TIGER SHARK (Todd Arliss)
Created By: Roy Thomas & John Buscema
First Appearance: Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner #5 (Sept. 1968)
Role: Namor's Personal Punching Bag, Animalistic Villain
Group Affiliations: The Masters of Evil, Deep Six, The Offenders, The Lethal Legion
PL 10 (151), PL 12 (151) in Water
STRENGTH 11/14
STAMINA 10/13
AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 9
DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0
AWARENESS 0
PRESENCE 0
Skills:
Expertise (Hunting) 12 (+12)
Intimidation 13 (+13)
Perception 4 (+4)
Stealth 5 (+9)
Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Daze (Intimidation), Favoured Environment (Underwater), Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Bite) 2, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Startle
Powers:
"Atlantean/Human/Shark Hybrid"
Swimming 10 (500 mph) [10]
Immunity 3 (Drowning, Cold, Pressure) [3]
Movement 1 (Environmental Adaptation- Aquatic) [2]
"Animal Senses" Senses 6 (Extended 2 & Acute Scent, Tracking-Scent, Low-Light & Extended Vision) [6]
"Lateral Lines" Senses 1 (Ranged Touch) [1]
"Electrolocation" Senses 5 (Detect Electrical Signals- Acute, Accurate & Ranged) [5]
"Shark Bite" Strength-Damage +0 (Extras: Penetrating 11) [11]
"Improved Underwater Stats" (All with Flaws: Limited to Underwater/When Soaked)
Enhanced Strength 3 [3]
Enhanced Stamina 3 [3]
Impervious Toughness 10 [5]
Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+11 Damage, DC 26)
When Soaked +9 (+14 Damage, DC 29)
Initiative +8
Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +10 (+13 When Soaked), Fortitude +11 (+14 Soaked), Will +4
Complications:
Enemy (Namor)- Tiger Shark is a recurring threat to Namor, and the two have fought dozens of times.
Weakness (Out of Water)- Like Namor, Tiger Shark grows weaker the longer he is without water. His costume contains a soaked inner-lining, but without it, he is vulnerable.
Prejudice (Inhuman Monster)- Arliss tends to look differently at times, but rarely looks totally human. He's pretty much stuck doing what he does.
Total: Abilities: 70 / Skills: 34--17 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 49 / Defenses: 6 (151)
Namor's Personal Jobber:
-Tiger Shark's one of those guys with an awesome name and little else, built up as a guy for Namor to beat up in his various solo books. He's big, strong and nasty, but never really been that great of a threat- essentially becoming for Namor what The Silver Samurai is for Wolverine- a Personal Jobber. He shows up, gets his ass kicked, and then goes back into the water. In one of the more hilarious (because it's not deliberate) running gags in comics, NOBODY CAN DECIDE WHAT THE F*** HE LOOKS LIKE- he'll get super-mutated into a beast in one issue, and in the next he'll only be slightly ugly! Then he'll be a MONSTER again! He's gone back and forth so many times it's hilarious! One time he had TWO HEADS! Swear to God! Two friggin' heads! This guy has what is BY FAR the worst case of "Back-To-Basics Syndrome" in all of comics!
-His origin is also super-dumb- Todd Arliss was an arrogant Olympic swimmer who, seeking public acclaim, tried to save a drowning man and was crippled in the process. So of course he agreed to let an evil scientist "cure" him, which combined Namor's DNA with that of a Tiger Shark (because comics), turning him into a monster. But still... "Tiger Shark". That is a bad-ass sounding name. The worst part of all this is that every time Namor needs some old recurring threat trudged up because of one story or another, it's either this idiot or Attuma, and both are weaksauce villains. So they're that weird combination of mediocre AND horribly over-used!
-Tiger Shark is a villain so one-sided that as soon as he gains freakish super-powers, he attacks Namor's girlfriend (Lady Dorma) and demands to be made King of Atlantis. After another Namor fight, he and Orka are buried beneath an avalanche during a brawl. Later, his fading powers are restored by Llyra, and he accidentally kills Namor's father, Leonard McKenzie. The next time they fight, Namor nearly kills him. After another couple fights, he joins the Masters of Evil a few times- including one run by Egghead, but is beaten by Henry Pym. He's also on the team that invades Avengers Mansion and tortures some of the heroes, but is a minor character in that story (as his main rival, Namor, had already left the Avengers by that point). Later, he and Whirlwind escape to California, but are beaten by West Coasters Tigra & Hellcat.
-In the '90s, he was thus a recurring goof- he fights Wolverine during
Acts of Vengeance, and Stingray, who is married to Shark's sister Diane. However, in this fight he helps Stingray rescue his sister, and later he renounces villainy after Namor saves him from some people using him for study. Renaming himself "Arlys Tigershark", he marries a woman from an undersea tribe of nomads. However, when his pregnant wife and her tribe are slaughtered by the Faceless Ones, he flies into an all-consuming rage and kills hundreds of the creatures. After another couple fights at Namor's side, he joins the villainous Deep Six and battles the Avengers- with Namor's solo book being cancelled, he had no reason to stay heroic.
Tiger Shark- Journeyman Villain:
-With no
Namor books around any longer, his status as Namor's Personal Jobber shifts permanently into "Journeyman Villain"- he becomes sharklike under Mark Bagley's
Thunderbolts pencils, joining Justine Hammer's enormous, jobber-y Masters of Evil team, and fights the T-Bolts several times. Looking human in the next appearance, he joins Attuma's Deep Six, beaten by the Silver Surfer in this
Defenders arc. In
She-Hulk, a mutated (sigh) Arliss shows up in prison and is beaten after a jailbreak (when Electro is tossed into his water), and he also joins the mass break out of The Raft in the Bendis
Avengers debut- he and Armadillo are recaptured by the New Warriors. After that, he's largely "Guy in the background", being seen working for The Owl AND The Hood. Then he's part of that legendary "ever friggin' bio on Wikipedia mentions this" story where Al Kraven captures all the animalistic super-villains and sticks them in a zoo. Then he and a few other villains are savaged by Norman Osborn for trying to take power from him. He then works a bit for Osborn, joins The Offenders in another
Defenders story (as a rival to Namor again), and joins the Grim Reaper's new Lethal Legion, and then another of Attuma's groups in invading Atlantis (this time sporting two heads for a bit)- basically, if there's a team of "random villains we can find" in the 2000s, Todd f*cking Arliss is on that team.
-In his most recent appearances, Tiger Shark has been seen as both a "recognizable backgrounder" (as his fin-based striped costume stands out), and a good aquatic villain- he is intimidated into joining Namor's new "Defenders of the Deep" team, letting his sister's husband Stingray nearly be killed.
Tiger Shark's Powers & Abilities:
-I just took Namor's build & modified it a bit to make a much less capable fighter with some standard animalistic senses taken from my Shark builds when I did the "Animals" section. He's MUCH better underwater, usually being PL 10 outside of it as a generic attacking powerhouse/scrapper type. He actually makes PL 11.5 underwater, making him... well, still below Namor, but enough to challenge him pretty well, and more than enough for most heroes to have a hard time with. Tiger Shark may be an idiot and a mediocre character, but underestimating him would be a SERIOUSLY bad idea- he may be a Jobber, but remember that he's a Jobber for a guy who's PL 12-13 in scope. He'll tear Misty Knight's f***ing arm off in like two seconds.