Though, he finds the character's current pop culture prominence astounding.

One aspect of Kesel's original concept that has been lost in later iterations are the two tattoos in a 'shark-toothed pattern' he included as a nod to the character's mythological roots. 'Above all, I loved the visual - just this hulking shark creature with massive jaws.' 'I have been a fan of King Shark's creator, the great Karl Kesel, since forever, and bought the first appearance of the character right off the stands years ago,' Simone writes to EW in an email. The impact of the character's main issue, Superboy #9, cannot be overstated, especially for comic book writers like Glass, Seeley, and Simone, who would all write stories featuring King Shark in later years. 'So, I couldn't call it 'The Shark,' but Hawaiian myths kept referring to 'The Shark King,' and I thought, 'I'll take those words and flip it around.'' Voila! someone who is a barely functioning human.' That iteration also had a fair amount of human intelligence, and Kesel wanted his creation to be 'more animalistic. DC's Green Lantern comic at the time featured a humanoid shark figure called 'The Shark,' but Kesel admits he didn't want to jump through the editorial hoops to secure that name for this new character he was creating. And that's how King Shark really started.'įinding a name for this villain was an equally easy process. It's a demigod character except as a shark. 'Somewhere in there I decided one of the shark gods has a child with a human. He researched local mythologies of the islands and came across various shark gods. The hero was operating in Hawaii, 'he's surrounded by water, there's sharks in the water,' Kesel remembers. Kesel, a comic book writer and inker living in Portland, was looking for a villain to put up against the star of his current series, Superboy. The origin story of King Shark is perhaps the most organic origin story in DC Comics.

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