People really like sharks. I get it, they’re graceful, powerful, nonstop death machines with mouths filled with endless quantities of razor-sharp teeth. What’s not to love?
The creators behind decades of Marvel comics are no exception. They love their sharks too, which means there are a healthy number of shark species, shark races and shark-related weirdos in the Marvel Universe. Sometimes they’re benign, other times allies, but most of the time they’re freaky evil obstacles in the way of our heroes making it home with all their limbs attached. Let’s check out the weirdest of these shark-things, shall we?
Starsharks
Not only do the evil Alien-ripoffs the Brood use space whales (Acanti) as their spaceships until they literally eat them to death from the inside, they also infect the cosmic Starsharks and use them for everything from creatures to ride on to cannon fodder in their invasions. Whether they’re equipped with frickin’ laser beams or snares to spread the Slaver Virus to other space creatures, Starsharks are not creatures you want to tangle with.
Sharkticons
If you were one of the millions of children in the ’80s mesmerized by Transformers: The Movie but ultimately horrified by the death of Optimus Prime, you may have been equally frightened by a sequence in which some of our Autobot friends are fed to the seemingly cannibalistic Sharkticons, big balls of giant teeth with spiky tails eager to take a bite of metal flesh at the command of the evil Quintessons. Over the years, these walking bear-traps have only made sporadic appearances in TF comics, most recently appearing in Daniel Warren Johnson and Ludo Lullabi’s Transformers #19 at Skybound. And while they don’t look a ton like actual sharks aside from the teeth, they sure are scary!
Muspelheim Firesharks
When you live in a realm of eternal flame like Muspelheim, you adapt. What else are you supposed to do when everything is on fire? Surtur’s got Fire Goblins, Fire Trolls and you just know there have to be sharks. Not just any sharks, but lava-swimming, fire breathing, volcanic rock-skinned FIRESHARKS. Not the kind of enemy anyone wants to be up against, but Ultimate Thor seemed up to the task during War of the Realms. Will these extra-realm creatures ever show up in calmer waters, or can they only survive in the flames of Muspelheim? Just watch yourself around volcanos.
Sharks from Beyond Time
In Alpha Flight #83, Talisman tries to send her astral form back thousands of years into the past and instead ends up in an alternate future, fighting alongside the Tribe of the Moon against Llan and a series of bizarre cartoonlike monsters including the Creatures of the Caves, Rogue Lemurian Deviants, Dimension Giants, and of course the Sharks from Beyond Time. These sharks fly, and one even speaks courtesy of Llan. Since they only appear briefly, it’s unclear if they are time travelers, aliens or what, but given their rad name, maybe a future creator will bring them back from whatever time they’re beyond at the moment.
Sand Sharks
If sharks can live in lava, why not sand? In Weirdworld, anything is possible (hence the name). Goleta the Witchslayer claims Sand Sharks are “crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside” and says they’re edible as steaks. Later, Scarlet Witch and Joseph (yes, that Joseph) fetched the Lamp of Lucifer from a Sand Shark’s belly for Dr. Druid. Largely set apart by their surroundings, Sand Sharks prove a formidable challenge to superheroes but are largely avoidable since very few writers remember Weirdworld exists.
War Sharks
During Jason Aaron’s 2018 volume of Avengers, Namor yet again declared war against the surface world. One way to convince allies to join him (including Tiger Shark) was to threaten them with his battle-trained War Sharks. Outfitted with armor and spikes, these War Sharks barely need a drop of blood to be provoked by their king. Though it’s unclear how War Sharks would help on land, underwater, they’re terrifying.
Land Sharks
Jeff the Land Shark has become so popular that folks might forget he’s the runt left behind of a whole species of Land Sharks created by MODOK Superior that invaded Santa Monica and did battle with Kelly Thompson’s West Coast Avengers. Luckily all it took was steering these leggy beasts back into the sea to save the day, but that also means they’re still out there, fins, arms and legs, and all, waiting to get you.
Shark Men
The Shark Men are an ancient underwater species whose origins in Marvel comics go back to the Golden Age, when they aligned with the Japanese during World War II in the Pacific Theater, largely so Namor could beat them up. They are just one of a host of underwater species like Walrus Men or Seal People who have aligned or opposed Atlanteans over the years. More recently during Fear Itself, a group of random heroes including Laura Kinney and Amadeus Cho fought the Shark Men when they were randomly transported to the Pacific before helping to stop what was described as “Pearl Harbor 2011 AD.” Given their samurai-esque armor and ties to racist-propaganda depictions of the Japanese, it’s safe to say we might not see these Shark Men again, no matter how cool they look.
Shark People
By far the weirdest Marvel sharks are the Golden Age “Shark People” from Young Men #25. Namor encountered these weirdos while investigating a series of murders only to learn that an alien race had projected their minds across the vast reaches of space and taken the form of shape-shifting great white sharks and sometimes people to become the apex predators on Earth. Luckily Namor, with some help from the Coast Guard, was able to scoop these intergalactic pests up in nets and send them packing. Hopefully they never return!
Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom. Follow him @adamreck.bsky.social.
