Tobias Whale

Tobias Whale
Art by Trevor Von Eeden.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Black Lightning #1 (April 1977)
Created by	Tony Isabella Trevor Von Eeden
In-story information
Alter ego	Tobias Whale
Species	Human
Place of origin	New Earth
Team affiliations	The 100 Intergang Kord Enterprises
Notable aliases	The Great White Whale
Abilities	Criminal mastermind Advanced Hand-to-Hand Combatant Skilled harpooner

Tobias Whale is a fictional character, a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. He is the archenemy of Black Lightning.

Whale has been portrayed in a few shows and films. The character is portrayed by Marvin "Krondon" Jones III in the live action series Black Lightning.

Publication history

Created by Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden, the character made his first appearance in Black Lightning #1 (April 1977).

Fictional character biography

Tobias Whale is an African American albino kingpin, who worked his way up from the rackets to head the Metropolis branch of the 100. A school teacher named Jefferson Pierce spoke out against the 100's drug trafficking, and so they made an example of one of his students named Earl Clifford when Joey Toledo led his men into attacking Earl, which ended with Earl being hit by a car. Seeking to avenge the murdered student and receiving help from his tailor friend Peter Gambi, Pierce becomes Black Lightning and attacks Joey and his men. After defeating his henchmen, Joey Toledo is grabbed by Black Lightning who arranges for Toledo to meet him at Garfield High School's gymnasium to inform on the 100 to him.

When Black Lightning meets with Joey Toledo, Merlyn also appears after being hired by Toledo to kill Black Lightning. Their fight is crashed by Talia al Ghul and the League of Assassins who are after Merlyn since he left the group after failing to kill Batman. The resulting battle ended with Joey Toledo being killed by a League of Assassins operative. Afterwards, Pierce is so successful in avenging Earl's death that Tobias is sent to jail.

When he breaks out of prison some months later, he teams up with Syonide II in order to distribute a new highly addictive drug. The drug's formula was supposedly in the possession of a woman named Violet Harper. Tobias sends Syonide to retrieve the formula. Unable to gain any information or find any trace of the formula, Syonide kills Harper. Violet Harper later comes back to life when an Aurakle possesses her lifeless body; this new being called herself Halo. Once he learned of Harper's resurrection, Tobias assumed that she must have memorized the formula. But since Harper has no memories from before her death, a frustrated Syonide killed her parents during the Outsiders' fight with Tobias Whale's henchmen.

Often called "the Great White Whale" behind his back, Tobias Whale weighs close to 400 lbs. However, most of his considerable bulk is muscle.

It is unknown whether Tobias ever was associated with the 100's successor group, the 1000.

Whale returned in the limited series Gotham Underground and has moved to Gotham City where he is attempting to become the Capo di tutti capi boss of bosses, following the death of the Black Mask. After taking over both the Galante and Odessa crime families, he ends up in a gang war with Intergang. They buy him out and make him the CEO of Kord Enterprises which has become a front for Intergang's criminal activities.

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Tobias Whale is re-introduced when he gets word that a drug deal done by his representatives was disrupted by both Black Lightning and Blue Devil. He decides to have them hunted down in order to get revenge on them.

In "DC Rebirth," the real Tobias Whale was seen in the pages of "Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands." This version wasn't an albino and that the Tobias Whale that encountered Black Lightning and Blue Devil was his unnamed nephew who used his identity during his reign in the Los Angeles criminal underworld. Tobias respected his nephew enough as a blood relative to kill him personally. Tobias later told his unnamed sister that her son was dead for using his name for his "half-assed" ventures and that he was an idiot.

Other versions

Convergence

During the 2015 "Convergence" storyline, the pre-Zero-Hour version of Tobias Whale has been trapped in his Metropolis for a full year. He has taken over the criminal underground. He struggles to gain influence over the mysterious food deliveries as this is something the city values. He is opposed by the vigilante Jean-Paul Valley and the stranded playboy Bruce Wayne. Whale is unaware that Wayne is secretly Batman.

In other media

Animation

• While Tobias Whale is not present in Justice League Unlimited, a similar character named Steven Mandragora appears in episode "Double Date", voiced by Glenn Shadix. An amalgam of Sicilian crime lord from DC Comics Stefano Mandragora and of Tobias Whale, the latter one more visually based on him, he is a crime lord who killed Helena Bertenli's parents when she was younger, prompting her to become Huntress and join Justice League. Unlike the comics version of Tobias Whale and Stefano Mandragora, he is hinted to have metahuman powers due to his immense strength and endurance. Years later, he is seen in federal custody to give an information of organised crime. When Helena discovers this, she goes to kill him which causes Martian Manhunter to expel Huntress from the Justice League. Steven is released from custody by his henchman who also rescued his son Edgar from rival gang and attempted to escape with him. When Helena caught him with the aid of Question, she wants to kill him, but when she discovers that he has a son, she decides not to kill him, putting him in federal custody again.
• Steven Mandragora's son Edgar Mandragora appears in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Double Date" (voiced by Morena Baccarin), the Batman Beyond episode "Mind Games" (voiced by Brian Tochi) and The Zeta Project episode "Ro's Gift" (voiced by John Rhys-Davies). Edgar Mandragora was the son of Steven Mandragora and later a member of the Brain Trust. Edgar was kidnapped by a rival of his father's, forcing Steven Mandragora to stall testifying in court to wait out his rescue. His father had ensured that they would be provided for to slip away. However, the Justice League interfered. Huntress, who had a personal vendetta against Edgar's father, thought of killing him, but instead dropped a load of girders on him. Mandragora had to cooperate with the authorities for his Edgar's sake. The details of how Edgar grew up were unspecified, but he discovered he had psychic powers, including telepathy and telekinesis. He became a member of the Brain Trust, a secret society of metahumans who subtly kidnap children with similar gifts, claiming to the parents that they will help them. One prospect was Tamara Caulder, who had a latent psychic gift. Edgar was waiting for Batman at a fake school, where he trapped the Dark Knight in a mental illusion, all the while telekinetically throwing objects at him. Luckily, Batman is able to fight the illusion and render Edgar unconscious. Edgar was later able to escape prison, along with Bombshell. While playing chess with two more kidnapped children, Edgar received a telepathic message from her and Schiz about a girl who could communicate with machines, not knowing it was actually her robot friend in disguise. They kidnap her and try forcing her to fix a bomb, unwilling to believe that she did nothing. Transita was able to subtly fix the bomb, covering for Ro. The Trust then planned on using the bomb to release ultraband radiation on the nearby town, supposedly awaking the dormant powers in other children. However, Ro is able to turn the children against the Trust, having Amp boost Schiz's powers to high degree to envelop Edgar and Bombshell, rendering them unconscious from the trauma of overwhelming thoughts. Authorities then arrested the Trust members.
• Tobias Whale appears in Beware the Batman, voiced by Michael-Leon Wooley. He is Gotham City's leading crime lord and has employed criminals like his lawyer/enforcer Phosphorus Rex. In addition, Humphry Dumpler used to work as his accountant, which leads him to target Whale and James Gordon for revenge. Tobias can be reasonable with Batman at times, and the two have even worked together twice, though Tobias betrays Batman in at least one of those times by siding with Ra's al Ghul instead.

Live-action

• Tobias Whale makes his live-action debut in the television series Black Lightning, portrayed by Marvin "Krondon" Jones III. He serves as the main antagonist in the series. His backstory is that he is a former politician who rose through the ranks of local government through corruption, but was brought down by Jefferson's father, Alvin. After killing Alvin, Tobias was kicked out of the government and became the leader of the 100 Gang upon receiving ownership of it from Lady Eve's people. He has Joey Toledo and Syonide as his enforcers, and has a younger sister, named Tori (portrayed by Edwina Findley). During his battles with Black Lightning which cost Tobias the life of Tori, Tobias later gained the services of Khalil under the alias "Painkiller" after the A.S.A. gave him a cybernetic spine implant. In the episode "The Book of Consequences: Chapter Two: Master Lowry," Tobias Whale goes to visit the crypt of Tori to pay his respects where he is arrested by Deputy Chief Henderson and his fellow police officers for the murder of Alvin Pierce. In the episode "The Book of Consequences: Chapter Four: Translucent Freak," Tobias is released from police custody when District Attorney Montez does not think that Jefferson's eyewitness testimony will stick. During "The Book of Rebellion" arc, Tobias Whale sends Painkiller to kill Reverend Jeremiah Holt, who wouldn't relocate his clinic as suggested by Councilman Kwame Parker. When Tobias got tired of waiting and Painkiller failed to get Reverend Holt to leave town, he placed a bounty on Painkiller, which gets fulfilled by Giselle Cutter and ends with Tobias ripping out his spinal implant and leaving him for dead. During these episodes, Tobias also gets a young prodigy named Todd Green on his side. The episode "The Book of Secrets: Chapter One: Prodigal Son" revealed that he was an old friend of Helga Jace, who made his anti-aging serum. After Todd orchestrates Jace's jailbreak in secret, she takes Tobias to where the remaining pod children are held, as he makes plans for them. In the season 2 finale, Tobias unleashes the Masters of Disaster on Freeland while also having the 100 cause riots. When Lightning confronts Tobias Whale after Cutter leaves him, she nearly kills him for what he did to Painkiller until Black Lightning shows up and talks her out of it. Lightning helps her father defeat Tobias who is then remanded to an off the books meta-human prison called the "Pit."

Film

Tobias Whale appears in Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, voiced by Dave Fennoy, depicted as a crime lord and underboss in the Black Mask Mob. He had a flash drive containing leaked information in his possession which Amanda Waller sent Task Force X (consisting of Deadshot, Black Manta, Count Vertigo, and Punch and Jewelee) to recover. He subdues Vertigo and Deadshot in a fight, but is killed when Count Vertigo uses his "Vertigo Effect" to weaken him and Punch uses his sting string to force him into shooting himself in his head.

External links

• Tobias Whale at the DCU Guide