David Reids was just a normal guy with a normal job. Working escort for armored cars to and from MC Banks. He was good at it for the most part. He just drove the trucks, picked up the money, took it someplace else. Heroes ran interference a lot, so he didn't have a care in the world, for the most part. Was a pretty easy gig. Until one day, some guys with some incredibly advanced weaponry attacked the truck. Blasted it off its wheels and thirty feet straight into the side of a building. His partner died on impact, but he was badly injured from the crash into the building. Odds are if he was left right there, he would die. Simple as that. Fortunately for him, he wasn't left there. He was taken by the men that attacked the truck. They took all the money and a hostage if one of the heroes were to follow, but they wouldn't be doing much following since they were dead from the attack. David was taken to some secret lab, to this day, he has no idea where. He never got a good look outside a window or anything, he's even sure there weren't any windows at all. They performed various experiments on the average man, horrible experiments. He occasionally woke up while on the slab of a table they had him on, awake long enough to hear tidbits of information. A few of the men speaking of the 'Glory of Destroyer' and using samples of 'Karkaradons' on the specimen. He only understood the Destroyer part, but that's because he lived in Millennium City, everyone knows who that is. He was still a normal human all of the times he woke up, nothing was really different, just that the room was really humid. At one point during all of the experiments and such, one of the men noticed he was awake, only to put him under for the entire rest of the procedure. He has no idea how long he was even out, but it was long enough for them to do some seriously twisted things to him while he was out.

Finally, after a pretty long period of time, he awoke in a cell. Dimly lit, humid and populated. There were at least three others in there with him, with various looks to them. One was grey with a pointed snout, another had a hammerhead while the third of them was kind of short with tan skin. Was really weird, but they didn't react much to him for some odd reason. It wasn't known to him why for quite some time. Then it hit him. He had a weird feeling coming from behind him. What could it possibly be? He then looked back, then freaked the f**k out at what he saw there attached to his body. He had a friggen TAIL! He didn't pass out with a tail, did he? They must have given it to him. And to make matters worse? He's BLUE! The hell?! Those madmen made him into a SHARKMAN! Not cool, guys. Not cool. This all was scary, weird and it made him mad. Why him? Why would they use him and not some superhero? Then it hit him. They needed someone without a history of mutations. They needed a blank slate. And they got one, but they had a fatal flaw in this plan. His parents were metahumans, he was just unlucky enough to not have developed abilities at puberty. Now this event? This is what kicked the genes into play. The humidity in the cell started to condense and move its way towards David. Like insects swarming a piece of food. It covered him. He was soaking wet for no other reason than just being there. He had to take in so much information in such a short amount of time. It wasn't fair. But what happened next would change his life even further. He threw his hands out towards the wall in frustration, causing the water to be propelled off of his form and to the wall with enough force to simply blow a hole into it. Water can be powerful with enough power behind it. He took the other inmates from the cell and escaped into the river. They were across the river from Millennium City this entire time!

Upon his escape from the unknown Destroyer followers, David made his way back across the river to Millennium City, and back to his home to get things sorted out. There's a lot to figure out now that he's basically a water manipulating shark man. And it really did take him a long time to figure out all this stuff, he basically disappeared into his house for like a week, just trying to get past that he was blue and had a tail. The powers were pretty easy to comprehend, and he didn't mind that. It was the physical aspect of his mutation that scared him. He wouldn't fit in anymore. No one would want him around. He would be the one people referred to as a freak. He would be hated because someone else decided to make him into a science experiment. He took a risk one day and decided to go outside to get some groceries. It went better than he expected. His looks made people just assume he was a mutant superhero or something. Some people actually thanked him for his contribution to the city and gave him hugs. What? Really? Huh, that made a few of his problems with this just disappear. Then he found out he didn't have a job anymore. Welp. So much for that. Now he needs to find some work. Didn't take long to find work though, he immediately found a local aquarium that was hiring someone to maintain and feed the fish in the fishtanks. With his new abilities and looks, he figured why not? Swim with the fish, save them on the equipment needed to do so. Pretty amazing job for a guy like him. Even gave him the chance to test out new ways to use his water powers as well. Making little whirlpools, changing the depth of the tank, whole lot of things. It was a pretty amazing gig. But then he needed to think up a persona for himself. This would be pretty easy in comparison to everything else he's had to do. He just went through a list of water related events or anomalies and settled on Tidalwave. A natural phenomenon of water manipulation. Now he needed a costume. And the easiest thing to do, was to go to one of the various tailors across the city, one of the foremost being Greer & Harlick. They were pretty easy on him, being a new hero and all. Asked him his powers, what he would need out of a suit. Then they came up with a special suit for him. Some shark fin related pieces on an elemental, cut and tear resistant set of tights. Now his persona was complete. He became Tidalwave. The mover of the oceans themselves.

He is relatively new to the whole superhero gig, and he had a lot of mishaps early on. Many news reports of minor flooding in the MC area were reported when he started out, but have stopped as he learned to control himself a bit better. He would be recognized from said reports as he took the full blame for it himself. He admitted to everything and even helped the people rebuild anything he broke. He doesn't mind being held responsible for any damage he causes while heroing, because even heroes need accountability. He is also seen as a role model for kids who visit the aquarium, teaching them about fish, the ocean and better ways to take care of both. He isn't much of a teacher, but he is good around kids.