared once or twice.

* HappilyMarried: With Tom Curry
* MissingMom: Pre-Crisis

* {{Muggle Foster Parent|s}}: Post-Crisis

An atlantean citizen turned unjustly convicted prisoner in the [[WretchedHive despotic]] sorcerous government, he was subjected to cruel black Magitek experimentation which turned him into a chimeric cast off who was believed to've [[GoneHorriblyRight died during the transformation process]].

** CombatTentacles
** PoisonousPerson
** ShockAndAwe
* HorrifyingHero: Given how his transformation makes him [[{{Cthulhumanoid}} reminiscent to Cthulhu]].

* {{Pirate}}

* ScarilyCompetentTracker

* ShockAndAwe
* TheStrategist

* EvilTwin
* FakeBoss
* MasterOfIllusion

* AllTrollsAreDifferent

* ItCanThink

* MadeOfDiamond
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Made, Of, Lava

* PointyEars
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld

* SpeaksFluentAnimal

* DevilInPlainSight

** Failing the top two he would settle for screwing over Aquaman and the throne [[RevengeByProxy by cursing Mera with lungs]] out of [[EvilIsPetty spite for Atlantis's hated liege]].

* FantasticRacism

* BadassLongcoat

* KilledOffForReal

* MeaningfulName

* RedEyesTakeWarning

* WalkingWasteland

* PunnyName
* QuirkyMinibossSquad

* AllTrollsAreDifferent

* SuperStrength

* NighInvulnerable

* SorcerousOverlord

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair

*** DimensionalTraveler: Can travel to the

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure

* SpeaksFluentAnimal

* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Inverted, while venomously rebuking Vulko's offer of monarchy. Orin found himself without choice but to return to Atlantis after finding out [[BigBadWannaBe prime minister Hagen]] [[EvilIsPetty cursed his wife with lungs before his imprisonment]].

* LegacyCharacter

* NiceGuy

** ElementalPowers

** SuperStrength
** SuperSpeed
** SuperToughness
** SuperSenses
** RequiredSecondaryPowers

*** DimensionalTraveler:

%%* ActionGirl

%%* HappilyAdopted

%%* OfficialCouple: With Garth until her death.

* HeroicBastard
* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon
* KidSidekick
* LegacyCharacter

** ElementalPowers
*** MakingASplash
*** ShockAndAwe
** SuperStrength
** SuperToughness
** SuperSenses
** RequiredSecondaryPowers

* ActionGirl

* DoesNotLikeShoes

* GreatGazoo

* DaddyIssues

* GreenEyedMonster: Towards Tempest

* WalkingShirtlessScene

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair

* ElementalEmbodiment:
** AnthropomorphicPersonification

* LivingBattery
* MagicalGuardian
* MakingASplash

** BackgroundMagicField
** CosmicKeystone

* {{Good Parent|s}}