Shellshock

Shellshock v2.1

By Sébastien Andrivet

Source of Character: Fantastic Four Annual v1 #5 (1967), Marvel Two-in-One v1 #70 and 96

Reasons: Due to lack of data, bits of the writeup are by necessity speculative (such as the ammo capacity of the Shock Blasters, some of Shellshock’s Attributes, etc.)

Writeups.org & Amazon.com recommend Fantastic Four Masterworks 7.

Quotes

Shellshock

“My gun can also fire miniaturised hunter missiles — missiles which can never miss !”

“Freeze, fools — and face the power of Shellshock !”

“Back, brute ! I still wield the weapon here !”

“I hope the Thing recognizes me — before I beat his face into an orange omelet !”

Game Stats — DC Heroes

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Shellshock

Dex: 03	Str: 03	Bod: 04	Motivation: Mercenary
Int: 04	Wil: 04	Min: 05	Occupation: Mercenary
Inf: 05	Aur: 04	Spi: 04	Resources {or Wealth}: 004
Init: 012		HP: 015

Skills: Gadgetry: 04, Vehicles (Land): 04, Weaponry (Firearms): 04, Weaponry (Shock Blaster): 06

Advantages: Expertise (The technology of the Shock Blaster)

Connections: Underworld (Low), Live Wire (Low)

Drawbacks: None demonstrated

Equipment:

Shock Blaster heavy pistol Mk1 [BODY 05, Projectile weapon: 08, Ammo: 20]. This weapon was replaced by :
Shock Blaster heavy pistol Mk2 [BODY 05, Projectile weapon: 09, Ammo: 15]
Both versions of the Shock Blaster can also launch the following specialised ammunition, with just a switch of the fire selector:
- Hunter missiles (x2) [DEX 08 BODY 02, EV 06 (Area of Effect 0 APs), Flight: 10, Grenade drawback, Limitation : Flight can only be sustained for eight Phases (-2), Grenade Drawback]
- Concussive ammunition (Bashing damage - no other in-game difference)
- Hi-Explosive Shell (x1) [BODY 02, EV 12, Range: 03, R#02, Grenade Drawback]
- ’Bubble gum‘ shell (x2) [BODY 02, Snare: 18, Bonuses & Limitations: Snare has no AV (-0 or -1, use Weaponry instead) ; Snare is Sticky ; the material used for Snare has a Partial Attack Vulnerability toward cutting attacks (effective RV is 08), Grenade Drawback]
- Gas grenade (x2) [BODY 02, Knockout gas: 07, R#02, Grenade Drawback]
- Shellshock mentioned something about microwave blasts, but nothing of this kind was actually demonstrated
MASK [BODY 05, Sealed systems: 05. Note that the rest of the costume is not Sealed]. Shellshock is once seen standing in dissipating knockout gas without discomfort, so we’ll assume filters in his mask. This likely only applies to when he wears his yellow costume.

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Background

Real name: Gary Buser
Marital Status: Unrevealed
Known Relatives: None
Group affiliation: Former employee of the Psycho Man, former partner of Live Wire
Base Of Operations: New York City ; for a while a hidden base in the Caribbean
Height: 5‘81/2” Weight: 160 lbs.
Eyes: Brown Hair: Brown

Powers and Abilities

Shellshock is a vaguely competent thug and firearms specialist, who appears to be in good shape. He also seems to have some skill in technology, since he enhanced (or at least rebuilt) the weapon provided by the Psycho-Man.

His gun, the “shock blaster”, fires explosive bullets or miniature hypervelocity shells of some sort, but can quickly switch to sophisticated special-purpose projectiles as the situation requires. Since the gun is not that much larger than some of its ammunition, it is likely that the projectiles are kept compressed in size using Microverse technology before they are fired - though on one occasion the special ammunition was shown to be a barrel attachment.

Shellshock later rebuilt the shock blaster in an odd insectile configuration. This gun supposedly had twice the power of the old one - and in strict DCH terms it did.

History

Gary Buser was one of three goons recruited by the Psycho Man during his first foray on our Earth, along with Ivan the gunman and Live Wire (Rance Preston). The three enforcers were given special weapons, and were to assist and protect the Psyhco-Man as he assembled a giant psycho-ray to conquer the Earth. Shellshock and Live Wire already knew each other, having worked together as ’second-story men’ in New York City.

The plan of the Psycho-Man attracted the attention of no less than the Royal Inhuman Family, the Fantastic Four *and* the Black Panther. Although the powerful Psycho Man gave a good fight, his gunsels were flattened within but a few Phases. The managed to flee with their special weapons, though.

Years later, in 1980, Shellshock and Live Wire cased the apartment of famous sculptress Alicia Masters, the Thing’s girlfriend. They passed themselves for movers and absconded with valuable sculptures, but ran right into the Thing. The Thing crushed Buser’s shock blaster before he could pull the trigger.

Live Wire left to join the Circus of Crime, but Shellshock rebuild his gun and made himself a Silver-Age-Green-Lantern-villain-ish costume. Learning that the Thing was being hospitalised, Shellshock decided to attack him - and soon discovered that dozens of villains reacted in the same way. Friends of the Thing came running to prevent the attacks, and Shellshock was defeated by Ant-Man (Scott Lang).

In 1986,Shellshock was one of the minor villains who attended the crisis meeting at the Bar With No Name to discuss the threat the assassin Scourge posed to their ilk. Scourge infiltrated the meeting and killed everyone there, including Shellshock.

Description

See illustrations.

Personality

Like the other Psycho Man flunkies he is greedy, overconfident in the power of his special weapon, and aggressive. He thinks of himself as a much bigger threat than he is - but that actually helps since it means he remains calm in combat. His overconfidence seldom causes tactical blunders, just a lack of realisation about the power level of his opponents.

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