10 Widely Mocked Comic Book Villains That Get A Bad Press

6. Shocker (Marvel)

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #46, 1967 Shocker is a hideously underrated villain. Why? Well simply because he's used in such a stupid way. He is Herman Schultz - a genius who, despite dropping out of high school, was both a fantastic inventor and a brilliant engineer. However, instead of immediately using his skills to attempt to gain employment in his fields of expertise, he became a burglar and "the world's best safe-cracker" (his words). He was, eventually, caught and put in jail for what he had done but, whilst incarcerated, he used his genius to build a pair of gauntlets which could shoot air blasts that would vibrate at a high frequency (which is kind of on a par with things that Tony Stark and Lex Luthor have done in the past). He used them to escape and, despite his obvious genius, persisted in working for others like a mere flunky. This is what gets him his poor reputation. Even worse was the fact that, when he tried to redeem himself and rebuild his professional reputation, he did so by robbing banks, extorting money and various other illegal activities to show off his skills. Stupid. A man with such genius, who is more than capable of giving Spider-Man a hard time in a physical contest, should not be used in such a way that makes readers see him as a joke. But, sadly, he is.