GREEN LANTERN vol2 #24 (1963)
by John Broome & Gil Kane
No this is not the Silver Age version of Mogo, the living planet who is also a Green Lantern.
It’s not even the main focus of this review!
We begin with an “experimental atomic station” exploding. Don’t worry though, it’s not TOO radioactive.
The fallout somehow reaches the ocean…
…and horribly mutate the local fish…
…until it becomes human.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the gloriously Silver Age origin of The Shark.
Little known fact: millions of years from now, fish will evolve pants.
BUT WAIT, it gets sillier! He ALSO becomes a telepathic genius!
BUT WAIT, it gets sillier! He also develops phenomenal reality-altering powers!
BUT WAIT, it gets sillier! He gets himself a secret identity and goes to a restaurant to eat raw meat!!! While wearing a sharkskin suit!!!!
Knowing this comic, it might actually be made of shark’s skin.
At this point you might be wondering: how in the world does this have anything to do with Green Lantern? Good freaking question!!!
So The Shark telepathically challenges Green Lantern to a fight. Which involves changing stuff into yellow because The Shark doesn’t have enough silly powers already.
Seriously, this guy can to ANYTHING.
Including my absolute favorite Silver Age insanity:
Invisible.
Yellow.
Light.
It’s INVISIBLE. And it’s YELLOW.
The Shark then pulls a Molecule Man and traps the entire city beneath an indestructible semi-transparent bubble.
Green Lantern knocks him down by creating an iceberg… as you do…
…but he can’t really harm him because is protected by his aura. Which, once again, is both INVISIBLE and YELLOW.
But despite that aura, he’s SOMEHOW able to transform The Shark back into his original form.
Historical significance: 3/10
The Shark will obviously return, but he’s an extremely minor villain.
Silver Age-ness: 101,000,000/10
INVISIBLE. YELLOW. AURA.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
There’s being camp. There’s being ridiculous. And there’s a radioactive super-evolved telepathic shark who can turn things both invisible AND yellow.
How close is this to the modern character?
To be perfectly honest, I’m not familiar enough with The Shark to make a call.
He doesn’t seem to be very popular, and I can see why: his powerset is utterly ridiculous and doesn’t work with the shark-man theme. But if you take away his mental powers, there’s like eight other shark-themed supervillains at DC Comics, all of which are frankly more interesting than him.
Bonus: I just HAVE to talk about the Green Lantern Planet.
Since I know this is not Mogo I was expecting to find some other explanation, but no, it really IS another living planet!
After the initial misunderstanding, the planet befriends Green Lantern…
…until Green Lantern helps the planet GIVE BIRTH TO A MOON.
Sadly the planet has only a couple of minor appearances and never gets a proper name. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Alan Moore was directly inspired by this story when he created Mogo.
OMG when I read this that was my exact reaction… I was like “Color/light doesn’ work that way!!! it’s either yellow or invisible”