Real Name: Carter Manning
Manta-Man
Real Name: Carter Manning
Identity/Class: Human technology user
Occupation: Marine biologist / mechanical engineer
Affiliations: The Crusaders
Enemies: The Crushers
Known Relatives: Unidentified wife (deceased)
Aliases:
None
First Appearance: Crisis at Crusader Citadel (Fantasy Games Unlimited, 1982)
Powers/Abilities: Manta-Man's costume allows him to fly and travel rapidly underwater. His mask includes an oxygen supply, permitting him to breath both at high altitude and when submersed. He is armed with both a paralysis beam and a lightning blast generator.
History: Carter Manning, a marine biologist and mechanical engineer, was vacationing with his wife on their private yacht when they found themselves under attack by 20th century pirates. Hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, Manning's wife was brutally raped and killed and he was tossed overboard to the sharks. The pirates used his boat for a multi-million dollar drug run and then abandoned it.
Miraculously, Manning did not die. Due to an amazing stroke of luck, he was rescued and returned home with a grim new purpose in life. The authorities warned him not to get involved further and to stay out of their way. Manning had other ideas and immediately began the design and construction of the tools of his vengeance. He built a miniature aqualung, a cloak with folds out into an airfoil enabling him to float on air, and a powerful electrical storage battery with a projector for his 'Manta Rays' which paralyze his victims. When the same pirates attempted to storm yet another yacht, Manning (now Manta-Man) intervened and rounded up the criminals with little difficulty. Unable to kill them in cold blood, he turned them over to the authorities.
Since then he has continued as an active superhero, leading the heroic Crusaders.
Comments: Created by Jack Herman and Jeff Dee. Art on this page by Jeff Dee and copyright to him.
Originally created for the Villains and Vigilantes tabletop role-playing game's first scenario, Crisis at Crusader Citadel, Manta-Man subsequently appeared in the Villains and Vigilantes comic miniseries released by Eclipse Comics which adapted that scenario.
CLARIFICATIONS:
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