Black Manta had no definitive origin story until #6 of the 1993 "Aquaman" series. In this origin, the African American child who would become Black Manta grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and loved to play by the Chesapeake Bay. Throughout his youth he was kidnapped and forced to work on a ship for an unspecified amount of time, where he was physically abused by his captors. At one point, he saw Aquaman with his dolphin friends and tried to signal him for help but was not seen. Finally, he was forced to defend himself, killing one of his tormentors on the ship with a knife. Hating the emotionless sea and Aquaman, whom he saw as its representative, he was determined to become its master.