Origin
Tobias Whale was a con artist who got lucky in a scam and aquire political power. He used this to become a crime boss, terrorizing the city of Metropolis’ Suicide Slum. He lead the 100 and was a unstoppable until Black Lightning, Jefferson Pierce, arrived on the scene promising to stop the 100 and Whale. Jeff eventually did defeat him and Whale went underground. He has tried to kill Black Lightning several times since and has fought the Outsiders as well.
Creation
Tobias Whale was created by Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden. The character’s first appearance was in Black Lightning #1, which came out on April 1977.
Major Story Arcs
Gotham Underground
Tobias Whale has set his sights on Gotham city. He rallied and united the gangs of Gotham through a combination of force, and a common goal. His goal was to kill all of Gotham’s ‘masks’. To send a message to the masked super-villains, he tortured Scarecrow and hung him, battered but alive, on a pole. He sends his forces into a full gang war against Penguin‘s gangs. One of Penguin’s gangs capture him and offer him a truce. He accepts. Later, he joins Intergang along. When Johnny Stitches comes to kill him, Johnny also joins Intergang.
Black Lightning and Blue Devil
Operating in Los Angeles, Tobias is furious to find that ‘costumed fools‘ are interfering with his business and orders them to be tracked and killed. His men failed at the task and one of them went into hiding until his other men managed to find him and drag him back to the wall. The man presented Tobias with the ‘Demon Cup’ he had stolen from Graveyard Studios and Tobias recalled the movie it was featured in saying that it needed blood to work. He shoved it into the man’s mouth, breaking his jaw, and activating it, which resulted in the summoning of Nebiros who begins to consume the souls of his men. Before Nebiros consumes his soul, Tobias shows him a picture of the Blue Devil and offers a deal to him, saying that he can feed upon the souls of the junkies that get hooked on his drugs.
Powers & Abilities
Tobias Whale is an effective leader who is skilled in criminal activity, intimidation tactics and logistics. He is often depicted as being capable and even above average in hand to hand combat as well as being at peak human strength (as he has hurt Black Lightning who is an Olympic level athlete).
Other Media
Black Lightning (CW)
Tobias stars as the main villain on Season 1 of Black Lightning, played by rapper Marvin Jones III, a.k.a. Krondon. Like his comic book counterpart, this Tobias is an African-American albino and a crime boss in the city of Freeland. He leads the 100 gang and was formerly a rising politician until he was brought down by the investigations of Alvin Pierce, Black Lightning’s journalist father, who uncovered Tobias’ trail of corruption. In retaliation, Tobias killed Alvin by forcing him to “eat his words”, i.e., stuffing Alvin’s own newspaper articles down his throat until he suffocated.
While not as physically large as his oversized comic book counterpart, the live-action Tobias is still a muscular and well-built character. He is a skilled fighter and a very strong man, having demonstrated the ability to break a man’s back with a bearhug and beat down trained martial artists who were high on Green Light, a performance-enhancing street drug.
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay
In the DC animated movie Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, Tobias Whale appears as an early antagonist. He attacks Deadshot but is quickly beaten by Count Vertigo.