Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom, Kingpin, and other fantastic villains have all appeared in Spider-Man. With a collection like this, it is easy to overlook lesser-known supervillains like Hydro-Man and the Shocker.
Hydro-Man and his MJ-crazy antics have already been discussed. As a result, we would like to highlight the Shocker in this video.
The Shocker is a Marvel Comics villain that is both an antagonist and a supervillain. He was designed by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. to be an opponent of Spider-Man, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
He designed his own combat outfit and weapons as an inventor and engineer. He began his career as a safecracker and burglar. He climbed into the criminal underground of New York City as Shocker. He was hired by crime lords and opposed by Spider-Man once he developed a name for himself, the most noteworthy example being his association with Kingpin and Alistair Smythe in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
Shocker first appeared in The Amazing Spider #46 in March 1967. He was a significant and regular character from Issue 157 to 162. In the comic series ‘The Superior Foes of Spider-Man,’ he played an essential role.
The man is intelligent, but a little too cocky for his own good. He is self-conscious about his lack of confidence, which he hides under his arrogance. He is great with tools, but he is bad at avoiding incarceration. And he is up against a superhero who built his own equipment and does not have any inherent superpowers. Today, we will discuss how Shocker came to be, how he constructed his devices and the story arcs that make him interesting enough to be ranked as Spider-23rd Man’s best foe by IGN.
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Shocker: Origin In The Comics
Shocker makes his first appearance without much of an introduction. Spider-Man intercepts the guy in a fight and is seemingly overpowered, thanks to Shocker’s Vibro-Shock Gauntlets. He doesn’t seem to have any superpowers as such but his gadgets are efficient enough to take a massive toll on the good ‘ole wallcrawler.
It’s evident that the guy has a fake superiority complex. He’s absurdly proud of the power of his gauntlets and constantly refers to himself as Spider-Man’s superior. Towards the end of the issue, he’s obviously bested by the superhero. However, he doesn’t go down without letting the readers know where he came from.
Originally known as Herman Schultz, Shocker was born in New York City. His parents died early. Herman was extremely intelligent. He could invent gadgets and engineer them brilliantly. However, he dropped out of high school and began to use his talents for illegal activities such as burglary and cracking safes. He was pretty good at what he did but he wasn’t very good at evading imprisonment. He had already been imprisoned before and was at the risk of losing his freedom once again during one of his safe-cracking endeavors.
After he got caught, again, his adeptness with tools helped him garner a job at the prison workshop. But, Herman had freedom in his mind. He wanted to get out. And to do that, he had to invent something so foolproof that he’d never be caught again. He worked on his gauntlets that went on to become his staple and no one suspected anything. Ultimately, after months of work, he used the vibrations from the gauntlets to blast the prison walls. Once again, he was a free man.
The only problem here was that the backlash from the vibrations was way too strong. To mitigate those effects, he developed his suit to have heavy boots and a foam-lined fabric. This would absorb all the shocks. Meanwhile, a lifetime battery in his belt would power his gauntlets. And thus, the Shocker was born. With these devices, he could crack safes with just the vibrations.
However, to activate his powers, he’d need to press his thumbs on the gauntlet buttons. So during his second fight with Spider-Man, Spidey webbed his fingers and was ultimately able to capture the Shocker.
A few issues later, Shocker stole an ancient stone tablet. The tablet was inscribed with a formula that restored youth. Silvermane used that tablet but his youth was restored way beyond what one would consider youth and he actually stopped existing.
Shocker gradually upped his game at being a criminal and went past the basic illegal activities such as burglaries. Once, he blacked out almost half of New York City and held it ransom for a million dollars. We’ve already mentioned how this guy has a superiority complex with an inflated ego. He stayed true to that here and strategically blacked out the grids so that the city would spell out his name when looked at from a bird’s eye view.
He’s quite stupid for someone who can cause a giant blackout singlehandedly and create gadgets good enough to outdo Spider-Man in a fight. Because if he’s doing it all for money, he could’ve just made something cool and sold it for millions.
Shocker’s Classic Story From Spider-Man: The Animated Series
Spider-Man: The Animated Series has featured Shocker as an associate of Alistair Smythe, the inventor who works for Kingpin. Nothing is known about his early life in this show and his real name isn’t mentioned either.
He has been featured in several story arcs of the show.
Shocker tries to help Kingpin
While Rhino stole the Promethium X, Eddie Brock got photos of it. Kingpin found out about it and obviously wanted to do away with Eddie because he couldn’t risk being caught. To help him out, Alistair Smythe offered him the perfect man with the perfect device to help him out. Here, Shocker is given the Vibro-Shock Gauntlets and the suit by Smithe, unlike in the comics where Herman created the gadgets himself.
Shocker goes after Eddie Brock to get those photos of Rhino. Unfortunately for him, Spider-Man was at Eddie’s apartment, looking for Rhino’s pictures as well. He overheard Shocker threatening Eddie and went after Shocker. The two ended up fighting and once it ended, Shocker believed that he killed the wall-crawler. He was wrong though. Spidey tracked him to his hideout and got away after stealing the Promethium X.
The abduction of John Jameson
Kingpin learned about this incident and ordered Alistair Smythe to get it back, even if he had to hold New York City hostage. So Smythe abducted John Jameson who was then hospitalized.
Shocker snuck into the hospital room where John Jameson was kept and kidnapped him. He then broke into his father’s room a.k.a. J. Jonah Jameson and told him that he had abducted John. To negotiate, he asked Jameson to bring Spider-Man to the church where he’d exchange John for the Promethium X.
Spider-Man Almost Kills Shocker
Spider-Man and J.J.J. went to the church. Spidey handed out the Promethium X to Smythe in return for John. However, Smythe got Shocker with him to take care of Spider-Man once and for all. A shocker was overwhelmed by Spidey’s strength and lured him to the church’s bell tower. He blasted at him with the gauntlets but Spider-Man broke a stone railing and then used it to break Shocker’s gauntlets.
Here, Spider-Man was under the influence of the symbiote so he was a lot more violent than usual. He held Shocker over a ledge, threatening to kill him. He ended up dropping him from above but finally came to his senses. He then used his webbing and saved Shocker’s life, who got away.
Partnership With Rhino
Shocker partners up with Rhino to kill Spider-Man. The two of them went against Spidey, resulting in a brutal battle where Spider-Man seemed to be completely overwhelmed. Shocker even tried to kill him by powering up his gauntlets to the max; however, Venom arrived and trapped Rhino and Shocker in a giant web. Both villains were ultimately arrested.
The Insidious Six
Kingpin formed the notorious villainous group called the Insidious Six. He broke Shocker, Doc Ock, Chameleon, Rhino, Mysterio, and Scorpion out of prison to carry out his plans.
During the first mission, Shocker messed up royally. Doc Ock had used his mechanical arms to capture Spider-Man but during this time, the Insidious Six began to argue with each other. In the heat of the moment, Shocker blasted at Doctor Octopus’ arm, causing Spider-Man to get away.
They got a hold of him again by kidnapping Aunt May. During that time, Spider-Man had also lost his powers. So he was easily captured when he tried to rescue Aunt May. Shocker tried to kill him once again but Doctor Octopus stopped him.
Later, Peter used his smarts to trick the villains into going atop a roof where Peter allegedly met Spider-Man. Shocker blasted at him with his gauntlets but Spider-Man regained his powers and escaped. The Insidious Six ultimately disbanded because of their failure.
What Makes Shocker So Deadly?
Shocker has no superpowers. He’s just a regular guy with some great intellect. But that comes a long way in the superhero world. After all, Tony Stark is just a guy in a suit of armor.
Shocker is quite the brilliant inventor. He is also a gifted engineer. Turns out, he is self-taught. Considering he has built his gauntlets and suit from scratch, it wouldn’t be a stretch to call him a genius either.
He believes himself to be the greatest safecracker in the world. Not sure if that’s true but he does end up getting caught for someone who’s the best.
His physical strength is similar to that of a regular guy who trains a lot. However, when he is in his element, he is quite dangerous.
The equipment he uses, the Vibro-Shock Gauntlets, are strong enough to rumble an entire building and give Spider-Man a run for his money. He has two Vibro-shock units which he activates with a thumb trigger. The gauntlets then blast concentrated air as it is made to vibrate at an intense frequency.
So he’s got both long-range and short-range vibrational punches. It can weaken and destroy walls and entire buildings if necessary. He can even control the output as it depends on the amount of time he has spent holding down the triggers. The longer he presses them down, the more intense and faster the vibrational attacks get. He can even control the spread of the air blasts that way.
The reason why he created this in the first place is to use the vibrations to crack open safes without touching it and making much of a sound. It’s not like he needs to maximize his output for safe-cracking.
He can create a vibrational shield that helps with defense and escape.
However, every good thing has its weakness and for the gauntlets, it’s the feedback that can be intense for the physical body. But Shocker is a brilliant guy and his suit is more than adept at neutralizing those shocks with its quilt patches.
There exists a trip-hammer vibration shock which he uses to make his attack way more potent. He later upgraded his equipment to create shockwaves throughout the costume, using micro-circuitry emitters. A smart choice considering it was easy to take him down by webbing his thumbs. But he still wore the gauntlets to give off the illusion that he was dependent on them. Later, he managed to gain other upgrades such as flight.
However, he would often go back to the original suit structure, probably because the upgrades were unstable or way too pricey for someone who cannot commit crimes without getting caught.
Insane Versions Of Shocker In Various Forms Of Media
The comics and Spider-Man: The Animated Series aren’t the only places where this guy has appeared. In fact, he has been featured in other forms of media across animation and even live-action.
He appeared in the 1981 show Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, in the episode ‘Along Came A Spidey’.
In 2008, he appeared in the Spectacular Spider-Man. His origin story was notably changed from the comics since his original name was made to be Jackson Brice instead of Herman Schultz. He used to work as a mercenary for The Enforcers, a group of assassins and extortionists.
He then appeared in 2012’s Ultimate Spider-Man as a recurring villain. However, he wasn’t considered to be a huge threat. Here, he was also a potential candidate for Sinister 6. But he ultimately did not make the cut.
In 2017, he appeared in Marvel’s Spider-Man in the episode Osborn Academy. Here, he develops his gauntlets as a budding engineer to audition for Osborn Academy.
When it comes to Live-Action movies, Shocker hasn’t played a huge antagonistic role like other Spider-Man villains such as Green Goblin and Mysterio, however, he did have a pretty significant role in the 2017 Marvel movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Bokeem Woodbine played the role of Herman Schultz, who is an employee at the salvage company run by Adrian Toomes a.k.a Vulture. However, Tony Stark’s engineering company Damage Control has ruined their business so now they commit crimes for their money.
Interestingly, the Vibro-Shock gauntlets appeared in Captain America: Civil War where it was wielded by the HYDRA agent Crossbones.
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