Digital artist George Evangelista, who recently conceptualized how the ’90s animated series Street Sharks could look if it came to life in a movie, is back at it with a fresh look at Big Slammu, the series’ heavy-hitting, sports-oriented Cooper brother. Per the Street Sharks Wiki, which we promise is a real thing, Slammu was the strongest (as well as youngest) of the four. He was a football player in high school. In “Sharkbait,” he uses a skateboard to get around. When he transforms into Slammu, he turns into a half-human Whale Shark. His most prominent attack is called “Seismic Slam”, where Slammu sets off an earthquake by hitting the ground with his fists and can “swim” through the pavement.
The early ’90s was a weird time for animation fans, as most cartoons focused on a random combination of adjectives and animals in hopes of capturing the same success as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. One such series was Street Sharks, focusing on sharks with legs who embarked on all manner of wacky adventures and did battle with villains like Dr. Piranoid. Coop/Slammu was voiced by D. Kevin Williams (Archie’s Weird Mysteries) in the 1994 TV series. You can see Evangelista’s art and commentary via his Instagram post below. Below that, you can see a look at the “original” Big Slammu.
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The series itself, as you can witness above, wasn’t known for groundbreaking animation, so it would appear as though Evangelista covered all the necessary components of the character. Shark body, teeth, and pants. The smoky explosions in the background make the image feel like it comes from the set of a Michael Bay film, which makes sense, as Bay was a producer on the recent incarnations of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The concept of the series detailed that two professors had created a “gene-slammer,” which allowed aquatic animals to venture onto the land thanks to combining their DNA with humans. The four sons of one of the creators were subjected to this treatment, with their DNA being combined with those of different sharks. The other professor combined his DNA with that of a piranha, as the series depicted this monstrous mastermind attempting to convince the general public to lock up these “Street Sharks” as he created more beasts to battle them.
Street Sharks only lasted for 40 episodes, with its final installments being crossovers with the Dino Vengers, who were dinosaurs from another planet. Other notable attempts to mimic the success of the Ninja Turtles were SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, which focused on two feline heroes who fought crime with the help of their fighter jets, and Biker Mice From Mars, which is pretty much explained in the title.
What do you think of Evangelista’s artwork? Would you like to see an entire Street Sharks film that looked like this? Let us know in the comments below and check out more of the artist’s work on his Instagram page.
