Hook Jaw received mixed treatment when Action returned. Following a swift wrap-up of the Jack Gunn story, which had another ten weeks plus to run, Felix Carrion was moved to Double Dynamite, clearing the way for the far superior work of John Stokes. Unfortunately, the strip lost both its writer and its colour slot, which went to Look Out for Lefty! Without Ken Armstrong, Hook Jaw was a sedate affair, with script chores farmed out to the Gilbert Agency. Swimmers came close to the jaws, but were rarely seen going inside, as the action either 'cut away' to a reaction shot at the last moment, or had another object obscure the view. Hook Jaw became more discerning, choosing mainly to eat nothing but evil-doers. Sometimes Stokes was allowed a good chomp, but there was not much blood, and no dismembered limbs. Eventually, Hook Jaw moved back to the colour pages, but this did little to help, as the strip was a pale shadow of its former self.

Below are the first and last of the revised episodes. It's strange to think a shark that has survived harpoons, explosions, boiling seas, electrocution and other marine predators would finally succumb to the pop of a boiler on board a little steam boat, but did he? A last thread was left to dangle, so we'll never know if the explosion really wiped Hook Jaw from existence. Either way, it's an unfitting end for the remorseless leviathan of the deep.