Starting with the quick explanation as to what this is. So I really like the Spider-Man villain The Shocker. I wanted to write about why I love the goon so much because none of my friends want to hear me talk about him anymore. I could have gone the route of a Shocker appreciation blog, but that would get tedious real quick, so instead here’s Ensemble Darkhorse. A blog, named after the TvTrope, where I can talk about my sometimes complicated feelings for fictional characters.

Anyways, THE SHOCKER!!!

My love for Herman Schultz is not one I can explain easily. I didn’t find love like most, face to face, reading old back issues and current books. I found mine in the comic book equivalent (and all media actually) of Plenty of Fish – fanfiction.

I already have a torrid affair with fanfiction that’s a topic (long and also complicated) for another day, but the Shocker’s place in my heart did start there. Years ago, and I’m not exactly sure when this was, I was looking for comic book fanfiction, a hard thing to come by, as most of its small library is fuckin terrible. Like, oh my god don’t get me started. So looking for a fic, I found a page on Tvtropes (another lover) on a fic called The Shocker Legit.

In this fic we have Herman trying to legitimize his career and get caught up in some kind of conspiracy theory. I liked the fic quite a lot when I was younger, thirteen I think. It portrayed Shocker as a put upon every man, who got shafted by the system and turned to crime because it was his only way to get cash (I think, it’s been a while and I refuse to read it again). It got me interested in the guy, so I looked him up on all the appropriate wikis and watched a few YouTube videos of him in the cartoons to get more of a feel for him.

Now the fic wasn’t great, the more I remember about it. It inserted a lot of Marty Stu characteristics into my main man. Younger, hotter, less incompetent, and a hell of a lot smarter. Granted the comics make a point to say the Herman is a very talented engineer, having made a shock gauntlet prototype in prison from spare parts, but Shocker Legit paints him as a Tony Stark wannabee (as does another Shocker fic called Transistor, which is basically the same as Legit, but with zombies). The real Herman (as seen below and I still think he’s beautiful), isn’t a heart throb and is usually one of the schlubbiest villains in Marvel’s catalog.

The Shocker is one of Spider-Man’s longest standing villains, having debuted all the way back in Amazing Spider-Man #46. He was shitty career criminal that decided if he was going to continue sucking at it he might as well dress in style.

Fashion. That’s what that is right there. Mmmhmm. Good stuff.

So the pineapple suit actually does do something besides look fly as fuck and that’s block the vibrations from his bracers. That’s his shtick by the way, which you’d think I’d mention earlier, but naw. His bracers, or “vibro-shockers,” shoot out super compressed air that act like long range punches. Though the effects rarely look like the typical “sound” attacks you see in media, and more like lightning, or a combination of the two (which is the best).

He honestly wouldn’t have stood out too much (and he really didn’t until the internet came around) if he hadn’t actually beaten Spider-Man in their first fight, due to Spidey’s bum arm at the time. And I always liked to imagine that The Shocker looked at that fight the same way that douchebag, forty-five year old dads look back on their high school glory days. “Yeah, your old man smashed Spider-Man’s head in! What? Sure his arm was broken, but I could’ve beaten him if he had eight!”

Problem is, that glory days joke was true for me. That little bit of true cool right there only serves to add to his imagined clout that Legit gave him. Now he wasn’t just some C-lister, no no no. He was an almighty janitor type in my head, a guy who could totally be in the big leagues if he got a good break, or didn’t have self-confidence issues, like Electro or something.

This problem is only compounded due to his other main character trait that people like me (idiots) focus on. The Shocker is what TvTropes likes to call a punch-clock villain. A trope I’m quite fond of. It means he’s a bad dude that does bad shit, but its nothing personal on his part. It’s just a job. This is a character trait I’ve always found interesting in media, as it can be incredibly humanizing. Most people in the real world don’t have megalomaniacal dreams of grandeur, they’re just out for a quick buck. This isn’t a trait often seen in comic book villains; it’s usually a tragic backstory, revenge, crazy, or the mentioned megalomania. I find someone who’s really not all that bad, but still morally bankrupt enough to commit horrible acts of violence for money, extremely compelling.

Being a punch-clock villain is one of the real character traits the Shocker has, unlike being handsome or a fucking genius. In most descriptions of him that you’ll find online, the Shocker is noted as being more concerned with professionalism than taking out superheroes and the like. Shit he even let Spider-Man go a few times out of professional courtesy (He also tried to waste Trapster a few times, along with others, so take that with a grain of salt. The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon (with a picture of Herman from then below) does show this off pretty well. I’d check it out if you want good Shocker stuff.

Unfortunately it’s hard to find old sources on this besides wiki entries, as a lot of the older books show him as thug without much going on upstairs. Another face for Spider-Man to punch on the Sinister Six, usually the first. It’s a lot more apparent going forward in series like Superior Foes of Spider-Man, where our main man is a put upon doofus just trying to live his life.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man is a pretty good read with a lot of good humor and Shocker moments. It draws him as a guy who’s really fed up with his position in life, and really just wants to do his job in piece. A scene made me visibly cringe was when Shocker asked a friend if he wanted to Redbox a movie that night. That dumb joke is probably the first thing I’ll point to if someone asks for the most human moment a villain ever had. Fuck Batman villains! That’s character! Who cares if they’re all reflections of him!? Firefly or Killer Croc never get sad that they’re Dominoes order is late, so why should I care!?

I’ll leave the best moment from the book here as maybe the deepest cut in both Shocker and Spider-Man lore. I won’t spoil why he’s doing it, but even without context it’s amazing.

The Shocker is a character I feel weird about, it’s why I wanted to write this. He’s a guy I liked because of fanfic characteristics that were either made up or exaggerated. But I like how the Shocker is portrayed now, I think it’s a good step from his pretty boring roots into a more nuanced character. Mr. Schultz holds a tricky area of my heart.

Also, I know he’s in Spider-Man Homecoming. He was fine. I liked how the second guy was portrayed, but I wish they gave him the actual vibro-shockers instead of a big glove.

And he had six arms once. Cool right? No. Spider-Island was dumb.

He’s a silly looking guy that shoots air at people, but he’s dope and I love him. I bought his action figure and I’ll reread Superior Foes and maybe even Transistor (it was the better fic after I thought about it) to get my fix.

Just remember. Don’t mock him.