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[[caption-width-right:350:As Doctor Octopus]]
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[[caption-width-right:350:As Superior Spider-Man]]
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-->''"The die is cast."''

Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius, also known as Doctor Octopus, is a fictional supervillain that has appeared in comic books published by Creator/MarvelComics. He first appeared in ''[[Comicbook/SpiderMan Amazing Spider-Man]]'' #3 (July, 1963), created by writer Creator/StanLee and artist Creator/SteveDitko.

A highly intelligent MadScientist, Doctor Octopus is one of the greatest foes Franchise/SpiderMan has ever faced.[[note]]He's almost universally considered Spidey's all-time #2 foe after the Green Goblin.[[/note]] He is typically portrayed as a stocky, myopic man who utilizes four powerful, mechanical appendages and is obsessed with proving his own genius and destroying Spider-Man (and not necessarily in that order). The character has appeared in numerous ''Spider-Man'' cartoons and video games and is portrayed by Creator/AlfredMolina in the 2004 film ''Film/SpiderMan2'' as the film's main antagonist; Molina would later return to the role in 2021's ''Spider-Man: No Way Home'' as part of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. An AlternateUniverse version of the character appears in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', but to say anything else would be a spoiler. In 2009, Doctor Octopus was ranked as IGN's 28th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

Born in Schenectady, New York, Otto Octavius had something of an unhappy childhood. His father, Torbert, was abusive and violent towards both Otto and his mother Mary. Otto was determined not to become like his father and put all his effort into his education, regularly scoring top marks. Unfortunately, a combination of Otto's shyness and good school work got him labeled as a "teacher's pet" and he became a target of bullying. Otto eventually became a brilliant and respected nuclear physicist, atomic research consultant, inventor, and lecturer. One of his most iconic inventions was a set of highly advanced mechanical arms controlled via a mind–computer interface to assist him with his research into atomic physics. Unfortunately, there was an accidental radiation leak that ended in an explosion and those wonderful mechanical arms became fused to Octavius's body.

The accident also seemed to have damaged his brain and the scientist turned to a life of crime. His very first criminal act was taking the hospital hostage and proclaiming himself Doctor Octopus, the derogatory nickname that his co-workers had originally given him. In their first encounter, Octopus defeated Spider-Man by 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. Since then the Good (or Bad) Doctor has gone on to become one of the most identifiable members of Spider-Man's rogues gallery. He was actually Spider-Man's first recurring ArchEnemy before [[ComicBook/NormanOsborn the Green Goblin]] and his mystery overshadowed him. Goblin's death did nothing to raise Dr. Octopus' profile, since other contenders for the Goblin and ''ComicBook/{{Venom}}'' overshadowed him. He formed the first [[VillainTeamUp Sinister Six]] to fight Spider-Man. He was the villain for one of Spidey's most iconic early arcs as "the Master Planner". He was also indirectly responsible for the death of Gwen Stacy's father George, who died when debris from a building where he and Spider-Man were fighting fell below, and Captain Stacy sacrificed his life to save a child from becoming collateral damage.

Dr. Octopus faded from view and prominence in TheEighties, with his major storyline, ''The Owl[=/=]Octopus War'' happening in the pages of the second series ''The Spectacular Spider-Man'' (Issues #73-79) rather than the flagship title. In TheNineties, writer Creator/TomDeFalco in a number of stories established his backstory, and during the Clone Saga, briefly reworked him into an ally of Spider-Man only for him to be briefly killed off and replaced by Carolyn Trainer, who became Lady Octopus for a brief time, until Defalco brought Octopus back only with his memory of being allies with Peter removed. Dr. Octopus was back and here to stay. He returned to prominence in a series of stories starting from ASM #600 where Peter comes across Octopus' brain scanner and uses it in his attempt to stop a catastrophe. The problem is that the device gives Octopus a scan of Peter's brain. Repeated use of the device over the next 100 issues gives Octopus more and more information to plot the ultimate daring heist. In addition to this, [[RealityEnsues After years of fighting Spider-Man]], [[EvilCripple his body began to succumb to the injuries he had sustained over the years]]. In one storyline, ''ComicBook/EndsOfTheEarth'', Dr. Octopus briefly ascended to a global Marvel-wide threat needing Spider-Man and the Avengers to shut him down with Spider-Man dying and decaying in his body leading to the ''Dying Wish'' storyline.

As a way to prevent his death, [[FreakyFridayFlip Otto switched bodies with Peter Parker]] using one of his robots and the information from the brain-scanning. Before dying in Otto's body, Peter urged Otto to change for good and succeed the Spider-Man mantle with his last breaths. Otto complied, swearing to both live up to Spider-Man's example but do it his way, i.e. doing good by proving that he's the [[ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan superior hero]], resulting a more brutal, but still trying-to-be-heroic Spider-Man. Unfortunately, he found himself [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil slowly slipping back into evil]], starting with his attempted erasure of a fragment of Peter Parker's soul and JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope from there. He eventually had a HeelRealization that he was doing more harm than good by the time Peter's soul fragment came BackFromTheDead, and relinquished control of Peter's body, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath erasing his own consciousness as penance]]. As Otto died, he told Peter that Peter [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre was a better Spider-Man and a better person]] than Otto (the self-proclaimed SuperiorSuccessor) could ever hope to be.

As of ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel'', it is revealed that Dr. Octopus' mind now resides within the Living Brain, stalkingly watching over Anna Maria. After teaming up with the Jackal during ''The Clone Conspiracy'' and temporarily inhabiting a clone version of his old body, he eventually betrayed the Jackal for insulting his love interest. Afterwards, he hijacked a new, powerful experimental clone body. He was then recruited by Armin Zola and ComicBook/{{HYDRA}} to aid in destroying Parker Industries, reinventing himself as the "Superior Octopus". After the downfall of the Hydra Empire and the restoration of the true ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, and a truce with Peter after ''ComicBook/GoDownSwinging'' and ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon'', Ock once again decides to try and abandon his supervillain ways, seeking to set himself up as the heroic protector of San Francisco in ''Superior Octopus #1'' and the second volume of Superior Spider-Man. Unfortunately it wouldn't last, as Ock made a deal with Mephisto to defeat Spider-Norman. The deal would restore Ock to his old body but with it back to full health. The price being the empathy gained from sharing Peter's memories.

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!!This character provides examples of:

[[folder:As Doctor Octopus]]
!!As Doctor Octopus

!!! '''Alter Ego:''' Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius
!!! '''Notable Aliases:''' the Master Planner, the Master Programmer, the Bowery Bum, the Superior Spider-Man (Peter Parker), the Superior Venom, the Superior Octopus, Dr. Elliot Tolliver, the Cosmic Superior Spider-Man, the Cosmo-Spider, the Cosmo Superior
!!! '''Species:''' Human Mutate (Later Clone Human Mutate)
!!! '''First Appearance:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #3 (July 1963) [[note]]As Doctor Octopus[[/note]]; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #698 (November 2012) [[note]]As the Superior Spider-Man[[/note]]; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' Vol. 4 #25 (May 2017) [[note]]As the Superior Octopus[[/note]]

----
* AbusiveParents: His father was an abusive, alcoholic {{Jerkass}}, his mother was MyBelovedSmother.
* {{Acrofatic}}: Otto's on the pudgy side, but with his tentacles he can really get around.
* AdaptationDyeJob: Usually sports short brown hair but in the ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'' animated series he sports long black hair.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness:
** Doctor Octopus is rather ugly in the Marvel comics, in contrast to his [[BigBeautifulMan much more striking]] depiction by Creator/AlfredMolina in the ''Spider-Man 2'' film.
** Some Marvel artists depict Doctor Octopus as overweight and fleshy, while others depict him as muscular.
* AffablyEvil:
** In the first annual, he kidnapped Betty Brant and Aunt May Parker, and then gave them tea and cookies while apologizing for neglecting his guests.
** He also once rented a room from Aunt May and behaved like a perfect gentleman, even helping her around the house. He also came very near to marrying her after she somehow inherited a nuclear plant.
** In some of his iterations, he protects civilians, or at least refrains from harming them, but his most notable battles, such as the Death of George Stacy, and ''The Owl/Octopus War'' shows him sociopathically indifferent to collateral damage, in the climax of the latter he attacks a hospital and at one point cuts an elevator carrying runaway patients and hospital workers which Spider-Man has to stop.
* AIIsACrapshoot: In some continuities, in particular Sam Raimi's trilogy, his tentacles contain an advanced AI that influences him.
* AlliterativeName: Both his first and last names begin with "O".
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Or in his case, someone worse, as Peter considers him his "runner-up nemesis at best" with Norman Osborn taking up his top slot on the villain totem pole. The reason for this is that Dr. Octopus repeatedly went to jail multiple times, while Green Goblin went [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty 40 years in publication history without facing justice for his crimes]]. Spider-Man's last major battle with him was a gang war in a '80s storyline at the end of which Dr. Octopus was traumatized by a fear of spiders that Spider-Man himself had to help him overcome later on in ASM #296. And even after that Norman Osborn and Goblin remains a more powerful and dangerous figure, and someone who Otto as Superior Spider-Man failed to do anything against leading him to bring Peter back to stop him.
* AnArmAndALeg: In ''The Owl/Octopus War'', after putting the Black Cat in the hospital, Spider-Man was so consumed with rage, he tore Ock's metal arms off. Because they are physically meshed into his spinal column, this was ''incredibly'' painful for Doc Ock, and in the aftermath, it had to painfully reinserted by his minions and Otto insisted they do it without anesthetic because he wants to feel the pain he's going to put Spider-Man and Black Cat through.
* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: As his moniker suggests, octopi. And later, spiders.
* AppropriatedAppellation: Doctor Octopus was originally an insulting nickname given to Otto by his co-workers, and in some continuities, ComicBook/NormanOsborn.
* ArchEnemy: Otto is the main rival to the Green Goblin in regard to Spider-Man. He held this most consistently in the first 100 issues and then only recovered that during Dan Slott's time. Initially, he is the first villain to defeat Spider-Man, the creator and leader of the Sinister Six, the Big Bad of one of Spider-Man's greatest stories, the Master Planner arc. Indirectly he killed Captain George Stacy and irreparably strained Peter's relation with Gwen Stacy. And he put Black Cat, Spider-Man's third great love in the hospital. Then in Dan Slott's run, he managed to take over his body and live his life. However this experience would wind up changing Otto for the better and he would eventually become an anti-hero like Venom. [[spoiler:Sadly thanks to Mephisto it didn't stick.]]
* ArtificialLimbs: Well, he attached four cybernetic arms of questionable morality to his spine.
* AxCrazy: During ''The Owl/Octopus War'', he plots an insane scheme to destroy New York with a Neutron Bomb. So crazy is this scheme that ComicBook/TheKingpin [[HorrifyingTheHorror is scared of him]] and he pre-emptively plans on moving his business empire and himself out of the city. When Spider-Man and Black Cat, stops his original plan, Ock goes truly nuts with ThePowerOfHate promising Spider-Man to kill him ToThePain and Black Cat too, and gleefully indifferent to whoever else gets in his path.
* BackFromTheDead:
** Kaine murdered him at one point in the 90s, but he was resurrected by the Hand with the help of Carolyn Trainer and Angelina Brancale.
** Zigzagged as ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan''. After the ComicBook/SpiderVerse incident ([[spoiler:where he discovers that Peter has regained his body and the Otto from Peter's ''present'' is dead]]), Otto created an AI copy of his psyche intending to retake Peter's body at a later point. [[spoiler:However, he later decided to contract Miles Warren to create a superior body, a young adult frame made from a fusion of his and Peter's DNA, and took over that instead.]]
* BadassBaritone: In ''Superior Spider-Man'', when he hears a recording of his voice, he remarks that he sounds like a walrus under water, suggesting that his voice is deep.
* BadassBookworm: He's a nuclear physicist and skilled roboticist. He can also go toe-to-toe with Spider-Man.
* BadassInANiceSuit: He was almost always seen in a white suit in the early-mid 90s.
* BadBoss: Could easily have been the TropeNamer for InsufferableGenius, given the way he treats his henchmen, as well as when he's the leader of the Sinister Six (or his short term as leader of the Masters of Evil).
* BigBad: Of "If This Be My Destiny" and "Ends of the Earth". He is also this in a Five Bad Band sense seeing as he founded the Sinister Six and was the leader of almost every incarnation in stories that involved them. In a way he is this for ''Superior Spider-Man'' as the titular protagonist.
** He also plays this role in ''Film/SpiderMan2'' and [[spoiler:''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'']].
* BlindWithoutEm: He sometimes has this problem. In his first debut he was near-sighted before the accident but depending on the continuity (and DependingOnTheWriter) it's sometimes considered a side-effect of the accident that gave him his powers. (In one min-series, he claims that the accident made his eyes sensitive to light, requiring him to wear shaded glasses.)
* BrainsEvilBrawnGood: While they both have plenty of brains ''and'' brawn, the various versions of Doc Ock tend to have an edge on Spider-Man in terms of brainpower and the various versions of Spider-Man have an edge on him in strength, agility, etc...
* CallingTheOldManOut: After his widowed mother makes him break things off with his fiancée, so he can take care of ''her'' instead, he catches her getting ready to go on a date. He calls her out for her hypocrisy, and as this is pretty much the first time in his life he's ever stood up to her, it gives her a fatal heart attack. All of these emotional problems weighing on him is why he doesn't notice the radiation accident until it's too late.
* CameBackStrong: [[spoiler:Octavius hijacking the Proto Clone from the Jackal, which has a mixture of both his DNA and "Spider-Clone" DNA, which gives now gives him his incredible smarts on top of Spider-Man's legendary abilities. His "Superior Octopus" costume is also this as it takes his Superior Spider-Man costume and gives it an Octopus motif, complete with his classic arms.]]
* CatchPhrase: "The die is cast!" became one during his time as the Superior Spider-Man, and seems to have stuck long through the aftermath.
* TheChessmaster: One of his aliases is Master Planner for a reason. [[spoiler:Some of his exploits include taking over Spider-Man's body and creating a backup copy of his consciousness in case anything happened, and getting Sajani Jaffrey fired so that his beloved Anna Maria could take her position.]]
* CharacterDeath: Technically, [[spoiler:the original Otto Octavius died at the conclusion of ''The Superior Spider-Man'' in 2013, while the Otto that appears in all later appearances (except ''Spider-Verse'', which features a time-displaced Otto-as-Spider-Man) is an AI copy that has hijacked a powerful clone body. While the two are treated as one and the same, AI!Otto lacks the memory of Otto's final days.]]
* CigarChomper: [[GoodSmokingEvilSmoking Sometimes he's depicted as being a smoker]] having a taste for cigars; a notable example being his Sam Raimi incarnation.
* CivvieSpandex: His costume has traditionally consisted of a lab coat or sometimes just a plain suit. But during the 70's and 80's he wore green spandex on occasion, but otherwise, he stuck to civvies.
* CombatTentacles: Four cybernetic artificial limbs. He's had multiple versions.
* CoolShades: Due to him being myopic.
* CrazyPrepared: In the "Return of the Sinister Six" storyline Ock recruited the Sandman (who wasn't a criminal at the time) but because he was pretty sure the Sandman would likely turn against him - and he did - he took inspiration from a battle Sandman once had with [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk the Hulk]], and kept a weapon on him that could melt silicon and turn sand into glass, [[TakenForGranite which in-effect, petrified Sandman.]]
* CutLexLuthorACheck: Averted in most of his incarnations: He was a scientist who invented and used his arms for legitimate research purposes. It took a lab accident fusing the arms to his body and driving him insane to turn him into a supervillain. This insanity, then, is why he doesn't just give up on being a supervillain and go back to being a scientist, usually.
** Slightly subverted in the 90s cartoon; Doc Ock still thinks of himself as a scientist over a villain... the problem is, his obsession is with pursuing scientific goals goes to the extent that [[ForScience he's indifferent to any potential harm to people as a result]], which is why nobody will take him in as a legitimate scientist. To put this in perspective, his introductory episode has him kidnap Felicia Hardy due to a vendetta against her mother... only this turns out to mostly be a distraction so he can pursue an experiment with creating a fusion reactor, indifferent to the fact that if this goes wrong, the resultant explosion could ''wipe out half the city''.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel''; when Norman Osborn tries to recruit the Sinister Six, Octavius actually refuses to join in, pointing out that the whole idea is stupid, that he's never really had a particular enmity for Spider-Man and, if anything, he's ''proud'' of Spidey, since he engineered the spiders that made Spider-Man in the first place, and so Spider-Man is basically the living pinnacle of his work. Sadly, Norman promptly kills Otto for refusing to join in.
** Subverted in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon; Doc Ock is being ''forced'' to work as Norman Osborn's black ops scientist after his death was faked by Osborn, and he simply can't get out from under Osborn's thumb. Of course, by the time he does escape, he's so full of hate and rage that he decides to become a supervillain in his own right.
** Similar is done in the new ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'' game. Otto, with Peter as his research assistant, starts off trying to create good-as-new prosthetic limbs for the disabled, but [[ForegoneConclusion as is expected]], forces (namely, Norman Osborn and Otto's buried vitriol towards him for past sins) conspire to rob him of his [[SanitySlippage sanity]] and turn him into Doc Ock.
** Subverting this is Invoked with the Superior Octopus storyline; Otto wants to use his new body and his new costumed identity to start over and become a hero, having developed a taste for it during his time as the Superior Spider-Man.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: After having the tentacles fused to his spine, he turned evil.
* {{Cyborg}}: The tentacles and their harness were fused to his body.
* DentedIron: He spent most of his career trading blows with Spider-Man, who has SuperStrength, despite being just an ordinary guy with cybernetic extra limbs. In a CerebusRetcon, it was eventually revealed that he was effectively ''being beaten to death'' over the course of his career, leaving him a hideously disfigured, dying wreck of a man trapped on life support.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Much like Doctor Doom, Otto can be a NobleDemon AntiVillain in one story and a remorseless mass-murdering psychopath in another, though unlike Doom, not much ArcWelding has been done to make the two takes in line with one another, with the writers of the former variation downplaying the latter:
** Dr. Octopus was portrayed as a megalomaniac without any redeeming virtues for the first 30 years or so. He was self-interested, arrogant, and vain. His courtship with Aunt May still coincided with him acting as a gangster in a gang-war with Hammerhead (who [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork helpfully for Peter]], crashes the wedding between Ock and Aunt May) and motivated by a scheme to win a nuclear power plant that Aunt May inherited.
** Creator/TomDefalco in a number of stories in TheNineties sought to deepen his character and created a sympathetic backstory to heighten similarities between him and Peter and also to better allow Ock to play a new fraternal bond with Peter with mutual admiration as a scientist. Aspects of which seeped in the Raimi movies and other versions. This created a problem for writers more familiar with one take rather than the other. Case in point, in 2002 both Paul Jenkins and Creator/JMichaelStraczynski (writing the titles "Spectacular Spider-Man" and "Amazing Spider-Man", respectively, both part of 616) did a story with Ock as the villain; the latter has Ock pursuing a vendetta against an amoral corporate yuppie who stole his tech, but shows Otto going out of his way to save civilians (then leaving Spider-Man to die, because [[ExactWords "you're not a civilian"]]) and suggests what he really wants is [[CutLexLuthorACheck legitimate scientific and business success]]; the former portrays him as an utterly ruthless ManipulativeBastard professional criminal motivated entirely by ego and {{Greed}} who, in the words of Spidey, [[LackOfEmpathy (doesn't) care enough about anyone to hate them]], Ock responding with a "touché" before savagely beating on Spidey (remarking [[ItsPersonal he's an exception]]).
** His hatred of Spider-Man is the one consistent character trait, but otherwise he could be saving the innocent one minute and [[ComicBook/EndsOfTheEarth trying to kill all life on Earth out of spite]] the next. At some point he's mercenary, trying to bait old ladies so that he can appropriate their inheritances, in others he plans to destroy New York just to prove he's his "superiority" and establish himself as the greatest intellect of his day (in other words, a terrorist).
* DevilInPlainSight: Aunt May can't seem to understand why the police would want to arrest [[AffablyEvil such a nice man]].
* DiagnosisFromDrBadass: When he recalled his first fight with Spider-Man:
--> "...with a punch that, by my best estimate, was over twelve hundred foot-pounds. That, Dr. Louis, would be my first case of traumatic brain injury."
* DisastrousDemonstration: He had some problems during his new invention's demonstration, which sets him on the path to become a supervillain. The movie ''Film/SpiderMan2'' carried over this element of his origin-story.
* DistaffCounterpart: In the 90s, ''ComicBook/ScarletSpider'' faced off against Lady Octopus, a female supervillain who was enamored with Otto and deliberately patterned her identity off of his, complete with a cybnetic arms harness. The Web Warriors mini-series also introduced Octavia Otto, a heroic female counterpart of Otto's from Earth-1104, who returned in ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon''. Another female version of Doc Ock appears in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse''.
* TheDon: He created an actual criminal gang, with his minions dressed in remarkably dorky uniforms, multiple times with the goal to take over the underworld, most notably as the Master Planner. He also formed a supervillain team, the Sinister Six, with himself as the leader with the goal to kill Spider-Man and carve territory. Later on, Otto fights gang wars with the Hammerhead and Daredevil villain Owl to establish domination over the criminal element.
* DoubleConsciousness: a long-standing characterization attempting to resolve the varying depictions mentioned in DependingOnTheWriter. Somewhere between his traumatic childhood, the neurological damage from being fused to a malfunctioning BrainComputerInterface, [[GollumMadeMeDoIt the nebulous, possibly imagined, active influences of said system]], brain damage from years of fighting well beyond his organic body's capacity, his own megalomania, personal fixations, and countless other issues, Otto is in a constant state of identity crisis. He is torn between his identity as the confident, ruthless, and brilliant supervillain Doctor Octopus... and the insecure and troubled man [[IJustWantToBeSpecial desperately seeking vindication]], Dr. Otto Octavius. While not a true split personality, even Doc Ock has no idea what he really wants [[AndThenWhat beyond his latest scheme]], and what he'll do to get it.
* TheDragon: Some stories show him as this to ComicBook/NormanOsborn while becoming a DragonWithAnAgenda.
* DrJerk: He was like this before the accident which made him a villain, rude and egotistical, the biggest reason why his co-workers called him "Dr. Octopus" behind his back. (Part of it, of course, was due to stress caused by his mother's death, which also made him careless and caused the accident in the first place.)
* DrunkWithPower: With the adamantium tentacles he started thinking he was invincible, and acted very rash (going so far as to start using an EvilLaugh) and even tried to TakeOverTheWorld for real. [[BreakTheHaughty It ended badly]], and even he himself would later admit it had been a bad idea.
* EasilyForgiven: He was a terrorist, and killed many innocent people over the years, and by collateral damage, is responsible for the death of Captain George Stacy, Peter's ParentalSubstitute, and then he hacked Peter's body and hijacked his life while ruining his life and career. Yet, the minute Otto affects redemptive traits, DependingOnTheWriter, Peter says "things are square" between them.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: After becoming [[{{ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan}} Superior Spider-Man]], he has the brawn to match his brains.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
** Octavius's relationship with his mother was [[MyBelovedSmother unhealthy]] and complicated, but he did care about her. Her death saddened him.
** In his youth, Octavius was engaged to Mary Alice Anders. Years later, he tried and failed to cure her of AIDS.
** While occupying Peter Parker's body as Superior Spider-Man, Octavius found himself falling in love with Anna Maria Marconi.
** To this day, he has a genuine soft spot for Peter's Aunt May. During the Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy, when she was believed dead, he interrupted a villainous speech at the Daily Bugle to offer his sincere condolences to Peter about her passing.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Much of Otto's actions as the Superior Spider-Man backfire as he can't grasp that being a hero means more than just showing yourself as "the best." As it turns out, Otto lets Peter come back to his body with the realization Peter is a true hero.
** Thanks to a time-travel escapade, Otto learns he loses to Peter and downloads his brain patterns into a robot assistant for Anna Maria. When Anna Maria talks of Otto and how terrible he was, Otto thinks he needs to take back Peter's body to get Anna Maria back. He then decides that Peter's mind "hurt my own" and by getting his original brain back, he can get Anna Maria's love once more. Otto literally cannot understand that Anna Maria will ''never'' love someone with such a record of murderous actions as Otto.
* EvilCounterpart: To Peter, on the scale of being a scientist, using smarts for evil purposes and being based on an eight-legged creature. The biggest difference between the two is that Otto had a couple decades of cynicism ground into him before getting his powers. [[spoiler: He plays it even straighter as in recent times, he has acquired a body and costume very similar to Peter's own.]]
* EvilCripple: Years of super-powered fights have taken a toll on his body.
** Taken UpToEleven in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, where he depends on his cybernetic tentacles to get around because he was in an accident that rendered him ''a quadriplegic''. If it weren't for his arms, he'd be completely immobile from the neck down. Subverted when, during the series finale, he uses nanotech to rebuild his body and undo the damage.
** The version of him in ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'' is on his way to being this even before he becomes a villain due to a neurodegenerative condition that's causing him to slowly lose his motor skills. Peter estimates that within a year, he'll be completely paralyzed.
* EvilGenius: A definite poster boy of this trope. Hell, in ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' he drinks out of a coffee mug with this label on it. Otto is an master strategist and manipulator and an expert in many scientific fields, including the study of radiation, which even [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] acknowledges is better than his own.
* EvilIsHammy: At times he will demonstrate that he is enjoying being mean profusely ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyMechbIbNg "Find him. Or I'll peel the flesh off her bones..."]])
* EvilMentor: To both Carolyn Trainer (aka Lady Octopus) and Angelina Brancale (aka Stunner) two of the very small number of people to show UndyingLoyalty to him. He was also this to Peter himself in the[[WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries 1990s animated series]].
* EvilVersusOblivion: In ''ComicBook/TheSentry'' miniseries, as the heroes are gathered to stop [[BigBad the Void]], Spider-Man notices Doctor Octopus lined up with them. Dialogue goes something like this:
-->'''Spider-Man:''' Doc Ock? What are you doing here?\\
'''Doctor Octopus:''' We need to stop the Void or else it'll destroy the world. Once this is over, next time I see you I'll kill you.
* EvilVirtues: Octavius has a stellar work ethic, as Anna Maria observes in ''Superior Spider-Man'' about "Peter":
-->'''Anna Maria Marconi:''' That's what I like about you. You want a doctorate? You get it. Your own company? Boom. There it is. You help out Spider-Man, you look after your Aunt. Anything you want to do, you just do it ... and do it well, no excuses, just results.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Doc Ock was very much a momma's boy growing up. However, as a grown man he came to the conclusion that she had been coddling him, even while accepting that his dad was a drunken asshole.
* ExcuseMeWhileIMultitask: He was known to use his arms to fight off enemies' attacks while casually lighting a cigarette or focus more attention on something else, like giving instructions to a minion or ''continue a chemistry experiment''.
* ExtraOreDinary: His ComicBook/UltimateMarvel counterpart, who is eventually revealed to have the ability to psychically manipulate metal. This means that, even though his tentacles get surgically removed, he can recreate them from ambient metal if he wants to.
* FallenHero: He used to do experiments for the sake of bettering mankind and then he discovered first-hand how CyberneticsEatYourSoul.
* FatBastard: At first and later [[DependingOnTheArtist depending on the artist.]]
* FatalFlaw: '''Pride'''. Octopus can't stand the idea of anyone not acknowledging his genius, and is absolutely obsessed with proving himself as the greatest scientific mind in Marvel.
* FireBreathingWeapon: In ''Ride/TheAmazingAdventuresOfSpiderMan'' ride, he's able to expel fire from his tentacles.
* ForWantOfANail: A ComicBook/WhatIf story suggested that, if the radioactive spider had bitten Flash Thompson instead of Peter Parker, Peter would have averted Otto Octavius's StartOfDarkness.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: He wears glasses because he's myopic.
* FreakLabAccident: His origin story, which is another similarity he shares with Peter Parker.
* FriendlessBackground: Young Otto was bullied and picked on as a child, much like Peter was, and also like Peter, compensated by becoming engrossed in his studies. Indeed, [[NotSoDifferent the biggest difference]] between the two in that regards was that Peter had the loving, nurturing family that Otto lacked.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: That timid researcher and MommasBoy has come a long way in terms of badass.
* GadgeteerGenius: Both as a villain and an AntiHero.
* GeniusBruiser: When wielding his tentacles, he's a formidable fighter, despite his otherwise less than athletic physique. He regularly tangles with the likes of Spider-Man, so you better believe he knows how to fight.
* GlassCannon: If Spidey can get past the tentacles, it usually doesn't take much to knock him out.
* GuessWhoImMarrying: Doc Ock was actually marrying May because she was the heir to a private nuclear reactor (dont even ask). He didn't even realize that Spider-Man was her nephew until after he unmasked in ''Civil War''. [[ContinuityNod Brilliantly]], he then went into a rant about how stupid he was not to figure it out and how he should have kept up the marriage facade for far longer.
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Prior to the Death of Spider-Man in the UltimateUniverse, he tries to back out of the Green Goblin's latest scheme, declaring he always wanted to be a scientist not a villain, he wants to go back to science, and he'd rather take pride in the fact it was his genetic engineering experiments with spiders that ultimate created Spider-Man. The Green Goblin promptly kills him.
* HeroWorshipper: In ''Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure'', he claims to idolize Creator/LeonardoDaVinci, and was inspired to invent his tentacles by [=DaVinci's=] famous ''Vitruvian Man'' pencil sketch.
* HeroicWillpower: ''Never'' take this guy on in a battle of wills. As strong as his arms are, his mind is even more potent. The Answer, Fusion, and Peter himself found this out the hard way.
* HerrDoktor: In the [[WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries 1990s animated series]] and the ''VideoGame/SpiderMan'' video game he has a thick German accent (he was voiced by Creator/EfremZimbalistJr in both; that's right--Doctor Octopus is ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Alfred]]'').
* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Doc Ock has a tendency to learn from his mistakes and to come up with effective counter-measures for Spidey's tricks. For example, after being [[AHandfulForAnEye blinded with a squirt of webbing]] he started treating his glasses with a non-stick coating.
* ILoveNuclearPower: Doc Ock originally gained his powers from a radiation experiment gone wrong. ''Doctor Octopus: Year One'' (set in the original Marvel timeline of the early 60's) embraces this trope, showing that Octavius became obsessed with the power of the atom long before the accident, fantasizing about it to the point of fetishism, and identified with the cleansing atomic fire as a counterpart to his own rage against the world.
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted heavily]], as the original blast of radiation that gave him his powers was revealed to have had a long-term side effect: [[PhlebotinumOverdose the radiation prevented his body from properly healing from injury.]] Coupled with his frequent beatings from foes far more powerful than himself, Otto's body eventually began to shut down and leave his brilliant mind [[EvilCripple in a decrepit, dying body.]]
* JokerImmunity: Let's see, he has been resurrected once and had his mind transferred into Spider-Man's body. [[AvertedTrope He is apparently really dead now that his body is in rigor mortis and his consciousness has been erased.]] Of course, he was once killed, proclaimed dead, and buried in a cemetery, only to be brought back to life by [[ReligionOfEvil the Hand]] in an unholy ritual, so you never know... [[spoiler:Turns out he had his holographic copy of Anna set up a contingency plan and uploaded a copy of his consciousness into the Living Brain.]]
* KavorkaMan:
** Despite being unattractive and tentacled, Octavius successfully wooed Aunt May and almost married her. Even afterwards, May is STILL rather fond of him.
** Octavius won Stunner's love and gratitude when he used virtual reality technology to make her beautiful and mighty.
* KilledOffForReal:
** In the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, by Norman Osborn.
** In the main universe, the original Otto Octavius died at the conclusion of ''The Superior Spider-Man'', while the Otto that appears in all later appearances (except Spider-Verse, which features a time-displaced Otto-as-Spider-Man) feature an AI copy that has hijacked a powerful clone body. In fact, the Spider-Verse adventure ''sets up'' the creation of the duplicate since it has Otto learn-then forget-that he is destined to die in the future and take precautions. InUniverse the two are treated as one and the same, though.
* KnightOfCerebus: He's got little to no comedic quirks and he is the first villain to actually beat Spider-Man. Whenever he shows up you know things are about to get nasty.
* LegionOfDoom: He founded the Sinister Six, and would later reunite the team twice.
* LargeHam: He has his fair share of hammy moments in the comics and adaptations.
* LivingWithTheVillain: So, Aunt May decides to rent out a free room in the Parker household. Who moves in? Doc Ock of, course! What happens next? He hits on Aunt May and nearly gives Peter a heart attack in the process.
* MadScientist: Wasn't one to begin with but he had a lot of repressed feelings and then there was this accident...
* MadeOfIron: Averted. He's often had to create armor due to the incredible damage he has taken because, when all is said and done, he is still an ordinary man.
* MarriedToTheJob: Even before his mother's death, the man was a workaholic, and ''after'' it happened, he shunned out other people entirely, becoming an anti-social DrJerk. Eventually, this attitude caused him to overwork and caused the accident due to fatigue.
* MergingMistake: The accident where he was stuck by radiation, causing him to be permanently fused with the harness.
* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: ''Almost'' became one in "The Return of the Sinister Six" storyline. In fact, the reason Spidey was able to defeat him is because he managed to convince Ock that his plan would cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, which Ock didn't want. (Yet.)]]
* MommasBoy: As his dad was abusive, he bonded more with his mother.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: Actually, he does hold at least one real doctorate (but not in medicine).
* MoralMyopia: The whole "blaming Spider-Man for beating him to near-death" thing in the build up to the Superior Spider-Man storyline really falls into this. Doc, if you don't ''want'' to get bashed around by the super-strong vigilante, then maybe you should, y'know, ''not commit crimes''? Especially not crimes that involve ''trying to kill said vigilante in the first place''?
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: His claim to infamy is his four mechanical arms.
* MultiArmedMultitasking: He was ''very'' good at using his tentacles to do this. According to the most reliable source, he could use his tentacles in combination with his regular hands to do one complex task and two simple ones at the same time. [[ExcuseMeWhileIMultitask And as the above Trope shows]], there were also several stories where the "complex task" was ''a heated battle''.
* MyBelovedSmother: His mother was incredibly overprotective and smothering, presumably as a way to "make up" for his father's abuse. As a result, Octavius grew up with an unhealthy attachment to her.
* NewTechIsNotCheap: He's had to rob banks before because that equipment he uses is not cheap.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Octavius' use of BodyBackupDrive stolen from the Inheritors, combined with some bungling by the Web Warriors still on Loomworld, kicks off the ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon'' event.
* NotThatKindOfDoctor: He had a doctorate in Nuclear Physics originally. The Ultimate version seems to have replaced this with genetics. The Sam Raimi films maintain his nuclear physics background, while the [=PS4=] incarnation of the character is instead primarily a robotics expert.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: While primarily a nuclear physicist, he is also skilled in chemistry, engineering, biochemistry, and robotics.
* PhlebotinumHandlingEquipment: What his tentacles were originally designed for.
* PetTheDog: He has gotten a few pet the dog moments over the decades, including trying to save Aunt May from Hammerhead and trying to develop a cure for AIDS in order to save his ex-girlfriend.
* {{Pride}}: Octavius' most prominent recurring failure is his arrogance; even when he's trying to be a good guy, he's still hugely ego-driven. For example, in ''Superior Octopus #1'', he rescues a bus full of people from being robbed by the Night Shift, boasting about how they cannot hope to compete with the advantages his intelligence gives them even as he dishes out a CurbStompBattle. When he returns to his lair, he is shown dismissing the city's original protectors, such as ComicBook/DareDevil and the original ComicBook/SpiderWoman, as "weaklings" incapable of doing the job, and arrogantly proclaiming that even the local high-level supervillains like [[GravityMaster Graviton]] and [[EvilSorcerer Count Nefaria]], despite being "possessed of near-godlike power" (in his words), are no threat to him.
* RealityEnsues: What happens when a human without any kind of enhanced durability spends years getting into super-battles? [[EvilCripple The result isn't pretty.]]
* ScaryShinyGlasses: An iconic western example, both invoked and justified in many incarnations by having them do double-duty as prescription SinisterShades to deal with light sensitivity issues.
* ShadowArchetype: According to Creator/TomDeFalco, he is what Spider-Man could have easily have become if he let his powers go to his head. Much more so when he actually ''becomes'' Spider-Man.
* SharpDressedMan: Starting when he formed the second version of the Sinister Six, he got rid of his original costume in favor of expensive Italian suits; these lasted until his death and later resurrection by the Hand.
* SpiderLimbs: His tentacles, of course.
* StatusQuoIsGod: ''Superior Spider-Man'' vol.2 ends with [[spoiler:Otto Octavius's original body and personality being restored, his efforts to be a hero as the Superior Spider-Man now considered irrelevant and all knowledge of Spider-Man's secret identity being lost]].
* StevenUlyssesPerhero: Gets a [[LampshadeHanging lampshade hung on it]] by J. Jonah Jameson:
--> "Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs. What are the odds?"
* SunglassesAtNight: He's rarely seen without them; frequently justified as a result of light sensitivity issues
* {{Synchronization}}: If his metal tentacles are damaged or destroyed, even from hundreds of miles away, he feels incredible pain and a shock that can often render him unconscious or cause him to fly into rage. After years of using them, the arms have almost become a part of his body.
** In the mini-series "Doctor Octopus: Year One", it's revealed that he created his infamous tentacles with the ability to ''feel'' radiation.
* SwissArmyAppendage: Most incarnations of his tentacles have this capacity to some extent. Common alt-modes for his claws are spiked blades, [[BrainComputerInterface electronic interface devices]], SensoryTentacles, and [[ThisIsADrill dedicated drills]] or drill-like rotation of the claws.
* TakeOverTheWorld: This has been his stated goal in some of his schemes (including the "Return of the Sinister Six" and "Ends of Earth" storylines), but it was usually a front for some other goal, except in "Revenge of the Sinister Six" where it really was his goal.
* {{Technopath}}: One of Marvel's latest trends is to attribute this power to Doc Ock.
* TookALevelInBadass:
** That one time he got adamantium tentacles. He beat the ''Hulk'' unconscious. He gave Iron Man such a thrashing he considered ''retirement'', setting him up as a villain who can hang with the big guns.
** [[spoiler: His comeback as the Superior Octopus. A brand-new set of powerful tentacles, but now complemented by an actually superhumanly powerful body, Spider-powers included.]]
* UnwittingPawn:
** He considered the second incarnation of the Sinister Six to be this.
** In one three part story, Fusion, a villain who Spider-Man had previously called a [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain "poor man's Mysterio"]], thought he had brainwashed Doc Ock into being his slave. Boy, was he wrong. Doc's iron will couldn’t be scratched, and he had been using Fusion as his own UnwittingPawn the whole time. When [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he no longer needed him]], Fusion found himself on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle, as Ock beat him severely and left him broken, bloody, and barely alive [[StuffedInTheFridge for Spider-Man to find]] as an example of anyone who challenged him.
* VillainOverForDinner: At one point, Aunt May was dating him and they nearly got ''married.'' Right now he even supplies the page image for this trope.
* VillainProtagonist: Of ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan.
* VillainTeamUp: Octavius is often the leader, and in some continuities the founder, of the Sinister Six.
** He has also led at least one version of the Comicbook/TheAvengers villain team, Masters of Evil.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: In a few versions, most notably the 90s cartoon, Dr Otto Octavius encouraged a young Peter Parker's love of science, and told him to ignore those who would mock him. They weren't exactly friends, but close enough that Octavius remembers who Peter is when they meet after he's become Dr Octopus. The [=PS4=] incarnation of the character takes it even further, where Otto was practically Peter's surrogate father before his descent into villainy.
* WesternTerrorists: Some of Ock's actions over the years were outright terrorism. This includes an airplane hijacking of a foreign diplomat, holding him hostage in exchange for money and safe-passage at an airport (ASM #88) and his plot to bomb New York with a neutron bomb in ''The Owl/Octopus War'' and his actions in the ''Ends of the Earth''. Likewise in ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'', [[spoiler:Otto branches into bioterrorism where he launches an aerosol agent called "Devil's Breath" spreading an epidemic in Manhattan that kills several people, including Aunt May]].
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He once developed arachnophobia after a ''very'' angry Spider-Man beat him within an inch of his life after the scientist nearly killed the Black Cat.
* WorthyOpponent:
** While he despises Spider-Man and is obsessed with defeating him, Octavius nonetheless appreciates that Spidey is highly intelligent and respects him as a formidable enemy.
** In ComicBook/UltimateMarvel, part of what prompts him to try and give up on villainy is because he decides Spider-Man is so impressive that he ought to be proud of having created him, even if by accident.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:As Superior Spider-Man IV/Superior Venom]]
!!As Superior Spider-Man IV/Superior Venom

!!! '''Alter Ego:''' Doctor Otto Gunther Octavius in the body of Peter Benjamin Parker
!!! '''First Appearance:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #697

-->"''Better yet, with my unparalleled genius -- and my boundless ambition -- I'll be a better Spider-Man than you ever were. From this day forth, I shall become... THE SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN!''"

After his master plan during "Ends Of The Earth" failed, Otto Octavius was at the end of his life. Before his inevitable end came, he put in motion his final plan, which was switching bodies with Peter Parker and taking all his memories, instincts, and powers in the process. At first Ock tried to use them as a way to get revenge on Peter, but after Peter showed him the ramifications of being Peter Parker include "the great responsibility", Octavius changed his ways and now tries to honor Peter's last wish by being a better hero than he ever was.
----
* AmbiguouslyEvil: In almost all of his appearances in other comics especially in Alpha: Big Time and Avenging Spider-man, where he is using Alpha to upgrade himself and seems to be rebuilding the Sinister Six respectively. Not that this is surprising given that he's a somewhat reformed villain.
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: It's a brand new Spidey, for better or worse. Sort of; even though it's Peter's body, Doctor Octopus is in control of it.
* AngelFaceDemonFace: As Superior Venom. If Otto is in control his eyes are smooth, the webbing motif neat and tidy, and nary a fang in sight. When he starts to get angry, however, he sprouts a maw full of fangs and both the eyes and webbing motif become distorted.
* AntagonistInMourning:
** After he kills Peter, he remembers everything that Peter went through due to the Freaky Friday Flip. It's enough to drive him to use his powers for good.
** Notably averted when he purges Peter from his mind -- he immediately celebrates that he's ''free''.
* AntiHero[=/=]AntiVillain: As of the beginning of ''Superior'', NominalHero for the former and NobleDemon for the latter. While he becomes increasingly antagonistic and arrogant, he believes he's doing it for the good of the city (and his ego). When he ultimately realizes he's been doing more harm than good, he sacrifices himself to give Peter his body back.
* AntiHeroSubstitute: He lacks the aesthetics to be a proper NinetiesAntiHero, but certainly has the attitude and viciousness of one.
* TheAtoner:
** ''[[ExaggeratedTrope Much]]'' more so than Peter, which is saying quite a bit. He was so moved by learning about the original Spider-Man's past that he decided to use his powers for good instead of for selfish reasons. He's got plenty to atone for, too: nearly destroying the planet for starters, and pretty much every other heinous thing that he's done as Doctor Octopus. This is the only thing keeping him from being a KarmaHoudini from the conclusion of ''Amazing''.
** However, as the series goes on, his quest becomes more driven by his own ego than by any desire to do good, making this a SubvertedTrope.
* BaitTheDog: It sure was nice of him to perform a brain surgery to save a little girl. Too bad that he does it as a means to find Peter's remnant and try to kill him for good.
* BerserkButton:
** In ''Superior Spider-Man'' Issue #3, finding out that his old friend the Vulture was using children as mooks, drove Otto blind with rage, especially since he had hit one of them. Due to his father abusing him as a child, he abhors the idea of harming children, especially if he hurt them. He changed his mind from giving the Vulture money so he would stop his crimes, to trying to kill him.
** Bullies in general, and anything that triggers Otto's memories of being bullied cause him to react with DisproportionateRetribution.
* ButHeSoundsHandsome: Whenever Doctor Octopus is brought up.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: After Horizon Labs is destroyed he founds Parker Industries in order to keep developing weapons and equipment.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: In the ''Superior'' Issue #2. Ghost-Peter is pretty grossed out by this.
* DeadpanSnarker: It's most evident in ComicBook/TheAvengers, however he tends to be more on the deadpan side.
* DirtyOldMan: Although being in Peter's body does not make him physically old in the slightest, he is a middle-aged man, and a lot of issue 1 and 2 of ''Superior'' have him hitting on women of Peter's age, meaning women at least 20 years younger than he is. Then in issue four, when he reenters grad school, he flirts with one of the students there. Ghost Peter is very disturbed.
* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Taking on the Venom symbiote causes him to lose all self-control and start ranting like a madman and become obsessed with finding any lawbreaker he can find ([[AllCrimesAreEqual no matter how minor]]) so he can beat them up and demonstrate his superiority. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain This results in Peter resurfacing and convincing Ock to free himself from the Symbiote's control]].
* FairWeatherMentor: To Alpha.
* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: He's tricked out the outfit to have StatOVision and [[NightVisionGoggles Night Vision]], like Iron Man.
* GoodIsNotNice: Probably the defining difference between him and Peter. And the "good" part is stretching it.
* GoOutWithASmile: He smiles at Peter, recognizing that he's the hero New York City needs.
* GrandTheftMe: Pulled a Freaky Friday Flip on Peter after his battle with both Hobgoblins.
* GracefulLoser:
** In the end, Otto acknowledges Peter is the true Superior Spider-Man and willingly gives Parker his body back, even purging his memories to avoid distracting and confusing Peter.
** When Peter successfully trounces him during their fight in Spider-Verse, Otto admits defeat with begrudging acceptance.
* GhostMemory: One of his new "powers", in a sense. He got these memories from Peter, and it's what inspired him to go through his HeelFaceTurn in the first place. He loses them after purging the remnants of Peter from his body.
* HeelFaceTurn: Otto takes over as Spider-Man after Peter dies, overwhelmed by Peter's memories and thoughts. Of course, he's still an egomaniac, so he's also motivated by being a better Spider-Man than Peter was.
** HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: He sequesters and purges the remnants of Peter from his body, going back on his promise to protect Peter's friends by slaughtering mental representations of them. To be fair, it was because he only saw them as memories and all of Peter's had to go so that he could continue to be Spider-Man. [[JerkassHasAPoint Though Otto's point about how the mental representations are not actually Peter's friends]], [[VillainHasAPoint and "killing" them is not actually breaking the promise Otto made to Peter IS perfectly valid]].
* HeelRealization: He finally realizes all he has done wrong and all of his flaws in the Goblin Nation arc.
* HeroicSuicide: He erases himself to allow Peter back his body to save New York in ''Superior Spider-Man'' 30.
* HijackingCthulhu: He seizes control of the Venom symbiote and forces it to remain bonded to him when it tries to leave him for Flash. The symbiote quickly undermines his control and turns the tables on him fairly quickly, though.
* HypocriticalHumor:
** In ''Spider-Verse'', when Otto and Peter face off for the final time, [[spoiler:Otto sneers at Peter for ganging up on him with Spider-Girl and Spider-Woman. Peter is quick to point out he has no right to judge, since he founded the Sinister Six with the same intent in mind]].
** During ''Mighty Avengers'', he yells at "Spider Hero" ([[RunningGag no hypen]]) for stealing his identity, and demands he remove his costume immediately. This'd be the same guy running around in someone else's body.
* IHatePastMe: When [[MyFutureSelfAndMe they come face to face]] in ''Spider-Verse'', Otto assumes Peter is from before his GrandTheftMe and mocks him lacking the ruthlessness to kill his enemies. Peter responds by punching him in the nose, then beats him by surrendering and telling [=SpOck=] to prove his superiority by killing him.
* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: Why he splits up with Mary Jane. He also does this [[PetTheDog out of respect for Peter]].
* InsufferableGenius: About 90 percent of his thoughts are how much Superior he is to Peter, or how other the resident geniuses of the Marvel Universe are not as smart as him, like Reed flipping Richards.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Well, as if hijacking another man's body and stealing his life just so he could keep living wasn't a hint. Also, just in general. During ''Mighty Avengers'', he brings an army of minions to Luke Cage's doorstep just because he can't stand the idea of there being other heroes cutting into "his" turf. Only the threat of legal action in the form of She-Hulk gets him to go away.
* {{Jerkass}}: In terms of personality, he's really not someone you'd want to hang around with. [[DeconstructedTrope This trait nearly got him kicked off of the Avengers]].
** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: However, he's also doing the right thing because he feels that it's what the real Spider-Man would do. Even still, the "Jerk" aspect of this can be stretched a bit, considering that part of the reason he's being good is due to simply outdo the original.
** JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: His actions are increasingly less heroic and more extreme. This definitely kicks in by the time he erases Peter. He subverts this, though with [[RedemptionEqualsDeath his]] [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre final]] [[HeroicSuicide actions]].
* KarmicDeath: A ''self-inflicted'' example. Otto put Peter down for the count for a long time by erasing him from his own mind. When he realizes that the world needs Peter, he does the same thing to himself in penance, and so that Peter won't be distracted by Octavius' extra baggage.
* KillAndReplace: Previously, Dr. Octopus had swapped bodies with Spider-Man, leaving the hero to die trapped in Ock's broken body and leaving the villain in a healthy, heroic body with no one realizing anything. Doc Ock uses his new life to constantly try to prove himself a superior Spider-Man. [[spoiler: In the end of the series, Otto realizes Parker was better than him and lets him take control of his body once more.]]
* KillTheGod: In order to stop the Inheritors, [[spoiler:Otto kills the Master Weaver]].
* LargeHam: Good gravy, just look at the quote.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Getting sent back to Earth-616 erased his memories of the events of ''Spider-Verse''.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Kicking Peter out of his head cost him Peter's memories, which becomes increasingly important as the story arc progresses.
* LegacyCharacter: Doctor Octopus is now Spider-Man after the aforementioned Grand Theft Me.
* LoveRedeems: Otto's love for Anna Maria leads to him giving Peter his body back in order to save her.
* ManipulativeBastard: He's manipulating pretty much everyone right now.
* MadScientist [[ScienceHero Hero]]: Like the original Spidey, only more fiendish.
* MetaGuy: In Hickman's run on the Avengers, oddly enough.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: As of ''#22'', Dr. Peter Parker is in the house.
* MostDefinitelyNotAVillain: For the most part, he doesn't act anything like either Peter or Spider-Man, although [[IdiotBall it takes a while for anyone to notice]].
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: His new suit has four cybernetic spider-legs, similar to Peter's old Iron Spider outfit.
* NotQuiteDead: In the ''Superior Spider-Man #32'' and ''#33'' [=SpOck=] is shown to have been [[http://www.comicvine.com/articles/go-back-to-the-future-with-superior-spider-man-32-33/1100-148745/ transported to the 2099 universe]], though this takes place during his fight with Spider-Man 2099.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: [[ZigZaggingTrope Sort of]]. His series starts off as a recovering villain that uses the methods of an AntiHero, seemingly becoming more heroic over time. Later on, he becomes more of a WellIntentionedExtremist and uses increasingly morally questionable methods to achieve his goals, and ultimately leaves many of those that are close to him alienated by his actions.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives one to Ghost-Peter just before purging him.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: [=SpOck's=] second costume is based off of Alex Ross' concept art for ''Film/SpiderMan1'', and he becomes increasingly violent and antagonistic, taking cues from ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: While he wasn't able to undo the damage he did to Peter's life, he did allow Peter to live to fight another day.
* SanitySlippage: After returning from being time-warped, Otto becomes more brutal and totalitarian than ever. [[spoiler:This is because while fighting the Inheritors, he learns that Peter will eventually regain control of his body.]]
* ScrewDestiny: When Otto figures out that Peter is going to get his body back in ''Spider-Verse'', [[spoiler:he tries to destroy the Web of Life thinking it will free him from his fate]].
* ShadowArchetype: He already was this as Doctor Octopus and now it's taken UpToEleven. His methods of crime fighting are more vicious and what would happen if Peter decided to be serious about protecting the whole city.
* TakingUpTheMantle: Becomes Spider-Man after Peter dies.
* TheUnfettered: He ''nearly'' kills someone during his first night on the town. Arguably {{Subverted|Trope}} due to the influence of Ghost-Peter. He later plays it straight: in issue five he uses a gun to point blank shot Massacre in the head, even after Massacre was able to feel emotion again.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: So Peter Parker, normally a good-natured quipster, suddenly to all his friends and family turns into an operatic jerkass, and no-one in the superhero community seems to suspect anything's up. ''Mighty Avengers'' gives the mild handwave that everyone assumes he's just been reading way too much Ayn Rand lately.
* VillainProtagonist: He becomes more and more of this as the series progresses.
* WalkingSpoiler: The identity of the character spoils the conclusion of the "Dying Wish" arc in the ''Amazing'' series. [[LateArrivalSpoiler That being said]], anyone who opens up an issue of ''Superior'' is going to have the twist immediately spoiled for them.
* WhatTheHellHero:
** Kaine, self-described "[[EvilTwin evil clone]]" of Spider-Man, berates Otto for [[BrokenPedestal how far he's fallen]].
** As do a ''lot'' of the other heroes that Otto has run into.
* WouldHurtAChild: Otto tries to stab Spider-Girl [[spoiler:when she tries to stop him from destroying the Web of Life]].
[[/folder]]

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[[caption-width-right:350:As Doctor Octopus]]
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-->''"The die is cast."''

Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius, also known as Doctor Octopus, is a fictional supervillain that has appeared in comic books published by Creator/MarvelComics. He first appeared in ''[[Comicbook/SpiderMan Amazing Spider-Man]]'' #3 (July, 1963), created by writer Creator/StanLee and artist Creator/SteveDitko.

A highly intelligent MadScientist, Doctor Octopus is one of the greatest foes Franchise/SpiderMan has ever faced.[[note]]He's almost universally considered Spidey's all-time #2 foe after the Green Goblin.[[/note]] He is typically portrayed as a stocky, myopic man who utilizes four powerful, mechanical appendages and is obsessed with proving his own genius and destroying Spider-Man (and not necessarily in that order). The character has appeared in numerous ''Spider-Man'' cartoons and video games and is portrayed by Creator/AlfredMolina in the 2004 film ''Film/SpiderMan2'' as the film's main antagonist; Molina would later return to the role in 2021's ''Spider-Man: No Way Home'' as part of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. An AlternateUniverse version of the character appears in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', but to say anything else would be a spoiler. In 2009, Doctor Octopus was ranked as IGN's 28th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

Born in Schenectady, New York, Otto Octavius had something of an unhappy childhood. His father, Torbert, was abusive and violent towards both Otto and his mother Mary. Otto was determined not to become like his father and put all his effort into his education, regularly scoring top marks. Unfortunately, a combination of Otto's shyness and good school work got him labeled as a "teacher's pet" and he became a target of bullying. Otto eventually became a brilliant and respected nuclear physicist, atomic research consultant, inventor, and lecturer. One of his most iconic inventions was a set of highly advanced mechanical arms controlled via a mind–computer interface to assist him with his research into atomic physics. Unfortunately, there was an accidental radiation leak that ended in an explosion and those wonderful mechanical arms became fused to Octavius's body.

The accident also seemed to have damaged his brain and the scientist turned to a life of crime. His very first criminal act was taking the hospital hostage and proclaiming himself Doctor Octopus, the derogatory nickname that his co-workers had originally given him. In their first encounter, Octopus defeated Spider-Man by 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. Since then the Good (or Bad) Doctor has gone on to become one of the most identifiable members of Spider-Man's rogues gallery. He was actually Spider-Man's first recurring ArchEnemy before [[ComicBook/NormanOsborn the Green Goblin]] and his mystery overshadowed him. Goblin's death did nothing to raise Dr. Octopus' profile, since other contenders for the Goblin and ''ComicBook/{{Venom}}'' overshadowed him. He formed the first [[VillainTeamUp Sinister Six]] to fight Spider-Man. He was the villain for one of Spidey's most iconic early arcs as "the Master Planner". He was also indirectly responsible for the death of Gwen Stacy's father George, who died when debris from a building where he and Spider-Man were fighting fell below, and Captain Stacy sacrificed his life to save a child from becoming collateral damage.

Dr. Octopus faded from view and prominence in TheEighties, with his major storyline, ''The Owl[=/=]Octopus War'' happening in the pages of the second series ''The Spectacular Spider-Man'' (Issues #73-79) rather than the flagship title. In TheNineties, writer Creator/TomDeFalco in a number of stories established his backstory, and during the Clone Saga, briefly reworked him into an ally of Spider-Man only for him to be briefly killed off and replaced by Carolyn Trainer, who became Lady Octopus for a brief time, until Defalco brought Octopus back only with his memory of being allies with Peter removed. Dr. Octopus was back and here to stay. He returned to prominence in a series of stories starting from ASM #600 where Peter comes across Octopus' brain scanner and uses it in his attempt to stop a catastrophe. The problem is that the device gives Octopus a scan of Peter's brain. Repeated use of the device over the next 100 issues gives Octopus more and more information to plot the ultimate daring heist. In addition to this, [[RealityEnsues After years of fighting Spider-Man]], [[EvilCripple his body began to succumb to the injuries he had sustained over the years]]. In one storyline, ''ComicBook/EndsOfTheEarth'', Dr. Octopus briefly ascended to a global Marvel-wide threat needing Spider-Man and the Avengers to shut him down with Spider-Man dying and decaying in his body leading to the ''Dying Wish'' storyline.

As a way to prevent his death, [[FreakyFridayFlip Otto switched bodies with Peter Parker]] using one of his robots and the information from the brain-scanning. Before dying in Otto's body, Peter urged Otto to change for good and succeed the Spider-Man mantle with his last breaths. Otto complied, swearing to both live up to Spider-Man's example but do it his way, i.e. doing good by proving that he's the [[ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan superior hero]], resulting a more brutal, but still trying-to-be-heroic Spider-Man. Unfortunately, he found himself [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil slowly slipping back into evil]], starting with his attempted erasure of a fragment of Peter Parker's soul and JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope from there. He eventually had a HeelRealization that he was doing more harm than good by the time Peter's soul fragment came BackFromTheDead, and relinquished control of Peter's body, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath erasing his own consciousness as penance]]. As Otto died, he told Peter that Peter [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre was a better Spider-Man and a better person]] than Otto (the self-proclaimed SuperiorSuccessor) could ever hope to be.

As of ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel'', it is revealed that Dr. Octopus' mind now resides within the Living Brain, stalkingly watching over Anna Maria. After teaming up with the Jackal during ''The Clone Conspiracy'' and temporarily inhabiting a clone version of his old body, he eventually betrayed the Jackal for insulting his love interest. Afterwards, he hijacked a new, powerful experimental clone body. He was then recruited by Armin Zola and ComicBook/{{HYDRA}} to aid in destroying Parker Industries, reinventing himself as the "Superior Octopus". After the downfall of the Hydra Empire and the restoration of the true ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, and a truce with Peter after ''ComicBook/GoDownSwinging'' and ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon'', Ock once again decides to try and abandon his supervillain ways, seeking to set himself up as the heroic protector of San Francisco in ''Superior Octopus #1'' and the second volume of Superior Spider-Man. Unfortunately it wouldn't last, as Ock made a deal with Mephisto to defeat Spider-Norman. The deal would restore Ock to his old body but with it back to full health. The price being the empathy gained from sharing Peter's memories.

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!!This character provides examples of:

[[folder:As Doctor Octopus]]
!!As Doctor Octopus

!!! '''Alter Ego:''' Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius
!!! '''Notable Aliases:''' the Master Planner, the Master Programmer, the Bowery Bum, the Superior Spider-Man (Peter Parker), the Superior Venom, the Superior Octopus, Dr. Elliot Tolliver, the Cosmic Superior Spider-Man, the Cosmo-Spider, the Cosmo Superior
!!! '''Species:''' Human Mutate (Later Clone Human Mutate)
!!! '''First Appearance:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #3 (July 1963) [[note]]As Doctor Octopus[[/note]]; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #698 (November 2012) [[note]]As the Superior Spider-Man[[/note]]; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' Vol. 4 #25 (May 2017) [[note]]As the Superior Octopus[[/note]]

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* AbusiveParents: His father was an abusive, alcoholic {{Jerkass}}, his mother was MyBelovedSmother.
* {{Acrofatic}}: Otto's on the pudgy side, but with his tentacles he can really get around.
* AdaptationDyeJob: Usually sports short brown hair but in the ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'' animated series he sports long black hair.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness:
** Doctor Octopus is rather ugly in the Marvel comics, in contrast to his [[BigBeautifulMan much more striking]] depiction by Creator/AlfredMolina in the ''Spider-Man 2'' film.
** Some Marvel artists depict Doctor Octopus as overweight and fleshy, while others depict him as muscular.
* AffablyEvil:
** In the first annual, he kidnapped Betty Brant and Aunt May Parker, and then gave them tea and cookies while apologizing for neglecting his guests.
** He also once rented a room from Aunt May and behaved like a perfect gentleman, even helping her around the house. He also came very near to marrying her after she somehow inherited a nuclear plant.
** In some of his iterations, he protects civilians, or at least refrains from harming them, but his most notable battles, such as the Death of George Stacy, and ''The Owl/Octopus War'' shows him sociopathically indifferent to collateral damage, in the climax of the latter he attacks a hospital and at one point cuts an elevator carrying runaway patients and hospital workers which Spider-Man has to stop.
* AIIsACrapshoot: In some continuities, in particular Sam Raimi's trilogy, his tentacles contain an advanced AI that influences him.
* AlliterativeName: Both his first and last names begin with "O".
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Or in his case, someone worse, as Peter considers him his "runner-up nemesis at best" with Norman Osborn taking up his top slot on the villain totem pole. The reason for this is that Dr. Octopus repeatedly went to jail multiple times, while Green Goblin went [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty 40 years in publication history without facing justice for his crimes]]. Spider-Man's last major battle with him was a gang war in a '80s storyline at the end of which Dr. Octopus was traumatized by a fear of spiders that Spider-Man himself had to help him overcome later on in ASM #296. And even after that Norman Osborn and Goblin remains a more powerful and dangerous figure, and someone who Otto as Superior Spider-Man failed to do anything against leading him to bring Peter back to stop him.
* AnArmAndALeg: In ''The Owl/Octopus War'', after putting the Black Cat in the hospital, Spider-Man was so consumed with rage, he tore Ock's metal arms off. Because they are physically meshed into his spinal column, this was ''incredibly'' painful for Doc Ock, and in the aftermath, it had to painfully reinserted by his minions and Otto insisted they do it without anesthetic because he wants to feel the pain he's going to put Spider-Man and Black Cat through.
* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: As his moniker suggests, octopi. And later, spiders.
* AppropriatedAppellation: Doctor Octopus was originally an insulting nickname given to Otto by his co-workers, and in some continuities, ComicBook/NormanOsborn.
* ArchEnemy: Otto is the main rival to the Green Goblin in regard to Spider-Man. He held this most consistently in the first 100 issues and then only recovered that during Dan Slott's time. Initially, he is the first villain to defeat Spider-Man, the creator and leader of the Sinister Six, the Big Bad of one of Spider-Man's greatest stories, the Master Planner arc. Indirectly he killed Captain George Stacy and irreparably strained Peter's relation with Gwen Stacy. And he put Black Cat, Spider-Man's third great love in the hospital. Then in Dan Slott's run, he managed to take over his body and live his life. However this experience would wind up changing Otto for the better and he would eventually become an anti-hero like Venom. [[spoiler:Sadly thanks to Mephisto it didn't stick.]]
* ArtificialLimbs: Well, he attached four cybernetic arms of questionable morality to his spine.
* AxCrazy: During ''The Owl/Octopus War'', he plots an insane scheme to destroy New York with a Neutron Bomb. So crazy is this scheme that ComicBook/TheKingpin [[HorrifyingTheHorror is scared of him]] and he pre-emptively plans on moving his business empire and himself out of the city. When Spider-Man and Black Cat, stops his original plan, Ock goes truly nuts with ThePowerOfHate promising Spider-Man to kill him ToThePain and Black Cat too, and gleefully indifferent to whoever else gets in his path.
* BackFromTheDead:
** Kaine murdered him at one point in the 90s, but he was resurrected by the Hand with the help of Carolyn Trainer and Angelina Brancale.
** Zigzagged as ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan''. After the ComicBook/SpiderVerse incident ([[spoiler:where he discovers that Peter has regained his body and the Otto from Peter's ''present'' is dead]]), Otto created an AI copy of his psyche intending to retake Peter's body at a later point. [[spoiler:However, he later decided to contract Miles Warren to create a superior body, a young adult frame made from a fusion of his and Peter's DNA, and took over that instead.]]
* BadassBaritone: In ''Superior Spider-Man'', when he hears a recording of his voice, he remarks that he sounds like a walrus under water, suggesting that his voice is deep.
* BadassBookworm: He's a nuclear physicist and skilled roboticist. He can also go toe-to-toe with Spider-Man.
* BadassInANiceSuit: He was almost always seen in a white suit in the early-mid 90s.
* BadBoss: Could easily have been the TropeNamer for InsufferableGenius, given the way he treats his henchmen, as well as when he's the leader of the Sinister Six (or his short term as leader of the Masters of Evil).
* BigBad: Of "If This Be My Destiny" and "Ends of the Earth". He is also this in a Five Bad Band sense seeing as he founded the Sinister Six and was the leader of almost every incarnation in stories that involved them. In a way he is this for ''Superior Spider-Man'' as the titular protagonist.
** He also plays this role in ''Film/SpiderMan2'' and [[spoiler:''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'']].
* BlindWithoutEm: He sometimes has this problem. In his first debut he was near-sighted before the accident but depending on the continuity (and DependingOnTheWriter) it's sometimes considered a side-effect of the accident that gave him his powers. (In one min-series, he claims that the accident made his eyes sensitive to light, requiring him to wear shaded glasses.)
* BrainsEvilBrawnGood: While they both have plenty of brains ''and'' brawn, the various versions of Doc Ock tend to have an edge on Spider-Man in terms of brainpower and the various versions of Spider-Man have an edge on him in strength, agility, etc...
* CallingTheOldManOut: After his widowed mother makes him break things off with his fiancée, so he can take care of ''her'' instead, he catches her getting ready to go on a date. He calls her out for her hypocrisy, and as this is pretty much the first time in his life he's ever stood up to her, it gives her a fatal heart attack. All of these emotional problems weighing on him is why he doesn't notice the radiation accident until it's too late.
* CameBackStrong: [[spoiler:Octavius hijacking the Proto Clone from the Jackal, which has a mixture of both his DNA and "Spider-Clone" DNA, which gives now gives him his incredible smarts on top of Spider-Man's legendary abilities. His "Superior Octopus" costume is also this as it takes his Superior Spider-Man costume and gives it an Octopus motif, complete with his classic arms.]]
* CatchPhrase: "The die is cast!" became one during his time as the Superior Spider-Man, and seems to have stuck long through the aftermath.
* TheChessmaster: One of his aliases is Master Planner for a reason. [[spoiler:Some of his exploits include taking over Spider-Man's body and creating a backup copy of his consciousness in case anything happened, and getting Sajani Jaffrey fired so that his beloved Anna Maria could take her position.]]
* CharacterDeath: Technically, [[spoiler:the original Otto Octavius died at the conclusion of ''The Superior Spider-Man'' in 2013, while the Otto that appears in all later appearances (except ''Spider-Verse'', which features a time-displaced Otto-as-Spider-Man) is an AI copy that has hijacked a powerful clone body. While the two are treated as one and the same, AI!Otto lacks the memory of Otto's final days.]]
* CigarChomper: [[GoodSmokingEvilSmoking Sometimes he's depicted as being a smoker]] having a taste for cigars; a notable example being his Sam Raimi incarnation.
* CivvieSpandex: His costume has traditionally consisted of a lab coat or sometimes just a plain suit. But during the 70's and 80's he wore green spandex on occasion, but otherwise, he stuck to civvies.
* CombatTentacles: Four cybernetic artificial limbs. He's had multiple versions.
* CoolShades: Due to him being myopic.
* CrazyPrepared: In the "Return of the Sinister Six" storyline Ock recruited the Sandman (who wasn't a criminal at the time) but because he was pretty sure the Sandman would likely turn against him - and he did - he took inspiration from a battle Sandman once had with [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk the Hulk]], and kept a weapon on him that could melt silicon and turn sand into glass, [[TakenForGranite which in-effect, petrified Sandman.]]
* CutLexLuthorACheck: Averted in most of his incarnations: He was a scientist who invented and used his arms for legitimate research purposes. It took a lab accident fusing the arms to his body and driving him insane to turn him into a supervillain. This insanity, then, is why he doesn't just give up on being a supervillain and go back to being a scientist, usually.
** Slightly subverted in the 90s cartoon; Doc Ock still thinks of himself as a scientist over a villain... the problem is, his obsession is with pursuing scientific goals goes to the extent that [[ForScience he's indifferent to any potential harm to people as a result]], which is why nobody will take him in as a legitimate scientist. To put this in perspective, his introductory episode has him kidnap Felicia Hardy due to a vendetta against her mother... only this turns out to mostly be a distraction so he can pursue an experiment with creating a fusion reactor, indifferent to the fact that if this goes wrong, the resultant explosion could ''wipe out half the city''.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel''; when Norman Osborn tries to recruit the Sinister Six, Octavius actually refuses to join in, pointing out that the whole idea is stupid, that he's never really had a particular enmity for Spider-Man and, if anything, he's ''proud'' of Spidey, since he engineered the spiders that made Spider-Man in the first place, and so Spider-Man is basically the living pinnacle of his work. Sadly, Norman promptly kills Otto for refusing to join in.
** Subverted in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon; Doc Ock is being ''forced'' to work as Norman Osborn's black ops scientist after his death was faked by Osborn, and he simply can't get out from under Osborn's thumb. Of course, by the time he does escape, he's so full of hate and rage that he decides to become a supervillain in his own right.
** Similar is done in the new ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'' game. Otto, with Peter as his research assistant, starts off trying to create good-as-new prosthetic limbs for the disabled, but [[ForegoneConclusion as is expected]], forces (namely, Norman Osborn and Otto's buried vitriol towards him for past sins) conspire to rob him of his [[SanitySlippage sanity]] and turn him into Doc Ock.
** Subverting this is Invoked with the Superior Octopus storyline; Otto wants to use his new body and his new costumed identity to start over and become a hero, having developed a taste for it during his time as the Superior Spider-Man.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: After having the tentacles fused to his spine, he turned evil.
* {{Cyborg}}: The tentacles and their harness were fused to his body.
* DentedIron: He spent most of his career trading blows with Spider-Man, who has SuperStrength, despite being just an ordinary guy with cybernetic extra limbs. In a CerebusRetcon, it was eventually revealed that he was effectively ''being beaten to death'' over the course of his career, leaving him a hideously disfigured, dying wreck of a man trapped on life support.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Much like Doctor Doom, Otto can be a NobleDemon AntiVillain in one story and a remorseless mass-murdering psychopath in another, though unlike Doom, not much ArcWelding has been done to make the two takes in line with one another, with the writers of the former variation downplaying the latter:
** Dr. Octopus was portrayed as a megalomaniac without any redeeming virtues for the first 30 years or so. He was self-interested, arrogant, and vain. His courtship with Aunt May still coincided with him acting as a gangster in a gang-war with Hammerhead (who [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork helpfully for Peter]], crashes the wedding between Ock and Aunt May) and motivated by a scheme to win a nuclear power plant that Aunt May inherited.
** Creator/TomDefalco in a number of stories in TheNineties sought to deepen his character and created a sympathetic backstory to heighten similarities between him and Peter and also to better allow Ock to play a new fraternal bond with Peter with mutual admiration as a scientist. Aspects of which seeped in the Raimi movies and other versions. This created a problem for writers more familiar with one take rather than the other. Case in point, in 2002 both Paul Jenkins and Creator/JMichaelStraczynski (writing the titles "Spectacular Spider-Man" and "Amazing Spider-Man", respectively, both part of 616) did a story with Ock as the villain; the latter has Ock pursuing a vendetta against an amoral corporate yuppie who stole his tech, but shows Otto going out of his way to save civilians (then leaving Spider-Man to die, because [[ExactWords "you're not a civilian"]]) and suggests what he really wants is [[CutLexLuthorACheck legitimate scientific and business success]]; the former portrays him as an utterly ruthless ManipulativeBastard professional criminal motivated entirely by ego and {{Greed}} who, in the words of Spidey, [[LackOfEmpathy (doesn't) care enough about anyone to hate them]], Ock responding with a "touché" before savagely beating on Spidey (remarking [[ItsPersonal he's an exception]]).
** His hatred of Spider-Man is the one consistent character trait, but otherwise he could be saving the innocent one minute and [[ComicBook/EndsOfTheEarth trying to kill all life on Earth out of spite]] the next. At some point he's mercenary, trying to bait old ladies so that he can appropriate their inheritances, in others he plans to destroy New York just to prove he's his "superiority" and establish himself as the greatest intellect of his day (in other words, a terrorist).
* DevilInPlainSight: Aunt May can't seem to understand why the police would want to arrest [[AffablyEvil such a nice man]].
* DiagnosisFromDrBadass: When he recalled his first fight with Spider-Man:
--> "...with a punch that, by my best estimate, was over twelve hundred foot-pounds. That, Dr. Louis, would be my first case of traumatic brain injury."
* DisastrousDemonstration: He had some problems during his new invention's demonstration, which sets him on the path to become a supervillain. The movie ''Film/SpiderMan2'' carried over this element of his origin-story.
* DistaffCounterpart: In the 90s, ''ComicBook/ScarletSpider'' faced off against Lady Octopus, a female supervillain who was enamored with Otto and deliberately patterned her identity off of his, complete with a cybnetic arms harness. The Web Warriors mini-series also introduced Octavia Otto, a heroic female counterpart of Otto's from Earth-1104, who returned in ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon''. Another female version of Doc Ock appears in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse''.
* TheDon: He created an actual criminal gang, with his minions dressed in remarkably dorky uniforms, multiple times with the goal to take over the underworld, most notably as the Master Planner. He also formed a supervillain team, the Sinister Six, with himself as the leader with the goal to kill Spider-Man and carve territory. Later on, Otto fights gang wars with the Hammerhead and Daredevil villain Owl to establish domination over the criminal element.
* DoubleConsciousness: a long-standing characterization attempting to resolve the varying depictions mentioned in DependingOnTheWriter. Somewhere between his traumatic childhood, the neurological damage from being fused to a malfunctioning BrainComputerInterface, [[GollumMadeMeDoIt the nebulous, possibly imagined, active influences of said system]], brain damage from years of fighting well beyond his organic body's capacity, his own megalomania, personal fixations, and countless other issues, Otto is in a constant state of identity crisis. He is torn between his identity as the confident, ruthless, and brilliant supervillain Doctor Octopus... and the insecure and troubled man [[IJustWantToBeSpecial desperately seeking vindication]], Dr. Otto Octavius. While not a true split personality, even Doc Ock has no idea what he really wants [[AndThenWhat beyond his latest scheme]], and what he'll do to get it.
* TheDragon: Some stories show him as this to ComicBook/NormanOsborn while becoming a DragonWithAnAgenda.
* DrJerk: He was like this before the accident which made him a villain, rude and egotistical, the biggest reason why his co-workers called him "Dr. Octopus" behind his back. (Part of it, of course, was due to stress caused by his mother's death, which also made him careless and caused the accident in the first place.)
* DrunkWithPower: With the adamantium tentacles he started thinking he was invincible, and acted very rash (going so far as to start using an EvilLaugh) and even tried to TakeOverTheWorld for real. [[BreakTheHaughty It ended badly]], and even he himself would later admit it had been a bad idea.
* EasilyForgiven: He was a terrorist, and killed many innocent people over the years, and by collateral damage, is responsible for the death of Captain George Stacy, Peter's ParentalSubstitute, and then he hacked Peter's body and hijacked his life while ruining his life and career. Yet, the minute Otto affects redemptive traits, DependingOnTheWriter, Peter says "things are square" between them.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: After becoming [[{{ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan}} Superior Spider-Man]], he has the brawn to match his brains.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
** Octavius's relationship with his mother was [[MyBelovedSmother unhealthy]] and complicated, but he did care about her. Her death saddened him.
** In his youth, Octavius was engaged to Mary Alice Anders. Years later, he tried and failed to cure her of AIDS.
** While occupying Peter Parker's body as Superior Spider-Man, Octavius found himself falling in love with Anna Maria Marconi.
** To this day, he has a genuine soft spot for Peter's Aunt May. During the Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy, when she was believed dead, he interrupted a villainous speech at the Daily Bugle to offer his sincere condolences to Peter about her passing.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Much of Otto's actions as the Superior Spider-Man backfire as he can't grasp that being a hero means more than just showing yourself as "the best." As it turns out, Otto lets Peter come back to his body with the realization Peter is a true hero.
** Thanks to a time-travel escapade, Otto learns he loses to Peter and downloads his brain patterns into a robot assistant for Anna Maria. When Anna Maria talks of Otto and how terrible he was, Otto thinks he needs to take back Peter's body to get Anna Maria back. He then decides that Peter's mind "hurt my own" and by getting his original brain back, he can get Anna Maria's love once more. Otto literally cannot understand that Anna Maria will ''never'' love someone with such a record of murderous actions as Otto.
* EvilCounterpart: To Peter, on the scale of being a scientist, using smarts for evil purposes and being based on an eight-legged creature. The biggest difference between the two is that Otto had a couple decades of cynicism ground into him before getting his powers. [[spoiler: He plays it even straighter as in recent times, he has acquired a body and costume very similar to Peter's own.]]
* EvilCripple: Years of super-powered fights have taken a toll on his body.
** Taken UpToEleven in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, where he depends on his cybernetic tentacles to get around because he was in an accident that rendered him ''a quadriplegic''. If it weren't for his arms, he'd be completely immobile from the neck down. Subverted when, during the series finale, he uses nanotech to rebuild his body and undo the damage.
** The version of him in ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'' is on his way to being this even before he becomes a villain due to a neurodegenerative condition that's causing him to slowly lose his motor skills. Peter estimates that within a year, he'll be completely paralyzed.
* EvilGenius: A definite poster boy of this trope. Hell, in ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' he drinks out of a coffee mug with this label on it. Otto is an master strategist and manipulator and an expert in many scientific fields, including the study of radiation, which even [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] acknowledges is better than his own.
* EvilIsHammy: At times he will demonstrate that he is enjoying being mean profusely ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyMechbIbNg "Find him. Or I'll peel the flesh off her bones..."]])
* EvilMentor: To both Carolyn Trainer (aka Lady Octopus) and Angelina Brancale (aka Stunner) two of the very small number of people to show UndyingLoyalty to him. He was also this to Peter himself in the[[WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries 1990s animated series]].
* EvilVersusOblivion: In ''ComicBook/TheSentry'' miniseries, as the heroes are gathered to stop [[BigBad the Void]], Spider-Man notices Doctor Octopus lined up with them. Dialogue goes something like this:
-->'''Spider-Man:''' Doc Ock? What are you doing here?\\
'''Doctor Octopus:''' We need to stop the Void or else it'll destroy the world. Once this is over, next time I see you I'll kill you.
* EvilVirtues: Octavius has a stellar work ethic, as Anna Maria observes in ''Superior Spider-Man'' about "Peter":
-->'''Anna Maria Marconi:''' That's what I like about you. You want a doctorate? You get it. Your own company? Boom. There it is. You help out Spider-Man, you look after your Aunt. Anything you want to do, you just do it ... and do it well, no excuses, just results.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Doc Ock was very much a momma's boy growing up. However, as a grown man he came to the conclusion that she had been coddling him, even while accepting that his dad was a drunken asshole.
* ExcuseMeWhileIMultitask: He was known to use his arms to fight off enemies' attacks while casually lighting a cigarette or focus more attention on something else, like giving instructions to a minion or ''continue a chemistry experiment''.
* ExtraOreDinary: His ComicBook/UltimateMarvel counterpart, who is eventually revealed to have the ability to psychically manipulate metal. This means that, even though his tentacles get surgically removed, he can recreate them from ambient metal if he wants to.
* FallenHero: He used to do experiments for the sake of bettering mankind and then he discovered first-hand how CyberneticsEatYourSoul.
* FatBastard: At first and later [[DependingOnTheArtist depending on the artist.]]
* FatalFlaw: '''Pride'''. Octopus can't stand the idea of anyone not acknowledging his genius, and is absolutely obsessed with proving himself as the greatest scientific mind in Marvel.
* FireBreathingWeapon: In ''Ride/TheAmazingAdventuresOfSpiderMan'' ride, he's able to expel fire from his tentacles.
* ForWantOfANail: A ComicBook/WhatIf story suggested that, if the radioactive spider had bitten Flash Thompson instead of Peter Parker, Peter would have averted Otto Octavius's StartOfDarkness.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: He wears glasses because he's myopic.
* FreakLabAccident: His origin story, which is another similarity he shares with Peter Parker.
* FriendlessBackground: Young Otto was bullied and picked on as a child, much like Peter was, and also like Peter, compensated by becoming engrossed in his studies. Indeed, [[NotSoDifferent the biggest difference]] between the two in that regards was that Peter had the loving, nurturing family that Otto lacked.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: That timid researcher and MommasBoy has come a long way in terms of badass.
* GadgeteerGenius: Both as a villain and an AntiHero.
* GeniusBruiser: When wielding his tentacles, he's a formidable fighter, despite his otherwise less than athletic physique. He regularly tangles with the likes of Spider-Man, so you better believe he knows how to fight.
* GlassCannon: If Spidey can get past the tentacles, it usually doesn't take much to knock him out.
* GuessWhoImMarrying: Doc Ock was actually marrying May because she was the heir to a private nuclear reactor (dont even ask). He didn't even realize that Spider-Man was her nephew until after he unmasked in ''Civil War''. [[ContinuityNod Brilliantly]], he then went into a rant about how stupid he was not to figure it out and how he should have kept up the marriage facade for far longer.
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Prior to the Death of Spider-Man in the UltimateUniverse, he tries to back out of the Green Goblin's latest scheme, declaring he always wanted to be a scientist not a villain, he wants to go back to science, and he'd rather take pride in the fact it was his genetic engineering experiments with spiders that ultimate created Spider-Man. The Green Goblin promptly kills him.
* HeroWorshipper: In ''Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure'', he claims to idolize Creator/LeonardoDaVinci, and was inspired to invent his tentacles by [=DaVinci's=] famous ''Vitruvian Man'' pencil sketch.
* HeroicWillpower: ''Never'' take this guy on in a battle of wills. As strong as his arms are, his mind is even more potent. The Answer, Fusion, and Peter himself found this out the hard way.
* HerrDoktor: In the [[WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries 1990s animated series]] and the ''VideoGame/SpiderMan'' video game he has a thick German accent (he was voiced by Creator/EfremZimbalistJr in both; that's right--Doctor Octopus is ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Alfred]]'').
* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Doc Ock has a tendency to learn from his mistakes and to come up with effective counter-measures for Spidey's tricks. For example, after being [[AHandfulForAnEye blinded with a squirt of webbing]] he started treating his glasses with a non-stick coating.
* ILoveNuclearPower: Doc Ock originally gained his powers from a radiation experiment gone wrong. ''Doctor Octopus: Year One'' (set in the original Marvel timeline of the early 60's) embraces this trope, showing that Octavius became obsessed with the power of the atom long before the accident, fantasizing about it to the point of fetishism, and identified with the cleansing atomic fire as a counterpart to his own rage against the world.
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted heavily]], as the original blast of radiation that gave him his powers was revealed to have had a long-term side effect: [[PhlebotinumOverdose the radiation prevented his body from properly healing from injury.]] Coupled with his frequent beatings from foes far more powerful than himself, Otto's body eventually began to shut down and leave his brilliant mind [[EvilCripple in a decrepit, dying body.]]
* JokerImmunity: Let's see, he has been resurrected once and had his mind transferred into Spider-Man's body. [[AvertedTrope He is apparently really dead now that his body is in rigor mortis and his consciousness has been erased.]] Of course, he was once killed, proclaimed dead, and buried in a cemetery, only to be brought back to life by [[ReligionOfEvil the Hand]] in an unholy ritual, so you never know... [[spoiler:Turns out he had his holographic copy of Anna set up a contingency plan and uploaded a copy of his consciousness into the Living Brain.]]
* KavorkaMan:
** Despite being unattractive and tentacled, Octavius successfully wooed Aunt May and almost married her. Even afterwards, May is STILL rather fond of him.
** Octavius won Stunner's love and gratitude when he used virtual reality technology to make her beautiful and mighty.
* KilledOffForReal:
** In the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, by Norman Osborn.
** In the main universe, the original Otto Octavius died at the conclusion of ''The Superior Spider-Man'', while the Otto that appears in all later appearances (except Spider-Verse, which features a time-displaced Otto-as-Spider-Man) feature an AI copy that has hijacked a powerful clone body. In fact, the Spider-Verse adventure ''sets up'' the creation of the duplicate since it has Otto learn-then forget-that he is destined to die in the future and take precautions. InUniverse the two are treated as one and the same, though.
* KnightOfCerebus: He's got little to no comedic quirks and he is the first villain to actually beat Spider-Man. Whenever he shows up you know things are about to get nasty.
* LegionOfDoom: He founded the Sinister Six, and would later reunite the team twice.
* LargeHam: He has his fair share of hammy moments in the comics and adaptations.
* LivingWithTheVillain: So, Aunt May decides to rent out a free room in the Parker household. Who moves in? Doc Ock of, course! What happens next? He hits on Aunt May and nearly gives Peter a heart attack in the process.
* MadScientist: Wasn't one to begin with but he had a lot of repressed feelings and then there was this accident...
* MadeOfIron: Averted. He's often had to create armor due to the incredible damage he has taken because, when all is said and done, he is still an ordinary man.
* MarriedToTheJob: Even before his mother's death, the man was a workaholic, and ''after'' it happened, he shunned out other people entirely, becoming an anti-social DrJerk. Eventually, this attitude caused him to overwork and caused the accident due to fatigue.
* MergingMistake: The accident where he was stuck by radiation, causing him to be permanently fused with the harness.
* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: ''Almost'' became one in "The Return of the Sinister Six" storyline. In fact, the reason Spidey was able to defeat him is because he managed to convince Ock that his plan would cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, which Ock didn't want. (Yet.)]]
* MommasBoy: As his dad was abusive, he bonded more with his mother.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: Actually, he does hold at least one real doctorate (but not in medicine).
* MoralMyopia: The whole "blaming Spider-Man for beating him to near-death" thing in the build up to the Superior Spider-Man storyline really falls into this. Doc, if you don't ''want'' to get bashed around by the super-strong vigilante, then maybe you should, y'know, ''not commit crimes''? Especially not crimes that involve ''trying to kill said vigilante in the first place''?
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: His claim to infamy is his four mechanical arms.
* MultiArmedMultitasking: He was ''very'' good at using his tentacles to do this. According to the most reliable source, he could use his tentacles in combination with his regular hands to do one complex task and two simple ones at the same time. [[ExcuseMeWhileIMultitask And as the above Trope shows]], there were also several stories where the "complex task" was ''a heated battle''.
* MyBelovedSmother: His mother was incredibly overprotective and smothering, presumably as a way to "make up" for his father's abuse. As a result, Octavius grew up with an unhealthy attachment to her.
* NewTechIsNotCheap: He's had to rob banks before because that equipment he uses is not cheap.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Octavius' use of BodyBackupDrive stolen from the Inheritors, combined with some bungling by the Web Warriors still on Loomworld, kicks off the ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon'' event.
* NotThatKindOfDoctor: He had a doctorate in Nuclear Physics originally. The Ultimate version seems to have replaced this with genetics. The Sam Raimi films maintain his nuclear physics background, while the [=PS4=] incarnation of the character is instead primarily a robotics expert.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: While primarily a nuclear physicist, he is also skilled in chemistry, engineering, biochemistry, and robotics.
* PhlebotinumHandlingEquipment: What his tentacles were originally designed for.
* PetTheDog: He has gotten a few pet the dog moments over the decades, including trying to save Aunt May from Hammerhead and trying to develop a cure for AIDS in order to save his ex-girlfriend.
* {{Pride}}: Octavius' most prominent recurring failure is his arrogance; even when he's trying to be a good guy, he's still hugely ego-driven. For example, in ''Superior Octopus #1'', he rescues a bus full of people from being robbed by the Night Shift, boasting about how they cannot hope to compete with the advantages his intelligence gives them even as he dishes out a CurbStompBattle. When he returns to his lair, he is shown dismissing the city's original protectors, such as ComicBook/DareDevil and the original ComicBook/SpiderWoman, as "weaklings" incapable of doing the job, and arrogantly proclaiming that even the local high-level supervillains like [[GravityMaster Graviton]] and [[EvilSorcerer Count Nefaria]], despite being "possessed of near-godlike power" (in his words), are no threat to him.
* RealityEnsues: What happens when a human without any kind of enhanced durability spends years getting into super-battles? [[EvilCripple The result isn't pretty.]]
* ScaryShinyGlasses: An iconic western example, both invoked and justified in many incarnations by having them do double-duty as prescription SinisterShades to deal with light sensitivity issues.
* ShadowArchetype: According to Creator/TomDeFalco, he is what Spider-Man could have easily have become if he let his powers go to his head. Much more so when he actually ''becomes'' Spider-Man.
* SharpDressedMan: Starting when he formed the second version of the Sinister Six, he got rid of his original costume in favor of expensive Italian suits; these lasted until his death and later resurrection by the Hand.
* SpiderLimbs: His tentacles, of course.
* StatusQuoIsGod: ''Superior Spider-Man'' vol.2 ends with [[spoiler:Otto Octavius's original body and personality being restored, his efforts to be a hero as the Superior Spider-Man now considered irrelevant and all knowledge of Spider-Man's secret identity being lost]].
* StevenUlyssesPerhero: Gets a [[LampshadeHanging lampshade hung on it]] by J. Jonah Jameson:
--> "Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs. What are the odds?"
* SunglassesAtNight: He's rarely seen without them; frequently justified as a result of light sensitivity issues
* {{Synchronization}}: If his metal tentacles are damaged or destroyed, even from hundreds of miles away, he feels incredible pain and a shock that can often render him unconscious or cause him to fly into rage. After years of using them, the arms have almost become a part of his body.
** In the mini-series "Doctor Octopus: Year One", it's revealed that he created his infamous tentacles with the ability to ''feel'' radiation.
* SwissArmyAppendage: Most incarnations of his tentacles have this capacity to some extent. Common alt-modes for his claws are spiked blades, [[BrainComputerInterface electronic interface devices]], SensoryTentacles, and [[ThisIsADrill dedicated drills]] or drill-like rotation of the claws.
* TakeOverTheWorld: This has been his stated goal in some of his schemes (including the "Return of the Sinister Six" and "Ends of Earth" storylines), but it was usually a front for some other goal, except in "Revenge of the Sinister Six" where it really was his goal.
* {{Technopath}}: One of Marvel's latest trends is to attribute this power to Doc Ock.
* TookALevelInBadass:
** That one time he got adamantium tentacles. He beat the ''Hulk'' unconscious. He gave Iron Man such a thrashing he considered ''retirement'', setting him up as a villain who can hang with the big guns.
** [[spoiler: His comeback as the Superior Octopus. A brand-new set of powerful tentacles, but now complemented by an actually superhumanly powerful body, Spider-powers included.]]
* UnwittingPawn:
** He considered the second incarnation of the Sinister Six to be this.
** In one three part story, Fusion, a villain who Spider-Man had previously called a [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain "poor man's Mysterio"]], thought he had brainwashed Doc Ock into being his slave. Boy, was he wrong. Doc's iron will couldn’t be scratched, and he had been using Fusion as his own UnwittingPawn the whole time. When [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he no longer needed him]], Fusion found himself on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle, as Ock beat him severely and left him broken, bloody, and barely alive [[StuffedInTheFridge for Spider-Man to find]] as an example of anyone who challenged him.
* VillainOverForDinner: At one point, Aunt May was dating him and they nearly got ''married.'' Right now he even supplies the page image for this trope.
* VillainProtagonist: Of ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan.
* VillainTeamUp: Octavius is often the leader, and in some continuities the founder, of the Sinister Six.
** He has also led at least one version of the Comicbook/TheAvengers villain team, Masters of Evil.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: In a few versions, most notably the 90s cartoon, Dr Otto Octavius encouraged a young Peter Parker's love of science, and told him to ignore those who would mock him. They weren't exactly friends, but close enough that Octavius remembers who Peter is when they meet after he's become Dr Octopus. The [=PS4=] incarnation of the character takes it even further, where Otto was practically Peter's surrogate father before his descent into villainy.
* WesternTerrorists: Some of Ock's actions over the years were outright terrorism. This includes an airplane hijacking of a foreign diplomat, holding him hostage in exchange for money and safe-passage at an airport (ASM #88) and his plot to bomb New York with a neutron bomb in ''The Owl/Octopus War'' and his actions in the ''Ends of the Earth''. Likewise in ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'', [[spoiler:Otto branches into bioterrorism where he launches an aerosol agent called "Devil's Breath" spreading an epidemic in Manhattan that kills several people, including Aunt May]].
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He once developed arachnophobia after a ''very'' angry Spider-Man beat him within an inch of his life after the scientist nearly killed the Black Cat.
* WorthyOpponent:
** While he despises Spider-Man and is obsessed with defeating him, Octavius nonetheless appreciates that Spidey is highly intelligent and respects him as a formidable enemy.
** In ComicBook/UltimateMarvel, part of what prompts him to try and give up on villainy is because he decides Spider-Man is so impressive that he ought to be proud of having created him, even if by accident.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:As Superior Spider-Man IV/Superior Venom]]
!!As Superior Spider-Man IV/Superior Venom

!!! '''Alter Ego:''' Doctor Otto Gunther Octavius in the body of Peter Benjamin Parker
!!! '''First Appearance:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #697

-->"''Better yet, with my unparalleled genius -- and my boundless ambition -- I'll be a better Spider-Man than you ever were. From this day forth, I shall become... THE SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN!''"

After his master plan during "Ends Of The Earth" failed, Otto Octavius was at the end of his life. Before his inevitable end came, he put in motion his final plan, which was switching bodies with Peter Parker and taking all his memories, instincts, and powers in the process. At first Ock tried to use them as a way to get revenge on Peter, but after Peter showed him the ramifications of being Peter Parker include "the great responsibility", Octavius changed his ways and now tries to honor Peter's last wish by being a better hero than he ever was.
----
* AmbiguouslyEvil: In almost all of his appearances in other comics especially in Alpha: Big Time and Avenging Spider-man, where he is using Alpha to upgrade himself and seems to be rebuilding the Sinister Six respectively. Not that this is surprising given that he's a somewhat reformed villain.
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: It's a brand new Spidey, for better or worse. Sort of; even though it's Peter's body, Doctor Octopus is in control of it.
* AngelFaceDemonFace: As Superior Venom. If Otto is in control his eyes are smooth, the webbing motif neat and tidy, and nary a fang in sight. When he starts to get angry, however, he sprouts a maw full of fangs and both the eyes and webbing motif become distorted.
* AntagonistInMourning:
** After he kills Peter, he remembers everything that Peter went through due to the Freaky Friday Flip. It's enough to drive him to use his powers for good.
** Notably averted when he purges Peter from his mind -- he immediately celebrates that he's ''free''.
* AntiHero[=/=]AntiVillain: As of the beginning of ''Superior'', NominalHero for the former and NobleDemon for the latter. While he becomes increasingly antagonistic and arrogant, he believes he's doing it for the good of the city (and his ego). When he ultimately realizes he's been doing more harm than good, he sacrifices himself to give Peter his body back.
* AntiHeroSubstitute: He lacks the aesthetics to be a proper NinetiesAntiHero, but certainly has the attitude and viciousness of one.
* TheAtoner:
** ''[[ExaggeratedTrope Much]]'' more so than Peter, which is saying quite a bit. He was so moved by learning about the original Spider-Man's past that he decided to use his powers for good instead of for selfish reasons. He's got plenty to atone for, too: nearly destroying the planet for starters, and pretty much every other heinous thing that he's done as Doctor Octopus. This is the only thing keeping him from being a KarmaHoudini from the conclusion of ''Amazing''.
** However, as the series goes on, his quest becomes more driven by his own ego than by any desire to do good, making this a SubvertedTrope.
* BaitTheDog: It sure was nice of him to perform a brain surgery to save a little girl. Too bad that he does it as a means to find Peter's remnant and try to kill him for good.
* BerserkButton:
** In ''Superior Spider-Man'' Issue #3, finding out that his old friend the Vulture was using children as mooks, drove Otto blind with rage, especially since he had hit one of them. Due to his father abusing him as a child, he abhors the idea of harming children, especially if he hurt them. He changed his mind from giving the Vulture money so he would stop his crimes, to trying to kill him.
** Bullies in general, and anything that triggers Otto's memories of being bullied cause him to react with DisproportionateRetribution.
* ButHeSoundsHandsome: Whenever Doctor Octopus is brought up.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: After Horizon Labs is destroyed he founds Parker Industries in order to keep developing weapons and equipment.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: In the ''Superior'' Issue #2. Ghost-Peter is pretty grossed out by this.
* DeadpanSnarker: It's most evident in ComicBook/TheAvengers, however he tends to be more on the deadpan side.
* DirtyOldMan: Although being in Peter's body does not make him physically old in the slightest, he is a middle-aged man, and a lot of issue 1 and 2 of ''Superior'' have him hitting on women of Peter's age, meaning women at least 20 years younger than he is. Then in issue four, when he reenters grad school, he flirts with one of the students there. Ghost Peter is very disturbed.
* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Taking on the Venom symbiote causes him to lose all self-control and start ranting like a madman and become obsessed with finding any lawbreaker he can find ([[AllCrimesAreEqual no matter how minor]]) so he can beat them up and demonstrate his superiority. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain This results in Peter resurfacing and convincing Ock to free himself from the Symbiote's control]].
* FairWeatherMentor: To Alpha.
* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: He's tricked out the outfit to have StatOVision and [[NightVisionGoggles Night Vision]], like Iron Man.
* GoodIsNotNice: Probably the defining difference between him and Peter. And the "good" part is stretching it.
* GoOutWithASmile: He smiles at Peter, recognizing that he's the hero New York City needs.
* GrandTheftMe: Pulled a Freaky Friday Flip on Peter after his battle with both Hobgoblins.
* GracefulLoser:
** In the end, Otto acknowledges Peter is the true Superior Spider-Man and willingly gives Parker his body back, even purging his memories to avoid distracting and confusing Peter.
** When Peter successfully trounces him during their fight in Spider-Verse, Otto admits defeat with begrudging acceptance.
* GhostMemory: One of his new "powers", in a sense. He got these memories from Peter, and it's what inspired him to go through his HeelFaceTurn in the first place. He loses them after purging the remnants of Peter from his body.
* HeelFaceTurn: Otto takes over as Spider-Man after Peter dies, overwhelmed by Peter's memories and thoughts. Of course, he's still an egomaniac, so he's also motivated by being a better Spider-Man than Peter was.
** HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: He sequesters and purges the remnants of Peter from his body, going back on his promise to protect Peter's friends by slaughtering mental representations of them. To be fair, it was because he only saw them as memories and all of Peter's had to go so that he could continue to be Spider-Man. [[JerkassHasAPoint Though Otto's point about how the mental representations are not actually Peter's friends]], [[VillainHasAPoint and "killing" them is not actually breaking the promise Otto made to Peter IS perfectly valid]].
* HeelRealization: He finally realizes all he has done wrong and all of his flaws in the Goblin Nation arc.
* HeroicSuicide: He erases himself to allow Peter back his body to save New York in ''Superior Spider-Man'' 30.
* HijackingCthulhu: He seizes control of the Venom symbiote and forces it to remain bonded to him when it tries to leave him for Flash. The symbiote quickly undermines his control and turns the tables on him fairly quickly, though.
* HypocriticalHumor:
** In ''Spider-Verse'', when Otto and Peter face off for the final time, [[spoiler:Otto sneers at Peter for ganging up on him with Spider-Girl and Spider-Woman. Peter is quick to point out he has no right to judge, since he founded the Sinister Six with the same intent in mind]].
** During ''Mighty Avengers'', he yells at "Spider Hero" ([[RunningGag no hypen]]) for stealing his identity, and demands he remove his costume immediately. This'd be the same guy running around in someone else's body.
* IHatePastMe: When [[MyFutureSelfAndMe they come face to face]] in ''Spider-Verse'', Otto assumes Peter is from before his GrandTheftMe and mocks him lacking the ruthlessness to kill his enemies. Peter responds by punching him in the nose, then beats him by surrendering and telling [=SpOck=] to prove his superiority by killing him.
* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: Why he splits up with Mary Jane. He also does this [[PetTheDog out of respect for Peter]].
* InsufferableGenius: About 90 percent of his thoughts are how much Superior he is to Peter, or how other the resident geniuses of the Marvel Universe are not as smart as him, like Reed flipping Richards.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Well, as if hijacking another man's body and stealing his life just so he could keep living wasn't a hint. Also, just in general. During ''Mighty Avengers'', he brings an army of minions to Luke Cage's doorstep just because he can't stand the idea of there being other heroes cutting into "his" turf. Only the threat of legal action in the form of She-Hulk gets him to go away.
* {{Jerkass}}: In terms of personality, he's really not someone you'd want to hang around with. [[DeconstructedTrope This trait nearly got him kicked off of the Avengers]].
** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: However, he's also doing the right thing because he feels that it's what the real Spider-Man would do. Even still, the "Jerk" aspect of this can be stretched a bit, considering that part of the reason he's being good is due to simply outdo the original.
** JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: His actions are increasingly less heroic and more extreme. This definitely kicks in by the time he erases Peter. He subverts this, though with [[RedemptionEqualsDeath his]] [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre final]] [[HeroicSuicide actions]].
* KarmicDeath: A ''self-inflicted'' example. Otto put Peter down for the count for a long time by erasing him from his own mind. When he realizes that the world needs Peter, he does the same thing to himself in penance, and so that Peter won't be distracted by Octavius' extra baggage.
* KillAndReplace: Previously, Dr. Octopus had swapped bodies with Spider-Man, leaving the hero to die trapped in Ock's broken body and leaving the villain in a healthy, heroic body with no one realizing anything. Doc Ock uses his new life to constantly try to prove himself a superior Spider-Man. [[spoiler: In the end of the series, Otto realizes Parker was better than him and lets him take control of his body once more.]]
* KillTheGod: In order to stop the Inheritors, [[spoiler:Otto kills the Master Weaver]].
* LargeHam: Good gravy, just look at the quote.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Getting sent back to Earth-616 erased his memories of the events of ''Spider-Verse''.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Kicking Peter out of his head cost him Peter's memories, which becomes increasingly important as the story arc progresses.
* LegacyCharacter: Doctor Octopus is now Spider-Man after the aforementioned Grand Theft Me.
* LoveRedeems: Otto's love for Anna Maria leads to him giving Peter his body back in order to save her.
* ManipulativeBastard: He's manipulating pretty much everyone right now.
* MadScientist [[ScienceHero Hero]]: Like the original Spidey, only more fiendish.
* MetaGuy: In Hickman's run on the Avengers, oddly enough.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: As of ''#22'', Dr. Peter Parker is in the house.
* MostDefinitelyNotAVillain: For the most part, he doesn't act anything like either Peter or Spider-Man, although [[IdiotBall it takes a while for anyone to notice]].
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: His new suit has four cybernetic spider-legs, similar to Peter's old Iron Spider outfit.
* NotQuiteDead: In the ''Superior Spider-Man #32'' and ''#33'' [=SpOck=] is shown to have been [[http://www.comicvine.com/articles/go-back-to-the-future-with-superior-spider-man-32-33/1100-148745/ transported to the 2099 universe]], though this takes place during his fight with Spider-Man 2099.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: [[ZigZaggingTrope Sort of]]. His series starts off as a recovering villain that uses the methods of an AntiHero, seemingly becoming more heroic over time. Later on, he becomes more of a WellIntentionedExtremist and uses increasingly morally questionable methods to achieve his goals, and ultimately leaves many of those that are close to him alienated by his actions.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives one to Ghost-Peter just before purging him.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: [=SpOck's=] second costume is based off of Alex Ross' concept art for ''Film/SpiderMan1'', and he becomes increasingly violent and antagonistic, taking cues from ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: While he wasn't able to undo the damage he did to Peter's life, he did allow Peter to live to fight another day.
* SanitySlippage: After returning from being time-warped, Otto becomes more brutal and totalitarian than ever. [[spoiler:This is because while fighting the Inheritors, he learns that Peter will eventually regain control of his body.]]
* ScrewDestiny: When Otto figures out that Peter is going to get his body back in ''Spider-Verse'', [[spoiler:he tries to destroy the Web of Life thinking it will free him from his fate]].
* ShadowArchetype: He already was this as Doctor Octopus and now it's taken UpToEleven. His methods of crime fighting are more vicious and what would happen if Peter decided to be serious about protecting the whole city.
* TakingUpTheMantle: Becomes Spider-Man after Peter dies.
* TheUnfettered: He ''nearly'' kills someone during his first night on the town. Arguably {{Subverted|Trope}} due to the influence of Ghost-Peter. He later plays it straight: in issue five he uses a gun to point blank shot Massacre in the head, even after Massacre was able to feel emotion again.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: So Peter Parker, normally a good-natured quipster, suddenly to all his friends and family turns into an operatic jerkass, and no-one in the superhero community seems to suspect anything's up. ''Mighty Avengers'' gives the mild handwave that everyone assumes he's just been reading way too much Ayn Rand lately.
* VillainProtagonist: He becomes more and more of this as the series progresses.
* WalkingSpoiler: The identity of the character spoils the conclusion of the "Dying Wish" arc in the ''Amazing'' series. [[LateArrivalSpoiler That being said]], anyone who opens up an issue of ''Superior'' is going to have the twist immediately spoiled for them.
* WhatTheHellHero:
** Kaine, self-described "[[EvilTwin evil clone]]" of Spider-Man, berates Otto for [[BrokenPedestal how far he's fallen]].
** As do a ''lot'' of the other heroes that Otto has run into.
* WouldHurtAChild: Otto tries to stab Spider-Girl [[spoiler:when she tries to stop him from destroying the Web of Life]].
[[/folder]]

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[[redirect:Characters/MarvelComicsOttoOctavius]]
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Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius, also known as Doctor Octopus, is a fictional supervillain that has appeared in comic books published by Creator/MarvelComics. He first appeared in ''[[Comicbook/SpiderMan Amazing Spider-Man]]'' #3 (July, 1963), created by writer Creator/StanLee and artist Creator/SteveDitko.
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!!Doctor Octopus

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!!Doctor Octopus



Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius, also known as Doctor Octopus, is a fictional supervillain that has appeared in comic books published by Creator/MarvelComics. He first appeared in ''[[Comicbook/SpiderMan Amazing Spider-Man]]'' #3 (July, 1963), created by writer Creator/StanLee and artist Creator/SteveDitko.
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No spoiler tags outside of examples. See Handling Spoilers.


As of ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel'', it is revealed that Dr. Octopus' mind now resides within the Living Brain, stalkingly watching over Anna Maria. After teaming up with the Jackal during ''The Clone Conspiracy'' and temporarily inhabiting a clone version of his old body, he eventually betrayed the Jackal for insulting his love interest. Afterwards, he hijacked a new, powerful experimental clone body. He was then recruited by Armin Zola and ComicBook/{{HYDRA}} to aid in destroying Parker Industries, reinventing himself as the "Superior Octopus". After the downfall of the Hydra Empire and the restoration of the true ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, and a truce with Peter after ''ComicBook/GoDownSwinging'' and ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon'', Ock once again decides to try and abandon his supervillain ways, seeking to set himself up as the heroic protector of San Francisco in ''Superior Octopus #1'' and the second volume of Superior Spider-Man. [[spoiler:Unfortunately it wouldn't last, as Ock made a deal with Mephisto to defeat Spider-Norman. The deal would restore Ock to his old body but with it back to full health. The price being the empathy gained from sharing Peter's memories.]]

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As of ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel'', it is revealed that Dr. Octopus' mind now resides within the Living Brain, stalkingly watching over Anna Maria. After teaming up with the Jackal during ''The Clone Conspiracy'' and temporarily inhabiting a clone version of his old body, he eventually betrayed the Jackal for insulting his love interest. Afterwards, he hijacked a new, powerful experimental clone body. He was then recruited by Armin Zola and ComicBook/{{HYDRA}} to aid in destroying Parker Industries, reinventing himself as the "Superior Octopus". After the downfall of the Hydra Empire and the restoration of the true ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, and a truce with Peter after ''ComicBook/GoDownSwinging'' and ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon'', Ock once again decides to try and abandon his supervillain ways, seeking to set himself up as the heroic protector of San Francisco in ''Superior Octopus #1'' and the second volume of Superior Spider-Man. [[spoiler:Unfortunately Unfortunately it wouldn't last, as Ock made a deal with Mephisto to defeat Spider-Norman. The deal would restore Ock to his old body but with it back to full health. The price being the empathy gained from sharing Peter's memories.]]
memories.
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A highly intelligent MadScientist, Doctor Octopus is one of the greatest foes Franchise/SpiderMan has ever faced.[[note]]He's almost universally considered Spidey's all-time #2 foe after the Green Goblin.[[/note]] He is typically portrayed as a stocky, myopic man who utilizes four powerful, mechanical appendages and is obsessed with proving his own genius and destroying Spider-Man (and not necessarily in that order). The character has appeared in numerous ''Spider-Man'' cartoons and video games and is portrayed by Creator/AlfredMolina in the 2004 film ''Film/SpiderMan2'' as the film's main antagonist; Molina would later return to the role in 2021's ''Spider-Man'' film as part of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. An AlternateUniverse version of the character appears in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', but to say anything else would be a spoiler. In 2009, Doctor Octopus was ranked as IGN's 28th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

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A highly intelligent MadScientist, Doctor Octopus is one of the greatest foes Franchise/SpiderMan has ever faced.[[note]]He's almost universally considered Spidey's all-time #2 foe after the Green Goblin.[[/note]] He is typically portrayed as a stocky, myopic man who utilizes four powerful, mechanical appendages and is obsessed with proving his own genius and destroying Spider-Man (and not necessarily in that order). The character has appeared in numerous ''Spider-Man'' cartoons and video games and is portrayed by Creator/AlfredMolina in the 2004 film ''Film/SpiderMan2'' as the film's main antagonist; Molina would later return to the role in 2021's ''Spider-Man'' film ''Spider-Man: No Way Home'' as part of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. An AlternateUniverse version of the character appears in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', but to say anything else would be a spoiler. In 2009, Doctor Octopus was ranked as IGN's 28th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.
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Ock's time as a anti-hero sadly was a phase.


As of ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel'', it is revealed that Dr. Octopus' mind now resides within the Living Brain, stalkingly watching over Anna Maria. After teaming up with the Jackal during ''The Clone Conspiracy'' and temporarily inhabiting a clone version of his old body, he eventually betrayed the Jackal for insulting his love interest. Afterwards, he hijacked a new, powerful experimental clone body. He was then recruited by Armin Zola and ComicBook/{{HYDRA}} to aid in destroying Parker Industries, reinventing himself as the "Superior Octopus". After the downfall of the Hydra Empire and the restoration of the true ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, and a truce with Peter after ''ComicBook/GoDownSwinging'' and ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon'', Ock once again decides to try and abandon his supervillain ways, seeking to set himself up as the heroic protector of San Francisco in ''Superior Octopus #1'' and the second volume of Superior Spider-Man.

to:

As of ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel'', it is revealed that Dr. Octopus' mind now resides within the Living Brain, stalkingly watching over Anna Maria. After teaming up with the Jackal during ''The Clone Conspiracy'' and temporarily inhabiting a clone version of his old body, he eventually betrayed the Jackal for insulting his love interest. Afterwards, he hijacked a new, powerful experimental clone body. He was then recruited by Armin Zola and ComicBook/{{HYDRA}} to aid in destroying Parker Industries, reinventing himself as the "Superior Octopus". After the downfall of the Hydra Empire and the restoration of the true ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, and a truce with Peter after ''ComicBook/GoDownSwinging'' and ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon'', Ock once again decides to try and abandon his supervillain ways, seeking to set himself up as the heroic protector of San Francisco in ''Superior Octopus #1'' and the second volume of Superior Spider-Man.
Spider-Man. [[spoiler:Unfortunately it wouldn't last, as Ock made a deal with Mephisto to defeat Spider-Norman. The deal would restore Ock to his old body but with it back to full health. The price being the empathy gained from sharing Peter's memories.]]



* ArchEnemy: He used to compete with the Green Goblin and to a lesser extent Venom in this regard to Spider-Man. He held this most consistently in the first 100 issues and then only recovered that during Dan Slott's time. Initially, he is the first villain to defeat Spider-Man, the creator and leader of the Sinister Six, the BigBad of one of Spider-Man's greatest stories, the Master Planner arc. Indirectly he killed Captain George Stacy and irreparably strained Peter's relation with Gwen Stacy. And he put Black Cat, Spider-Man's third great love in the hospital. Then in Dan Slott's run, he managed to take over his body and live his life. However this experience would wind up changing Otto for the better and he would eventually become an anti-hero like Venom.

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* ArchEnemy: He used Otto is the main rival to compete with the Green Goblin and to a lesser extent Venom in this regard to Spider-Man. He held this most consistently in the first 100 issues and then only recovered that during Dan Slott's time. Initially, he is the first villain to defeat Spider-Man, the creator and leader of the Sinister Six, the BigBad Big Bad of one of Spider-Man's greatest stories, the Master Planner arc. Indirectly he killed Captain George Stacy and irreparably strained Peter's relation with Gwen Stacy. And he put Black Cat, Spider-Man's third great love in the hospital. Then in Dan Slott's run, he managed to take over his body and live his life. However this experience would wind up changing Otto for the better and he would eventually become an anti-hero like Venom. [[spoiler:Sadly thanks to Mephisto it didn't stick.]]

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* WalkingSpoiler: The identity of the character spoils the conclusion of the final arc of the ''Amazing'' series.
** LateArrivalSpoiler: That being said, anyone who opens up an issue of ''Superior'' is going to have the twist immediately spoiled for them.

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* WalkingSpoiler: The identity of the character spoils the conclusion of the final "Dying Wish" arc of in the ''Amazing'' series.
** LateArrivalSpoiler:
series. [[LateArrivalSpoiler That being said, said]], anyone who opens up an issue of ''Superior'' is going to have the twist immediately spoiled for them.
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-->''"The die is cast."''
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A highly intelligent MadScientist, Doctor Octopus is one of the greatest foes Franchise/SpiderMan has ever faced.[[note]]He's almost universally considered Spidey's all-time #2 foe after the Green Goblin.[[/note]] He is typically portrayed as a stocky, myopic man who utilizes four powerful, mechanical appendages and is obsessed with proving his own genius and destroying Spider-Man (and not necessarily in that order). The character has appeared in numerous Spider-Man cartoons and video games and is portrayed by Creator/AlfredMolina in the 2004 film ''Film/SpiderMan2'' as the film's main antagonist. An AlternateUniverse version of the character appears in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', but to say anything else would be a spoiler. In 2009, Doctor Octopus was ranked as IGN's 28th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

to:

A highly intelligent MadScientist, Doctor Octopus is one of the greatest foes Franchise/SpiderMan has ever faced.[[note]]He's almost universally considered Spidey's all-time #2 foe after the Green Goblin.[[/note]] He is typically portrayed as a stocky, myopic man who utilizes four powerful, mechanical appendages and is obsessed with proving his own genius and destroying Spider-Man (and not necessarily in that order). The character has appeared in numerous Spider-Man ''Spider-Man'' cartoons and video games and is portrayed by Creator/AlfredMolina in the 2004 film ''Film/SpiderMan2'' as the film's main antagonist.antagonist; Molina would later return to the role in 2021's ''Spider-Man'' film as part of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. An AlternateUniverse version of the character appears in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', but to say anything else would be a spoiler. In 2009, Doctor Octopus was ranked as IGN's 28th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.
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** In one three part story, Fusion, a villain who Spider-Man had previously called a [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain “poor man’s Mysterio”]], thought he had brainwashed Doc Ock into being his slave. Boy, was he wrong. Doc’s iron will couldn’t be scratched, and he had been using Fusion as his own UnwittingPawn the whole time. When [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he no longer needed him]], Fusion found himself on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle, as Ock beat him severely and left him broken, bloody, and barely alive [[StuffedInTheFridge for Spider-Man to find]] as an example of anyone who challenged him.

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** In one three part story, Fusion, a villain who Spider-Man had previously called a [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain “poor man’s Mysterio”]], "poor man's Mysterio"]], thought he had brainwashed Doc Ock into being his slave. Boy, was he wrong. Doc’s Doc's iron will couldn’t be scratched, and he had been using Fusion as his own UnwittingPawn the whole time. When [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he no longer needed him]], Fusion found himself on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle, as Ock beat him severely and left him broken, bloody, and barely alive [[StuffedInTheFridge for Spider-Man to find]] as an example of anyone who challenged him.

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!!! '''Alter Ego:''' Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius
!!! '''Notable Aliases:''' the Master Planner, the Master Programmer, the Bowery Bum, the Superior Spider-Man (Peter Parker), the Superior Venom, the Superior Octopus, Dr. Elliot Tolliver, the Cosmic Superior Spider-Man, the Cosmo-Spider, the Cosmo Superior
!!! '''Species:''' Human Mutate (Later Clone Human Mutate)
!!! '''First Appearance:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #3 (July 1963) [[note]]As Doctor Octopus[[/note]]; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #698 (November 2012) [[note]]As the Superior Spider-Man[[/note]]; ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' Vol. 4 #25 (May 2017) [[note]]As the Superior Octopus[[/note]]



[[folder:As "Superior" Spider-Man IV/Superior Venom]]
!!As "Superior" Spider-Man IV/Superior Venom

-> '''AKA:''' Doctor Otto Gunther Octavius in the body of Peter Benjamin Parker
-> '''Debut:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #697

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[[folder:As "Superior" Superior Spider-Man IV/Superior Venom]]
!!As "Superior" Superior Spider-Man IV/Superior Venom

-> '''AKA:''' !!! '''Alter Ego:''' Doctor Otto Gunther Octavius in the body of Peter Benjamin Parker
-> '''Debut:''' !!! '''First Appearance:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #697
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!!This villain provides examples of:

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!!This villain character provides examples of:
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[[caption-width-right:350:As Doctor Octopus]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ce7ab62e3b8cc5c7abcceb7d73171aab.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:As Superior Spider-Man]]


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[[folder:As Doctor Octopus]]
!!As Doctor Octopus

----


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[[/folder]]

[[folder:As "Superior" Spider-Man IV/Superior Venom]]
!!As "Superior" Spider-Man IV/Superior Venom

-> '''AKA:''' Doctor Otto Gunther Octavius in the body of Peter Benjamin Parker
-> '''Debut:''' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #697

-->"''Better yet, with my unparalleled genius -- and my boundless ambition -- I'll be a better Spider-Man than you ever were. From this day forth, I shall become... THE SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN!''"

After his master plan during "Ends Of The Earth" failed, Otto Octavius was at the end of his life. Before his inevitable end came, he put in motion his final plan, which was switching bodies with Peter Parker and taking all his memories, instincts, and powers in the process. At first Ock tried to use them as a way to get revenge on Peter, but after Peter showed him the ramifications of being Peter Parker include "the great responsibility", Octavius changed his ways and now tries to honor Peter's last wish by being a better hero than he ever was.
----
* AmbiguouslyEvil: In almost all of his appearances in other comics especially in Alpha: Big Time and Avenging Spider-man, where he is using Alpha to upgrade himself and seems to be rebuilding the Sinister Six respectively. Not that this is surprising given that he's a somewhat reformed villain.
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: It's a brand new Spidey, for better or worse. Sort of; even though it's Peter's body, Doctor Octopus is in control of it.
* AngelFaceDemonFace: As Superior Venom. If Otto is in control his eyes are smooth, the webbing motif neat and tidy, and nary a fang in sight. When he starts to get angry, however, he sprouts a maw full of fangs and both the eyes and webbing motif become distorted.
* AntagonistInMourning:
** After he kills Peter, he remembers everything that Peter went through due to the Freaky Friday Flip. It's enough to drive him to use his powers for good.
** Notably averted when he purges Peter from his mind -- he immediately celebrates that he's ''free''.
* AntiHero[=/=]AntiVillain: As of the beginning of ''Superior'', NominalHero for the former and NobleDemon for the latter. While he becomes increasingly antagonistic and arrogant, he believes he's doing it for the good of the city (and his ego). When he ultimately realizes he's been doing more harm than good, he sacrifices himself to give Peter his body back.
* AntiHeroSubstitute: He lacks the aesthetics to be a proper NinetiesAntiHero, but certainly has the attitude and viciousness of one.
* TheAtoner:
** ''[[ExaggeratedTrope Much]]'' more so than Peter, which is saying quite a bit. He was so moved by learning about the original Spider-Man's past that he decided to use his powers for good instead of for selfish reasons. He's got plenty to atone for, too: nearly destroying the planet for starters, and pretty much every other heinous thing that he's done as Doctor Octopus. This is the only thing keeping him from being a KarmaHoudini from the conclusion of ''Amazing''.
** However, as the series goes on, his quest becomes more driven by his own ego than by any desire to do good, making this a SubvertedTrope.
* BaitTheDog: It sure was nice of him to perform a brain surgery to save a little girl. Too bad that he does it as a means to find Peter's remnant and try to kill him for good.
* BerserkButton:
** In ''Superior Spider-Man'' Issue #3, finding out that his old friend the Vulture was using children as mooks, drove Otto blind with rage, especially since he had hit one of them. Due to his father abusing him as a child, he abhors the idea of harming children, especially if he hurt them. He changed his mind from giving the Vulture money so he would stop his crimes, to trying to kill him.
** Bullies in general, and anything that triggers Otto's memories of being bullied cause him to react with DisproportionateRetribution.
* ButHeSoundsHandsome: Whenever Doctor Octopus is brought up.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: After Horizon Labs is destroyed he founds Parker Industries in order to keep developing weapons and equipment.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: In the ''Superior'' Issue #2. Ghost-Peter is pretty grossed out by this.
* DeadpanSnarker: It's most evident in ComicBook/TheAvengers, however he tends to be more on the deadpan side.
* DirtyOldMan: Although being in Peter's body does not make him physically old in the slightest, he is a middle-aged man, and a lot of issue 1 and 2 of ''Superior'' have him hitting on women of Peter's age, meaning women at least 20 years younger than he is. Then in issue four, when he reenters grad school, he flirts with one of the students there. Ghost Peter is very disturbed.
* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Taking on the Venom symbiote causes him to lose all self-control and start ranting like a madman and become obsessed with finding any lawbreaker he can find ([[AllCrimesAreEqual no matter how minor]]) so he can beat them up and demonstrate his superiority. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain This results in Peter resurfacing and convincing Ock to free himself from the Symbiote's control]].
* FairWeatherMentor: To Alpha.
* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: He's tricked out the outfit to have StatOVision and [[NightVisionGoggles Night Vision]], like Iron Man.
* GoodIsNotNice: Probably the defining difference between him and Peter. And the "good" part is stretching it.
* GoOutWithASmile: He smiles at Peter, recognizing that he's the hero New York City needs.
* GrandTheftMe: Pulled a Freaky Friday Flip on Peter after his battle with both Hobgoblins.
* GracefulLoser:
** In the end, Otto acknowledges Peter is the true Superior Spider-Man and willingly gives Parker his body back, even purging his memories to avoid distracting and confusing Peter.
** When Peter successfully trounces him during their fight in Spider-Verse, Otto admits defeat with begrudging acceptance.
* GhostMemory: One of his new "powers", in a sense. He got these memories from Peter, and it's what inspired him to go through his HeelFaceTurn in the first place. He loses them after purging the remnants of Peter from his body.
* HeelFaceTurn: Otto takes over as Spider-Man after Peter dies, overwhelmed by Peter's memories and thoughts. Of course, he's still an egomaniac, so he's also motivated by being a better Spider-Man than Peter was.
** HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: He sequesters and purges the remnants of Peter from his body, going back on his promise to protect Peter's friends by slaughtering mental representations of them. To be fair, it was because he only saw them as memories and all of Peter's had to go so that he could continue to be Spider-Man. [[JerkassHasAPoint Though Otto's point about how the mental representations are not actually Peter's friends]], [[VillainHasAPoint and "killing" them is not actually breaking the promise Otto made to Peter IS perfectly valid]].
* HeelRealization: He finally realizes all he has done wrong and all of his flaws in the Goblin Nation arc.
* HeroicSuicide: He erases himself to allow Peter back his body to save New York in ''Superior Spider-Man'' 30.
* HijackingCthulhu: He seizes control of the Venom symbiote and forces it to remain bonded to him when it tries to leave him for Flash. The symbiote quickly undermines his control and turns the tables on him fairly quickly, though.
* HypocriticalHumor:
** In ''Spider-Verse'', when Otto and Peter face off for the final time, [[spoiler:Otto sneers at Peter for ganging up on him with Spider-Girl and Spider-Woman. Peter is quick to point out he has no right to judge, since he founded the Sinister Six with the same intent in mind]].
** During ''Mighty Avengers'', he yells at "Spider Hero" ([[RunningGag no hypen]]) for stealing his identity, and demands he remove his costume immediately. This'd be the same guy running around in someone else's body.
* IHatePastMe: When [[MyFutureSelfAndMe they come face to face]] in ''Spider-Verse'', Otto assumes Peter is from before his GrandTheftMe and mocks him lacking the ruthlessness to kill his enemies. Peter responds by punching him in the nose, then beats him by surrendering and telling [=SpOck=] to prove his superiority by killing him.
* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: Why he splits up with Mary Jane. He also does this [[PetTheDog out of respect for Peter]].
* InsufferableGenius: About 90 percent of his thoughts are how much Superior he is to Peter, or how other the resident geniuses of the Marvel Universe are not as smart as him, like Reed flipping Richards.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Well, as if hijacking another man's body and stealing his life just so he could keep living wasn't a hint. Also, just in general. During ''Mighty Avengers'', he brings an army of minions to Luke Cage's doorstep just because he can't stand the idea of there being other heroes cutting into "his" turf. Only the threat of legal action in the form of She-Hulk gets him to go away.
* {{Jerkass}}: In terms of personality, he's really not someone you'd want to hang around with. [[DeconstructedTrope This trait nearly got him kicked off of the Avengers]].
** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: However, he's also doing the right thing because he feels that it's what the real Spider-Man would do. Even still, the "Jerk" aspect of this can be stretched a bit, considering that part of the reason he's being good is due to simply outdo the original.
** JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: His actions are increasingly less heroic and more extreme. This definitely kicks in by the time he erases Peter. He subverts this, though with [[RedemptionEqualsDeath his]] [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre final]] [[HeroicSuicide actions]].
* KarmicDeath: A ''self-inflicted'' example. Otto put Peter down for the count for a long time by erasing him from his own mind. When he realizes that the world needs Peter, he does the same thing to himself in penance, and so that Peter won't be distracted by Octavius' extra baggage.
* KillAndReplace: Previously, Dr. Octopus had swapped bodies with Spider-Man, leaving the hero to die trapped in Ock's broken body and leaving the villain in a healthy, heroic body with no one realizing anything. Doc Ock uses his new life to constantly try to prove himself a superior Spider-Man. [[spoiler: In the end of the series, Otto realizes Parker was better than him and lets him take control of his body once more.]]
* KillTheGod: In order to stop the Inheritors, [[spoiler:Otto kills the Master Weaver]].
* LargeHam: Good gravy, just look at the quote.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Getting sent back to Earth-616 erased his memories of the events of ''Spider-Verse''.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Kicking Peter out of his head cost him Peter's memories, which becomes increasingly important as the story arc progresses.
* LegacyCharacter: Doctor Octopus is now Spider-Man after the aforementioned Grand Theft Me.
* LoveRedeems: Otto's love for Anna Maria leads to him giving Peter his body back in order to save her.
* ManipulativeBastard: He's manipulating pretty much everyone right now.
* MadScientist [[ScienceHero Hero]]: Like the original Spidey, only more fiendish.
* MetaGuy: In Hickman's run on the Avengers, oddly enough.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: As of ''#22'', Dr. Peter Parker is in the house.
* MostDefinitelyNotAVillain: For the most part, he doesn't act anything like either Peter or Spider-Man, although [[IdiotBall it takes a while for anyone to notice]].
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: His new suit has four cybernetic spider-legs, similar to Peter's old Iron Spider outfit.
* NotQuiteDead: In the ''Superior Spider-Man #32'' and ''#33'' [=SpOck=] is shown to have been [[http://www.comicvine.com/articles/go-back-to-the-future-with-superior-spider-man-32-33/1100-148745/ transported to the 2099 universe]], though this takes place during his fight with Spider-Man 2099.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: [[ZigZaggingTrope Sort of]]. His series starts off as a recovering villain that uses the methods of an AntiHero, seemingly becoming more heroic over time. Later on, he becomes more of a WellIntentionedExtremist and uses increasingly morally questionable methods to achieve his goals, and ultimately leaves many of those that are close to him alienated by his actions.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives one to Ghost-Peter just before purging him.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: [=SpOck's=] second costume is based off of Alex Ross' concept art for ''Film/SpiderMan1'', and he becomes increasingly violent and antagonistic, taking cues from ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: While he wasn't able to undo the damage he did to Peter's life, he did allow Peter to live to fight another day.
* SanitySlippage: After returning from being time-warped, Otto becomes more brutal and totalitarian than ever. [[spoiler:This is because while fighting the Inheritors, he learns that Peter will eventually regain control of his body.]]
* ScrewDestiny: When Otto figures out that Peter is going to get his body back in ''Spider-Verse'', [[spoiler:he tries to destroy the Web of Life thinking it will free him from his fate]].
* ShadowArchetype: He already was this as Doctor Octopus and now it's taken UpToEleven. His methods of crime fighting are more vicious and what would happen if Peter decided to be serious about protecting the whole city.
* TakingUpTheMantle: Becomes Spider-Man after Peter dies.
* TheUnfettered: He ''nearly'' kills someone during his first night on the town. Arguably {{Subverted|Trope}} due to the influence of Ghost-Peter. He later plays it straight: in issue five he uses a gun to point blank shot Massacre in the head, even after Massacre was able to feel emotion again.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: So Peter Parker, normally a good-natured quipster, suddenly to all his friends and family turns into an operatic jerkass, and no-one in the superhero community seems to suspect anything's up. ''Mighty Avengers'' gives the mild handwave that everyone assumes he's just been reading way too much Ayn Rand lately.
* VillainProtagonist: He becomes more and more of this as the series progresses.
* WalkingSpoiler: The identity of the character spoils the conclusion of the final arc of the ''Amazing'' series.
** LateArrivalSpoiler: That being said, anyone who opens up an issue of ''Superior'' is going to have the twist immediately spoiled for them.
* WhatTheHellHero:
** Kaine, self-described "[[EvilTwin evil clone]]" of Spider-Man, berates Otto for [[BrokenPedestal how far he's fallen]].
** As do a ''lot'' of the other heroes that Otto has run into.
* WouldHurtAChild: Otto tries to stab Spider-Girl [[spoiler:when she tries to stop him from destroying the Web of Life]].
[[/folder]]

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