Megalodon the Man-Shark

Dr. Connor Kirkstrom was a brilliant biologist specializing in marine life, as well as a passionate diver and oceanic explorer. Some thought Kirkstorm a bit reckless, but others admired his adventuring spirit, less common in later generations of scientists.
This reckless spirit of adventure changed Dr. Kirkstrom’s life forever. While studying great white sharks in the Pacific, Dr. Kirkstrom overlooked certain safety measures. When a shark cage proved faulty, Kirkstrom came face to face with a powerful great white and barely escaped with his life. One leg was severed, bitten off just below the knee, while his other was so badly mangled that doctors were forced to amputate it. Kirkstrom would never dive again. He underwent physical therapy and rehabilitation with the assistance of his fiancée, Susan Mishner.
Relegated to laboratory research, teaching, and writing, Dr. Kirkstrom became obsessed with the cause of his injuries. He became a renowned authority on sharks—their biology, behavior, and habits—and a kind of admirer of nature’s cruel and elegant design in creating the world’s perfect predator, unchanged by millions of years of evolution.
Among their other properties, Dr. Kirkstrom studied the biological structure and recuperative abilities of sharks. He believed he had found a means for using infusions of shark cartilage and DNA to promote regeneration of damaged tissue. If successful, his experiment could be a tremendous boon to medicine. However, he had difficulty in obtaining funding, given his somewhat reckless past and the lack of solid experimental data. He was encouraged to continue his research, but slowly, and to try again when he had more proof of his theories.
Kirkstrom was unwilling to wait. He knew his theories were correct, so he pursued research on his own. When funding dried up, and he was left with no experimental subjects for his new treatment, he tried it on himself with startling results. The missing parts of Dr. Kirkstrom’s legs spontaneously regenerated! More than that, he began taking on some other properties of sharks, including the ability to breathe underwater and tremendously enhanced strength and reflexes.
Then Kirkstrom noticed the side effects: the cravings for raw meat, the paranoia and bloodlust, the outbursts of rage. Worse yet, he noticed his skin becoming rough and gray, his teeth pointed. He tried stealing what he needed to formulate an antidote, to reverse the effects, but it was too late. A confrontation with the heroine Siren triggered a berserk rage in Dr. Kirkstrom and completed his transformation. No longer was he a crippled scientist; he was Megalodon, the Man-Shark!
Dr. Kirkstrom’s fiancée was able to use his research notes to help restore Megalodon to human form. However, Dr. Kirkstrom has become Megalodon on several other occasions since, and it remains to be seen if any cure is truly permanent. Most recently, Dr. Ashley Ellis of The Providence Asylum put forth the theory that at least part of Dr. Kirkstrom’s condition is psychological, and the Man-Shark is a manifestation of his buried trauma and the “shadow side” of his personality. Declared unfit for trial on the basis of temporary insanity while in his Megalodon form, Dr. Kirkstrom is currently on parole and under Dr. Ellis’ care. Both have high hopes continued treatment will cure Kirkstrom and banish Megalodon for good, although that remains to be seen.

Physical Description

Special abilities

Megalodon combines the most powerful traits of human and shark, able to breathe in both water and air, with arms and legs to move on land, but also capable of swimming at considerable speed in the water. His hide and muscle tissue are dense armor, while his hands and feet are tipped with claws and his wide mouth is filled with razor-edged teeth.
Megalodon is superhumanly strong, able to toss small boats and police cars with ease, or tear apart even a concrete pier. He has shark-like senses, including the ability to navigate in deep waters with no light and to detect scents like blood in the water.
Megalodon can exert mental control over other sharks, summoning them and ordering them to do his bidding, and typically has several swimming nearby when he appears.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Connor Kirkstrom is a brilliant man tormented by the monster inside of him and the things it made him do. His former love of life has diminished to the point where he has considered suicide to destroy Megalodon once and for all. Only the support of caring people like Dr. Ellis and the steadfast love of his wife Susan have kept Dr. Kirkstrom sane as he hopes and prays for deliverance from the specter of the Man-Shark. He has become meek and quiet, fearful that his anger is the key to Megalodon’s freedom.
Megalodon is a savage and remorseless killer, a predator par excellence. He’s perversely proud of his place at the top of the world’s food chain, considering all other creatures beneath him. Only other sharks are potential peers, and even they must bow to his superior will. Megalodon is quite cunning and more intelligent than many give him credit. Most of the Man-Shark’s short term plans involve survival and finding a means of ensuring he is never again forced to revert to the soft and helpless form of Connor Kirkstrom. Long term, the malevolent Man-Shark wants to rule the oceans, followed by different ways of flooding the world, possibly along with transforming humanity into his shark-men subjects or herds of aquatic prey—or both, depending on whether or not they side with Megalodon as the future of evolution—or evolving ordinary sharks into humanoid subjects with abilities similar to his own.