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The primal matter to know near The Suicide Squad'south King Shark

The short version is that Male monarch Shark is a shark man

By Aug 6, 2021, ix:12pm EDT

James Gunn'south The Suicide Team features ane grinning DC Comics villain whose presence dominates the company'due south adaptations in every medium of entertainment: movies, video games, live action, and animated television. He's in the Arrowverse, he's in the Harley Quinn cartoon, he'due south going to be in Rocksteady's upcoming Suicide Squad game.

It's not the Joker: Information technology's King freakin' Shark.

The DC Universe just... has a shark man in information technology? Is that allowed? And why is he in so many DC Comics adaptations? How did he get tied in to all of these disparate projects of wildly different continuities, tones, and lead characters?

One time you know the hole-and-corner of Male monarch Shark, his appeal becomes obvious. One, he is a shark. And two, that is the only matter y'all really need to know nearly him. Really.

King Shark is a shark man who needs no introduction

The New 52 reboot turned him into a hammerhead merely come up on we all know he'south better every bit a great white.

Image: DC Comics

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every comic book villain has an origin story. Maybe information technology's full of pathos, similar how Killer Croc has a weakness for the underdog considering was mistreated based on his appearance, or how Man-Bat is always seeking a cure for his tragic condition. Perchance he's a weird simply strangely enduring major Flash villain similar Gorilla Grodd, who comes from a secret African urban center of sentient gorillas called Gorilla City. Simply what you need to empathise is this: In a genre notorious for convoluted continuity, gritty reboots and decades of history...

There is no caption for King Shark.

King Shark is just a large, dumb, hungry shark human being.

He's just a goddamn Street Shark who exists in the DC Universe without whatever firm reasoning behind it. When given his beginning full appearance in 1994's Superboy #9, Karl Kesel and Humberto Ramos did set him up with a vague origin story most maybe being the child of the Rex of All Sharks and a human being woman, virtually which no comic has ever cared to mention again.

King Shark himself doesn't intendance most why he is what he is, because what he is is a shark. That's a level of cocky-conviction that we should all be so lucky to reach.

Embrace the ineffable mysteries of life, and also, this shark human being

It'due south that mix of an inexplicable concept with nothing to back it up that has kept King Shark in DC continuity while other ane-off characters are forgotten. King Shark wasn't left out of the New 52 reboot: He debuted in its start month equally a fellow member of the Suicide Squad. Though, if you're a comics reader with a fondness for the guy, information technology's probably because you read Gail Simone's Surreptitious Six, in which a clear personality shines through in his handful of appearances.

Male monarch Shark can regenerate whole limbs but doesn't like it if you call his little growing chicken wing of a new appendage "overnice." King Shark thinks all meat is succulent and he likes to fight and kill things made of meat and eat them. King Shark wants everyone to know that he is a shark and he loves being a shark. In ane story arc, information technology is established that the most effective torment Hell could cook up for him would be to trap him in a vegetarian restaurant for all eternity.

Rex Shark is a pure distillation of the joy of superheroes

Gail Simone has said that King Shark sings his "I'm a Shark" song the tune of the Map Song from Dora the Explorer.

Prototype: Gail Simone, Jim Calafiore/DC Comics

The superhero genre asks its readers for a certain amount of break of belief, on the promise that the reader will be rewarded, with characters and storylines that are merely possible because of their own willingness to embrace the fantastic. Equally genres get, is not alone in this.

But King Shark takes that bargain to its nearly escapist extreme. Later on all, even Street Sharks, a drawing based on a toy line almost iv anthropomorphic shark men named Jab, Streex, Ripster and — I cannot stress this enough — Slammu, came upward with a backstory for its characters. King Shark has appeared multiple times since his introduction, in Secret Six, in Suicide Squad and even in a brief stint every bit Aquaman's sidekick. But he'southward never been given a backstory that stuck.

Because if you're a person who's interested in putting a giant, impaired shark man in your story as a recurring character, you already understand that there's no style to make that idea cooler by coming up with an explanation for him. A giant, dumb shark homo is already inexplicable.

"Encompass this shark homo," the story says. "He will never movement you to tears, and the fact that he's a shark will not enter into some meta-narrative. But if y'all but embrace this shark man, I promise that we'll have some fun together."

Reader, if y'all can believe a man tin wing, you tin believe a man tin can be a shark.

And Rex Shark is a shark.

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/22613658/king-shark-powers-suicide-squad-origin-dc-comics

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