Doctor Octopus
Doctor Octopus, also known as Doc Ock for short, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #3. He is a highly intelligent, myopic, and stocky mad scientist who sports four strong and durable appendages resembling an octopus's tentacles, which extend from his body and can be used for various purposes. After his mechanical harness became permanently fused to his body during a laboratory accident, he turned to a life of crime, and came into conflict with the superhero Spider-Man. He has endured as one of Spider-Man's most prominent villains, and is regarded as one of his three archenemies, alongside the Green Goblin and Venom. He is the founder and leader of the Sinister Six, the first supervillain team to oppose Spider-Man.
While usually portrayed as a supervillain, Doctor Octopus has also been occasionally depicted as a conflicted antihero and ally of Spider-Man. Following Spider-Man's death in the 2012 storyline "Dying Wish", which saw a dying Octavius swapping bodies with the hero and letting him die in his original body, Octavius was motivated to prove he could be a better Spider-Man. As such, he adopted the Superior Spider-Man alias, introduced in Avenging Spider-Man #15.1 following a cameo in Daredevil vol. 3 #21, as the fourth predominant main continuity Spider-Man. The Superior Spider-Man possesses all of the original Spider-Man's abilities, memories, and equipment, along with additional gadgets created by Octavius, though he often struggles to live up to his predecessor's legacy and seeks to turn his life around after being a villain for years.
In 2013, Marvel launched a 33-issue The Superior Spider-Man comic book series focusing on the character's redemption and superhero career. The original Spider-Man has since been resurrected after the death of Otto Octavius. Following Spider-Verse, a copy of his consciousness became a villain, though a second volume of The Superior Spider-Man launched in 2018 saw the duplicate taking on the mantle and the new name Dr. Elliot Tolliver before returning to the Doctor Octopus mantle as an antihero, having his soul restored and memories of redemption erased by Mephisto, before returning to the role of Superior Spider-Man in 2023 in a new series by Dan Slott, and Spider-Man: Octo-Girl by Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court.
Comics journalist and historian Mike Conroy writes of the character: "Created by Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, Doc Ock, as he became known, has become one of the web-slinger's most persistent, enduring, and dangerous foes." A fan-favorite character and well-known figure in popular culture, Doctor Octopus has been featured in various media adaptations of Spider-Man over the years, including feature films, television series, and video games. In live-action, Alfred Molina portrayed the character in the films Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Kathryn Hahn voiced a female version of Doctor Octopus named Olivia Octavius in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
In 2009, IGN ranked Doctor Octopus 28th in the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time, and in 2014 rated him Spider-Man's greatest enemy.
Publication history
Doctor Octopus first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #3, created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. Lee recounted: "Usually in creating a villain the first thing I would think of was a name, and then I would try to think of, 'Well, now that I've got the name, who's the character going to be and what will he do?' For some reason, I thought of an octopus. I thought, 'I want to call somebody Octopus. And I want him to have a couple of extra arms just for fun'. But I had to figure out how to do that". The character reappeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #11–12, then again in #31–33.Doctor Octopus is regarded as one of Spider-Man's most infamous enemies. He has been cited as the man Peter might have become if he had not been raised with a sense of responsibility. He is infamous for defeating Spider-Man the first time in battle and for almost marrying Peter's Aunt May. He is also the founder and core leader of the Sinister Six, and has referred himself as the "Master Planner". Later depictions revealed him in Peter Parker's body where he was the titular character from 2013 to 2014. In 2018, he returned as the Superior Spider-Man in a series written by Christos Gage and illustrated by Mike Hawthorne, and again in 2023 in a new series by Dan Slott, and Spider-Man: Octopus Girl by Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court.
Fictional character biography
Born in Schenectady, Otto Octavius was the only child of Torbert Octavius, a construction worker, and Mary Lavinia Octavius, a homemaker. While Mary loved and supported Otto right from the beginning, Torbert was a violent alcoholic who regularly beat Otto and his mother. The young Octavius's shyness and good work in school got him labeled as a "teacher's pet" and targeted as a subject for bullying. Torbert hated having a bullied son and, believing that a man's worth was determined by his dominant attitude and physical strength, roared at him to use violence in dealing with the bullies. Mary Octavius would always defend her son from Torbert's tirades, saying he was a gifted thinker who would use his brain to solve problems, not his fists. Due to his mother's insistence and her disgust towards men who worked in common manual labor, Octavius was determined not to become like his father and threw all his efforts into his education, regularly scoring top marks. Octavius' devotion to study paid off with him being awarded a university scholarship at M.I.T.. During Octavius's freshman year of college, he was undecided in his studies until they were briefly interrupted by Torbert's death in a construction accident. Otto attended the funeral for his mother's sake, although he himself did not mourn his father's death and later privately expressed his desire to have seen him suffer more. When Mary remarked that "an early death is a manual laborer's" and she expected better from her son, this seemed to spur an obsession in Octavius about the hard sciences, and he declared his major to be physical science. His obsession, however, did not manifest immediately, and he was regarded by his school friends as a devoted student who was genuinely interested in the studies. He graduated near the top of his class, and was considered a catch to many scientific firms. Octavius was soon hired by an engineering firm.Octavius became a brilliant and respected nuclear physicist, atomic research consultant, inventor and lecturer. He designed a set of highly advanced mechanical arms controlled via a brain–computer interface to assist him with his research into atomic physics. The tentacle-like arms were resistant to radiation and were capable of great strength and highly precise movement, attached to a harness that fit around his body. Later in his criminal career, he claimed the inspiration for the device came from the Vitruvian Man, a pencil sketch made by Leonardo da Vinci, one of his idols.
Though his relationship with co-workers was typically hostile, he was social enough to give a demonstration of his harness to a small group. He showed how the metal tentacles allowed him to work safely with chemicals that would normally be too dangerous for a human being to touch or be in close vicinity to. One such person impressed by this was a scientist named Mary Alice Anders, and the two soon dated. In due time, Otto proposed marriage to Mary Alice. However, when Otto joyously announced his future marriage to his mother, her feelings were not reciprocated. Believing that no woman was good enough for her son, she made him feel guilty that she was going to be pushed aside for his bride-to-be. Shocked that he hurt his mother, and to please her, Otto broke off the engagement with Mary Alice. Later, when Otto discovered that his mother had hypocritically begun dating a librarian, he finally snapped and lashed out at her, causing her to have a fatal heart attack. With the death of his mother and Mary Alice Anders out of his life, Octavius' disposition towards nearly everyone became mean-spirited, and he had become more distracted from paying attention to detail and safety precautions in his work. His co-workers often called him "Doctor Octopus" behind his back, a pun on his actual name inspired by the four-armed apparatus; he was aware of this insult, but he barely cared.
Criminal career begins
During an accidental radiation leak that ended in an explosion, the apparatus became fused to Octavius' body. It was later revealed that the radiation, or possibly his own latent mutation, had mutated his brain so that he could control the movement of the arms using his thoughts alone. The tentacles have since been surgically removed from his body, although Octavius retains the power to control them telepathically from great distances. The accident also seemingly damaged his brain, and the scientist turned to a life of crime, first taking the hospital hostage and calling himself "Doctor Octopus" from the derogatory name that his co-workers had given him. Though Doctor Octopus himself is portly, in poor physical shape, and is near-sighted, with his harness attached he is physically more than a match for Spider-Man. The accident also made his eyes very sensitive to light, requiring him to wear glasses with shaded lenses.In their first encounter, Doctor Octopus defeated Spider-Man, tossing him out of a window. Following this defeat, Spider-Man considered giving up his heroic career, but was inspired to continue by the Human Torch, and ultimately defeated Doctor Octopus.
Over the years, Doctor Octopus has become one of the most identifiable members of Spider-Man's rogues gallery. Doctor Octopus formed the original Sinister Six to fight Spider-Man after taking Betty Brant and May Parker hostage. He has led subsequent Sinister Six groups and usually takes offense when someone else leads the team. Disguised as the Master Planner, he organized theft of atomic equipment. After he stole a formula that Spider-Man needed to cure his Aunt May, Spider-Man tracked Doctor Octopus' gang to their base. In the ensuing fight, Spider-Man became trapped underneath a collapsed building. Seemingly doomed, Spider-Man was ultimately able to draw upon the sheer force of his will to summon the strength to escape. It is later revealed he used a scuba tank to escape.
Doctor Octopus later attempts to steal the Defense Department's Nullifier device, and sets a trap for Spider-Man. He became May Parker's tenant, then got close enough to use the Nullifier on Spider-Man; although he had hoped that it would merely nullify Spider-Man's web-shooters, the radiation in Spider-Man's blood resulted in the Nullifier's interaction with Spider-Man's unique biology rendering him amnesiac, Doctor Octopus subsequently tricking Spider-Man into helping him before Spider-Man's own better nature resulted in him turning against his 'partner' despite his memory loss long enough for John Jameson to use the Nullifier to shut down his tentacles.
Doctor Octopus later exhibited the ability to activate his mechanical arms remotely, and used them to free himself from prison. His resulting battle with Spider-Man resulted in Captain George Stacy's death. Doctor Octopus later waged a gang war with Hammerhead. He attempted to wed May Parker to acquire an island with an atomic plant which she had recently inherited. Doctor Octopus escaped death when the island was destroyed in a thermonuclear explosion and began a life as a homeless person. He next battled the "ghost" of Hammerhead, unwittingly returned him to his corporeal form using a particle accelerator and defeated him after forming a temporary alliance with Spider-Man.
Doctor Octopus later attempted to hijack an atomic submarine. He also attempted to poison New York City with printers' ink, and battled the Punisher and Spider-Man. He next battled the Owl and his gang. He successfully deactivated a nuclear reactor in a laboratory before meltdown. He later displayed symptoms which Mister Fantastic diagnosed as multiple personality disorder.
During the "Secret Wars" storyline, Doctor Octopus was taken to the Beyonder's Battleworld, where he fought a horde of heroes and plotted against Doctor Doom for the leadership of the group of villains. He was able to defeat the X-Men, until Magneto came to the mutants' aid.
His crowning achievement of evil was the near-fatal beating of the Black Cat which led to Spider-Man beating Doctor Octopus to within an inch of his life. The trauma of the beating he received from Spider-Man left Otto Octavius afraid of Spider-Man and spiders in general for years, and he needed to be treated for his acute arachnophobia. Spider-Man was forced to let his nemesis beat him in combat so as to allow Octavius to break free of his fears and recruit him to save New York City from an exploding nuclear reactor; Octavius had been planning to detonate the reactor to kill Spider-Man indirectly, but after his out-of-control arms beat Spider-Man seemingly senseless, Spider-Man persuaded him to shut down the reactor to ensure that there were witnesses to his 'great triumph'. Octavius decided to let Spider-Man live on the grounds that he would now have to cope with the same humiliation he had endured.
During the "Secret Wars II" storyline, Doctor Octopus was brainwashed by Mephisto's minion Bitterhorn into joining the Legion Accursed. They were sent to come in contact with Beyonder and fought Thing.
Doctor Octopus later formed his incarnation of the Masters of Evil which also consisted of Absorbing Man, Gargantua, Jackhammer, Oddball, Powderkeg, Puff Adder, Shocker, Titania, and Yellowjacket. He led the Masters of Evil in a plot to steal the technology of the Avengers. They ended up fighting the Guardians of the Galaxy who came from an alternate future timeline. Doctor Octopus got away when Gargantua, Puff Adder, and Shocker started to sympathize with the Guardians of the Galaxy.