Characters / Spider-Man (Insomniac): Otto Octavius

Marvel's Spider-Man game character index
Heroes (Peter Parker) | Supporting Cast (Otto Octavius) | Villains (The Sinister Six | Venom | Kraven the Hunter) | Peter's suits | Miles's suits

---

Otto Gunther Octavius

Voiced by: William Salyers (English)^{Other Languages} Victor Covarrubias (Latin American Spanish), Hiroshi Naka (Japanese), Diomid Vinogradov (Russian)

Appearances: Hostile Takeover | Spider-Man | Spider-Man: Miles Morales | Spider-Man 2

Peter's boss and the founder of Octavius Industries. He's a kindly scientist with dreams of helping millions with his inventions, but his work has suffered from continual setbacks, not helped by his assistant's chronic lateness.

---

Early Game Tropes

• Adaptational Nice Guy: In most depictions, even before the accident that led to Otto becoming a villain, he's often pompous and extremely arrogant. Here, much like in Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Spider-Man 2, he's an all-around nice and humble guy.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In his origin in the comics, Otto had no prior relationship to Peter before the accident that led to him becoming Doc Ock. Here, his relationship to Peter is much like Dr. Curt Connors and George Stacy, being his Scientific Mentor and Parental Substitute respectively. This is likely a Shout-Out to Spider-Man: The Animated Series, where Octavius had a somewhat similar relationship with Peter when they were younger (there, he was a mentor to Peter at science camp when he was a kid), and to a somewhat lesser extent, Spider-Man 2, where they have a non-professional relationship when they're both adults, but still meaningful.
• Alliterative Name: Otto Octavius. The fact his and Norman Osborn's last names were alliterative also helped brand them with the nickname "The O's" during their days as college lab partners. That nickname then helped to inspire the company name of the business he and Osborn started together: "Oscorp".
• Ambiguous Start of Darkness: While there is no denying that the implants drove him over the edge, some of his notes and the images of the other villains in his study imply that he had been plotting his revenge against Norman long before the first game even began. Mr. Negative's terrorist actions mixed with the harmful effects of his implants gave him the final push he needed.
• Bait-and-Switch: Early on, Otto catches Peter working on the Spider-Man suit in their lab. While it initially seems like he's connected the dots, it turns out he just thinks Peter designs Spider-Man's equipment, which Peter decides to go with. As it is revealed later, Otto knew Peter is Spider-Man all along; he may have faked it in that moment.
• Big Fun: Vendetta against Norman aside, he's a jovial, if portly man with a good heart.
• Breakup Breakout: invoked Otto unfortunately found himself on the bad end of this in regards to his former partnership with Norman.
• The Cameo: He appears in Spider-Man: Miles Morales in one of Miles' flashbacks when he's visiting the Oscorp Science Center with Phin. Otto and Peter are discussing how they can build their neural interface before Peter suddenly needs to take the rest of the day off for an "emergency".
• Composite Character:
  • While close to his comic book counterpart, personality and role wise, Otto also takes some major cues from Max Modell, Peter's scientific idol and boss during Dan Slott's run, right down to his mistaken belief that Peter designs Spider-Man's gadgets. Albeit, at the same time, Otto already was a mentor to Peter in both Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Spider-Man 2.
  • His role as Peter's scientific mentor trying to develop a remedy to a disablity he suffers from is similar to traditional portrayals of Dr. Curt Connors.
  • As a former associate of Norman who was screwed over by him, he's one for Mendell Stromm, complete with a genius for robotics. This is fitting since on first coming across Stromm in The Amazing Spider-Man (Amazing Spider-Man #37), Peter actually compares his tech to Dr. Octopus. This also applied to Otto himself prior in both cartoons The Spectacular Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), albeit in both, Norman is directly responsible for Otto becoming Doc Ock (albeit the manner differs in both).
• Deal with the Devil: Downplayed. After he loses grant from the city, Otto ends up making a deal with Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) for their resources after promising them samples of his work. Nonetheless, Peter didn't think Otto getting grants from A.I.M. was a good idea at the time, considering their reputation as "pretty shady". Given how it was A.I.M.'s resources that allowed Otto to make the arms that'll turn him into Doc Ock, that apparently just adds another list of shady dealings they've likely done.
• Ditzy Genius: Octavius is a very passionate man about his visions of humans no longer suffering from limb loss, among other ideas, but Peter's the one who has to fix the programming and material errors that crop up in their research so much it's become second habit. He causes enough lab smoke and fire to cause the higher-ups to balk time and time again, and cancel his contract with his tech going to Norman Osborn when they finally get sick of him pushing the line. This can be seen as a case of Foreshadowing for his disease, however, as the game starts off with only minor errors in his work before they get worse with time.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Early in the game, he catches Peter in the lab with Spider-Man's suit. He immediately deduces that Peter Parker is, in truth, Spider-Man! ...'s tech guy. Peter just smiles and nods. Subverted when it turns out that Otto actually figured out the truth by the end of the game.
• A Fate Worse Than Death: His disease is this to him. The idea of a fully functional, genius mind trapped inside a broken body incapable of doing anything is one of the reasons he works on prosthetic limbs.
• Genius Cripple: He reveals midway through the game that as a result of working around radioactive materials at Oscorp for too long, he now suffers from a neurodegenerative disease that is gradually causing his muscles to lower in quality and efficiency while leaving his mind intact.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Strongly resembles a clean-shaven William Salyers.
• It's Personal: Otto reveals that "Oscorp" gained the name it has because he and Norman Osborn made the company together in this continuity. They were even best friends in college, known as "The O's", but the two had very different ideas of how to go about helping humanity, with Otto focusing on theoretical sciences to better the body and Norman focusing more on profit via state-of-the-art gadgets and weapons development. This led to a falling out, Otto going his own way due to their "differences" with a corporate throw-out implied. When Norman pops up again to screw over his research, Otto is not a happy camper, and starts taking shady loans and deals to continue to gain funding as his rage begins to blind his foresight in his work.
• Just Think of the Potential!: As his work on neural interface prosthetics starts to make progress, Otto starts thinking of the full possibilities of the idea — why limit such technology to recreating the human body and limbs, when they could create prosthetics that are better than the human body? Peter can come across a design for such a prosthetic on one of the whiteboards in Otto's lab, envisioning a limb with much more freedom of flexibility and motion than a normal human's arm has. It's no coincidence that the design looks a lot like Doc Ock's iconic tentacles.
• Like a Son to Me: Peter and Otto clearly mean a lot to each other as colleagues and associates, and Otto's practically like a second father to Peter. It's only outright stated near the end after everything's gone to hell.
• Mad Scientist: Downplayed, but even with his Adaptational Heroism, Otto tends to pursue his scientific endeavors in dangerous and unethical ways. A running subplot is that he's conducting tests alone without Peter or anyone else to help supervise, Peter often has to help him iron out the kinks in his designs after lab accidents, and Peter himself notes that while Otto's experiments are ambitious and fantastic, they're also risky. And this is before he becomes Doctor Octopus.
• Mentor Archetype: Has been Peter's mentor since Pete was still an undergraduate in college, even hiring him on as his Lab Assistant after Peter graduated.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Peter's blue in their research. Otto is driven by his neurodegenerative disorder, and seemingly relies more on his emotions that logical thinking; for example, he's the one who made the decision to jump right into neural interfacing, and Peter's analysis of Otto's resulting interface shows that it has many, many bugs that needed fixing.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Early in the game, Otto discovers Peter tinkering with his Spider-Man suit in his lab. Rather than thinking Peter is Spider-Man, he assumes that Peter must be Spider-Man's partner, supplying him with his gear. Otto's response to this is actually admitting how proud of Peter he is of putting his intellect to such good work, and helping Peter to further advance his suit.
  • He's also clearly saddened to be forced to let go of Peter after the lab has its grant revoked by Osborn, and constantly tries to regain funding so they can continue to work together.
  • Despite the pressure he's under to produce, and how much on both a personal and professional level his work means to him, he is very patient and understanding concerning Peter's frequent absences and chronic lateness.
• The Resenter: Towards Norman Osborn; it's gradually revealed throughout the game that Otto resents the fact that Norman became a big success without him while Otto was left in relative obscurity. Otto ends up revealing to Pete that Oscorp actually originated as a start-up venture between Otto and Norman but after the experiments started to get increasingly unethical, Otto decided to back out of the company and it led to some ugly fallout between the two colleagues.
• The Reveal: He discusses with Peter mid-way through the game about something that had been cropping up, about how he is suffering from a genetic neurodegenerative disease that is gradually causing his muscles to lose strength and efficiency. Even worse, this was caused by working around radioactive materials at Oscorp for probably longer than was healthy. This is a primary factor in his research and motivations.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: The game's ending reveals that he did realize Peter was Spider-Man, but kept it to himself and continues to do so.
• So Proud of You: His reaction to finding out Peter "crafts Spider-Man's gear."
• We Used to Be Friends: With Norman Osborn, to the point that "Oscorp" doesn't mean "Osborn Corporation" in this universe but rather a nickname Norman and Otto had as college lab partners among their peers (called "the O's" for their last names, which Otto spun into the company name when they decided to go into business together). However, Osborn, dabbling in less-than-ethical genetic experiments while Otto wanted to better mankind through science, led to their split. Otto was ousted from Oscorp with the agreement he take a large settlement package and he has relied on grants to get Octavius Industries off the ground. Unfortunately, with Norman as mayor of NYC (and thus the holder of the pen for the government's checks to Otto), this means their bad history can interfere with Otto's work.

Late Game Tropes (Unmarked spoilers)

Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus

"Oh, Parker... if you want to change the world, you have to be the kind of man who can make the hardest decisions."

The ringmaster of the Sinister Six, who wants revenge on Norman Osborn for ruining his career. Expect plenty of spoilers.

---

• Adaptation Amalgamation: As one of Spider-Man's greatest enemies, Doc Ock has had many variations over the years, and this version takes cues from just about all of them.
  • He's a former mentor to Peter Parker before he turned evil, just as he was in the Animated Series and Spider-Man 2.
  • He blames Norman Osborn for his woes and seeks revenge on him, just like his cartoon counterparts from Ultimate and Spectacular Spider-Man.
  • His insanity is at least partially due to the neural interface used to control his arms affecting his brain. In Spider-Man 2, the AI in Otto's tentacles drives him mad after the inhibitor chip controlling them is fried.
  • His body slowly becoming crippled and useless is similar to the comics, where Otto suffers from brain damage for a time thanks to taking one too many blows to the head, causing his body to waste away.
• Adaptational Badass: Most versions of Doc Ock were foes Spider-Man could defeat with just his standard arsenal or after a modest amount of prep work (with their first fight being very early in Spider-Man’s career). This version outright curb stomps Spider-Man to near death the first time they fought (with Spidey having 8 years of experience at this point) and Spidey had to build a specialized suit to counter Doc Ock's tentacles.
• Adaptational Context Change: Like his comics counterpart, this Otto suffers from a disability which will eventually render his body incapable of doing anything. In the comics it was the result of his supervillainy (brain damage after repeated blows to the head during battles with Spider-Man), which isn't possible here for a multitude of reasons. Instead, here it's reimagined as an actual illness that partially causes his supervillainy (the research to slow down his illness ends up removing his inhibitions).
• Adaptational Late Appearance: In the comics, Doctor Octopus was one of the first supervillains Spider-Man faced, and most adaptations have stayed true to this. Here, he first shows up 8 years into Peter's superhero career.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: To Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Martin Li, and Norman Osborn, none of whom factored into Otto's descent into villainy in the source material.
  • Peter is a fledgling researcher working under Otto at Octavius Industries, a relationship that allows him to work out that Spider-Man and Peter are the same person late in the first game thanks to Peter using Octavius Industries hardware to fix his Spider-Man gear early on.
  • Norman is a former friend and business colleague who eventually cut Otto off due to their differing goals on their research. This results in a deep-seated hatred and bitterness for what Otto perceived as an unjust life lived in Norman's shadow and the eventual acceptance of extreme methods to get justice for himself.
  • While working with Norman, Octavius worked on the procedure that Norman tested on a young Martin Li (without Otto's knowledge), causing the death of Li's parents. It's implied to be the incident that turned Osborn and Octavius against one another.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Rather than being an Insufferable Genius like usual, Otto's motivation is to make Norman Osborn pay for being a Karma Houdini that gets to live in the lap of luxury in spite of his sins, while he, who's done the right thing all his life, is barely scraping by.
• Alas, Poor Villain: No matter how exaggerated his goals were, it's very hard not to feel bad for him at the end. Having gone fully insane and growing obsessed with his vengeance, Otto, after being thrown at the ground from a skyscraper and barely surviving, shares a final conversation with Peter and tries convincing him that they should team up together. Peter, while breaking down in tears, has to leave Otto for obvious reasons, while Otto tries one final time to get him back. It hurts to watch, to say the least.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Discussed in-universe during the sequence when Spidey is going on a Mushroom Samba from Scorpion's poison. Peter espouses the idea that Otto was driven mad by the flawed interface messing with his brain, while a hallucination of Doctor Octopus mocks him for his belief in Otto's innocence and says that all the interface did was convince him he didn't need to wear a Mask of Sanity anymore.
• Arch-Enemy: To Peter Parker, as his former mentor and friend who turns to villainy, becomes the leader of the Sinister Six, and ends up killing Aunt May by attacking New York with the Devil's Breath bioweapon. Peter is furious when he discovers that Otto knew he was Spider-Man all along and opposed him anyway, proving Otto cares more about his revenge on Norman Osborn for shutting down his company than the wellbeing of Peter and innocent people.
• The Atoner: It is heavily implied that he gives Martin Li his medicine and makes him his second-in-command out of remorse for being involved in the experiment that killed his parents. Although...
• Ax-Crazy: He's absolutely nuts by the time he gets the arms working, wreaking devastation with no remorse.
• Bad Boss: When Mister Negative fails to defeat Spider-Man during the climax, Ock deems him useless and knocks him out with his tentacles.
• Bald of Evil: More like Receding Hairline Of Evil.
• Batman Gambit: Sets up a surprisingly simple but effective one that nearly kills Spider-Man after the wall-crawler broke into his lair. The notes he left on a map of New York to destroy Oscorp had Mr. Negative attack and steal the cure to the Devil's Breath with something called "Icarus." Spider-Man searches the lair for whatever "Icarus" might be, but by the time he finds a call from Ock, he realizes there was no "Icarus", and Ock admits it was a ruse just to get Spider-Man into a position to kill him with a bomb. He obviously knew that Spider-Man would get out of the lair before it could detonate, so he had Vulture waiting for him outside.
• Benevolent Boss: Despite the above, it appears that he was genuine in paying back the other members of the Sinister Six, given that there are signs of him looking into their individual problems (curing Vulture's spinal cancer, freeing Rhino of his suit, fulfilling Electro's dreams, and so on).
• Beyond Redemption: Initially, Peter is determined to save Otto from himself and repeatedly reminds him of the good man he once was... but then Otto reveals that he knew Peter was Spider-Man all along, meaning he had planned the Sinister Six formation and release of Devil's Breath (which is killing Aunt May and countless other citizens as they speak) behind Peter's back and exploited the knowledge of their borderline father-son-esque relationship to best lure him into traps and danger. Hearing this, Peter stops holding back and beats Otto down, sadly acknowledging his hero is beyond saving.
• Big Bad: Though he only becomes a supervillain very late into the first game, it's his usurpation of Mr. Negative's plan that ends up posing the greatest threat to New York and the world at large: on top of personally releasing the Devil's Breath virus, the breakout that Doctor Octopus orchestrates at the Raft leaves the city at the mercy of an army of criminals and the destructive powers of the Sinister Six, whom he leads in worsening the carnage in order to satisfy his vendetta against Norman Osborn. Mr. Negative himself, despite being The Heavy who gave Otto the idea to use the Devil's Breath, defers to his authority after Octavius breaks him out, and is ultimately smacked aside before the final confrontation as Otto personally tries to destroy the Devil's Breath cure.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Played With. Despite Otto being the leader of the Sinister Six in the first game, the plan to destroy Norman's reputation with the Devil's Breath began as Mr. Negative's idea, and Otto doesn't become Doctor Octopus until after Li has been apprehended well into the second half of the story. Octavius is unquestionably the mastermind behind their shared plot for revenge once they join forces in the climax, but even he acknowledges that it was Mr. Negative who laid the groundwork for their plan and inspired him to fall to villainy in the first place.
• Big Bad Slippage: He starts off as a kindly old scientist, but the untested neural implant in his tentacles brings out the demon within and turns him into Dr. Octopus, who proceeds to nearly destroy New York with the help of the Sinister Six.
• Big "NO!": Yells this when Peter disconnects him from his neural implant connecting his arms.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Tragic as Otto may be, listening to his audio logs while in his lair at Oscorp and you learn that he had been planning his attack on New York as early as Martin Li's initial bombing at City Hall. Similarly, if you revisit his lab in the post-game, you learn that he had already turned on Peter and planned to eliminate him.
• Blessed with Suck: On one hand, thanks to the neural implant, Otto now has four mechanical arms that he can use to defend himself as well as give him a hand in actively ruining Norman and his reputation. On the other hand, it's stripped him of his inhibitions and could eventually make his neurological condition worse than it already was.
• Broken Pedestal: Peter does not take his Face–Heel Turn very well. At all.
  Peter: I worshipped you! Your mind... your conscience, wanting to help others... the way you never gave up! [...] You were everything I wanted to be! You just... threw it away!
• The Cameo: When Miles and Mister Negative are having a Battle in the Center of the Mind in Peter's brain, a hallucination of Doctor Octopus shows up to briefly attack the former. The real Otto later shows up in The Stinger, where he's shown to be plotting against Spider-Man from prison.
• The Chessmaster: After devolving into Knight Templar territory thanks to the neural implant's failings, Otto has become this. He developed the mechanical arms that he now wields as weapons (with input from Peter), freed the Sinister Six from the Raft and upgraded them, unleashed a bio-hazardous virus on the city, and ordered the Six to go on a rampage, all to distract Spidey while he and Li got their revenge on Norman. Had Peter not been there to stop him at several turns, Otto would've arguably succeeded.
• Clothes Make the Maniac: Played with. Peter is never quite certain how much of Doc's rage, viciousness, and mania was inside of him all along and was just finally brought out by the implant's power, or if it was a result of its flaws altering his personality, let alone how long Otto has been testing it on himself in secret. At the very least, Otto's paranoiac tendencies towards Peter are wholly original, horribly twisting their friendship into a bitter rivalry.
• Combat Tentacles: What Otto evolved the human arm-like prostheses into, with reflexes that rival even Peter's. They even have yellow Tron Lines when their internal wiring is exposed, explaining why the tentacles don't look relatively the same when they extend as they do when they're retracted as in the comics. For a more threatening appearance, the arms come with Spikes of Villainy too.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Outside of a character bio that can be gained in-game, Otto is never referred to as Dr. Octopus; even the subtitles^note  Except the final part of Scorpion's nightmare sequence, for some reason and the rest of the Sinister Six refer to him by his civilian name rather than his supervillain name. Jameson's podcasts start calling him an octopus in the postgame and DLC campaigns.
  • He's finally referred to by his supervillain name in Miles Morales, with the eponymous character mentioning him in relation to the Raft prisoner he and Peter are escorting.
    Miles: One of those guys who helped Doc Ock is in there?
• Crazy-Prepared: He kept the details of his plans in his hideout a secret by writing them in ink that required special light shined on them to be seen. In the event Spider-Man actually found the hideout and the plans he left notes about Mr. Negative attacking with something called "Icarus", simply to get Spider-Man looking around the building until he got near a bunch of bombs. In the event the bombs didn't kill Spider-Man, he had Electro and Vulture waiting to ambush him. He could give Batman a run for his money in his level of preperation.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Inflicts a brutal beatdown on Spider-Man after the second boss fight with Mr. Negative.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Justified: Otto very much wanted to use his advanced cybernetics to benefit mankind, but a combination of Norman Osborn screwing him over and his own impatience at his condition potentially crippling him results in him becoming completely consumed by revenge.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Mainly thanks to Otto's reckless jump from simple prostheses into mechanical tentacles, as well as an unrefined neural interface.
• Deal with the Devil: Otto has promised each of the Six their heart's desires in exchange for following his plans for vengeance against Osborn.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: A very downplayed example. When Otto has been defeated and Peter is preparing to turn him over to the authorities, Otto begs him to reconsider, saying that he wasn't himself due to the implant he was using that was unstable (which Peter was worried about before everything went wrong). Peter seems to seriously consider this for a moment... but then Otto throws in blackmail on top, noting that Peter will be able to rest easy knowing his secret identity is safe with Otto. At this point, Peter 100% gives up on his mentor and walks away and leaves Otto for the police, telling Otto that he'll have to do what he thinks is best with that knowledge.
• Dramatic Irony: No one mentions it, but if the Devil's Breath had been perfected instead of stolen and released as a bioweapon by Otto to spite Norman, it could have cured the very neurodegenerative disease that partly drove his insanity in the first place. Though to be fair, he likely lost all rational thought by that point.
• Et Tu, Brute?: After Peter beats him, he states he should have known Peter would "turn on him too." Peter had this reaction first when Otto reveals he knew Peter was Spider-Man and did all this to him anyway.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Has some sort of twisted dynamic of this to Peter, he even states at the end that he saw Peter as a son. That said, whether or not he actually feels this way is debatable, considering he does try to kill Peter. Even if he spoke the truth, those feelings have completely evaporated by the end of the game, replaced by pure vengeful hatred.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In his unstable state, Otto fails to recognize that Spider-Man has other motives for protecting Norman Osborn other than being paid to. He's also smugly unable to realize that Peter would've probably listened to his attempt at an appeal if he didn't shoot himself in the foot by adding an implied threat of revealing his true identity. He appears genuinely confused when Peter doesn't budge at said threat.
• Evil Counterpart: When Peter rebukes Otto's claim that he'd turn on him by telling him everything he'd admired about Otto, Octavius responds that he did what he did because men like them need to use their abilities in the service of others. Even if those people don't understand. They have to do what's best for those beneath them. It's a dark twist on the overarching "with great power comes great responsibility" theme of Spider-Man as a whole.
• Evil Costume Switch: Most obvious when he wears the suit and arms, but is especially notable with his opaque goggles. Once the goggles are on, his shift to villainy is complete.
• Evil Is Hammy: Beyond his violent tendencies, you can see how far gone he is thanks to this.
• Evil Old Folks: In his 60s and by far the most dangerous antagonist Peter has yet faced.
• Face–Heel Turn: He starts off as Peter's kindly old mentor and boss, but after he finishes the tentacles, he becomes the game's Big Bad.
• Fallen Hero: Was a genuinely good man, wanting to enrich the world through science and give mobility to those who have been stricken without it. However, his obsession with his pursuit of mobility through machinery to aid his own predicament coupled with the deep-seated bitterness over the fact his desire to do good in the world resulted in Norman Osborn screwing him over pushes him into dangerous and ultimately villainous territory.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Impatience. His inability to just wait until Peter can help him iron out the kinks causes both the accident that gives Osborn the excuse to pull the plug and him to put the neural link in before it was even close to safe, which drove him insane. Furthermore, his refusal to wait for Osborn to face justice leads directly to his battle with Spider-Man, who directly mentions he only wants the antiserum to Devil's Breath to save as many people as possible, not to fight his old friend.
  • Wrath. He hates Osborn and ultimately his rage is what causes him to put the neural link back on after being talked down by Peter and fall completely into supervillainy.
• Fat Bastard: A much bigger emphasis on "bastard" than on "fat"; he's a bit portly instead of being obese, but he's very psychotic at this point, as he's willing to destroy an entire city if it means getting his revenge.
• Faux Affably Evil: This is pretty clear - one second he can appear charming and charismatic, the next he's staring on coldly as people are infected with Devil's Breath.
• Final Boss: He's the last obstacle standing between Spider-Man and the cure for the Devil's Breath at the end of the first game, and he's not letting it go without a fight.
• Foil: Even though he only appears briefly in a post-credit scene in the second game he's clearly become one with Martin Li. While Otto has refused to let go of his need for vengeance against Norman even taking delight in hearing Norman is losing his son, Martin is eventually able to let his quest for revenge go. Martin even manages a sort of reconciliation with Peter and Miles, something Otto clearly has no interest in.
• Foreshadowing: It's quite obvious fairly early on in the game that at some point Otto is going to become Doctor Octopus. Putting aside that his work on neural interfacing prosthetics lines up perfectly with the inevitable creation of his harness and tentacles, as things progress the designs for prosthetics on his whiteboard in the lab begin to look more like tentacles than arms, his voicemails to Peter excitedly talk about "going beyond the limits of the human body' with this technology, and when using the prosthetic he wears a green welding suit that looks very much like a modern re-imagining of his comic outfit. He's also repeatedly demonstrated that while he's a good man with good intensions, he's prone to emotional outbursts and willing to resort to dangerous and amoral extremes to push the boundaries of his research. Even someone only vaguely familiar with Doctor Octopus would pick up on the obvious clues that Otto is going to become a supervillain. This actually makes it more effective when the real plot twists are revealed — that he was masterminding the Sinister Six since at least the City Hall bombing, and knows Peter's secret identity.
• Formerly Fat: In The Stinger to Spider-Man 2, Otto’s looking worse for wear, having lost a significant amount of weight in prison. His chin has loose skin, his face is gaunt, and in his loose prison jumpsuit, he’s closer to Lean and Mean than his formerly chubby physique.
• Freudian Excuse: Otto was once a good scientist who wanted to help people (as well as himself), but was betrayed by Osborn, and now wants revenge on him instead.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The humble researcher Dr. Otto Octavius becomes New York City's number one menace. In fact, his status as a nobody is part of what pushed him to become a nightmare (Norman Osborn saw great success without Otto, despite a close working relationship in the dawn of their careers, while Otto's attempts to use science for the good of mankind are vastly overlooked and disregarded; he holds a deep-seated grudge against Norman and his achievements).
• Genius Bruiser: Thanks to his robotic limbs, he is extremely strong, and he is a crafty mastermind on top of being a brilliant scientist.
• Gollum Made Me Do It: After Peter defeats Doctor Octopus, Otto blames his Sanity Slippage and rampage on his tentacles' AI — a reference to Spider-Man 2.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Attaching an untested, unperfected neural link directly into his brain did not go how he'd hoped.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Part of the reason he hates Osborn so much is that he's jealous of all the success that Norman has enjoyed, while he works in relative obscurity and his funding is dependent on Osborn's goodwill.
• Hammerspace: He somehow manages to hide all four of his robotic tentacles from Peter behind his own back in order to pleasantly surprise his protege. In the comics, the tentacles are six feet long at minimum - longer than Octavius is tall (5'10").
• He Who Fights Monsters: He wants to make Osborn pay for his crimes... but becomes so consumed by his desire for revenge that he becomes a monster himself and releases a plague.
• Hijacked by Ganon: The main villain for most of the game is the obscure Mr. Negative, but the iconic villain Dr. Octopus seizes control of the plot in act 3.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: On two levels: partly from Peter making the Anti-Ock suit from the same technology Otto's tentacles were made of, left lying around at their old lab which helped him keep in the fight even as the two beat the ever-loving hell out of each other; and partly because Otto decided to try to finish the fight by stabbing Spider-Man with a tentacle and drawing him close. His emotions and rage running high blinded him to realizing that he was unwittingly keeping Spidey in reaching distance of disabling the neural transmitter, and finally gets shut down for good due to it.
• Hope Spot: Prior to his descent into madness, Peter sees Otto having finally create the arms, but turns it off after Peter tells him it's not only incomplete, prolonged use would worsen his condition. Otto agrees with a smile... until he sees Norman on the news.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Each of the Six wants something Otto claims he can give them. Outlined in his evil lair, where he has a station for each member of the Sinister Six. Whether or not he could actually manage to give all of them what they want as quickly as he suggests is probably debatable depending on the bribe, though Peter does note that his attempts at fulfilling his end of the bargain are extremely good.
  • Martin Li's hatred of Osborn is at least as strong as Otto's, so all Otto has to do is promise a shot at Revenge and he's in. It's definitely possible that once Osborn was fully at Li's currently nonexistent mercy he and Otto would disagree about exactly how to punish him.
  • Adrian Toomes is dying of cancer thanks to his suit and is promised a quick, effective treatment.
  • Max Dillon is in for a piece of the action, wanting to become 'pure energy'. Otto promises him power and gives him gear that boosts what he has.
  • Aleksei Sytsevich wants to be able to remove his armor, and Otto whips up a solvent that took a sample piece off. The lure of release is enough that despite not being a team player and detesting the Scorpion he works with Mac.
  • Mac Gargan has the simplest payment: Money. He could probably get it himself given time. However, unspoken there's the fact that he's a Card-Carrying Villain and the sadism of the plan appeals to him, even when it means working with the Rhino.
• Intergenerational Friendship: It is made clear by the note Spider-Man finds in Li's lair, along with his willingness to consistently refer to him as Martin, even when he refers to the rest of the Six by their aliases shows that Octavius and Li have known each other for years, despite the fact that Li is 46, and Otto is over 60.
• It's All About Me: By the time of the climax, he's so obsessed with getting revenge on Norman, nothing else takes precedence. He seems entirely blind about the casualties he's causing, at most considering them necessary collateral damage to take down Norman. Even when Peter is practically begging him to give him the anti-serum so he can cure those affected by Devil's Breath before dealing with Osborn, he completely refuses to compromise and forces Peter into a battle since he won't get his way.
  Peter: Can't you see all the people you're hurting!?
  Otto: You'll never understand! You haven't suffered like I have!
• I've Come Too Far: Seems to have this mentality by the first game's final battle, even as he reveals he knew Peter was Spider-Man the entire time. As Peter puts on a look of disappointment seeing how far Otto has gone from the man he once was, Otto has his own look of regret, and only has this to say:
  Otto: I won't let you win. This means too much to me!
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: The result of the neural interface controlling his arms being unrefined by Otto and Peter turned off Otto's inhibitions and into a full-blown supervillain, going so far as to release The Plague on the city and put thousands of lives at risk.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Beyond knowing that Spider-Man was Peter Parker and thus everything he did to him was pretty much this right down to exploiting their relationship to his advantage, Otto also decides to call Martin Li useless for failing to stop Spider-Man and promptly slams him aside before utterly beating down Spidey to near-death. Keep in mind that Martin may have been on the cusp of a Heel Realization when he does this, and that he and Octavius have semi-identical motives that brought them together in the first place.
  • Upon hearing Norman confirm that Harry was taken from him by the Spider-Men, an innocent person having absolutely nothing to do with their rivalry, Otto merely says "Good." Even considering Otto's hatred for Norman, saying that to a grieving parent is downright cold, also even considering the things Norman was previously involved with.
• Knight Templar: A very interesting example. While he has genuine shades of a Well-Intentioned Extremist for the larger part of the game, thinking of Osborn as a criminal who needs to be punished, he becomes so obsessed with his revenge on Osborn at the end that it is hard to understand him as necessarily well-intentioned rather than obsessed.
• Knight of Cerebus: Otto's transformation into Doctor Octopus changes the tone of the entire game, as Peter's anguish reaches new heights and the entire city is in danger.
• Large Ham: He hams it up a bit at the end. "Everything you have is built on lies! LIES!!"
• Lightning Bruiser: Dr. Octopus is horrifically powerful and quick, making a late-middle-aged man more than Spider-Man's match. Otto's neural interface moves his prosthetic limbs faster than the speed of thought, so once he completes his Combat Tentacles, he's able to curb-stomp Peter at the peak of his strength and is much, much stronger (to the point that Peter has to develop a specialized suit to combat him).
• Like a Son to Me: Whereas he never admitted it prior to becoming Doctor Octopus, he does now - after finally being beaten by Spider-Man, his neural interface disabled, and being left on the side of collapsed rubble begging for Peter to help and join him against Osborn. And in the same breath as accusing Peter as having turned on him like Osborn did. It hurts Peter, especially since Otto continues to try to justify his views, implying that at this point they're nothing more than a hollow declaration compared to if he had bothered saying it before.
• Made of Iron: Doc Ock can take a hell of a beating despite being a portly man in his early 60s. This is justified in-story when you check the blueprints in Otto's Lab on the evolution of his harness — his green jumpsuit reinforces the harness and serves as powerful body armor to protect the user in the event of a fall.
• Mirror Character: With Norman Osborn, no less. Both of them are willing to take enormous risks to vanquish a disease (Otto's neural condition, and the disease affecting Harry and his mom, respectively), regardless of the price to themselves and others, and both are willing to skip steps and jump ahead to get results. In fact, this very behavior on Osborn's part is what caused their falling out. Osborn, against Otto's advice and without his knowledge, proceeded to test a cure on Martin Li, hoping it'd allow him to save his wife. Otto ends up doing the same thing himself when it comes to testing the neural interface, disregarding Peter's advice and going behind his back. Similarly, both him and Osborn hold a certain superiority complex over regular people due to their intelligence.
  Otto: We have to do what's best for those beneath us, whether they understand it or not.
• Moral Myopia: Even after all the damage Otto has done to New York City, potential casualties included, Otto insists to Spider-Man that he’s fighting the wrong man by confronting him.
  Otto: OSBORN’S the criminal! Not me.
• More than Mind Control: Discussed; after Spider-Man is poisoned by Scorpion, he sees hallucinations of Otto as he was before the neural interface corrupted him. Said hallucinations state that Otto's "obsessions" were always there, and the interface just removed his inhibitions and allowed him to fully embrace them. Even this is likely Spider-Man's subconscious placing too much blame on the interface, as Octavius designs his upgrades for the Sinister Six and plans the breakout at Ryker's long before the interface is even developed.
• Movie Superheroes Wear Black: His suit is more or less taken straight from the comics, but it's now a much darker shade of green, and the traditionally yellow collar and gloves are totally black. The yellow isn't completely gone, as some of the black parts of his suit (the aforementioned gloves in particular) are highlighted somewhat with a mustard-y color. His tentacles, meanwhile, are jet-black instead of the usual silver, with glowing yellow lights.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Otto has a brief expression of regret after throwing Spidey from atop of the Raft when the Sinister Six form.
  • He also flashes the same expression when confronting Peter about knowing he was Spider-Man, after seeing Peter's distraught face under the mask/helmet. Although that could just be pure terror at the realization he just pissed off a very powerful superhero who now has a very good reason to stop pulling their punches.
• Never My Fault:
  • Minor example; he actually acknowledges the catastrophe that he's caused, but tries to justify it by saying its his way of punishing Norman, and tries to say Peter betrayed him.
  • Interestingly, a lot of his vindictiveness towards Norman can also come off as that. He's spiteful over the fact that while Norman went on to become rich and successful, Otto was left unacknowledged and left him penniless. Even though Otto, justifiably, was taking a moral stand, he ignores the fact that technically he was the one to cut off ties between the duo.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Delivers an absolutely brutal one to Peter under Oscorp's lab. It leaves the latter unconscious and bleeding heavily through his suit. It takes a doctor, surgical equipment and several hours for him to recover, and even then he should be resting.
  • After revealing that he knew all along about Peter's secret identity as Spider-Man (perhaps as far back as the beginning of the game), he attempts this again hoping it broke Peter's fighting spirit. Otto quickly finds out the hard way that he instead just pressed a Berserk Button and gets pummeled himself, only barely managing to turn it around with his tentacles and a bit of stabbing at the last minute. Which draws Peter in close enough to disable his neural interface anyway.
• No Sympathy: When Norman tells him about Harry's condition, Otto replies with an ice-cold "good". He's likewise unsympathetic to Norman's desire for revenge, refusing to even confirm that he knows who either of the Spider-Men are when asked.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He tries to justify his crimes by passing them off as an attempt to bring the otherwise untouchable Norman Osborn to justice. However the fact that he is willing to release dangerous criminals to run wild on the streets and infect Manhattan with a deadly disease that could becoming a global pandemic that could kill millions if not billions, shows that all he really cares about is getting revenge, innocents be damned.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Despite becoming Doctor Octopus a good 8 years in Peter's career as Spider-Man in this adaptation, this is actually one of the biggest inversions; Peter is in his early 20s, while Otto is a 60-something year old man.
• Opaque Lenses: His goggles reflect the city, and it's used for rather great effect.
• Pet the Dog: Downplayed. He sounds genuine about wanting to help the Sinister Six with their respective goals, but it's ambiguous as to whether he would follow through (though there are implications he's quite sincere about wanting to help Vulture since Octavius is also suffering from sickness). In 2, he actually keeps his promise about keeping Peter's identity as Spider-Man a secret when Norman demands to know his civilian identity, though it's blatantly obvious he's keeping Peter less because of whatever remains of their bond and more because he really hates Norman, still being the last person he'd ever even tell it to.
• Red Herring: Peter convinces Otto to stop using the neural interface until it is perfected since it could result in a change in his personality, implying that the tentacles are what drove him to villainy. However when Otto reveals he knew that Peter was Spider-Man all along and the implications that he was planning the attack on Rykers and the formation of the Sinister Six well before he created the tentacles, it becomes clear that he was already evil and they, at best, just removed his inhibitions.
• Revenge Before Reason: Even though he says he'll cure the Devil's Breath victims during his boss fight, he also makes it abundantly clear that he doesn't care how many people die from it as long as Osborn suffers for everything he's done first.
• Revenge Is Not Justice: Dr. Octavius wants revenge because Norman Osborn ruined his career years ago and continues to cause trouble for him even after. When Octavius's tentacles begin to chip away his inhibitions, he becomes more and more desperate for revenge. At first, Peter assumes that it was the tentacles manipulating him until he discovers that Octavius was always in control and he knew all along that Peter was Spider-Man. Finally realizing that his friend and mentor was willing to sacrifice countless civilians to hurt Osborn and that their friendship meant nothing to him, Peter finally drops the special treatment and defeats him.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Wears green as part of his supervillain outfit, and even wore a green sweater as a normal man.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Refers to Spider-Man as "Parker" when he gains the upper hand in their final confrontation, revealing he may have slowly realized, or just always known, that Peter was the hero rather than Spider-Man's research partner or gadget technician. The end of Spider-Man 2 suggests he's not so easily going to tell Norman of all people who either of the Spider-Men are, since he of course feels Norman deserved to experience loss through what happened with Harry.
• Self-Serving Memory: After Peter finally defeats his fallen idol, Otto curses Peter for “turning on him,” ignoring the fact that Otto was the one who chose to turn on Peter first. Otto attacked the Raft to recruit the Sinister Six with orders to attack Spider-Man, knowing full well that Spider-Man was Peter.
• Shadow Archetype: To Ben Parker. Both are important father figures to Peter but their legacies are very different from each other. Whilst Uncle Ben ultimately dies a good, just man who (most likely) taught Peter that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, Otto is ultimately imprisoned for letting his rage and genius corrupt him and impose his power and intellect onto others, something he emphasizes to Peter before being sent to the Raft.
• Spandex, Latex, or Leather: Leather, in this incarnation. His outfit resembles his tights from the original comics, but the suit he wears is noted to be an insulated over-clothes jumpsuit used for electro-mechanical work, has a more muted color, and is made from thicker, stiffer material.
• Start of Darkness: Unlike his comic book counterpart, this version finds his descent into villainy happening long after Spider-Man has risen to prominence as Manhattan's friendly neighborhood superhero. The game tells the story of how his rage at Norman Osborn and the race against time he believes he's in against his degenerating condition blend together to create a powerful new enemy for Spider-Man.
• Stop Hitting Yourself: Can be subjected to it by using a Finisher-type move on him. Spider-Man grabs one of his mechanical arms and forcibly slams the claw down over him. Ouch.
• Super-Reflexes: His tentacles can transmit and receive information from his brain in under a nanosecond^note  equal to a billionth of a second, or 0.000000001 seconds. That's the amount of time it takes light to travel one foot., far faster than any signal the human brain can normally produce^note  which normally travel at 70-120 m/s, or a third of the speed of sound. This lets Otto take on Spidey and his own Super-Reflexes and maintain the upper hand throughout their fight.
• That Man Is Dead: When Spider-Man tries to reason with him, reminding him of the good man he once was, Octavius tells him point-blank that that man is gone and Peter can't save him, regarding his former self as a weakling and a loser.
  • This gets to the point where "Otto Octavius" and "Doctor Octopus" receive their own, separate bios instead of being just one; justified in that Peter himself writes the bios, and believes that he can rehabilitate Otto.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Even beyond his Sanity Slippage, Otto has become so embittered during his time in prison that he tells Norman it's a good thing that Norman's son was left in a coma, despite Harry being innocent of Norman's crimes.
• Tragic Villain: One of Octavius's main reasons for delving into neural prosthetic research is because steady exposure to toxic chemicals in his "reckless youth" left him with an undamaged brain but deteriorating motor functions, and Osborn's betrayal ensured that he couldn't even benefit from his past — Norman got the profits while Otto just suffered in obscurity.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He had just started his stint as a rogue during the events of the game, being the least experienced in actual crime of all of Spidey's villains. That said, his arms are so powerful that Pete needs to create a suit specifically designed to fight him. He also more than makes up for his lack of experience as a criminal with his sheer brilliance, such that the Vulture praises Otto's skill as a planner.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: When he has Osborn hanging off a rooftop, ready to kill him, he expects Osborn to beg for his life. Instead, he proceeds to give Otto a scathing "Reason You Suck" Speech, and his sheer anger combined with sadness gives the impression that he felt it was All for Nothing.
• Villainous Breakdown: Completely loses his cool in the final battle. When Peter leaves him for the police, Otto begs him not to leave, but Peter has already lost faith in him and has no choice but to get him to face justice for his crimes.
• Villain Has a Point: Nobody denies Osborn has done terrible things and that Otto has every right to hate him. It's a pity that Otto's desire for revenge is going too far. Otto's words about how Norman ''has to lose everything!'' rings somewhat true since Norman avoids going to prison by the end of the game.
  • In The Stinger for 2, he's not entirely wrong about how Norman deserved to experience loss through what happened with Harry, as with or without the more personal stuff between them or the Spider-Men, he practically brought it on himself.
• Villain Team-Up: As stated above, he's the Big Bad of the Sinister Six in this game, having developed their suit upgrades, but is primarily working with Mr. Negative in taking revenge on Osborn while the other four occupy Spidey.
• Walking Spoiler: Otto's descent into villainy doesn't happen until the game's third act. The mere fact that Otto Octavius is in the first game was completely left out of marketing because it alone spoils that Dr. Octopus would be in it.
• Was It All a Lie?: After he becomes Dr. Octopus, Pete and MJ discuss his feelings about the "good" Octavius:
  Spider-Man: MJ, hey. You mind if I toss a kinda thorny ethical question at you? When is it OK to give up on a friend?
  MJ: Oh wow, Pete. Thinking of Otto?
  Spider-Man: That obvious, huh?
  MJ: Yeah; understandable though. Man... the high minded, generous part of me wants to say “never” — being a true friend means being there, even when people lose their way... but with what Otto’s done... I just don’t know, Pete. I guess you have to decide if the Otto Octavius you knew is still in there or not... maybe if he was ever even in there at all…
• We Used to Be Friends: Now that his ties to Norman have long since devolved into unrelenting hatred, Otto ends up repeating this trope with Peter at the end. Peter and MJ discuss this after his attack on the Raft, with Peter wondering when is the right time to give up on a friend. MJ consoles him by noting that Peter should decide if the man he knew is still inside Octopus, or if he ever existed in the first place. MJ also points out that she doesn't know if Otto's rampage, and his unleashing of a biochemical weapon, injuring and killing many people, can actually be forgiven.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He sees himself as this, failing to realize that his vengeance against Norman won't really solve much beyond self-vindication and the fact that he released Devil's Breath onto the populace of Manhattan. He tries to get Spider-Man to join him by claiming he'll cure it once he's killed Norman, but this rings hollow given the sheer apathy and/or rage he's demonstrated for the world around him at this point.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: A dark aversion of the trope. In his final monologue, Otto rants about how it's his and Peter's responsibility as superior and powerful men to guide those beneath them... whether they want it or not.
• You Are What You Hate: As mentioned above, he and Osborn have a lot in common which might be part of why Otto hates him so much. Osborn represents everything bad that also exists in Otto.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Throws Mr. Negative aside after the latter's boss battle, calling him "useless".
• Your Size May Vary: The size of the claws at the end of his tentacles fluctuates from scene to scene. During the Curb-Stomp Battle he gives Spider-Man after Mr. Negative’s defeat the claws are roughly the size of Spidey’s head, yet during their fight on the side of Oscorp tower they’re bigger than Spider-Man’s torso.

---

Norman: What are you writing?

Otto: The final chapter.