Doctor Octopus

**Doctor Octopus** is planned to battle Vilgax in *Doctor Octopus vs Vilgax*.

## Information on the Rapper

Doctor Octopus (Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius), also known as Doc Ock for short, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and first appeared in *The Amazing Spider-Man* #3 (July 1963). He is a highly intelligent, myopic, and somewhat stocky mad scientist who sports four strong and durable appendages resembling an octopus's tentacles, which extend from the back of his body and can be used for various purposes. After his mechanical harness became permanently fused to his body during a lab accident, he turned to a life of crime, and came into conflict with the superhero Spider-Man. He has endured as one of Spider-Man's most prominent villains, and is regarded as one of his three archenemies, alongside the Green Goblin and Venom. He is the founder and leader of the Sinister Six, the first supervillain team to oppose Spider-Man.

While usually portrayed as a supervillain, Doctor Octopus has also been occasionally depicted as a conflicted antihero and ally of Spider-Man. Following Spider-Man's death in the 2012 storyline "*Dying Wish*", which saw a dying Octavius swapping bodies with the hero and letting him die in his original body, Octavius was motivated to prove he could be a better Spider-Man. As such, he adopted the Superior Spider-Man alias, introduced in *Avenging Spider-Man* #15.1 following a cameo in *Daredevil* vol. 3 #21 (both December 2012). The Superior Spider-Man possesses all of the original Spider-Man's abilities, memories, and equipment, along with additional gadgets created by Octavius, though he often struggles to live up to his predecessor's legacy and turn his life around after being a villain for years. In 2013, Marvel launched a 45-issue *The Superior Spider-Man* comic book series focusing on the character's redemption and superhero career. The original Spider-Man has since been resurrected after the death of Otto Octavius. Following *Spider-Verse*, a copy of his consciousness became a villain, though a second volume of *The Superior Spider-Man* launched in 2018 saw the duplicate taking on the mantle before returning to the Doctor Octopus mantle as an antihero.

Comics journalist and historian Mike Conroy writes of the character: "Created by Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, Doc Ock, as he became known, has become one of the web-slinger's most persistent, enduring, and dangerous foes." A fan favorite character and well-known figure in popular culture, Doctor Octopus has been featured in various media adaptations of Spider-Man over the years, including feature films, television series, and video games. Alfred Molina portrayed the character in the films *Spider-Man 2* (2004) and *Spider-Man: No Way Home* (2021), while Kathryn Hahn voiced a female version of Doctor Octopus named Olivia Octavius in the animated film *Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse* (2018). William Salyers voices the character in the Marvel's *Spider-Man* video game series and *Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order* (2019).

In 2009, IGN ranked Doctor Octopus 28th in the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time, and in 2014 rated him Spider-Man's greatest enemy.