I think this list is what we all need right now. Just something silly to take our minds off the horrible ravages that have destroyed the world. So how about a list of all the comic book characters who base themselves off of sharks? Everybody is afraid of sharks! Heck, I think it’s even Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.

Animal-themed superheroes are at the very heart of comics. Batman and Spider-Man are just dudes patterned after specific animals. And there are plenty more such characters…yet not as many as you would think, especially for some of the more popular or scary critters in the world. I’ve looked at lions, dogs, pigs, frogs, birds and reptiles, and now we’re going to do sharks!

Join me after the jump for the wildest shark-based comic book characters!

6. Verrill Shark

Verrill Shark is a classic Sub-Mariner baddie from the 1940s. He was a pirate who allied himself with the Nazis and got beat up by Namor and the original Invaders. He was this dopey looking guy with a big nose, sharp teeth and pointy ears, so he at least looked a little like a shark. His big story was that he defeated Namor in battle and stole his swim trunks as a memento, using them as a flag on his pirate ship for a while. Namor eventually returned and beat him up to get his trunks back.

Coincidentally enough, Verrill reappeared for the first time in decades this past March, in a special Namor issue of a new Marvel Snapshots series. This time, Verrill was wearing the Nazi Shark-themed battlesuit in the picture above. That’s one way to reinvent a character! Go full Nazi Shark!

5. Shark-Girl

Shark-Girl is a newer member of the X-Men, a new student recruited a couple of years ago. She’s a were-shark, capable of turning from girl into shark humanoid. And that’s pretty much it! She showed up and has stuck around and has accomplished next to nothing else. But she’s shark!

4. Great White Shark

The Great White Shark started as a crooked businessman named Warren White, who embezzled a ton of money and eventually got caught. In his original story in 2003, White thought he had a great plan: transfer his case to Gotham City and plead insanity, because Gotham is a revolving door of insanity cases, right? But the gamble landed White in Arkham Asylum, where he had to contend with the true crazies. The experience drove him insane, and he suffered a lot of physical deformities, transforming him into the pale ghoul pictured above…sort of resembling a great white shark. He’s since gone on to become a regular rogue in rotation.

3. The Shark

No, I didn’t get the name wrong, this is not King Shark, who will definitely appear later on this list. This is just The Shark, a classic Green Lantern villain from the 1960s. A nuclear explosion mutated a regular tiger shark, giving him this humanoid appearance and incredible mental powers, while still being a blood-thirsty shark. In the original story, he made himself look more human (and definitely more like a 1960s comic book super-villain), and largely the Shark went back and forth between super intelligent and normal shark. He was brought back in modern comics as a monstrous shark person, again used as just a violent shark dude.

2. Tiger Shark

Whenever Marvel needs a random thug of a bad guy to throw at their superhero, Tiger Shark is towards the top of the list. He’s big, he’s scary, he’s strong and he’s got that cool sharkness about him. Donald Arliss was a professional swimmer who injured his back and underwent some experimental comic book surgery that blended his DNA with both Namor the Sub-Mariner and a tiger shark…which, of course, turns him into this thing! He bothered Namor for a while, and his sister married the superhero Stingray, and now he’s just a general tough guy villain who pops up whenever needed. It’s good to have a purpose.

1. King Shark

King Shark is a star! Created as a Superboy villain in the early 90s, King Shark is going to appear on the big screen in the next Suicide Squad movie. He’s also mastered the small screen, with roles in both The Flash and the Harley Quinn cartoon — where he is quite awesome. King Shark’s real name is Nanaue and he is the son of the King of All Sharks. So he’s underwater royalty who prefers to live in the surface world eating people and punching superheroes. Hard to decide which would be the better life.

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