re: BP, Ayo, the Dora from Civil War and again BP.
re: Black Manta, I get wanting deeper motivation for him. But it's not putting it lightly that his character has always been a world class hater of Aquaman.
Shallow and petty as hell? Absolutely. But the dude owns it.
He's a tenacious prick who fucking hates Aquaman. Hell, the whole revenge for father angle is relatively new. It's been "Manta, why do you hate Aquaman?"..."why not? Fuck him" for a long time before it.
This is more of a comic-book comment since I haven't seen the movie yet but Black Manta is brilliant because of how the writers have committed to him being an irrational and unstoppable dickhead for such a long time. That's probably hard to translate in just one movie.
It's the same reason why the Joker is one of the few villains that works better without motivations or even an origin story. The thing about Manta's father is barely a footnote. But him being such a monumental force of nature in the DC Universe (while being powerless) aimed at Aquaman for basically no reason is what makes him so memorable. He almost drowned the entire Earth just to fuck with Aquaman last month in the comics, while the entire Legion of Doom was unsuccessfully trying to get him to chill. He gives no fucks and it's great.
Also, his helmet is dope.
I can't really comment about the rest of the complaints.
LOL then I'm looking forward to seeing more of Manta in the sequel! Dude sounds like a total cunt and I love it. In Aquaman I definitely got those vibes from Yahya's Manta.