Doctor Octopus Was Spider-Man’s Greatest Villain, Even Before His Debut

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While Doctor Octopus has become something of a low-end villain for Spider-Man in more recent comics–having peaked after he swapped bodies with Peter Parker and became the Superior Spider-Man–the villain had an explosive start to his Marvel Comics career and was actually Spider-Man’s greatest foe before he even made his first appearance.

Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus wasn’t always a maniacal supervillain. At one point he was a thoughtful and brilliant scientist who graduated at the top of his class in M.I.T. and landed a job with the U.S. Atomic Research Center. Unfortunately, the career he worked so hard to launch for himself was the very thing that ruined his life forever as one day when he was using his robotic arms to handle radioactive material from a safe distance, his experiment exploded and engulfed him in a wave of atomic energy. The accident permanently grafted the metallic arms onto Doc Ock's body and also warped his mind, shaping him into the megalomaniac fans know him as today.

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In The Amazing Spider-Man #3 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Spider-Man is growing bored of taking down easy-to-handle criminals day after day, and wishes that a villain as powerful as he is would rise up and challenge him just to end the monotony. Unfortunately, Spider-Man’s wish comes true. After Doc Ock recovers from the accident that turned him into a supervillain, he wastes no time in proving his newfound wickedness, and Spider-Man shows up to stop him in a flash–excited for this new challenge. However, Doctor Octopus quickly shows Spider-Man how foolish he has been in actually wishing for a villain like him to emerge, as Doc Ock destroys