A
villain published by
Marvel Comics.
The Shocker first
appeared in
Amazing Spider-Man #46 in 1967.
Herman Schultz was your average three-time loser. In prison for
his third time on a burglary charge, Schultz decided to use his
natural inventive abilities to create a tool to help him quickly
and quietly open safes. To this end, Schultz used spare parts from
the prison shop to create an industrial strength vibrator of sorts.
Giving off waves of vibrations, Schultz's devices would allow him
to shake a safe door until it fell off from the vibrations. How having
a large metal door vibrate in place against the rest of a safe and
the break and fall to the ground could be mistaken for being a
silent way of opening it up has yet to be explained.
Schultz's new device, which Schultz dubbed his vibro-shock units,
left prison with him. Schultz however learned
a valuable physics lesson when he first tried using them. Discovering
that for every action there is an equal and opposite ]reaction],
Schultz was nearly shaken to death when he employed his devices,
which he wore on his wrists and operated with a thumb trigger.
Schultz then created a costume that was padded to help absorb the
vibrations of the gauntlets, and a mask to hide his identity. The
quilted uniform gave him a rather puffy look that he feared would
not be taken seriously, so he named himself The Shocker.
On his first foray into the world with his new device, the Shocker
met resistance from Spider-Man. The two clashed and though the
Shocker initially gained the upper hand, Spider-Man eventually
defeated him and sent him to jail. This began a long line of
defeats for the Shocker. Even teaming up with other villains,
like the Masters of Evil, met with little success.