Nanaue (New Earth)

Nanaue
Mainstream Universe‎, 1986‎-2011‎
Gallery
Real Name	Nanaue
Affiliation	Secret Society of Super Villains · Suicide Squad
Base Of Operations	Honolulu, Hawaii
Status
Alignment	Bad
Identity	Secret Identity
Citizenship	American
Marital Status	Single
Characteristics
Gender	Male
Hair	No Hair
Origin
Universe	New Earth
Creators	Karl Kesel
First Appearance	Superboy Vol 4 #0 (October, 1994)

     

History

Origin

Born in Hawaii, Nanaue is a humanoid shark, his father is "The King of all Sharks" — also known as the Shark God. Other characters, such as special agent Sam Makoa, have dismissed this as superstition and referred to Nanaue as a "savage mutation" with no mystical nature. Given the reality of magic within the DC Universe, either origin is equally likely. It has also been implied he was one of the "Wild Men", evolved animals based on those in Kamandi.

Terror of the Pacific Islands

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 would bear a personal grudge against King Shark forever after that.

King Shark is freed by the Silicon Dragons shortly after Superboy arrives at Hawaii. The Dragons plan on hiring him (perhaps to use against Superboy), but Nanaue is not interested. He kills his liberators before fleeing the prison.

King Shark heads to his mother's house. She shelters him (and even allows him to bite her arm off to feed) and Shark makes an aborted attempt to snag a swimmer on a beach. Superboy, learning Shark's origins from Makoa, insists on going along with Makoa to apprehend King Shark. Shark ambushes the Kid, but Superboy manages to take him down by firing a point blank blast of heat vision from his "X-Ray specs." King Shark is knocked out and taken back into custody.

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 (and, as Waller put it, in his element). An explosive belt was strapped to his waist, set to detonate if anything happened to Makoa, or if he got too far from Makoa. 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 toys with Makoa as much as he can. When Sidearm betrays the team by trying to cut and run, Nanue casually murders him by stabbing him in the back. After a long series of running battles, King Shark is purposefully knocked into the reactors of the underwater base by Knockout, who crushes the belt. The resulting explosion completely destroys the lair, leaving no trace of either Knockout or King Shark.

After a research team sent to investigate the lair's remains went missing, King Shark is initially suspected (especially since Knockout had turned up alive and well in Hawaii), but an investigation by Superboy and Makoa discovers it is actually Black Manta who was responsible.

King Shark turned up alive and well shortly thereafter, duking it out with the Kid, but he was defeated again and driven out to sea.

King Shark later turned up in the Wild Lands (where the implication that he was really a Wild Man was made) and fought Superboy and his allies. After a fierce battle, he was defeated, but no body was recovered.

King Shark also appeared as a member of the legion of villains prompted by Manchester Black in the "Ending Battle" storyline. In this case, he turned up in Metropolis and attacked Jimmy Olsen. Superman quickly took him down, knocking most of his teeth out (although apparently they grew back later). Whereas in all of his previous appearances he had only two lines of dialogue, in this issue he was quite chatty (although that may have simply been because of Black's influence). He also was physically smaller and a long way from the water.

King Shark also made an appearance during the Joker's Last Laugh riot with Orca.

King Shark is recruited into Alexander Luthor's Secret Society of Supervillains and is one of the many sent to attack Atlantis. During the battle he kills Neptune Perkins.

One year later

Nanaue has since reappeared in Aquaman, one year after Infinite Crisis, bearing a scar from a previous encounter with Aquaman. He is less violent and more talkative than in previous appearances. His origin has been definitely given as son of the Shark God, due to the new Aquaman book being more magic-based than previous incarnations. It also appears that he will be a major character from now on: in fact he has currently started acting as an unwilling caretaker for Arthur Joseph Curry. Saved from a gang of marauders by the young man, he brought him to the mysterious Dweller in the Depths (the mutated, for unknown reasons, Aquaman) who gave him the role of assisting the new Aquaman in filling his role. Albeit feigning disrespect, and often disappearing for a while, King Shark accepted, sharing his knowledge of the way of sea with his young savior. It is later revealed in a flashback sequence that he was asked to do so by his father :

"The currents of destiny bend and twist around that young man. For good or ill, he will shape the coming oceanscape. You will protect him. You will be my agent in his camp. Close enough to guard against others who seek to control him. And close enough, when I decide the time is ripe... ... to strike, and kill him without warning."

The following arc tells the first meeting between the original Aquaman and King Shark, which occurred several years ago. It took place in Reef's End, a little border town in the Coral Sea, distant from Atlantis. Orin - who was still the King of Atlantis at this time - fought King Shark because he murdered a priest belonging to the Order of the Thorny Crown. In the last six months, King Shark had killed a lot of other members of this group, obeying to his father's will. Indeed, the Order was associated with an old prophecy :

"When thorned crown lies shattered, she comes. Born of coral, of life-in-death, of long prayer. Shake the sea floor with her power, shall she, shake the destiny of all beneath the waves..."

The Shark God believed that if the Order was destroyed, that would trigger the prophecy, birthing some great power in the process. However, King Shark was defeated by Aquaman before reaching his father's goal. He then was imprisoned by priests of the Thorny Crown during three years, before achieving to escape; Nanaue mentions that he was tortured during his captivity.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

• Amphibious Nature: King Shark can survive indefinitely under water and at least for long periods on land.

• Superhuman Strength: Monstrous strength, the exact limits of which have never been measured.

• Claws: Super-strong claws and teeth.

• Superhuman Stamina: King Shark, when driven to a frenzy (such as when there is blood in the water), is nearly unstoppable

Abilities

• Swimming: King Shark is an expert swimmer.

Trivia

• In Amalgam Comics, King Shark is combined with The Lizard to create King Lizard.
  

Recommended Reading

• Superboy (Volume 4) #0, 9, 13 - 15, 31, 66-67

Related

• 65 Appearances of Nanaue (New Earth)
• 10 Images featuring Nanaue (New Earth)
• 3 Quotations by or about Nanaue (New Earth)
• Character Gallery: Nanaue (New Earth)

Footnotes

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at King Shark. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

This is an in-universe article with out-of-universe material.

This article covers information about something that exists within the DC Universe, and should not contain out-of-universe material. Please remove all out-of-universe material, or include it in a separate section at the bottom of the article. And take off that silly costume.

Aquaman Villain(s) This character, team or organization, is or was primarily an enemy of Aquaman, or members of the Aquaman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Aquaman Villains."