Black Manta and Gallous pursue a deadly metal, coveted across the seven seas…a metal that kills anyone with Atlantean DNA! Is it this terrible treasure that summons Torrid, a woman from Black Manta’s past, who just literally broke out of Hell to attack him? And how does it connect to Devil Ray, the new bad boy of the oceans, looking to punish the surface world? From the writer of Bitter Root and the artist of Bitch Planet comes a wild new chapter in the story of one of DC’s most iconic villains!
What I thought
Not a huge fan of the art style chosen for this series courtesy of Valentine de Landro, but it gets the job done. In this issue, we have Black Manta and Gallous tracking down the cause of our villains’ pain. The ORICHALUM was created by a lost tribe of Atlanteans and it is now reactivating dormant Atlantean genes inside the human population. Black Manta is therefore a distant relative of that Lost Tribe. That would mean that his son Jackson may not be a human/Xebelean hybrid as once thought but a lost tribe Atlantean/Xebelean hybrid. This is a fascinating revelation. I’m curious if this will have implications on the upcoming Aquamen series. On the Amazon Island of Themyscria a White-haired woman emerges from the Door of the Underworld and Nubia allows her to pass through unencumbered thanks to the words of the oracle. She has no memories and is compelled to seek out the Orichalum. Who is she? what is her connection to Black Manta? In Prison, Devil Ray is questioned by the police and transforms into water, and proceeds to attack the world. Overall I give this issue 3/5 stars
