Suicide Squad: King Shark

Suicide Squad: Miniseries

by Tim Seeley, Scott Kolins (Illustrator), John Kalisz (Colorist)

The breakout star of The Suicide Squad is ready to take his place at the top of the food chain!

On leave from the Suicide Squad, King Shark and unfortunate tagalong the Defacer get swept into a mystical tournament for totemic animal spirits at the behest of King Shark’s father, the god of sharks! Now King Shark must battle brutal warriors like Queen Tiger, King Roach, Prince Nematode, Princess Peregrine, and the terrifying Man King to finally attain his destiny and make his dour dad proud!
 
Following his breakout role in 2021’s The Suicide Squad film, cult-favorite character King Shark stars in his first solo story!
 
Collects Suicide King Shark #1-6.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics

184 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2022

About the author

Tim Seeley is a comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Batman Eternal and Grayson. He is also the co-creator of the Image Comics titles Hack/Slash[1] and Revival, as well as the Dark Horse titles, ExSanguine and Sundowners. He lives in Chicago.

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

I'll be honest: when I went into a comic starring loveable man-eater King Shark, I was not expecting to find him sent to represent the Oceanscape at an extradimensional tournament organised by the Parliament of Limbs. I mean, I could do without the Parliament of Limbs full stop; they're yet another case of modern DC taking a solid idea from a creator who actually knew what they were doing, and then desperately trying to Johnsify it by producing variants, so just like the Speed Force has now spawned the Sage Force, Strength Force et al, it's not enough for the Parliament of Trees to have the other elemental ones from the Millar run of Swamp Thing (which were already borderline) without also dragging in dubious brand extensions like the Parliament of Limbs, Gears and I don't even know what else; I would say Parliament of Bollocks if I didn't half-expect that already to be a thing.

However, once it became clear that said tournament would also feature a badger in a top hat, and King Shark being pulled out of the doldrums and sent into a killing rage by people singing Baby Shark at him, not to mention a whole subplot with D-list villain the Defacer getting tangled up in all this and falling for the fuckboy representing humanity, plus Amanda Waller rounding up a special not-exactly-living (post-?)Suicide Squad capable of dealing with missions in the afterlife...well, I decided to stow my objections and go along for the ride. Even having made this resolve, it wasn't always easy, not when eg a villain called the Pigeon can apparently threaten a god* – but there's enough affable mayhem from the lead galoot that it was worth the bumps along the way. Also a surprising amount of feels – the flashback to his childhood was surprisingly upsetting, especially if you stop for a moment to consider the childhoods of actual sharks.

*I suspect this might have made more sense if I'd read Seeley's Nightwing run – but equally, why are cosmic forces getting established in a Nightwing run?

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Suicide Squad: King Shark collects issues 1-12 of the DC Comics digital series written by Tim Seeley with art by Scott Collins.

King Shark is granted a leave from serving in the Suicide Squad to represent the oceanic creatures in a tournament set-up by the Parliament of Limbs (the Red) to determine which species will be granted an evolutionary boost. Amanda Waller sends The Defacer (Yes, Nightwing’s former villain and love interest) to keep an eye out on King Shark, but her loyalties will be tested when she meets Man King, the human entrant of the tournament.

The first issue of this book was pretty fun with King Shark being thrown into a unique partnership with Defacer. But the book quickly goes really campy but mostly in a head scratching way, not a “so ridiculous it is good” kind of way. Why are all the creature who are supposed to represent the animal kingdom humanoid version of themselves? And then having an actual human fight - who seemed to just have martial arts training? - fight and win against these animal/human hybrids was incredibly ridiculous. The twist could be seen a mile away. Yeah, it is fun to see King Shark destroy anything and anyone that gets in his path, but we didn’t need such a convoluted story to get there.

[Carly Mice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nanaue- descendant of gods… misunderstood, broken and lonely. This is my favorite character I’ve ever read. Beautiful story

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not even close to what I expected. It’s really about relationships and friendships and emotions. But yeah King Shark also behaved lies a Shark.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love King Shark but I think The Defacer kind of ruined this story.

[Ezma · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a King Shark fan, you'll have a great time as Nanaue chomps through enemies and you get a little backstory and depth for the guy as a bonus. Not a standout book otherwise but had fun.

[Arianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a weird one. The weirdest thing by far is the fact that Defacer, the Dick Grayson love interest who used to have as much personality as a slice of wet bread, is suddenly made into a mildly interesting character. This would be understandable if the Nightwing run she first appeared in was written by a different writer but... it's the same guy. I'n going to assume it was an excess of editorial oversight that made Shawn so boring in the first stories where she appeared.
Imprisoned in Belle Reve, Defacer manages to bond with King Shark, whose origins have been retconned in a way I'm not a big fan of. Because his biology can't support Waller's brain bombs, Shawn is used as a sort of whipping boy in case Nanaue decides to misbehave. Then King Shark gets recruited into fighting in a tournament to find out the most resilient animal species. Whatever. The plot is kind of dumb, but I enjoyed reading this book.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This digital first DC series was more of a turkey than a shark. King Shark becomes friends with Defacer who is just a woman who vandalizes stuff from Nightwing. She's a throw away character. She's needed I guess because there's so very little to King Shark's character. He's just a shark man who eats people from the Suicide Squad. Here as the son of the God of Sharks, he gets sucked into a contest by the Parliament of Limbs to see who the dominant species will be for the next millennia. So Seeley is trying to build off stuff that Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and Mark Millar did but make it shitty. This would have worked better if it was just King Shark terrorizing people as if it was some kind of horror comic.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and clever, especially when it comes to some of the plot points having to do with biology, with good art, except for the odd choice to sometimes color the copious flows of blood purple (in an attempt to make the gore seem cuter or something?).

This is an intelligent, thoughtful, well-spoken King Shark who quotes Rumi (!), only similar visually to the Stallone-voiced dumb-lunk incarnation of the character in the recent The Suicide Squad movie.

[Shaun Jex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this for the camp value of a giant manshark battling creatures like Prince Nematode and King Roach, but stuck around for the surprising amount of heart the story displays. The evolving relationship between King Shark and Defacer is a pleasure to watch unfold, scattered as it is among great action scenes with some awesome creatures. Also, I can't put into words just how much I dislike Amanda Waller. She's such a truly despicable villain.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a nice reminder why i am a Marvel fan more than DC. I was with this book of angry girl makes friend with King Shark...until it got weird. Like interdimensional god of animal Mortal Kombat...battle. Why did this need to happen? I barely followed, what was happening with Suicide Squad lady having undead squad to go get her Shark in another dimension? If she has a undead squad why does she need a shark boy? So much comic eye rolling was needed to get through this run.

[Adam Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a fun campy battle royale storyline. King Shark represents the ocean realm against various other exemplars in an attempt to become the dominant Earth species in 10,000 years. Shark is flawed and has no real friends, except someone as broken as him, and has daddy abandonment issues, all while having horrendous temperament problems and atrocious eating habits. All of it works out in the end, thanks to good ol' cordyceps fungi spores, a la The Last of Us in a shameless plug.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was goofy fun but should have been goofier fun. The book doesn't have enough King Shark and tries too many times to be serious. Added to that is the fact that its 2 issues too long and you have a book that quickly overstayed its welcome. There wasn't enough funny which is a shame given the main character. Scott Kolins art is always good and that's the case here. Overall, Tim Seeley needed to press the gas.

[Josef Ploski · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I picked this up I expected the dumb barely verbal beast of the Suicide Squad film. I was very surprised and delighted to find a very good story about friendship, family, and relationships. Yes, there are alot of shots of King Shark kicking ass and biting heads but it was also very sweet and sorrowful at times.

[Will Cooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Defacer never was much of an interesting character to me and so she shows up in this and I'm not overjoyed. But King Shark has to fight in a tournament of random animals so that's fun! But I'm not the biggest fan of Scott Kolins' art (not for me! It's a specific style, though!). So there you have it.

[Julia Pika · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art was good but silly me for expecting this to actually heavily involve King Shark. It focused way too much on Seely’s fave, The Defacer, that edgy girl he had Nightwing date, god knows why. Ugh.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I smell blood. Exemplars of the red fight for a place in the future. The 'benefits' of cordyceps. Nasty Nemathelminthes. Exorcised to commode.

Bring anger and pride under your feet, turn them into a ladder and climb higher.

[Chanaka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not what i was expecting..in a good way...Good art great story✌️

[Kris Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strangely really liked this one, because Seeley can be very hit or miss for me.

Animal Kingdom Mortal Kombat with a character study on Nanaue and the Defacer from Nightwing comics.