Marcus Black

"My dad always said... "if you need to know a city, ask the rats.""

- Mercury Black

"I'm sorry you didn't have a mommy that loved you, but I had a father who hated me! He never went easy on me. Every day of training was a beating. And when I unlocked my Semblance, he stole it with his! 'This is a crutch! This makes you weak!' He told me I could have it back when I was strong, so I got strong, but I never got it back. I've had to work harder than anyone to get where I am!"

- Mercury Black on his father's abuse.

Marcus Black is a posthumous antagonist from the American animated webseries RWBY. He was the abusive father of Mercury Black.

History
While little is known about Marcus' past, it is known that he was a successful and dedicated assassin hired to kill targets. He was very skilled in what he did, and earned a reputation for his skills.

He later had a child named Mercury. Marcus was incredibly abusive and violent towards his son, which his alcoholism did not help. Mercury grew up being "trained" to be an assassin like his father, constantly forced to defend himself from his fathers frequent beatings and attacks. Marcus trained Mercury how to fight, planning to mold him into a killer like himself.

When Mercury unlocked his Semblance (presumably in his teenage years), Marcus saw it as a crutch that would have made Mercury weak, so he used his own Semblance to steal Mercury's away. He told Mercury that he would give it back to him when he became strong, so Mercury trained harder to get there. However, Marcus never gave the Semblance back.

Marcus continued to train and beat Mercury until one day when Mercury could not handle the abuse anymore and turned on his father. Their battle was great, resulting in their house burning to the ground. Marcus managed to attack Mercury and cripple his legs, but Mercury prevailed and overpowered Marcus, killing him. Shortly after their battle, Cinder Fall and Emerald Sustrai, working for Salem, arrived looking to offer Marcus a role in their organization. Upon finding him dead and Mercury standing over the corpse, Cinder offered the clearly more powerful Mercury the offer she intended for the deceased Marcus.

Even years after Marcus' death, Mercury is still scarred by his torment, with it presumably being a reason as to why Mercury hates the world and people so much and is fine with it being destroyed and him finally rising to a position of power instead of submission.

Personality
Marcus Black was a wrathful and cruel individual who believed that tormenting and beating his son was the best way to "train" him and mold him into a killer like himself. He was also alcoholic, and seemingly cared more about drinking than he did the safety or wellbeing of his own child.