AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #364: Something involving "shock"

[starwolf_oakley]

The Shocker is a Spider-Man villain that is somewhere in the high-B low-A area. Whenever he and Spider-Man fight, he always gives Spider-Man a hard time. Yet he never quite "hit the big time." I used to think that was because he had no connection to Peter Parker or Peter's friends.





Yes, this issue also was part of the lead up to "Peter Parker's parents return."



Funny, though. There are villains high on Spider-Man's list of villains who don't have any connection to Peter Parker or his friends. The Kingpin and Electro are two that come to mind. But anyway...



The Shocker is looking for power-boosters to use against Scourge. Actually, there were a whole bunch of Scourges who were working for the Red Skull, which the "original" Scourge didn't like. (More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scourge_of_the_Underworld )






Spider-Man stopping a mugging explains why he would only arrive shortly before May Parker, who is a *bit* slower than him.







David Micheline never really did "Aunt May thinks Spider-Man is bad" during his (rather long) run on AMAZING. I think that was something dropped after AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #200, which was written by Marv Wolfman.



Spider-Man is worried Shocker could kill someone. But Shocker intends to use that compressor for self-defense. Against assassins who are working for the Red Skull, but neither Spider-Man nor Shocker know that.



And this leads right into the return of Peter Parker's parents, who were really robots created by the Chameleon. Who was hired by Harry Osborn because he wanted to hurt Peter. Comics were strange back in the 1990s.

Comments

[locuatico]

I think Shocker is in a pretty sweet spot in the character tier.
He is high enough in the tier that he is not in danger to fall in the limbo of forgotten characters many spidey villains fall into yet not high enough that some writer will make him overpowered or try to eleveta him as Peter's greatest nemesis ever or something like that.

Like, he is perfect for writers to use as fodder whenever they need to give Peter a though opponent but don't want him to fight the big bad of the story just yet.

[tcampbell1000]

His personality seems to flow into that, too. He's tough but not that driven, smart but not that ambitious.

[crinos]

I actually own this comic.

IIRC, the reason he wants that power enhancing pack is because the Scourge of the Underworld, a Punisher like Vigilante who specializes in murdering costumed super villains, had recently gone into the Bar With no name (The cliche super villain hang out) and gunned down a shit ton of D list supervillains, and Shocker was naturally worried he might be next.

[zachbeacon]

That's kind of his thing. He's joined the Sinister Syndicate, Seven, and "Six" because he was afraid of Scourge, Kaine, and Spock.