Marshall D. Teach

Marshall D. Teach (or as he more commonly referred to as Blackbeard) is a captain of the "Blackbeard Pirates" and a Shichibukai, along with Van Auger (a sniper), Jesus Burgess (a fighter, and Helmsman), Doc Q (a doctor), and Lafitte (a former policeman from West Blue and a navigator). He is currently the newest Shichibukai.

Personality
Blackbeard is a somewhat amoral man, who believes heavily in fate, destiny and dreams. Like many people who carry the initial D, he is a glutton. He is also strong and fierce, and seemingly unafraid of anything. He is also patient and conniving, having spent years on Whitebeard's ship just to get his hands on the Devil Fruit he wanted, before leaving the crew. He appears to have a happy-go-lucky attitude.

He believes the days of Whitebeard are over and is aiming to become Pirate King like Luffy. He also has a eye for talent and knew Luffy's potential was worth more than the 30,000,000 bounty Luffy had and apparently doesn't like people trash talking powerful people; he smashes Sarquiss into the ground for claiming that Luffy's bounty is a fake.

Powers and abilities
Blackbeard has proven to be an extremely strong pirate. He possesses incredible natural strength, evident of his massive build, and similar endurance as he shrugged off one of Ace's attacks. He once fought Red-Haired Shanks and gave him the scars on his left eye, noteworthy as he had not eaten his Devil Fruit yet and Shanks claimed the fight was not a sneak attack.

"Whitebeard... I have... gone through many battles and suffered various wounds. But what aches now is this one...!!! This is not a wound from the adventure. Nor did I get it from "Hawkeye"... Your man "Blackbeard" Teach, was the one who inflicted this wound...!! And it is not like I was careless or anything." -Shanks explain to Whitebeard how he got the scars on his left eye

Devil Fruit
Blackbeard has eaten the Devil Fruit Yami Yami no Mi (Dark Dark Fruit). With it, he can manipulate gravity, shown as an ebbing shroud of darkness. Teach demonstrates that the "darkness" is a void which devours anything, able to pull in (much in the manner of a black hole) and crush the surrounding town into a pile of wood. Due to the Yami Yami no Mi's gravitational ability, Blackbeard, unlike every other Logia user, cannot let attacks simply pass through him, meaning he takes damage like any human would or even more.

However, Blackbeard states that the risk this presents is well worth the advantages the fruit bestows upon him. The second, and most frightening power of the fruit is to nullify other Devil Fruit abilities through physical contact, allowing Teach to physically hit Ace. Teach states that this is because the Yami Yami no Mi truly holds the power of the devil.

Bloody and Murderous
Blackbeard was formerly a member of the Whitebeard Pirates second division led by Portgas D. Ace.

10 years or more ago, Blackbeard and Shanks met, Blackbeard gave Shanks his current scar during a battle.

Blackbeard has seen the Yami Yami No Mi in a guide book and has memorized its shape. He joined the Whitebeard pirates several decades ago to search for it, thinking that it would have the best chance of obtaining it. One day a fourth division captain named Thatch found the fruit, for Blackbeard to claim it, he killed Thatch to win the fruit and fled, making him a (somewhat) disloyal traitor.

Some time after, his pirate crew pillaged the Drum Kingdom, leaving its king, Wapol, to flee.

Chasing a Dreamer
After Luffy defeated Crocodile in Alabasta, Lafitte tried to nominate Blackbeard to become one of the Shichibukai to take Crocodile's place, but in order to be accepted, Blackbeard must first build up a fearsome reputation.

Blackbeard happened to be in Jaya, at the same time Luffy was. Both Luffy and Blackbeard seem to strike up a rivalry when they nearly got into a fight over how they like or dislike one of the island tavern's food. After learning his identity, Blackbeard planned to capture Luffy, who has a 100 million beli bounty on his head, and Zoro, who has a 60 million beli bounty. Before that however, he'd given Luffy a friendly speech about how pirates will never stop dreaming after Luffy had been ridiculed by the Bellamy pirates for being a "dreamer". He tried to capture Luffy and Zoro, but his raft-esque ship was destroyed when the Knock Up Stream shot the Straw Hats into the sky.

The Sun Vs the Night
Blackbeard and his crew are seen again on Banaro Island. Having killed, knocked out or chased away all the inhabitants, Blackbeard reads from a newspaper that Luffy is in Water 7 nearby, and that his head is now worth 300 million Belly. Before they can leave, however, Ace appears and challenges them. Blackbeard tries to recruit Ace to the Blackbeard Pirates, but is refused, and a great battle ensues that destroys most of the island. Blackbeard reveals his Devil Fruit power at last, and that he killed Thatch to get it. Eventually both clashed with a huge ball of their respective element.

Current Events (Spoilers)
The result of the battle is shown that Blackbeard won, and he became a Shichibukai as a result of the fight. His position was recently revealed by Bartholomew Kuma in a discussion with Gecko Moria. It was also later on revealed that he seemed to have handed Ace over to the World Government as the newspaper, read by Absalom, stated that he was now in Impel Down. In recent chapters, it has been revealed that Ace has been sentenced to public execution the next Tuesday, which would lead to a war between the World Government (together with the Shichibukai, Blackbeard included), and the Whitebeard pirates.

Battles

 * Vs. Shanks (details unknown, yet left Shanks with his scar)
 * Vs. Sachi?
 * Vs. Drum Kingdom
 * Vs. Portgas D. Ace

Manga/Anime influences
Historically, Blackbeard was as fearsome a pirate as he is portrayed by Eiichiro Oda in One Piece. Blackbeard's pirate ship was discovered in North Carolina in 1996, and possibly influenced Oda when he began One Piece in 1997, evidenced by Oda's statements that Blackbeard was his favorite historical pirate.

Marshall D. Teach's name is partially taken from the real Blackbeard's supposed name, Edward Teach. His former captain, Whitebeard, recieved the real Blackbeard's first name (making him Edward Newgate).

Trivia

 * Blackbeard carries the initial D in his name. He was the fourth character to be mentioned with this. However, at the time, he was known as Blackbeard. He was therefore the fifth character to carrying the D. to be named.
 * While Blackbeard's age is not specified, Ace (who is 20) stated that Blackbeard has lived twice as long as him meaning that he is somewhere in his forties.
 * Many of One Piece's characters are given an distinct laugh. Blackbeard follows this tradition by starting his laughs with "Ze" (i.e Ze ha ha ha ha!)
 * Unlike the other Shichibukai, Blackbeard does not possess an animal theme.