The Commanding Conch is a living conch shell who is an enemy of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy. He first appears in a poster in SpongeBob Comics Annual Super-Giant Swimtacular No. 1, before reappearing as the antagonist of the comic Sidekick Blues.

Description[]

The Commanding Conch is simply a lavender conch shell. He has the ability to talk and is strong enough to hop short distances. If the Conch manages to land on someone's head, he will control the person wearing him, making them his slave. However, if the person he is controlling has strong enough willpower, the Commanding Conch will lose control of the person as they overcome his hypnosis.

Role in comic book[]

The Commanding Conch first appears in a bonus gallery poster, alongside nearly every other Mermaid Man villain to exist. His existence in the poster foreshadows his role as antagonist in the next comic.

He then appears in the comic Sidekick Blues, and is first seen in the opening controlling Barnacle Boy. Later, Barnacle Boy is forced to clean the Mermalair when he encounters a conch shell that speaks when he dusts it. The shell tells him that it has an important task to tell the hero, and asks him to lean in so it can tell him. As he does this, the shell jumps onto Barnacle Boy's head and controls him as the shell reveals that it is actually the Commanding Conch, one of Mermaid Man's enemies that he captured many years ago.

While controlling Barnacle Boy, he knocks down and captures Mermaid Man before sealing him in a depth chamber that will kill him when it drains of saltwater. While the hero is trapped, the Conch decides to use Mermaid Man's whirlpool creator to cause havoc in the world's oceans. Suddenly, Mermaid Man and his mentor Edwardian Age Mermaid Man burst in to stop his plan, but the Conch makes Barnacle Boy pelt the heroes with waterballs.

Unable to move, Mermaid Man tells Barnacle Boy that only he is able to defeat the Commanding Conch, which makes the shell laugh when he suddenly loses control of Barnacle Boy. The hero uses his willpower to take the Conch off his head, before kicking him away as he becomes angry that his plan has been foiled.

Trivia[]

• He is the second conch shell to be associated with Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy. The first is the conch signal.
• In the poster he appears in, he is referred to as the "Controlling Conch."