History ComicBook / DoctorOctopus

* 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.

** BadassNormal: Doctor Octopus himself is portly, in poor physical shape, near-sighted and doesn't actually have any superpowers himself. However, he can more than hold his own with his mechanical arms. He's also very good with planning and strategy and usually has some nasty tech to even the odds.

* ArchEnemy: He competes heavily with Norman Osborn in this regard to Spider-Man. Octavius is the first villain to defeat Spider-Man, the first villain to take up an entire issue, the first villain to get his own two-part story, leader of the Sinister Six. Had the role during most of the original Stan Lee run and for most of the hiatus when Norman Osborn was thought dead (whenever the Jackal, Hobgoblin, or Venom didn't have the role).

** Subverted in the Ultimate Spiderman cartoon; Dock 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.

* 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.

* TheChessmaster: One of his aliases is Master Planner for a reason.

* {{Cyborg}}: The tentacles and their harness are fused to his 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...

* VillainProtagonist: Of Superior-Spider-Man.

* DependingOnTheWriter: Much like SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom, Otto can be a NobleDemon AntiVillain in one story and a remorseless mass-murdering psychopath in another. 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 the mainstream canon) 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 enough 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.

* {{Synchonization}}: 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.

* {{Symbiosis}}: 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.

* 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.

* 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''.

* 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. There were also several stories where the "complex task" was [[ExcuseMeWhileIMultitask a heated battle]] and the simple ones involved fine manipulation or something like lighting a cigarette.

* ExcuseMeWhileIMultitask: 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.

* BigBad: Of This is my Density 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.

* AppropriatedAppellation: Doctor Octopus was originally an insulting nickname given to Otto by his co-workers, and in some continuities, NormanOsborn.

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 his heroic career 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 ArchEnemy, especially during the early days before NormanOsborn began rising to prominence. 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". And he was indirectly responsible for the death of Gwen Stacy's father George.

* BrainsEvilBrawnGood: 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...

* TakeOverTheWorld: Subverted. 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 always a front for some other goal.

* 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.]]

** In the UltimateUniverse, part of what prompts him to try and give up on villainy is because he decides Spiderman is so impressive that he ought to be proud of having created him, even if by accident.

* NotThatKindOfDoctor: He had a doctorate in Nuclear Physics originally. The Ulitmate version seems to have replaced this with genetics.

* WorthyOpponent: While he despises Spider-Man and is obsessed with defeating him, Octavious nonetheless appreciates that Spidey is highly intelligent and respects him as a formidable enemy.