Merge:Shocker

The Shocker is a character from the Spider-Man comics published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #46 (March, 1967). The issue was scripted by Stan Lee and drawn by John Romita, Sr..

Character biography
Herman Schultz was a high school dropout who had brilliant talents as both an inventor and an engineer. Instead of using such talents to gain legitimate employment, he became a successful burglar and (according to him in later stories) the world's best safecracker. After finally being caught and incarcerated for his crimes, he developed a pair of gauntlets designed to shoot air blasts, vibrating at high frequency. These blasts operate on five levels, Level 1 being enough to throw someone off balance, whereas Level 5 will vibrate someone's bones into jelly.

Unfortunately, the feedback from these devices is incredibly intense, and thus Schultz developed a very unconventional costume. It consists of yellow quilted material which covers most of his body to protect him from his own weapons, thus making him bear some resemblance to a giant pineapple. In the Spider-Man: The Movie videogame, Spider-Man mocks him by saying: "So who are you supposed to be? Quilt Man? Padded Pete? Mr. Triple-Ply? Wait, I got it; The Cushion!" In the sequel to that game, Shocker makes a second appearance and in combat, Spider-Man says, "I've been meaning to ask you, how is your absorbency compared to the leading brand?" as well as "You look different, have you been reupholstered?"

Schultz used the gauntlets to escape from prison and became the powerful supervillain known as "The Shocker". His innovation leads some to consider him a counterpart to Spidey, who made his own web shooters and cartridges.

The Shocker has constantly tinkered with and upgraded the abilities of his costume and guantlets. His suit now deflects physical blows and makes him virtually impossible to grasp by creating a vibrational shield generated by built-in vibrator units. He also recently allowed Hammer Industries to drastically upgrade the power of his guantlets. Unfortunately, he is very untrusting about sharing the whole of his secrets, meaning that his unaltered suit offers him less protection than it provided while using his less powerful weapons (he is prone to nose bleeds after using the new ones).

Motivations
While most Spider-Man villains usually shift from their original goals to a vendetta against Spider-Man, the Shocker is still concerned only with profit, making him much more professional than his peers. The Shocker is one of the few super-villains who has never killed; indeed, his very weaponry is designed with fatality as a last resort. He also appears to be mentally stable; another minority in super-villains.

For what many consider to be a B-list villain, Shocker has a remarkably well-defined personality as far as comic book antogonists go. Besides not falling into the usual cliched megalomanic behavior of many "super-villains," he has been shown to recognize his own limitations and suffer from paranoia (in the Deadly Foes of Spider-Man series, which detailed his fears about being targeted by anti-heroes Scourge and The Punisher).

In recent stories ("Venomous" and "Senseless Violence") it has been revealed that Shocker has become extremely frustrated with his place in life, not wanting to be known as a punching bag for superheroes like Spider-Man. He unsuccessfully attempts to purchase the Venom symbiote at auction in order to gain some respect. When temporarily partnered with Hydro-Man, he rebukes Morrie's suggestion that they go kill Spider-Man, being far more interested in more financially lucrative ventures.

At this point, Shocker seems to be driven not only by the desire to make a profit, but to prove to himself that he is the success he believes he feels he once was and should still be.



Recent Activities
The Shocker found a rare moment of victory over Spider-Man when he teamed up with the Trapster. But before the villain duo could finish Spidey off the Trapster receives a phone call from his employer, The Friends of Humanity, saying that payment would be doubled if the villains allowed Spider-Man to live. Greed forces Shocker and Trapster to leave Spider-Man be, despite Shocker's joke that Spider-Man's death would allow him to cut back on therapy. Ironically, Shocker and Trapster were split as allies when the Shocker was given the task to eliminate Trapster by Norman Osborn. He would have succeeded had Spider-Man (using the alias of Dusk) not stopped him. In recent appearances, he has been trying to pull one big bank robbery so he can retire.

Recently he allied himself with Speed Demon of the New Thunderbolts in order to break into a particular well guarded safe. Though the police arrived at his hide-out in quick pursuit, he was saved by Speed Demon, who dashed in and stole both the loot and Shocker's weapons, removing all traces of evidence (and unfortunately, for Shocker, also keeping the money to fund the Thunderbolt's further activities).

He was later captured by Spider-Man while trying to rob a federal bank alongside Hydro-Man

A new version of the Sinister Six, with the Shocker as a member, banded together during the Civil War but were stopped by Captain America and his Secret Avengers.

The Shocker has a surprisingly large fanbase for such a low-level villain. Many fans love that he actually isn't a lunactic but a simple thief, who rather will go after the money than kill his enemy.

As a sidenote, Herman Schultz is not the only Marvel villain to use the name Shocker. Randall Darby from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants/Mutant Force also used the name. Darby changed the name to Paralyzer at one point, perhaps merely to avoid confusion with the Shocker proper.

Ultimate Shocker
In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Shocker is a 33-year-old petty crook who raids money transports. He wears a purple trenchcoat and a pair of goggles to protect his eyes. He is not especially dangerous and has fought Ultimate Spider-Man five times (once while wearing the Venom suit, once alongside Ultimate Shadowcat and once with Ultimate Wolverine), suffering five embarrassing defeats. He perpetually ends up in jail with his equipment confiscated, but he somehow manages to get a new set every time he escapes, supposedly making it while still in prison. It was shown in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up that he does indeed keep making new vibration units in the machine shop of the prison, or possibly never actually has been charged with anything due to the way Spider-Man leaves him at the crime scene. This was noted in their latest encounter in the second annual, when Foggy Nelson advised Spider-Man to hand him over to the police rather than leave him on the ground.

Television

 * In Spider-Man: The Animated Series, the Shocker is a hired villain by the Kingpin. In his first appearance in The Alien Costume saga, when the reward for a million dollars for Spider-Man's capture was called off because Eddie Brock framed him, the Kingpin was worried that Brock would reveal Wilson Fisk's real occupation as a crime lord.  So he hired the Shocker to eliminate both Brock and the evidence.  Unfortunately, due to the arrival of a black-costumed Spider-Man, Brock got out of Shocker's hands but the Shocker presumably killed Spider-Man by having him seemingly crushed under a pile of rubble.  But Spider-Man survived and followed him back to his hideout to Alistair Smythe and then Spider-Man stole back the Prometheum X which was previously stolen by the Rhino in the previous episode.  The Shocker was forced to get it back by the Kingpin so he can sell it to a bunch of crooks for money.  So he kidnapped a hospitalized John Jameson and threatened his father, J. Jonah Jameson, if he doesn't show up with Spider-Man and the Prometheum X, John will die.  Spider-Man, Jameson and the Prometheum X arrived to meet Smythe and John in a church tower where John was released by the time Spider-Man gave him the Prometheum.  But it was a trap for Spider-Man after the Jamesons left and the Shocker got in a battle against Spider-Man, with a little trouble from Eddie Brock.  In the end, Spider-Man destroyed his shocking weapons and nearly killed him by having him fall off from a very tall height from the tower because his black alien symbiote pushed him off itself.  But he saved him by catching him with his web and removed the symbiote.  In the next, and final episode of the saga, the Kingpin realized the Prometheum X had completely turned into lead and that its ability to explode had expired.  He blamed this on Spider-Man for delaying their time.  So he hired the Rhino and Shocker to kill Spider-Man, who was back in his old costume.  Even though Rhino failed to kill Spider-Man on a rooftop, Shocker nearly fried the web-slinger but before they could finish the hero off, they were immediately attacked by Venom nd he tied them up so he can kill Spider-Man all to himself, in which in the end, failed when Spider-Man sent the costume back into space with John Jameson's second rocket ship and sent Eddie Brock, alter ego of Venom, to Ravencroft.  It is unknown how Rhino and Shocker got to jail but in The Insidious Six two-part episode, the Shocker got out of jail and became a member of the Insidious Six to kill Spider-Man, but failed again.  In the episode The Awakening, the Shocker was hired again by the Kingpin to work with Dr. Herbert Landon to kidnap a vampire Michael Morbius.  They successfully did but Morbius escaped in the end with help from Spider-Man and the Black Cat.  The Shocker's last appearance was being an Insidious Six member in the Six Forgotten Warriors saga.  He was voiced by Jim Cummings.

Video games

 * The Shocker is the only supervillain to be fought in four of the five recent Spider-Man games; Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro, Spider-Man: The Movie, Spider-Man 2 and Ultimate Spider-Man. A code in Spider-Man allows you to play as Spidey, wearing the Shocker's suit.


 * In Ultimate Spider-Man, Shocker is only a minor villain.


 * The Shocker will appear in the upcoming Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

Toys

 * Shocker has twice been produced as an action figure by Toy Biz. He has also been produced as a six-inch minibust by Bowen Designs.