Whether he’s fighting the Flash in the Arrowverse or on the Suicide Squad’s latest mission, King Shark has one of the stranges bodies in the DCU.
King Shark — also known by his Hawaiian name, Nanaue — possesses all the power and rage of a bloodthirsty shark, but this superhuman can also walk on land, where he’s caused plenty of trouble for DC’s heroes and a few of its other villains. Since debuting in Karl Kessel and Tom Grummett’s Superboy #0, King Shark has been a recurring villain in the DC Universe. where he’s served on teams like the Suicide Squad and the Secret Soceity of Super-Villains.
After swimming in the background of the DC Universe for years, King Shark has seen his profil rise dramatically in recent years thanks to his appearanes in non-comics projects like The Flash and Harley Quinn. While King Shark set to swim onto screens next year with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, we’re taking a closer look at DC’s most savage sea creature.
KING SHARK’S APPEARANCE
While this detail might be a bit obvious, King Shark has an animalistic appearance that even stands out in the DC Universe, and it also provides him with many of his strengths. Nanaue has had a few different looks, most regularly with the head of a great white shark. However, in the New 52 era, King Shark had the head of a hammerhead shark instead.
In comics, King Shark is typically only even seen as the shark-human hybrid, but he is portrayed as having both shark and human forms in the Arrowverse. In The Flash show, the character is known as Shay Lamden, a marine biologist from Earth-2 that was turned into a shark man by S.T.A.R. Labs. During the episode, “King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd,” Team Flash administers the meta-human cure and reverts Lamden to a human form.
KING SHARK’S HERITAGE
Though he might seem like it, Nanaue is not a metahuman and was born the way readers see him now — part shark, part human. He was born in Hawaii as the son of the Shark God, Kamo. The Shark God shares a similar anatomy to his son, but as his title implies he is one of the Hawaiian deities and is incredibly powerful.
Like she did with King Shark himself, Amanda Waller admits to Nanaue that she attempted to turn Kamo as her own personal weapon in Matt Kindt and Patrick Zircher’s Suicide Squad #26. Waller also revealed that she took King Shark from the remote Hawaiian island he was born on after capturing the Shark God and raised him in their lab.
KING SHARK’S DURABILITY
King Shark has shown in the comics that he certainly can feel pain, but he doesn’t easily go down for the count. Even through multiple run-ins with Superboy, Aquaman and Superman, he keeps on coming back again and again.
At one point in particular, he is forced to help the Suicide Squad destroy a group called the Silicon Dragons. An explosive belt is strapped to his waist and it is set to detonate if he gets out of control of anything that happens to one of his teammates. Throughout the battle, the belt winds up detonating and destroying the Dragons’ lair, but King Shark survives the blast without much trouble.
KING SHARK’S UNIQUE PHYSIOLOGY
Possessing all the underwater strength of a Great White shark, King Shark is a force to be reckoned with. His shark-anatomy gives him quite a few abilities such as underwater breathing, withstanding immense pressure, super-strong fangs and claws, alone with superhuman strength and stamina. He isalso able to communicate telepathically, but only underwater.
While he appears to be big and lumbering when on land, he is incredibly fast when swimming and seems to give even Aquaman a run for his money when they fight in water. King Shark can also regenerate lost bodily tissue after being injured and has been shown to be greatly resistant to cold temperatures.
KING SHARK’S PRIMAL RAGE
True to his shark nature, Nanue is often unable to control his primal instincts, leading to deathly results. In Suicide Squad #26, King Shark is forced into the Suicide Squad but ends up take a bite out of his teammate Yo-Yo.
When he gets angry or hungry. there is not much that can stop King Shark, but more than anything else his true weakness is the smell of blood. When fighting in Kurt Busiek, Karl Kesel, Jackson Guice and Phil Winslade’s Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis # 47, Aquaman’s blood sends King Shark on a rampage, and he rips through an entire coral reef in blind anger. He describes the blood as “A million tiny voices in my head,” which ends up being his downfall after he lets his guard down.
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