King Shark
King Shark is a male supervillain who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Nanaue was a male being tied to Hawaiian legend as being the son of the Shark-God who was the King of all Sharks. (Superboy v3 #9) Lord Chondrakha was the God of All Sharks who was noted to had many sons all of whom had come to an unpleasant end. (Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis v1 #47) He came down from his throne and went before the mortal woman Kaikea where he seduced her. Through their mating, she bore him his son Nanaue who was destined for a great purpose in the future where the Shark-God promised that in time he would be known as King Shark. Before departing, he bade her to protect their son and that he in turn would protect her. (Superboy v4 #9)
King Shark was responsible for several missing persons several years before Superboy arrived in Hawaii. Aided by his family, he had viciously eaten the kidnapped persons. Sam Makoa was responsible for bringing him in and bore the scars forever after. According to Makoa, it took a combination of heavy weaponry and sheer luck that his team was able to bring him in and several of his fellow officers were slain. Makoa bore a personal grudge against King Shark after this event. (Superboy v4 #9) King Shark was freed by the Silicon Dragons shortly after Superboy arrived at Hawaii. The Dragons planned on hiring him (perhaps to use against Superboy), but Nanaue was not interested. He killed his liberators before fleeing the prison. (Superboy v4 #0) King Shark headed to his mother's house. She sheltered him and even allowed him to bite her arm off to feed. He then made an aborted attempt to snag a swimmer on a beach, but instead scared some children out of the water. Superboy, learning Shark's origins from Makoa, insisted on going along with Makoa to apprehend him. Shark ambushed the kid, but Superboy managed to take him down by firing a point blank blast of heat vision from his 'X-Ray specs'. King Shark was knocked out and taken back into custody. (Superboy v4 #9) When Superboy and Makoa were assigned to the Suicide Squad to destroy the Silicon Dragons, King Shark was forced to help by Amanda Waller, given that the base was at the bottom of the sea. An explosive belt was strapped to his waist, set to detonate if anything happened to Makoa, or if he got too far from him. Other members of the Squad included Knockout, Sidearm, and Squad veterans Deadshot and Captain Boomerang. Nanuae was a crazed fighting machine, shredding legions of the Dragons. He toyed with Makoa as much as he could, but also kept him from harm even when Makoa wasn't aware of danger. When Sidearm betrayed the team by trying to cut and run, Nanue casually murdered him by stabbing him in the back. After a long series of running battles, King Shark was purposefully knocked into the reactors of the underwater base by Knockout, who crushed the belt. The resulting explosion completely destroyed the lair, leaving no trace of either Knockout or King Shark. (Superboy v4 #15)
After a research team sent to investigate the lair's remains went missing, King Shark was initially suspected, but it turned out to be Black Manta. (Superboy v4 #20)
King Shark fought Superboy, but he was defeated and driven out to sea. (Superboy v4 #32)
The Joker came to use his Joker Venom to infect the various in-mates of the Slab prison which included King Shark. (JLA v1 #59)
Maxwell Lord came to impersonate Sarge Steel where he hired King Shark, Captain Boomerang, Double Down and Killer Frost II to break into Belle Reve prison to kill Amanda Waller. The villains were, however, stopped by Superman and defeated by the Man of Steel. (Superman Secret Files and Origins v1 #2004)
At the Slab, King Shark and his fellow inmates were offered transport to freedom as long as they helped Brother Blood fend off attacks while he used the Slab's GPS system to activate his cultist sleeper agents. The alternative was death if the prisoners failed to protect him. Shark and the other prisoners could not stop the Outsiders from foiling Blood's plans, but in the chaos Psimon led Shark and the others on a jailbreak, and after reaching Blood's transports they escaped scot-free. (Outsiders v3 #6)
King Shark and a number of other supervillains attempted to collect the billion dollar bounty President Luthor placed on Superman’s head but failed. (Superman/Batman v1 #3)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Nanaue was said to be the son of an ancient Hawaiian god named Kamo. Years ago Amanda Waller came to learn of the legends surrounding a shark god in the region of Hawaii and took a team to investigate. The found Kamo who had lived for many years with sacrifices of women given to him all of whom he had devoured. With a creature of such power, Waller sensed an opportunity and sought to capture the deity with her succeeding though she lost many agents. Before departing the island, she took one of Kamo’s young offspring and destroyed his lair with the child being an infant Nanue. Whilst his father was locked away, Nanue became the first child born in Belle Reve with him being unaware of his origins. (Suicide Squad v4 #26)
Shark and the Squad were later tasked with capturing a man named Mitch Shelley. The Squad found him in a library where Deadshot put a bullet in his head, this perplexed the Squad as Waller had indicated that he would put up more of a fight. On the way back to the extraction point Shelley's body exploded and he was reborn with the ability to absorb and project energy. He quickly used these powers to lay waste to the Suicide Squad including Shark. He then pursued Deadshot and Light, in an altercation that lead to Light's death. In the same altercation Shelley was once again killed by Deadshot, however this time he came back alive with the ability to transform into liquid metal. Meanwhile due to injuries sustained while battling Shelley, Nanaue threw up Yo-Yo. (Suicide Squad v4 #9) The remaining Squad members except for Deadshot headed back to their nearest headquarters where Deadshot promptly arrived in a helicopter. He was being controlled by Shelley, who was controlling his movements by covering Deadshot in his own liquid body. Deadshot with enhanced strength provided by Shelley ripped through the Squad and confronted Amanda Waller. Amanda wanted Shelley so she could study how he resurrects. The pair came to an agreement in which Shelley would allow her to kill him and keep one of his hands to study, allowing both parties to be satisfied. (Resurrection Man v2 #9)
Sometime later, Nanaue came to join N.E.M.O. (Nautical Enforcement of Macrocosmic Order). (Teen Titans v6 #7) This shadowy organization basically functioned like the Illuminati, controlling everything via the oceans. The Order had recently been revealed to the World by Aquaman, shortly after Black Manta gained leadership of the organization. (Aquaman v8 #15) Keen to impress his new masters, King Shark began terrorizing the coast of San Francisco. Shark freed dozens of prisoners from Alcatraz and transformed them into shark mutants, hoping to build a new army for N.E.M.O.. King Shark was not left unopposed, a new iteration of the Teen Titans watched over San Francisco. When the Titans began hunting Nanaue in the ocean he attacked them in their boat. After a brief confrontation King Shark fled back to his secret lair. The Titans soon tracked Shark down to his lair after he kidnapped a reporter where they defeated him and his mutants, driving him away from San Francisco permanently. (Teen Titans v6 #7)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Powers and abilities
His mystical nature means that his bite could even pierce the skin of Kryptonians. (Team Superman Secret Files and Origins v1 #1)
Notes
- King Shark was created by Karl Kesel where he made his first appearance in Superboy v4 #0 (October, 1994).
In other media
Television
Films
- In Batman: Assault on Arkham, King Shark appeared in the animated film where he was voiced by actor John DiMaggio. He was shown being in a motel with strung up corpses where he bathed in a tub of blood and displayed human eating tendencies. At some point, he was captured in a raid by forces under orders from Amanda Waller who forcibly inducted him into the Suicide Squad. He awoke meeting his fellow squad mates and attempted to eat Killer Frost but she managed to beat him up. This led to them developing a strange friendship in the course of their assignment as they all learnt that they had been implanted with micro-explosives to enforce compliance. They were deployed to Gotham City to terminate the Riddler where King Shark demonstrated a fear of heights as they broke into Arkham Asylum. Instead of killing him, the Suicide Squad forced his aid as they discovered the reason for the termination order a because Riddler knew how to disable the explosives on them. During the Riddler's attempt to remove the bomb on him, Amanda Waller learnt what the villains were trying to do and activated the kill switch which terminated Killer Shark.
Video games
Appearances
- Superboy v3: (1994)
- Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis v1:
- Suicide Squad v4:
- Aquaman v8:
External Links
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