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).

Personality
Blackbeard is a man with no moral values, believing heavily in fate, destiny and dreams. Like many people who carry the inital D, he is a glutton and loves food. He is also strong and fierce, seems afraid of nothing. He is also patient, having spent years on Whitebeard's ship just to get his hands on the Devil Fruit he wanted. He appears to have a happy-go-lucky attuitude.

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 then the 30,000,000 he told him.

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.

Blackbeard has eaten the Devil Fruit Yami Yami no Mi (Dark Dark Fruit). With it, he can become and control darkness, and also manipulate gravity. 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, and perhaps even suffering more than others would.

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.

Past Story
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 joined the Whitebeard pirates to search for a devil fruit he longed for. One day a fourth division captain named Sachi found the fruit, for Blackbeard to claim it, he killed Sachi to win the fruit and fled.

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.

Present Story
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.

Current Events (Spoilers)
In Chapter 434, Blackbeard was seen again on Banaro Island. Having killed all citizen of that island, Blackbeard heard that Luffy was in Water 7 nearby and his head now worth 300 million berries. Before they can leave, Ace stopped them. Blackbeard tried to get Ace to join him but refused, Ace then fire fisted Blackbeard. Blackbeard knew why Ace wanted to kill him and explined why he killed Sachi and what was his purpose was before exlaiming: "I'm Darkness!"

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.

Trivia

 * Blackbeard carries the inital D in his name. He was the fouth character to be mentioned with this, however at the time he was known as Blackbeard.  He was therefore fifth character to carrying the D. to be named.