Warning: contains spoilers for Suicide Squad: King Shark #8!
In the latest issue of Suicide Squad: King Shark, it's revealed that Nanaue has a hidden ability which hints at his true nature. The issue sees King Shark face off against Amanda Waller's secret "Limbo Legion" - a mystical offshoot of the Suicide Squad intended to bring him back under control after he left Belle Reve Penitentiary to compete in the supernatural Wild Games.
In Suicide Squad: King Shark, it has been revealed that Amanda Waller struck a deal with Nanaue's father, the Shark God, taking the deity's son onto her Suicide Squad to toughen him up for an impending battle royale between the animal spirits of the DC Universe. Despite resenting his father abandoning him to Waller, Nanaue agreed to fight, tearing through Earth's animal gods to assure the supremacy of the sea. But when Waller learned that the Wild Games had taken Nanaue outside her influence, she assembled a team to bring him back.
In Suicide Squad: King Shark #8 from Tim Seeley, Scott Kolins, John Kalisz, and Wes Abbott, King Shark faces off against the Limbo Legion. By far the most threatening enemy is a being known as Pigeon - a former Z-list villain obsessed with defacing public monuments, who it turns out is actually a god-killing monster tasked with destroying anything holy. She first attacks Nanaue, siphoning off his spirit, but is then attacked by his Shark God father. Meanwhile, King Shark fights the rest of the Legion - Black Bison, Etrigan, and Gentleman Ghost. But while King Shark is generally treated as a fast-healing, superstrong brawler, he shocks everyone when he's able to pick up the ethereal Gentleman Ghost and eat him whole, calling him a "spooky yum yum."
Gentleman Ghost is a supernatural villain who can phase out of sync with reality. While this power is impressive, it has been defeated before, but always by extreme means. Black Manta recently used bleeding-edge technology to hit Gentleman Ghost, while Batman had to rely on enchanted gauntlets from John Constantine. In contrast, King Shark doesn't use any external magic, tech, or even planning - he just intuits that he'll be able to consume Gentleman Ghost.
While Nanaue theorizes his new ghost-eating ability is possible because Pigeon siphoned off some of his spirit, leaving him hungry for more, this likely isn't the whole story. Suicide Squad: King Shark has explored the fact that Nanaue is officially a demigod, only rejecting his lineage due to his hatred of his father. Unlike other animal-themed villains like Killer Croc or Orca, King Shark is a totemic embodiment of mystical ideas, and his ability to consume Gentleman Ghost proves that while he chooses not to draw on it, he clearly has another level of divine power he's yet to fully tap into. The Shark God himself is capable of physical and mystical attacks, as well as shapeshifting, influencing aquatic life, and even tearing holes in reality with his teeth, so the ability to literally eat a ghost is likely only the tip of the iceberg of what King Shark could do if he ever really tried. It's especially appropriate that even his more magic-based powers take such a visceral form.
Whether with the Suicide Squad or the Secret Six, King Shark fills the role of unthinking muscle, tearing apart enemies and healing rapidly from harm. But his ability to grab and consume a supernatural being teases a whole new range of powers waiting just below the surface. Nanaue is the definition of untapped potential, and the casual way in which he inherently understands how to bypass Gentleman Ghost's supernatural powers show he could become far more godlike in the future. Sadly, as Suicide Squad: King Shark ends with the Shark God apparently dying at Pigeon's hands, it seems that time may come sooner rather than later, as King Shark is now in line for a god-level inheritance.