From the very first episode of Creature Commandos, the Max animated series had very explicit ties to both James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. These ties extend to characters like Amanda Waller and John Economos, to Task Force M itself being an extension of Task Force X. And in the season one finale of Creature Commandos, we get another addition from Task Force X over to Task Force M, in the form of the ever dim-witted King Shark. The finale shows him as one of Waller’s recruits for the squad in season two. This half-human/half-shark creature stole the show in many scenes in Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. And it looks like he’s now officially a Creature Commando.
In The Suicide Squad, the voice of King Shark came from none other than Rocky and Rambo icon, Sylvester Stallone. We doubt he’s coming back for Creature Commandos. However, James Gunn has stated he wants his animated voice actors to be the same as the live-action performers. At least as much as he possibly can. So maybe we hear Sly as King Shark once again. James Gunn has the opportunity to do the funniest thing possible here. He could have King Shark on the same team as the Shark, another “shark mutated into a humanoid” DC villain. The Shark was technically a Green Lantern bad guy.
King Shark first appeared in 1994’s Superboy #0, before making his first full appearance in Superboy #9. He becomes a recurring enemy for Superboy, as well as Aquaman (naturally). King Shark’s real name is Nanaue. At first, everyone believes him to be some kind of mutated great white shark. But he is actually the offspring of a mythical shark god named Chondrakha and a human woman. Another iteration has him raised by Amanda Waller in a lab from birth, which may be the origin Gunn uses. None of this is really touched on in The Suicide Squad, so maybe season two of The Creature Commandos will give us Gunn’s version of King Shark’s tragic backstory. Whatever that bizarre story may be.
