Marshall D. Teach

Marshall D. Teach (or as he more commonly referred to as Blackbeard) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series One Piece. He is captain of the "Blackbeard Pirates". Along with Van Auger (a sniper), Jesus Burgess (a fighter, and Helmsman), Doc Q aka (a doctor), and Lafitte (a former policeman from West Blue).

Every member of his crew believes heavily on the ideas of fate and destiny. From handing out exploding apples to other pirates to see who among them is fated to live, and shooting seagulls to find out which one will be destined to die a painful or quick death. It is also worth mentioning that the Blackbeard pirates are all massive in size (except Lafitte) and are intimidating wherever they go.

Known history
Blackbeard was formerly a member of the Whitebeard Pirates second division led by Portgas D. Ace, but he apparently killed some of the other members and struck out on his own. While this act is considered a horrible crime on board a pirate ship, this indicates that Blackbeard has a considerable amount of power, because Whitebeard is currently the strongest pirate in the Grand Line. Some time after, his pirate crew pillaged the Drum Kingdom, leaving its king, Wapol, to flee.

Current storyline events
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.

Blackbeard seems unaware that Ace is after him. Ace's hunt for Blackbeard has caught the attention of Luffy's old mentor and friend Red-Haired Shanks. He sent a messenger to deliver a note to Whitebeard concerning this matter. Why Shanks has an interest in Ace's hunt for Blackbeard is unknown for now, but Shanks is currently travelling to speak to Whitebeard personally about the matter.

Blackbeard's Relatives
Blackbeard's true name is Marshall D. Teach, indicating a possible connection to the other "D" characters (Monkey D. Luffy, Portgas D. Ace, Gol D. Roger, Vice-Admiral Jaguar D. Saul), as well as a connection to the cryptic "Will of D.".

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 South 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.