- Course, I forgot to check the batteries -- ah! The energizer bunny god smiles upon me!
- — Superboy
Superboy (Volume 4) #9 is an issue of the series Superboy (Volume 4) with a cover date of November, 1994.
Synopsis for "King Shark!"
The issue begins with a quick glimpse of a Hawaiian legend involving a shark-man named Nanaue and ending with a fade into the modern setting, with an older woman greeting a shark man as her son.
Superboy has fun on the beach with Tana, her brother's family, and his new X-Ray spec given to him by Dr. Hamilton. Tana scolds SB for invading everyone's privacy (including her own). Her brother mentions that he should be in school. Suddenly, a shark fin is seen in the water and a panic ensues. Superboy saves Tana's niece, but the girl suffered a wound on the leg. Sam Makoa appears on scene and identifies the wound as claw marks, and tells Superboy that he's there for personal reasons. Some years back, when he was working as a police officer, he encountered a shark-man metahuman whose family saw as a god from Hawaiian legend: a King Shark. Sam asks Superboy to come with him and his team to raid the home of King Shark's mother.
The raid goes down, but they find only his mother there and she had allowed King Shark to gnaw off her right arm. Superboy finds a lava tube nearby and enters into an underwater cave where King Shark attacks him. Superboy nearly panics, being more than a little out of his element, but then discovers that his X-ray goggles have heat and infra vision modes as well. King Shark is knocked out with one blast and rounded up.
In her jail cell, King Shark's mother dreams of her lover, the Shark-god, and longs for his return to her.
Appearing in "King Shark!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- King Shark (First full appearance) (Origin)
Other Characters:
- Kekane Moon
- Iolani Moon
- Li'i Moon
- Kaikea (Flashback and main story)
- Chondrakha (Flashback only)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- This is one of at least two different origin stories given for King Shark.
- Superboy appears next in Aquaman (Volume 5) #3.
- Reprinted in The Suicide Squad Case Files Vol. 1.
Trivia
- King Shark never speaks a word in this issue. Apart from his first cameo in the previous issue, he is always silent in all of his appearances in the Superboy series.