Blackbeard in popular culture

Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard (c. 1680 – 22 November 1718), was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies during the early 18th century. He captained the Queen Anne's Revenge, a 200-ton frigate originally named the Concord, and died in a fierce battle with troops from Virginia on November 22, 1718 at Ocracoke Island.[1]

Literature

• Tim Powers' historical fiction novel On Stranger Tides has fictionalized version of Blackbeard searching for the Fountain of Youth in 1718.
• In Rick Riordan's novel Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters, Blackbeard is shown to be stranded on the evil sorceress Circe's island. He, along with his crew, has been turned into a guinea pig. Annabeth and Percy turn them back to human and also escape with his ship, the "Queen Anne's Revenge". Here Blackbeard is shown to be a son of Ares.
• Blackbeard makes an appearance in Neal Stephenson's The System of the World.
• A younger Blackbeard appears in Wayne Thomas Batson's Isle of Fire as the new quartermaster of notorious pirate captain Bartholomew Thorne.
• Blackbeard is a member of the jury in the short story The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benét.
• The 2016 fiction novel 'Blackhearts' by Nicole Castroman describes Edward Teach in his younger days.

Television

• Malachi Throne plays Blackbeard's ghost in the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea season four episode The Return of Blackbeard.
• In the 1968 Doctor Who serial, The Mind Robber, the Master of the Land of Fiction summons Blackbeard in his mental battle with the Second Doctor.
• In the 2000 action-comedy series Jack of All Trades Blackbeard appears in two episodes played by Hori Ahipene.
• In the 2001 Time Squad episodes "Blackbeard Warm Heart" and "Repeat Offender". Blackbeard (voiced by Roger Rose) is more concerned with saving the environment, rather than taking his rightful place in history as one of the most feared pirates. He was later taken in by Time Squad and placed in a cell adjacent to Mahatma Gandhi (who was taken in for wanting to tap dance rather than lead his people against the British).
• In the 2005 BBC miniseries Blackbeard, Blackbeard was played by James Purefoy.
• In the 2006 Hallmark Channel miniseries Blackbeard, the famed pirate (Angus Macfadyen) searches for Captain Kidd's treasure.
• The 2006 Bones episode "The Man with the Bones" centers around a murder on Assateague Island, the legendary home of Blackbeard's hidden treasure.
• In series two of the 2009 CBBC sketch-comedy series Horrible Histories, Jim Howick plays Blackbeard in the song depicting Blackbeard's life.
• In the 2014 Once Upon a Time episodes "The Jolly Roger", "Snow Drifts" and "Fall", Blackbeard is featured as an enemy of Captain Hook. He is portrayed by Charles Mesure.
• The 2014 series Crossbones features Blackbeard (John Malkovich) as the main character.
• Ray Stevenson portrays Blackbeard in the third and fourth season of the Starz series Black Sails.
• The 2018 DC's Legends of Tomorrow third season episode "The Curse of the Earth Totem" features Blackbeard, portrayed by Jonathan Cake, after coming into possession of the mystical Earth Totem. Cake reprises his role in the season's finale "The Good, the Bad, and the Cuddly".

Film

• The 1952 film Blackbeard the Pirate, starring Robert Newton in the title role, and directed by Raoul Walsh.
• The 1960 film The Boy and the Pirates, starring Murvyn Vye as Blackbeard.
• The 1968 film Blackbeard's Ghost, starring Peter Ustinov in the title role, based on a novel by Ben Stahl. Blackbeard here is portrayed as a harmless, socially-inappropriate drunkard.
• The 1969 film Franco, Ciccio e il pirata Barbanera, starring the comedy duo Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia and with Fernando Sancho as Blackbeard.
• The 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, adapted from Powers' novel, features Ian McShane as Blackbeard, the film's main antagonist, who somehow survived the battle at Ocracoke Island with the help of his quarter master who has foreseen his fate. This Blackbeard is a master of black arts and wields a sword with supernatural powers which allows him to make his ship come alive to attack his foes. He is also described by Jack Sparrow as "the pirate that all pirates fear". He seeks the Fountain of Youth so that he can redeem his soul and escape his prophesied death.
• Hugh Jackman portrays Blackbeard in the 2015 film Pan.[2] Blackbeard and his pirates are the tyrannical rulers of Neverland. For generations they force hundreds of boys kidnapped from London to dig in vast underground mines for an immortality-granting dust called pixium.

Comics

• In the popular Japanese manga and anime One Piece, three characters are named after the famous pirate — major antagonist Marshall D. Teach, who goes by the nickname Blackbeard, his former crew mate Thatch (an alias for the real-life Blackbeard), and his former captain Edward Newgate, who goes by the nickname Whitebeard. In this story, Teach was the one who killed both Thatch and Whitebeard, taking the Devil Fruits both victims once encountered.
• Blackbeard was also an antagonist in the Belgian comics series Vieux Nick et Barbe-Noire by Marcel Remacle.
• In a Shazam comic Blackbeard was one of six American villains brought back to life by evil scientist Doctor Sivana to cause chaos in Pittsburgh. He is defeated and like the other villains sent back.
• Edward Teach is a minor character in the Dutch comic book series Drakenbloed. In 1709 he joins the pirate crew of Captain Hannibal Meriadec who predicts that Teach would one day become a legend in his own right.

Video games

• Blackbeard appears in the 2004 video game Sid Meier's Pirates! This portrayal of Blackbeard correctly depicts him with lit cigars in his beard. However, the Queen Anne's Revenge is under the control of Henry Morgan, with a ship called the Adventurers Prize.
• He appears as an NPC in the 2013 video game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, voiced by Mark Bonnar. In the game, Blackbeard (who is always referred to as Thatch as opposed to Teach or any other aliases) is an infamous English pirate captain who sails the West Indies and the eastern seaboard of the American colonies during the early 18th century, aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge. He aids the game's protagonist, Captain Edward Kenway, during various missions throughout the game. In this rendition, Thatch is portrayed as a warm and friendly man who seeks to protect his dream of an independent pirate republic at all costs. Through the use of acting, showmanship and stunts such as lighting fuses in his hair and growing his beard long, he has cultivated a reputation of himself as a ferocious, bloodthirsty savage to those who do not know him in order to terrify other ships into submission whilst avoiding violence. In his final appearance, Thatch holds his retirement party in North Carolina (as his former home, Nassau, Bahamas, is blockaded by the British), although it is interrupted by a British man-of-war which opens fire on the small dock that Thatch and company are celebrating on, on the grounds that Thatch has been pirating at a more active rate to fund his retirement. Edward's ship, the Jackdaw, is the only ship to survive the barrage of cannon fire, and With Edward, he subdues the man-of-war and boards it with him. However, the pirates are still outnumbered, and Thatch is shot and slashed at until his death. Edward is subsequently knocked off the man-of-war and is forced to escape. Thatch becomes a playable character in multiplayer modes with the downloadable content "Blackbeard's Wrath".
• Blackbeard was a playable character in the video game Arena of Fate.
• Blackbeard appears in Hell in Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell. He apparently wants nothing more than to rule the deserted lands near the city, and cannot move his ship as it bursts into flames on the lava surrounding the city. He assists Johnny Gat with his quest to fight The Devil, and believes the heist that would make him the absolute greatest pirate ever was his theft of Lucifer's Halo, which he sold to Dan Vogel. His missions in the game involve finding several runes and then opening a treasure chest to get an upgrade.
• He appears as a Rider class Servant in Fate/Grand Order.
• He appears as a boss in the video game Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat.

Other media

• In 2013, Blackbeard was portrayed by Nice Peter in his web series Epic Rap Battles of History, where he faces gangster Al Capone (portrayed by EpicLLOYD) in episode 35 "Blackbeard vs Al Capone" (aired on 21 October), in a rap battle.[3]
• Blackbeard, and his flagship the Queen Anne's Revenge, has been focus of numerous documentaries including; Journeys to the Bottom of the Sea: Blackbeard's Revenge (BBC), Real Pirates of the Caribbean (History Channel), Secrets of the Dead: Blackbeard's Lost Ship (PBS), Secrets: Blackbeard's Ship (Smithsonian Channel), the "Pirates" episode of Biography, Blue World - Queen Anne's Revenge: Blackbeard's Shipwreck, and Night of the Mantas (PBS) and the "Pirate Tech" episode of Modern Marvels.[4]

Legislation

• In 2015 the North Carolina Legislature passed "Blackbeard's Law," N.C. Gen Stat §121-25(b), which stated, "All photographs, video recordings, or other documentary materials of a derelict vessel or shipwreck or its contents, relics, artifacts, or historic materials in the custody of any agency of North Carolina government or its subdivisions shall be a public record pursuant to Chapter 132 of the General Statutes."[5][6]

References

1. D. Moore. (1997) "A General History of Blackbeard the Pirate, the Queen Anne's Revenge and the Adventure". In Tributaries, Volume VII, 1997. pp. 31–35. (North Carolina Maritime History Council)
2. "Hugh Jackman Joins the Cast of Warner Bros.' 'Pan'". Variety. Retrieved 2014-01-24.
3. "Blackbeard vs Al Capone. Epic Rap Battles of History Season 3". YouTube. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
4. Allen, Rick. "Filmography". IMDb. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
5. "N.C. Gen Stat §121-25" (PDF). NCleg.gov. North Carolina. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
6. Adler, Adam (29 March 2020). "Blackbeard Just Broke Copyright Law, and Now States Are the Pirates". The Escapist. Retrieved 19 June 2020.