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.
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Tim Powers' historical fiction novel On Stranger Tides has Blackbeard searching for the Fountain of Youth in 1718.
In Rick Riordan's novel Percy Jackson and 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, the Greek God of war.
Blackbeard makes an appearance in Neal Stephenson's 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.
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 1993 Simpsons episode Treehouse of Horror IV, Blackbeard is one of the jurors in "Jury of the Damned".
The 1968 film Blackbeard's Ghost, starring Peter Ustinov in the title role, based on a novel by Ben Stahl.
The 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, adapted from Powers' novel, features Ian McShane as Blackbeard, the film's antagonist, who somehow survived the battle at Ocracoke Island. 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, described by Jack Sparrow as "the pirate that all pirates fear". Aided by his daughter Angelica, he is seeking the Fountain of Youth so that he can redeem his soul, on the religious Angelica's recommendation, and escape his prophesised death at the hands of a one-legged man (Hector Barbossa, who ironically only seeks Blackbeard's death after Blackbeard attacked, shrunk and stole the Black Pearl). However, when he finds the Fountain— which can only give a person life by taking it from another— shortly after being wounded by Barbossa's poisoned sword, Jack tricks Blackbeard into sacrificing himself to save the equally-wounded Angelica.
In the popular Japanese manga and anime One Piece two characters are named after the famous pirate — the series' main villain Marshall D. Teach, who goes by the nickname Blackbeard, and his former captain Edward Newgate, who goes by the nickname Whitebeard. Teach fled the crew after killing Thatch (an alias for the real-life Blackbeard), and then would go on to kill Captain Whitebeard after insinuating a war between the Whitebeard pirates and the Marines by arresting on behalf of the Marines one of Whitebeard's division captains, Portgas D. Ace.
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.
Blackbeard appears in the 2004 video game Sid Meier's Pirates!.