Tiger Shark
Todd Arliss

Powers

Equipment

Limitation

Talents

Underwater combat

Contacts

None

History

Todd Arliss was a champion Olympic swimmer. Following the Olympics, he planned to become a professional swimmer, having earned an estimated half million dollars in advances for public exhibitions. Before his professional career could get underway, however, he severely injured his back and legs while rescuing a man who had fallen overboard from a private craft. Although able to walk, he was told that he would never be able to swim again. Arliss spent a large part of the advance money he had received seeking medical help. He eventually discovered Dr. Lemuel Dorcas, a criminally motivated marine biologist who promised Arliss that he would be able to make him swim again. Under protests from his sister Diane, Arliss accompanied Dorcas to an undersea laboratory located off the North Atlantic coast.

Dorcas subjected Arliss to a great variety of experimental procedures, involving high-frequency radiation therapy that restored the damaged nerve tissue and ligaments. Dorcas placed Arliss within the "morphotron," an experimental device capable of imprinting upon a human being the genetic pattern of another creature, in this case a tiger shark. Dorcas had constructed a robot to search out and capture sharks for experimentation, and coincidentally it captured Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Namor and several sharks were used to provide a compound genetic pattern of great superhuman potential. Arliss was transformed into a superhumanly powerful amphibious creature. Dorcas provided Arliss with a specially prepared suit and mask, and dubbed him Tiger Shark.

Although Dorcas wished to use Tiger Shark to further his own criminal ambitions, Tiger Shark had other ideas. After physically besting the Sub-Mariner, still weak from the morphotron transfer, the Shark left Dorcas's lab for the open sea. Happening upon the Sub-Mariner's betrothed, the Lady Dorma, the Shark accompanied her to Atlantis, where he held the throne until Namor arrived and recaptured it.

Tiger Shark escaped and swam to the Sargasso Sea where he encountered the Peoples of the Mist, a band of sailors and seamen from various cultures and time periods who were immortal prisoners of the area. Tiger Shark offered to lead them out of the area if they would serve him once they were free. The Sub-Mariner, however, entered the mist-locked area and opposed the Shark once more. Tiger Shark escaped in the wake of the explosion of an experimental Nazi torpedo. Not long after, Tiger Shark again crossed paths with the Lady Dorma, who agreed to marry him if he would help save Atlantis from Orka, another of Dr. Dorcas's creations, and the Atlantean traitor Krang. The Shark fought valiantly against Orka and his battalion of killer whales. Locked in battle, both Tiger Shark and Orka were sucked under when a huge crevice opened in the ocean floor.

Eventually escaping, Tiger Shark discovered that his amphibious powers were diminishing. Unable to locate Dr. Dorcas, he allied himself with the Lemurian empress Llyra and the scientist Lymondo. Llyra wished vengeance upon Namor for thwarting her ascent to the Atlantean throne. Tiger Shark wanted to use Lymondo's replica of the morphotron to siphon more of Namor's power into himself. The three learned of and kidnapped the Sub-Mariner's human father, Leonard MacKenzie. Subdued by treachery, Namor was placed into the morphotron and used to restore the Shark's prowess. In an ensuing struggle, Tiger Shark threw a lead pipe at Namor's father, killing him.

Tiger Shark fled and hid out until he learned that Namor had experienced amnesia concerning the incident. Tiger Shark came out of hiding and was reunited with Dr. Dorcas. After Dorcas was eventually killed by a war machine of his own design, the Sub-Mariner found Tiger Shark and turned him over to the local authorities.

Tiger Shark inevitably escaped and made his way to Atlantis for another try at Namor. Again he failed, but this time he was rescued by the criminal Egghead who wished the Shark to be a member of his Masters of Evil to assist Egghead in his plan to totally destroy Henry Pym (currently, Goliath). Pym managed to turn the tables on all of the Masters, however, and they were taken into police custody. Some time later, Tiger Shark was freed from prison again, this time by Baron Zemo, who wished the Shark to join his own Masters of Evil coalition. Tiger Shark helped the Masters occupy Avengers mansion headquarters, but left the group before the Masters' final showdown with the Avengers. Tiger Shark was last seen in San Francisco, allied with Whirlwind, another Master of Evil at large, where he battled Tigra and Hellcat and remanded to police custody.

Tiger Shark continued various criminal activities, and on one such endeavor, fought the hero Wolverine, who savagely defeated the villain, leaving him to die by being eaten alive by sharks. Barely escaping with his life, Arliss was once again mutated by Dr. Dorcas, this time into a more bestial version of himself, with virtually no human intelligence or capacity to speak. In this capacity, Tiger Shark was used by various villains in their own schemes, and at one point against the Sub-Mariner yet again.

Eventually, his intelligence began to revert to somewhat normal levels, and Tiger Shark began embarking on his own criminal activities again. At one point he was invited to form the latest incarnation of the Masters of Evil, led by the current Crimson Cowl. Tiger Shark continued to be a part of nearly all major activities by the Masters, running into conflict with the hero team Thunderbolts, who eventually managed to bring the Masters to justice