King Shark

33 years ago - Thorne's experiments weaken the veil to the prison of the Shark God, allowing him to have a child with an Atlantean priestess. Nanaue is born, and imprisoned by Thorne.

28 years ago - 5-year-old Nanaue escapes his prison in Thorne's laboratories.

17 years ago - 16-year-old Nanaue first battles Aquaman.

9 years ago - 24-year-old Nanaue begins attacking the outskirts of Atlantean territory, until he is stopped by Aquaman.

5 years ago - 28-year-old Nanauemakes his first appearance on the surface in Hawaii, where he fights Superboy.

3 years ago - 30-year-old Nanaue battles Garth, who uses his magic to finally allow him to communicate. Together they fight to free him from the influence of his father.

1 year ago - 32-year-old Nanaue is caught by Kaldur'ahm, and sent to Belle Reve where he is recruited for the Suicide Squad by Amanda Waller.

King Shark is one of only two anthropomorphic shark characters in DC, which seems low for a company with a baker's dozen Gorilla characters. The first was The Shark, a Green Lantern villain dating all the way back to 1963. He was a normal Tiger Shark mutated by atomic energy so that he had a humanoid body, psychic powers, and... motivation to be a bad guy, apparently. He's been a reccuring villain ever since but has made less than 125 appearances, because he's a lousy character. We're not using him.

By contrast, King Shark showed up for the first time in the mid-nineties and has made more than twice as many appearances. He's a much more fun character, and that's largely thanks to just one writer; the incomparable Gail Simone.

King Shark's Comic History

King Shark showed up for the first time in Superboy #9 in 1994. His origins were left ambiguous, implying that he had ties to a legendary Shark-God figure. He became a recurring character in the pages of Superboy, where he was used as a quintessential bruiser villain.

The character would pop in occasionally here or there as muscle until he showed up in Gail Simone's 1998 ongoing Secret Six series. He appeared as a background character for a lot of the book but wound up joining them later in the run, where Gail struck up a wonderful character balance. He was still a bruiser, but she found a voice for him that gleefully basked in the fact that he was a Shark. He found delight in it that was hilarious AND completely relatable. Being a shark DOES seem cool. This characterization was carried forward into his post New 52 membership in the Suicide Squad, and was taken even further in his appearance as a big dumb loveable bruiser who eats people in The Suicide Squad.

Our King Shark Story

While Nanaue's predecessor the Shark was a Green Lantern villain, and King Shark was originally a Superboy baddie before he transitioned into a Suicide Squad mainstay, it seems a little weird that he was never established as an Aquaman villain. This really shouldn't require that much explanation... He's just perfect for the job. We decided to rework his backstory a little. While he's still the child of a Shark god, we connected him to Arthur's backstory a little bit more by tying him to Thorne, one of the usurpers of the throne of Atlantis.

Meanwhile, I happen to really enjoy King Shark's shift from a traditional monster into the more loveable buiser he becomes. To that end we decided to build a story where he confronts Tempest, who can use his magic to disrupt Nanaue's connection to his father the Shark God. This way we get to actually see that transition into a character who, in the middle of an assault, gleefully sings about being a shark to the tune of Dora's map song.

King Shark's Head

While King Shark was starting to develop his fun new personality before the New 52, he really took off as a member of the new Suicide Squad. THis happened to coincide with the interesting design decision to make him a hammerhead shark instead of a great white, a look that stuck around for quite a while.

You can kind of see what drove the decision; The new profile gives him a more interesting face, and a stronger, instantly recognizable profile. There's a lot to like there, from a genral design perspective... but still, when I ask you to describe the king of the sharks, what do you picture?

Nanaue eventually switched back to a great white well before he showed up The Suicide Squad, and I think at this point it's pretty inarguable that this is absolutely the right look.

King Shark's Future

There were a few ways we could go with King Shark's story. He's finally started to appear in continuity as an Aquaman villain recently, but has actually gone on to become an ally to Atlantis, which would be an interesting tact for us to take especially given the fact that we've created an in-story reason for his personality to change. However, this is a character that's meant to regularly murder and eat people, so maybe making him a good guy is a bridge too far.

Most of this character's most fun appearances are related to his relationship with the Suicide Squad (or with the Squad-adjacent team the Secret Six). It's a group specifically built to give cool baddies a chance to flex their hero muscles without sacrificing what makes them unique, and that's exactly what Kink Shark needs. Given his as-yet-upcoming movie appearance, this is the best possible place for him going forward.

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