Quick Answers
What event caused Dr. Otto Octavius to become Doctor Octopus?
How did Doctor Octopus become one of Spider-Man's greatest enemies?
What are the capabilities of Doctor Octopus' mechanical arms?
How did Otto Octavius' personality change after his accident?
What was Otto Octavius researching when his accident occurred?
History
Doctor Octopus: Year One
The son of an overbearing mother and a bullying father, Otto Octavius grew up to become a reclusive, but brilliant atomic researcher. To help manipulate radioactive substances from a safe distance, Otto constructed a chest harness controlling four mechanical, tentacle-like arms - earning him the nickname Doctor Octopus. In a freak laboratory accident, volatile liquids exploded - bombarding the scientist with radiation. The substances left him capable of mentally controlling the arms, but the accident also caused irreversible brain damage - transforming the respected scientist into a megalomaniacal superhuman criminal.
Waking in a hospital, Otto knew this newfound strength - combined with his awesome intellect - could render him supremely powerful. Holding the medical staff hostage, he easily defeated Spider-Man in their first encounter. Doc Ock then took control of a leading nuclear research facility and again squared off with the wall-crawler, who this time defeated him with one punch to the jaw[3].
After serving time, Doc Ock attempted to raise funds by springing gangster Blackie Gaxton from a Philadelphia prison - assisted by Gaxton's lawyer, Bennett Brant. Spider-Man foiled the scheme, but could not save Bennett from being shot in front of his sister, Betty Brant. After escaping from Spider-Man during a scuffle on a getaway boat meant for Gaxton[4], Octopus traveled throughout the country, committing some of the most spectacular crimes in an attempt to bring Spider-man to confront him. When that failed, Octopus returned to New York, where he hoped to find Spider-Man. After kidnapping Betty Brant, whom Octopus knew Spider-Man had risked his life saving before, he fought Spider-Man on Coney Island, who was suffering from a severe virus attack, and easily defeated and unmasked him as Peter Parker. Falsely realizing that the weak Peter Parker couldn't be Spider-Man, Octopus left and went on a rampage, releasing zoo animals and finally confronting the "real" Spider-Man, and was defeated when he was trapped in a burning building [5].
Octopus was imprisoned yet again and even a team of specialists found a way to remove his harness. Believed by the prison to be normal again and without power, they placed his tentacles in another part of the facility. It was at this time that Octopus showed that he had mental control over his arms, even when separated from him over short distances. Using this to his advantage, he summoned his tentacles to return to him and escaped from prison. He then deduced that to defeat Spider-man, he could not do it alone. He decided to create a team of villains to destroy Spider-Man, and thus assembled the first Sinister Six to combat Spider-Man. He plotted to kidnap Betty Brant again and make her their hostage. However, Betty was visiting with May Parker at the time, who was also captured and taken hostage. Dr. Octopus treated May so kindly, though, that she remained blissfully unaware she had been kidnapped by the charming villain[6].
Doctor Octopus VS Spider-Man
Master Planner
Following Spider-Man's defeat of the Sinister Six, Octopus assembled another group of costumed underlings and established an undersea base. Calling himself the Master Planner, he embarked on a series of thefts of experimental substances - seeking to further expand his mastery of the atomic sciences. His goal: to develop a radiation ray with which he could rule the world. But his plan was fated to entwine with Spider-Man's: when May fell sick, Peter provided her with a blood transfusion - not realizing the radioactivity in his plasma would kill her. The only substance capable of saving her was the experimental ISO-36. Peter managed to obtain enough money to fund the operation, but the Master Planner's forces hijacked the shipment for their own deadly research. Spider-Man tracked down the Master Planner to his underwater hideout and confronted his foe, revealed to be Doc Ock. After the base was destroyed, Doctor Octopus escaped once more. Spider-Man recovered the ISO-36 and saved Aunt May's life with the aid of Dr. Curt Connors (the Lizard).
Doctor Octopus' next scheme involved the theft of the Nullifier, a projector that could disable any device. After two failed attempts, Otto finally succeeded on his third. Turning the Nullifier against Spider-Man, he caused the wall-crawler to lose his memory and told him that they were allies. He then enlisted Spider-Man's help to steal the remaining components for the device. Though the hero had not regained his memory, his instinctive spider-sense persuaded him not to trust Doc Ock, and he defeated him once more.
Now imprisoned, with his arms confiscated, Otto again demonstrated that the range of his psionic control over the tentacles had increased to a far greater distance than previously believed. The arms freed him from captivity; after hijacking a plane and exploding it, Doc Ock, believed to be dead, decided to rampage through the city, bringing attention to himself from Spider-man. In the ensuing battle between the two, Doc Ock accidentally knocked over a chimney, which killed George Stacy (the father of Gwen Stacy, the first true love of Spider-Man), who was preventing a child from being crushed by the chimney.
Free again, Doc Ock seized upon the Kingpin's absence to gather his forces and launch an all-out gang war against Hammerhead's thugs. But Spider-Man's involvement quickly resulted in Doc Ock's return to prison. While incarcerated, Doctor Octopus learned May Parker had inherited a small Canadian island containing a commercial nuclear reactor. On his release, he set out to woo and marry May. But Hammerhead interrupted the wedding, and the ensuing chase and brawl led to the destruction of the reactor.
When Doc Ock went to war with the Owl, Spider-Man and the Black Cat attempted to intervene. Devastated that the confrontation had left the Black Cat near death, a cold-hearted Peter said farewell to his friends before entering what he believed to be his final showdown with Doctor Octopus. Spider-Man's victory was remorseless, and Doc Ock developed a morbid fear of his arachnid foe. Imprisoned in a mental institution, Otto struggled with his overwhelming phobia of Spider-Man. Knowing he could not face his foe directly, Ock's next plan involved the use of biological weapons to kill the entire population of New York. Spider-Man was forced to fake a humiliating defeat lest the city be destroyed, restoring Otto's self-confidence.
At one point, a boy named Oliver Osnick ran away from home, having stolen his father's Octopus-like equipment. He intended to become Doctor Octopus' sidekick, which was to be very much ill-fated. After a brief skirmish with Spider-Man, Osnick was returned home, sans tentacles.
Still Otto had clearly changed. As a young scientist, he had fallen in love with a fellow researcher, Mary Alice Burke - but his demanding mother jealously sabotaged the relationship. Learning Mary Alice was dying from AIDS, Otto began a desperate search for a cure - stealing research materials to do so. His attempts failed, Mary Alice died, and the villain meekly surrendered to Spider-Man. A world-weary Otto nonetheless escaped from prison. At the time, Spider-Man was dying from a chemical virus. Hoping to one day kill the hero himself, Doc Ock captured and unmasked his foe. Analyzing the virus, Otto offered him a cure. Daring to trust his foe, Peter accepted the mixture and was healed.
Doctor Octopus, brainwashed by the police
Death and Resurrection
Doctor Octopus was murdered by the insane Peter Parker clone named Kaine. Octavius's student Carolyn Trainer took over as Doctor Octopus #3, until the original was resurrected by a branch of the mystical ninja cult known as the Hand. Although Octavius had discovered Peter Parker's dual identity shortly prior to his death while curing Parker of a lethal virus created by the Vulture, he lost all knowledge of it upon his resurrection. The reason for this was the memories he gained came from a computer chip provided by his associate Carolyn Trainer with his recorded memories. That recent memory had not been recorded at the time of his death. It is uncertain whether or not Trainer had some ulterior motive for remodeling Octavius' mind.
In recent years, Octavius attempted to create his own personal assassin in the form of a villainous mutated entity he dubbed "Spider-Woman", and was involved in a plot involving using prosthetic limbs as mind-control devices, to create an army of minions. He has also had to deal with another usurper, in the form of an arrogant-yet-brilliant scientist named Carlyle, who created his own version of Octavius' harness and who tried to kill Octavius, whose power he envied. As far as is recorded, none of the three replacement Doc Ocks are currently active, either due to retirement, jail sentences, or, in Oliver Osnick's case, deciding to emulate Spider-Man instead.
Octavius resurfaced in the attempt to kidnap a Palestinian ambassador, in hopes of causing chaos for reasons unknown. His plot was thwarted by Spider-Man and his temporary sidekick the Kiwi Kid. Octavius was then taken into Ryker's Island and was drugged and brainwashed to take down the Green Goblin. He interrupted a battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin on the Brooklyn Bridge, and the two villains were struck by lightning and fell into the river below. Octopus was dragged out days later with no memories of the event.
Octavius unsuccessfully tries to form and lead another version of the Sinister Six, because Captain America's Secret Avengers managed to defeat the villainous group, although Ock himself eludes authorities. Dr. Octopus is later seen viewing a telecast of Peter Parker revealing himself to be Spider-Man. Ock then goes rampaging throughout the city, in utter disbelief that not only was he beaten numerous times by a teenager, but of the lost opportunity he had when he unmasked Parker. He is again defeated by Spider-Man, who confronts Dr. Octopus unmasked, after two of Peter's students distract Octavius. He is then sent to Baron Zemo's super-villain detention facility and is one of the ex-super villains trying to hunt down the renegade super heroes. Ock abandons the team when he realizes being a part of the Thunderbolts is pointless. However, he was apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. and placed into custody.
Brand New Day
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Doctor Octopus after Brand New Day
Escaping, Doctor Octopus learns that after all his battles, and injuries suffered, his body is failing, giving him only months left to live. He has now modified himself, to be mentally connected to his own army of miniature octopus robots, and adding four more legs to his harness. His goal then became to use his abilities to take over the utilities of New York City, and turn it into a paradise under his control, though his mind's subconscious also targeted Spider-Man, and disrupted the wedding plans of his ex, Aunt May. Spider-Man and the Human Torch eventually track down his base, save the captive J. Jonah Jameson Sr. (May's fiancee), Carlie Cooper, and Norah Winters, and finally destroy Doctor Octopus' hold over the city. Doctor Octopus is then able to escape (still holding power over his mini-bots) and vows a "terrible revenge".[7]
During the "Origin of the Species" storyline, Doctor Octopus assembles a supervillain team consisting of Chameleon, Diablo, Electro, Freak, Hammerhead, Hippo, Lizard, Mister Negative, Morbius, the Living Vampire, Mysterio, Overdrive, Rhino, Sandman, Shocker, Spot, Tombstone, Vermin, and Vulture IV. He tells them to secure specific items and promised they will receive a reward. First, he targets Menace's newborn infant despite Spider-Man's interference as it has pure Goblin Serum in its veins which Doctor Octopus thinks that it would help cure his crippling illness. After Spider-Man grabs the infant from Doctor Octopus, he sends the villains after Spider-Man. Doctor Octopus talks with Chameleon stating that he had placed an Octo-Tracker on Spider-Man in order to track him down. After Chameleon steals the baby from Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus talks with the Chameleon saying that the baby is the first of a new species. Because the serums inside Norman Osborn and Lily Hollister co-mingled when they reproduced, the baby is beyond Octopus' procurement. He refers to it as "Sui Generis" and plans on using the new species' DNA to repair his body.
When Spider-Man caught Chameleon, he mentioned that the baby is still alive and that the Lizard stole it from him before it can be handed over to Doctor Octopus. Doctor Octopus was looking for the Lizard when Spider-Man arrived. Spider-Man told Doctor Octopus that they will get the baby back from the Lizard and then fight over who will get it. Spider-Man even mentioned to Doctor Octopus that the Lizard is now in a different appearance. When Doctor Octopus attacks Spider-Man, the Lizard attacks Spider-Man. Spider-Man threatens to attack the Lizard with the Lizard serum if he doesn't give him the baby. Lizard agrees and reveals that he got a blood sample from the baby and found out that Norman Osborn is not the father. The Lizard then gives the baby to Spider-Man saying that if Osborn is not the father, then the baby is of no use to him. Doctor Octopus then attacks the Lizard while Spider-Man escapes with the baby.
Spider-Man, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four later fight Doctor Octopus and his macro-octobot army. During that time, he had assembled another version of the Sinister Six consisting of Chameleon (who was posing as Steve Rogers), Electro, Mysterio, Rhino, and Sandman in a plot to slip the macro-octobot army into a military base and detonate them. This was prevented by Spider-Man, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four. After his defeat, Doctor Octopus acknowledges Spider-Man's intellect and no longer considers him as the 'foolish child' he had believed him to be.
When Alistair Smythe was having Scorpion, Fly-Girl and some cyborgs attack the launch base where John Jameson is, Doctor Octopus was observing the occurrences with a remote Octobot and uses the machine to assist the astronauts on board as part of his heretofore unknown plans.
Ends of the Earth
Doc Ock was placed into a robot suit to keep him alive.
Most recently, and as a part of Doc Ock's last plan, the Sinister Six defeated the group of genius supervillains called Intelligencia and stole their Zero Cannon, a powerful weapon which change Earth's gravity field to send specific objects to space.
In his plan to be remembered as the man who saved Earth, octopus offered the world a chance to stop global warming, using a special device connected with different satellites in orbit.[8]
Disguised as Al Gore, Chameleon tried to accelerate the decision of world's leaders about the matter, but was uncovered by Spider-Man, who irrupted the scene along with the Avengers. When the Chameleon was freed, he arrived in the Mediterranean for a meeting with the rest of the team. The Avengers followed them and fought the Sinister Six, but they where all defeated by the villains, save for Electro, who was sent to space by Thor.
Using an explosion as a distraction, Silver Sable saved Spider-Man and Black Widow. When they tried to get to one of Octavius manufacturing plants of satellites, they defeated Sandman, but Octavius asked for help to all nations, due his position in the matter, to capture Spider-Man.
While Spider-Man and his allies continue to disarm Doc Ock's bases, defeating Rhino in the process, they are attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D. forces before they can capture him and are forced to flee. Octavius asked for help of other super villains to watch over his facilities over the Wolrd, but even after Spider-Man tracks fown the final one, Octavius reveals he was going to destroy the World anyways, rather than save it. He activated his Octavian Lens, burning half of the World, including Silver Sable's country, Symkaria. But this is revealed to be a trick made by Mysterio (only burning a small portion of a city in Skymaria, while Chameleon uses a robot to fight Spider-Man, after they are defeated, Mysterio is convinced by Spider-Man to help him to catch the Octopus in his base in Guatemala, but Octavius used the mind-controlled Avengers as his new Sinister Six.
Spider-Man, Sable and Widow managed to defeat the Avengers, then he and Sable headed to Octavius underwater base. They are faced by Rhino while the base starts to flood, he trapped Sable and left Spider-Man with two choices, to continue to fight him in order to save Sable from drowning (but the Octavius would activate the lenses) or let him drown himself and Sable but stop Octopus. After leaving Sable to her death at her request, Spidey managed to destroy Octavius's arms and equipment before taking his foe away to a doctor.Attributes
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Powers
Doctor Octopus' tentacles
Tentacles: Doctor Octopus' superhuman abilities derive from the four mentally-controlled, electronically-powered, telescoping, prehensile titanium-steel tentacles attached to a stainless steel harness encircling his body from lower chest to waist. Each tentacle, approximately five inches in diameter, terminates in three single-jointed pincers. The pincers are able to rotate in relation to the arm for 360 degrees, in a screwdriver-like twisting motion. Each tentacle segment contains four high-efficiency electric motors equipped with a clutched, helical-gear train, independently mounted on frictionless gimbals and housed in four thin, overlapping layers of titanium-niobium steel. The titanium-steel alloy is light, has high-tensile strength, a high melting point, and high thin-wall rigidity. The motors get their power from a small nuclear-powered thermo-electric generator, which can provide several hundred watts per hour for up to five years before needing to replace its U-239 core. The tentacles have been modified since the time of the original accident to include high-efficiency battery packs (enabling movement when cut off from the central power source) and individual micro-circuit control modules (enabling each arm to perform certain pre-programmed actions when Octopus loses conscious control). In the event that Octopus loses consciousness, the control module of each arm has enough pre-programmed conditional responses in its memory chip to enable it to perform a relatively complex sequence of actions, such as saving his life. The trauma of his arm or arms being separated from the harness causes a period of disorientation in which his arms flail about uncontrollably until the pre-programming takes over.
- Telepathic Control over Tentacles: Octopus can control the actions of his artificial arms psionically, even when they have been severed from his body and are separated from him by vast distances (a distance of 900 miles has been recorded).
- Telescoping: Each tentacle is approximately six feet long at full contraction, but can extend to a maximum of 24 feet in length.
- Superhuman Striking Force: Each tentacle is capable of moving at a speed of ninety feet per second and strike with the force of a jackhammer.
- High-Wind Generation: The tentacles can generate 50 mile per hour winds if spun like a giant fan.
- Wall-Climbing and Traveling: By combining the intrinsic strength of both his tentacles and the pincers, Doctor Octopus can scale stone, brick, or concrete walls by rending "handholds" in the surface of the wall. Octopus is able to use his tentacles for traversing horizontal distances as well. At full extension, he can travel high above the ground as if on stilts, either using two tentacles, or for maximum speed (approximately 50 miles per hour), four tentacles.
- Sensation Feeling: Although there are no nerve endings throughout the length of his artificial arms, Octopus can "feel" basic sensations with them. As a result of the mutagenic changes from exposure to radiation during the accident, electrical connections have been made from his chest harness to his spine. Thus, Doctor Octopus can mentally perceive "tactile" sensations by feeling the amount of electrical resistance that the pincer's electric motors feel when the pincers grasp an object.
Superhuman Concentration: Doctor Octopus possesses extraordinary mental abilities and concentration, and through years of practice is able to perform two complex and two simple independent actions, simultaneously, one with each arm.
Abilities
- Radiation Specialist
- Doctor Octopus is one of the world's leading authorities on nuclear radiation and its effect on animal physiology.
- Engineering
- Doctor Octopus is a brilliant engineer and inventor.
- Leadership
- Doctor Octopus is a superb strategist and a charismatic leader.
Paraphernalia
Weapons
- Tentacles: Dr. Octopus has possessed a total of three different harnesses during his career: the original titanium harness, a more powerful adamantium harness, and the current harness, which was modified in 2004 to resemble the version seen in the movie Spider-Man 2. The original and adamantium harnesses were both destroyed in the Lethal Foes of Spider-Man miniseries. The current harness has eight tentacles as opposed to four.
Even Iron Man falls to the power of Doctor Octopus!
Former
- Original Harness: With his titanium harness, Doc Ock was able to beat Daredevil, a seasoned combatant with superhuman senses, almost to death out of sheer power.[9] It was also temporarily worn by Spider-Man after Octavius' death, until the Hobgoblin caused it to short-cirtuit via pumpkin bomb. Spider-Man than proceeded to rip them apart when he lost control.
- Adamantium Harness: Using adamantium Octavius created an entirely new indestructible harness, with all of the abilities he had before but with exponentially higher durability. Using this harness he was able to best Iron Man in combat, tearing the hero's armor apart with a defeat so harsh that Tony Stark began to doubt his abilities almost enough to resort back to alcoholism.[10] He knocked the Hulk unconscious [11] and, by Spider-Man's own reckoning, was "holding his own" against the combined forces of himself, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Deathlok, Ghost Rider, and Solo, even after the rest of the Sinister Six were defeated or fled. [12]
Transportation
Notes
- At one point he almost married Aunt May.
Trivia
- He was once killed by Kaine but then resurrected by The Hand
- The DC Comics super-villain Gorgon of The Extremists is based on Doctor Octopus.
- Played by Alfred Molina in the live-action theatrical production of Spider-Man 2.
See Also
- 513 appearance(s) of Otto Octavius (Earth-616)
- 25 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Otto Octavius (Earth-616)
- 193 minor appearance(s) of Otto Octavius (Earth-616)
- 314 mention(s) of Otto Octavius (Earth-616)
- 18 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Otto Octavius (Earth-616)
- 938 image(s) of Otto Octavius (Earth-616)
- 112 quotation(s) by or about Otto Octavius (Earth-616)
- 11 victim(s) killed by Otto Octavius (Earth-616)
- 20 item(s) used/owned by Otto Octavius (Earth-616)
Links and References
- Ock's Profile at Spiderfan.org
- Spider-man: Classic
- The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: Spider-man 2004
References
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3
- ↑ Untold Tales of Spider-Man (novel) , "Arms and the Man"
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #3
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #11
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #12
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #600
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #682
- ↑ Daredevil #165
- ↑ Marvel Fanfare #22
- ↑ Spider-Man #19
- ↑ Spider-Man #23
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 3
- ↑ Avengers NOW! Vol 1 1
- ↑ Spider-Geddon Handbook Vol 1 1