'One Piece' Shares New Details About Whitebeard's Origins

In the world of One Piece, there are plenty of pirates but only a few Yonko. Guys like Shanks and Whitebeard have become legends amongst shonen characters, and it looks like One Piece has a bit of new information regarding the later captain.

Recently, Eiichiro Oda gave fans a surprise update on Whitebeard's crew when his latest chapter checked in on Marco. The man hasn't been seen for some time, but One Piece confirmed Marco has been hiding out on an island with Whitebeard's remaining crew to protect something important to their fallen leader.

Sitting down with Nekomamushi, Marco confirmed his inherited crew is around to protect the island since it is where Whitebeard came from.

"Pops created this place," Marco started before detailing the state of the cast-aside island.

"The people here are poor. They cannot afford to pay the heavenly tribute and therefore are unable to ally themselves with the world government. Most of the unallied countries in this world are for that reason. Those places usually end up becoming lawless islands where pirates and human traffickers roam freely."

Continuing, Marco revealed Whitebeard was one such orphan as the island he grew up on fell into disarray. So, when the towering man set out to become a pirate, Whitebeard chose to funnel his earnings back to his home to keep the forgotten villagers safe.

"He spent his life funneling dirty money and resources into this village. This island was his homeland," Marco revealed before tearing up.

"Pops was pretty stingy, wasn't he? He always wanted all the booze and he never treated us to meals! He used all of his share of the treasure we found to support this place. We all know about it, though!"

So, there you have it. Whitebeard was really as generous as he came off. Sure, the Yonko was boisterous, but Pops cared deeply for his crew and loved ones. Even after his death, his legacy lives on through guys like Marco who are taking care of the homeland Whitebeard left behind. So, if Weevil wants to stake his claim on the island, then he will have to go through Marco and the rest to do so.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold worldwide.

Are you surprised by this secret Whitebeard was keeping? Or did you expect the old man to pull off something like this? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!