Doctor Octopus

Doctor Octopus is one of Spider-man's deadliest foes. Even with his Spider-strength Doc Ocks tentacles are more powerful than Spidey.

Who is this Doctor Octopus? In Spider-man 2, we see Doc Ock's origin.

Doctor Otto Octavius was a brilliant scientist. He spent his life studying fusion and how to harness the power of fusion to make cheap electricity. He developed the powerful, indestructible mechanical arms to help him with his experiments. These arms have their own artificial intelligence and when he wears them, he controls them as if they are part of his body. To prevent the artificial intelligence in those arms from taking over his mind, he developed a chip to protect himself.

Doctor Octavius was Peter's idol. A science geek himself, he admired Doctor Octavius tremendously. His best pal Harry, now runs Oscorp, and funds Dr Octavius's work. He introduces Peter to his idol and gets Octavius to spend some time with Pete. The two brilliant minds hit it off. Dr Octavius becomes somewhat of a mentor to Peter. He tells Peter that Doc Connor described Pete as brilliant but lazy and told Peter that wouldn't do. Intelligence is a gift that should be used for the good of mankind. Peter meets the doctor's wife. He even gets advice on women from Doctor Octavius.

The next day, Doctor Octavius demonstrates his invention. The device that would use fusion to generate huge amounts of energy. Cheap, clean electricity for everyone. A dream come true. Things go horribly wrong as the device goes out of control. His wife is killed. Peter switches to Spiderman to save Harry from certain death. Doctor Octavious is hit by the energy. His safety device is destroyed. Then Spidey pulls the plug on the device.

The next scene is one right out of a horror movie. The mechanical arms Doctor Octavious used have fused to his body. These take control of his mind. He goes berserk and kills everyone in that operating theater, in a terrifying scene.

In Spider-man 2, Doctor Octavius, after Peter's pep talk, regains control over the arms and redeems himself. In the comic books, though, Doc Ock isn;t so noble.

In the original spider-man comics, doc ock is a ruthless villian. Deliberately evil. Very disturbed. Unlike the movies, he was mentally imbalanced. His mom was a control freak, controlling all aspects of his life. Weeks after his mother's death, the accident happened, that fused the arms to his body. Maybe it was an accident, maybe it was deliberate. At all times, Doc Ock was totally in control of the arms. Cold bloodedly using them without any respect for the lives of others.

As with every major supervillian, Spidey uses his brains to defeat them. In the comic books, the tentacles are more powerful the Spiderman, so he avoids the tentacles and delivers a solid blow to the Doc's face directly to knock him out.

In Spider-man 2, there was a discrepancy. Spiderman delivered several blows directly at Doc Ock. With spidey's strength, any one of those blows would have knocked him out, yet Doc Ock did not even sustain a bruise, while Spiderman was badly beaten up.

Spider-Man: Doctor Octopus - Year One TPB
Peer behind the curtain to witness the birth of a mad genius! Featuring Doctor Octopus' first encounters with both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, the first appearance of Doc Ock's arms, and the true inspiration that led him to build his remarkable appendages - which may have come from a certain web-slinging wall-crawler! Collects SPIDER-MAN/DOCTOR OCTOPUS: YEAR ONE #1-5.

Spider-Man: Doctor Octopus - Year One TPB - nick & dent
Peer behind the curtain to witness the birth of a mad genius! Featuring Doctor Octopus' first encounters with both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, the first appearance of Doc Ock's arms, and the true inspiration that led him to build his remarkable appendages - which may have come from a certain web-slinging wall-crawler! Collects SPIDER-MAN/DOCTOR OCTOPUS: YEAR ONE #1-5.

Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus TPB Vol. 1: Out of Reach - nick & dent
Spidey and Doc Ock are at it again! Whiz kid Brigham Fontaine was once Peter Parker's brightest student. Now, he's teamed up with Doctor Octopus and is living a life of crime. Can Spider-Man outsmart this brainy duo and get Brigham back on the side of the good guys? This volume collects: Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Out of Reach #1-5

Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure TPB - nick & dent
Spider-Man and longtime foe Doctor Octopus face off once again in a brutal battle of egos. But the deadly Doctor's got a secret.

Spider-Man Doctor Octopus Year One TPB
Written by ZEB WELLS Art & Cover by KAARE ANDREWS Peer behind the curtain to witness the birth of a mad genius! Featuring Doctor Octopus'S first encounters with both Peter Parker and Spider-Man the first appearance of Doc Ock's arms and the true inspiration that led him to build his remarkable appendages - which may have come from a certain web-slinging wall-crawler! Collects SPIDER-MAN/DOCTOR OCTOPUS: YE AR ONE #1-5.

Another version of Doc Ock is the one in the Ultimate universe. In the Ultimate Spider-man, the story is retold, improved upon and updated to fit with the times. For example, Peter works part time as a web designer at the Daily Bugle, even as he copes with his studies and webslinging. He is just 16 years old when the story begins. All the villians are bigger, more powerful, more menacing than ever. That includes Doc Ock.

Where the Doc Ock in the original spiderman comics looks like Elton John, this Doc Ock looks.. well.. more respectable? Someone you could actually fear.

The story is still the same. Doc Ock was working for Norman Osborne when an explosion occured. That explosion put him in a coma for 3 months. During that time, his mechanical arms fused with his body. He wakes up confused. When he finds out what happened, and that the doctors left his arms on him to ee what would happen, when they could well have removed them earlier on, he was furious. He had become a monster. He goes about on a killing rampage. Seeking vengeance. This Doc Ock, while he was still Doctor Octavius, was there when Peter became Spiderman. He knew Peter's secret. After his initial amnesia, he was able to recall that Peter Parker is Spiderman.

Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure TPB - nick & dent
Spider-Man and longtime foe Doctor Octopus face off once again in a brutal battle of egos. But the deadly Doctor's got a secret.

When Sam Raimi made Spider-man 2 and put in Doc Ock as a good guy controlled by bad arms, he did take a risk. Doc Ock is a ruthless villian in the comic books, without a life of his own. Sam made Doc Ock a guy with a loving wife. A good man. A mentor to Peter. That could have turned out badly. After all, that is very different from the Doc Ock in the comics.

Still, his excellent casting decision made it work. Getting Alfred Molina to play Doc Ock was a wise move. Alfred can play the kindly mentor very convicingly. A kind, noble man. Nothing fake about him. He seems to have a genuinely good soul. When Doc Ock turns bad, Alfred plays the bad guy in a very menacing way, charmingly evil at times. He is a very interesting performer to watch.

One reason why Sam Raimi can get away with changing the details in Spiderman history is that he always picks the right actor for the part. If you watch carefully, the cast of Spider-man 2 is made out of critically acclaimed actors and actresses, who have made a name for themselves in dramatic roles. Real talent. Not just pretty faces. Likewise with Spider-man. Willem Dafoe is excellent as the Green Goblin.