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SHARK-MAN

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human mutate (German, WWII era)

Occupation: Commander of a Nazi undersea base armed with a Suction Machine

Group Membership: Kriegsmarine (Nazi German navy)

Affiliations: His Nazi lackeys

Enemies: Sub-Mariner, Allied Naval Forces, Allied shipping

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: North Atlantic Ocean;
   formerly Germany

First Appearance: Kid Komics#4/6 (Spring, 1944)

Powers/Abilities: Shark-Man has been mutated to fight underwater with a lung capacity that allows him to stay submerged for several hours; this has resulted in an enlarged ribcage. He has lower-level superhuman strength (about 1 ton) and enhanced durability to withstand deep ocean depths. Increased density prevents him from floating away uncontrollably. Additional "shark extract" has enhanced his savagery and further altered his appearance, including additional incisor teeth and straight spike-like fingernails and toenails. Of note is that while his eye lenses are spherical (like a fish), providing a wider field of vision, Shark-Man has eyelids (unlike a fish); this is probably because he mostly operates in an air environment. It's unrevealed if his fin-like ears serve any function. He is armed with a Wire-Gun that wraps its victim in strong wire.

Height: 7'
Weight: 360 lbs.
Eyes: Black
Hair: None

History:

(Kid Komics#4/6 (fb) - BTS) - From an idea apparently concocted by the Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler, a "normal Aryan" was selected and mutated into a monstrous form with superhuman powers and underwater fighting abilities that would enable him to fight the Sub-Mariner in his own element. Dubbed Shark-Man, he was given command of an undersea city-base hundreds of feet underwater in the Atlantic Ocean armed with a powerful Suction Machine that could generate intense whirlpools strong enough to suck down merchant shipping. The Nazi base was also defended by short range submarines.

(Kid Komics#4/6) - Namor the Sub-Mariner was alerted to short-range Nazi submarines operating deep in the Atlantic Ocean, too far from known German bases. Namor followed one sub to the undersea base and fought his way past Nazi soldiers until he confronted Shark-Man, who used his Wire-Gun to quickly bind Namor up in wire. The punishment devised by Hitler and Shark-Man was to make Namor deathly afraid of water using a serum containing hydrophobia germs. Shark-Man injected Namor with the serum, then freed him. Secretly unaffected, Namor pretended to be afraid of water. Shark-Man gloated, locked up Namor to drown in a cell, then set off to start the Suction Machine. But the Sub-Mariner broke free and easily defeated Shark-Man in single combat. Namor put the Suction Machine in reverse and the undersea base was destroyed. Afterward, the Sub-Mariner wished he knew for certain that Shark-Man had died.

Comments: Created by uncredited writer & Carl Pfeufer (pencils & inks).

Shark-Man proudly called himself an Aryan prior to the mutation, so you get an idea what he (thought he) probably looked like before he was mutated.

Shark Man's Wire-Gun could have been created by the WWII Nazi scientist Mad Mechanic, because he created an unnamed handgun version of the Wire-Gun. Maybe he created that undersea city too.
---John Holstein.

The "futuristic city base" is really more of a large base, not a city. Its external design makes me wonder if it is a Nazi design or an empty/abandoned base claimed by the Nazis.

Great art from Pfeufer with the classic early triangular visage of Sub-Mariner.

Thanks to John Holstein for providing the scans.

Profile by Grendel Prime.

CLARIFICATIONS :
Shark-Man has no known connections to:

Suction Machine

The Suction Machine was a powerful Nazi weapon kept in Shark-Man's undersea base. It had sufficient power to generate artificial whirlpools hundreds of feet up to the sea surface and suck down Allied ships (with a preference for merchant ships so that their cargo could be plundered). Shark-Man was about to use it on an Allied convoy when Sub-Mariner stopped him. Sub-Mariner set the Suction Machine into reverse and it destroyed the undersea base along with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--Kid Komics#4/6

Wire-Gun

Shark-Man was armed with a Wire-Gun that looked like an enlarged pistol. It fired tough flexible wire that quickly wrapped itself around a victim. Shark-Man used this on the heroic Sub-Mariner, quickly restraining him and preventing the Sub-Mariner from moving. The wire was only removed after Shark-Man thought the hero weakened.

 

 

 

 

--Kid Komics#4/6

images: (without ads)
Kid Komics#4/6 , p5, pan4 (main image)
   p11, pan5 (headshot)
   p8, pan1 (Suction Machine)
   p6, pan4 (Wire-Gun)

Appearances:
Kid Komics#4/6 (Spring, 1944) - uncredited writer, Carl Pfeufer (pencils & inks), Vince Fago (editor)

First posted: 01/20/2023
Last updated: 01/20/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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