The biggest star of DC’s The Suicide Squad has just been entered into a wild fighting tournament with world-changing consequences.
Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Suicide Squad: King Shark #2, on sale now from DC Comics.
Nanaue, aka King Shark, has come a long way from his early days as a recurring villain for Superboy and Aquaman. Having served as the heavy-hitting heart of the Suicide Squad for many years now, King Shark’s popularity has skyrocketed after his recent appearance in the Harley Quinn animated series and 2021’s The Suicide Squad.
In Suicide Squad: King Shark #2 (by Tim Seely, Scott Kolins, John Kalisz, and Wes Abbott) Nanaue has entered the Wild Games, an extra-dimensional tournament set to pit several animal-based champions against one another. As the chosen champion of the sharks, King Shark’s victory in the Wild Games could completely unravel the established natural order.
King Shark’s entry into the Wild Games is orchestrated by his father Kamo, a powerful and mystical entity worshipped by the people of a remote Hawaiian island as the god of sharks. While Kamo’s status as a god was left ambiguous in his prior appearances, his status is now confirmed when he opens an interdimensional portal and whisks King Shark (and the hapless Nightwing villain Defacer) away to the Wild Realms. This extra-dimensional plane is home to the Red, one of many color-themed elemental forces that embody and protect the natural world in the DC universe. Acting as the grand blueprint that directs the evolutionary process of the entire animal kingdom, the Red connects all animal life on Earth and empowers various animal-themed characters such as Beast Boy and Vixen, like its sister force the Green does for plants and plant-based characters such as the Swamp Thing.
The Wild Games are being held at the behest of the Parliament of Limbs, the council of totemic animal avatars that governs the Red. As explained by the totem of humanity’s champion Man King, the Wild Games are held every ten millennia in order to cleanse and re-energize the Red after the course of natural evolution runs it to near-exhaustion. To reignite the Red and preserve the never-ending evolution of animal life, each member of the Parliament of Limbs must choose an Exemplar, a champion who will represent their species in a battle to the death against other Exemplars. The winner of the Wild Games will have their essence added into the Well of Evolution, which will recharge the Red and ensure the domination of the winner’s species over the Earth for thousands of years.
Having proven himself as the greatest among his kind and finally earning his father’s approval, King Shark is set to compete against a horde of equally ferocious Exemplars chosen by their species representative within the Parliament of Limbs. This includes members from other species’ royal families, such as Queen Tiger, King Roach, Prince Nematode, Princess Peregrine, and the aforementioned Man King. As a terrified Defacer notes from the sidelines, the stakes of the Wild Games are higher than King Shark seems to be aware of; if he wins, sharks will take humanity’s place as the supreme species on the planet.
Interestingly enough, The Wild Games aren’t the only secret, high-stakes supernatural tournament happening in the DC universe at the moment. In the ongoing Robin series (by Joshua Williamson, Gleb Melnikov, and Troy Peteri), Damian Wayne and a number of DC’s martial artists have been drafted into the Lazarus Tournament. Held on the isolated Lazarus Island, this tournament also pits a number of carefully chosen combatants against one another in a brutal battle to the death and has its own gruesome and supernatural twist.
Despite the differences between their characters, the parallels between King Shark and Robin’s involvement in these tournaments are hard to ignore. Both are fighting to prove their own worth within the darkness of their parent’s shadows, and each is willing to risk their lives for the chance to be more than just their father’s sons.
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