Doctor Octopus

""The power of the sun...in the palm of my hand.""

- - Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2.

Doctor Octopus is one of Spider-Man's most dangerous and recurring enemies. Born Otto Octavius, he was a nuclear scientist who created four mechanical arms to help in his dangerous experiments. When a freak explosion caused his tentacles to be fused to his spine, Otto went insane and began his own wave of crime. Each time he was stopped by Spider-man, making them deadly foes.

His tentacles were made of adamantium, and had the strength to crush materials stronger than a block of cement. They were telescopic and could stretch over 20 feet. The arms could be used for walking, lifting or throwing heavy objects, or climbing. Octavius could telepathically control the arms, even when they were not connected to him.

After his first few defeats at the hands of Spider-man, Doc Ock contacted several other super-enemies of the web-slinger, (Electro, Sandman, Vulture, Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter) to form the Sinister Six, to trap and destroy Spider-man. Even this plan failed however, and Ock and his cohorts were once again imprisoned.

In the film
Doctor Octopus appears as the main antagonist in the film, Spider-Man 2. Before he became a four-armed villain, he was a scientist, and his goal was to create successful, stable nuclear fusion, thus making energy available for personal use. To make this experiment successful, he invented the four mechanical arms to assist him in making the measurements accurate and placing the origin of the reaction.

The arms would be set to connect to Octavius's spine by inserting needles through the skin along his back. To maintain full control of the arms, Octavius attached an inhibitor chip to the arms, located behind his neck in order to simply use his extra arms by the power of thought.

Octavius demonstrated his first trial of the experiment in front of a group of New York civilians. For a brief time, he created a successful fusion reaction. When the reaction became unstable, though, it could not be handled, and numerous objects, including wall coverings, were being sucked into the expanding nuclear hog. In the event, he lost his wife, and the inhibitor chip was destroyed.

With the inhibitor chip gone, Dr. Octavius could not maintain control of his mind with formidable power of his mechanical arms. He became convinced to rebuild a larger generator, and ignored his miscalculations which caused the accident.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series
Doctor Octopus is a recurring antagonist in this series (along with Kingpin, Green Goblin,Venom,and Hobgoblin). He was voiced by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., who gave the character a thick Germanic accent. Dr. Octopus used to be Otto Octavius, who was Peter Parker's science teacher at Science Camp. This relationship of former mentor and pupil made Dr Octopus fond of Peter even after his descent into villainy.

One day, Octavius created a fusion experiment, using four metal tentacles. When the experiment exploded, Octavius' tentacles were permanently stuck on his back. In his first appearance, Dr. Octopus kidnaps Felicia Hardy and J. Jonah Jameson for ransom from Felicia's mother, as Felicia's mom did not have patience to fund Ock's experiments before he was a villain. When Peter calls him, Dr. Octopus decides to have Peter bring the ransom. But Ock reveals he would not release Felicia and Jameson anyway but after he was defeated by Spider-Man, who Peter was secretly, after Ock threw Peter off into another part of the abandoned space lab Ock hid out in, Dr. Octopus was captured, and was taken to jail.

Later, he became a member of The Insidious Six in the first two episodes of Season 2 and the five-part episode, "Six Forgotten Warriors" in Season 5, and one of the Kingpin's enforcers after the first episodes of Season 2, helping him commit crimes. He even came far as unmasking Spider-Man with the Insidious Six but since Spider-Man did not fight as good as he usually does because it was part of Spider-Man's lively evolution, Ock thought he was a fake. He also came to wiping out Spider-Man's memory and making him think the two were partners-in-crime. But thanks to Spider-Man's fangirl, Tiana, and a cabbie named Mousie, he got his memory back and Octavius was sent back to jail.

Ock eventually became aware that Anastasia Hardy's husband, John Hardesky, was a cat burglar known as the Cat and used this information to blackmail Mrs. Hardy into giving him his money. But he was abducted by the Kingpin and was forced to work for him and his plans were not to reveal to the world that Mrs. Hardy's husband was a crook but merely use John Hardesky because he was jailed for knowing the super-soldier formula that created Captain America during World War II.

After Hardesky was kidnapped, Ock was sent to kidnap Felicia to blackmail Hardesky that if he did not reveal the super-soldier formula, she will die. Hardesky revealed the formula and it was tested on Felicia, turning her into the Black Cat. His final appearance in the show was in the three-part "Secret Wars", in which he ruled an alien planet city renamed "Octavia".

Unfortunately, it was stolen by Dr. Doom and renamed it New Latveria, forcing Ock to work for the Red Skull. When Doom absorbed the Beyonder's powers, Doom transported Alistair Smythe, the Red Skull and Ock back to Earth with them getting amnesia from the events. In the series finale of this show, despite Ock not appearing in it, Spider-Man was sent by Madame Web and the Beyonder to stop the evil Spider-Carnage from destroying all reality, and helping Spider-Man were other Spider-Men from different realities. One of them had metallic tentacles like Ock and that Spider-Man explained it was a "souvenir from my last fight with Doc Ock". It is unknown if that Spider-Man killed or had Ock killed in his reality, even by accident, and stole his robotic arms, but it seems likely.

Spectacular Spider-Man
In The Spectacular Spider-man TV series, Otto Octavius worked as a scientist under Norman Osborn, and indirectly under The Big Man by creating the supervillains Sandman and Rhino to fight Spider-man. Later, after an experiment sabotaged by the Green Goblin, Octavius's mechanical arms and harness fused to his body, and the once timid doctor was turned into the vicious, monomaniacal, and slightly insane supervillain known as Doctor Octopus. He immediately went after Osborn, who had mistreated him, and Spider-man, whom he believed to have caused the accident.

After his first defeat to Spidey, Ock went to prison, but with the help of Electro, he escaped, along with several other former supervillains, including Sandman, Rhino, Vulture, and Shocker. Together they formed the Sinister Six, and, with Ock as their leader, battled Spider-man, brutalizing him in their first battle, but losing to his new black suit in the second.

Doc Ock and Electro were sent to Ravencroft, a mental therapy institution, and while there, were approached by Kraven the Hunter who offered to break them out in order to form another Sinister Six under the mysterious Master Planner. Electro went willingly, but Otto, who was seemingly repentant of his evil ways, refused to go. After the new Six was defeated yet again, Octavius's tentacles broke into Ravencroft and pulled him away, screaming.

It was later revealed the Otto himself was the Master Planner, and had pretended to be reformed so as to be undercover. He and his cronies, Electro, Vulture, and the Tinkerer, captured Gwen Stacy as motivation to her father George Stacy, Chief of the New York City Police. Ock forced him to grant him access to every computer in New York, then the USA, and then the world, in an effort of global domination of a more subtle kind. But thanks to Spider-man's interference and Electro's short temper, his underwater lair was destroyed and his plan foiled. He did, however, escape, to return again with another scheme.

This time Doc Ock vied against Tombstone and Silvermane for control of New York's underworld, and he had Rhino, Vulture, and Kraven to help him. In a final brawl between the three crime lords and Spider-man, Ock was taken out by the wall-crawler and sent back to Ravencroft.

This version of Doc Ock was a very sophisticated villain, politely asking Aunt May and Anna Watson to step aside before he and the Six attacked Spider-man.