Otto Octavius, also known by his alias Doctor Octopus, is the main antagonist of , the PlayStation 4 video game. A highly intelligent scientist, Otto was once the co-founder of the mega-corporation ; however, he decided to leave when the other founder, his best friend , became obsessed with unethical experiments. Otto would go on to start his own company, Octavius Industries, ending his friendship with Norman in the process. Otto is a friend and mentor of , who serves as his lab assistant at Octavius Industries—which relies on grants due to financial difficulties. There, he and Peter are on the verge of developing highly advanced prosthetic limbs. Otto's hatred of Norman, who is now the mayor as well as Oscorp's CEO, is reignited when he forcibly withdraws government funding for Octavius Industries in an attempt to force Otto to work for Oscorp. Motivated to get his revenge on Norman, Otto eventually transforms into the vengeful Doctor Octopus. He thus forms the , with the singular goal of destroying Norman and his empire, as well as subduing Spider-Man in order to prevent the superhero from interfering. History Early history Born approximately in the year 1955, Otto Octavius met his future business partner while in college. The two went to found the company , and hoped to change the world together. In 1986, a boy named came to Oscorp to have a consultation for an unknown medical condition. The treatment triggered a reaction that resulted in the death of Li's parents and Li receiving superhuman powers. Disgusted with Norman's recklessness, Otto filed a lawsuit, and ended up leaving Oscorp in exchange for a settlement, ending his friendship with Norman in the process. Otto would go on to found his own company, Octavius Industries. However, he was unable to reach the same level of success that he had at Oscorp, and was forced to rely on grants for employment. Marvel's Spider-Man Otto serves as 's employer and mentor figure as a scientist. It is revealed that Octavius Industries relies exclusively on grants for income, and when, later in the game, their current grant s is revoked by Mayor Osborn, Otto advises Peter to start looking for a new job. As the game progresses, Otto is revealed to have accepted support from the A. Even later in the game, Otto reveals that he is suffering from a degenerative neurological disorder, probably caused by exposure to toxic chemicals during his youth; without a breakthrough in his research on prostheses and on how to directly have them interface with the brain, he will eventually lose nearly all motor functions. Eventually, thanks to both his and Peter's efforts in their research, Otto manages to build highly advanced mechanical, retractable arms that work in conjunction with a neural interface directly implanted at the base of the skull, that interfaces with the basal ganglia. Peter figures that the interface presents risks of altering the user's mood and personality drastically if left unchecked, and manages to convince Otto to keep working on the prototype. However, as Peter departs, Otto stumbles upon a TV news report mentioning Osborn's responsibility in the Devil's Breath debacle. Otto finally snaps, and reactivates the faulty neural interface, along with the arms, and shifts from the gentle Otto Octavius to the vengeful Doctor Octopus. Time to give them the truth. Doctor Octopus before infecting with Devil's Breath As Doctor Octopus, one of his first actions is to research the backgrounds of all the major supervillains locked inside the so that he can offer them deals in order to work for him. After breaking them out, he forms the and puts his plan into motion: attack all of Osborn's holdings within the city, unleash the Devil's Breath on the populace, and make Osborn admit to his secrets. Spider-Man foils most of this, though is powerless to stop the release of the Devil's Breath. Doctor Octopus fights him atop Oscorp Tower after Osborn is saved. During this final confrontation, Otto reveals to Peter that he knew Peter was Spider-Man all along, and Peter soon realizes the Otto he knew does not exist any longer. Spider-Man ultimately defeats Doctor Octopus and acquires the antiserum, leaving Otto to be taken by the authorities. His artificial limbs are removed and he is sent to the Raft. Otto is a dark-haired, balding, bespectacled individual. He appears to possess green eyes. While not sporting a beard, he does seem to sport a five o'clock shadow, seemingly due to all the time he spends working in the lab. While heavier than most people his size, Otto hardly appears fat — he is at best chubby, which would be expected of an older man not engaging in regular exercise. As Doctor Octopus, Otto wears a dark green body suit lined with a black polymer. From the center of his lower back are four long mechanical arms, comprised of a black polymer. At the end of each claw are two sets of four sharp claws, the larger of which are tipped yellow. Personality At the beginning of the game, Otto is described as an optimistic, forgiving person. While his work doesn't progress as well as he had hoped, he stays his course and seems to take everything in stride. Otto displays a gentle personality overall, not scolding Peter for his tardiness anymore than he feels he has to. Otto possesses an extremely high intellect, enough so that Peter admires him for it, yet does not display any of the arrogance his comic-book counterpart is famous for, instead admiring Peter's knack for impromptu science and describing the boy as a genius in his own right. However, as the game progresses, Otto starts acting frantically. He doesn't seem to have much patience when he feels close to reaching his goals, and as the reveal, Otto's designs have some overlooked flaws that Peter regularly has to address and correct. Additionally, Otto's frustrations with his fragile human body and oppression by Norman increasingly rise to the surface, culminating in his transformation into Doctor Octopus. As Doctor Octopus, Otto's personality shifts towards a vengeful, calculating individual with sociopathic tendencies. He displays little care towards the lives he endangers, justifying it as necessary. Ock acts on years of frustration and repressed anger towards Norman Osborn. Part of this shift is due to his implementation of the imperfect neural network, triggering limbic degradation that causes him to act out on his suppressed hatred. As his mental state continues to deteriorate, Otto becomes more aggressive, prone to mood swings, paranoid and increasingly self-righteous in his crusade against Norman. His intelligence even surpasses the prodigious genius of Peter Parker. Otto is also able to design advanced technological for Spider-Man, as well as easily deduce the latter's secret identity and masterfully deceive him into believing that he, Otto, still remained oblivious to that fact. However, he is often haphazard with his creations, overlooking critical flaws. He is one of the leading authorities in prosthetics and neurotechnology, creating and engineering his own mechanical appendages and advanced upgrades for the Sinister Six. The disorder solely affects his muscles: Peter estimates he will lose control of his motor functions within a year. While functionally operational, imperfections in the implant's design causes limbic deterioration, damaging Otto's sanity while exacerbating his impulses, especially his anger and paranoïa. At the end of each arm are two sets of claws: a larger set of four claws used for general purposes, and a smaller set used for more precision-intensive actions. These arms, which are connected to his nervous system via an intracranial neural network, are capable of neural transmission speeds faster than 1 nanosecond, faster than signals can travel inside the brain. As a result, these arms function as if they were part of Otto himself. These arms possess superhuman strength, rapid movement, omnidirectional motion, and allow Otto to scale almost any surface. Relationships Peter Parker Otto hired as an intern, both out of recognition of the boy's talent and due to the recommendation of Peter's. During the two years Peter worked for Octavius Industries, Otto came to see Peter as a son and close friend. He admires his innate ability and altruism, but is often irritated with his chronic lateness. Together, they are working on advanced prosthetic limbs for his government financiers, who are left concerned after a demonstration failure. Deducing Peter's identity as Spider-Man when he stumbles upon Peter repairing his , Otto pretends to misinterpret it as Peter being Spider-Man's assistant, promising to keep it a secret and even helping him by providing additional designs. When Mayor Osborn moves to shut down Octavius Industries, Peter remains with Otto, helping him perfect the neural network. During this time, Otto confides with Peter his history with Norman, and his impeding loss of motor control. Otto keeps his impending plans against Norman a secret, including the weaponization of their artificial limb technology. Drunk on success upon the completion of the neural network, Otto is initially dismissive, then resentful of Peter's concerns of the network's obvious flaws. However, as the limbic degradation had not yet taken hold, Otto pretends to listen to Peter's warning and agree to fix the bugs. While his emotional reasoning continues to deteriorate, Otto still values his friendship with Peter, and orders the Sinister Six not to kill Spider-Man during the breakout. In a found in his lab, Otto leaves a message for Peter, admitting his pain in potentially losing Peter's friendship but affirming that he believes his actions are just. When the inevitable battle between the two comes, Otto is deaf to Peter's pleas to stop his madness, and casts aside their friendship for the sake of his crusade, even impaling Peter with his mechanical appendages. After he is defeated by Peter, Otto initially curses Peter for turning on him before begging one last time for Peter's help, claiming that his actions were the result of the neural interface affecting his mind. Realizing that the Otto Octavius he knew is gone, Peter reluctantly leaves him to the authorities, ending their partnership for good. Norman Osborn Norman and Otto Otto and were close friends in college, and went on to found Oscorp together. However, Norman became increasingly obsessed with genetics, and resorted to unethical business practices. It is implied that Otto left Oscorp due to the incident with Martin Li, which Norman was directly responsible for. Otto came to view Norman with contempt, as Norman not only continued to steal credit for Otto's work and talent, but squirm his way out of any consequences for his behavior. Due to his financial difficulties, Otto was forced to take a grant from the Mayor's Office to fund his research. During the events of the game, Norman uses a malfunction as an excuse to revoke the grant, and has Octavius Industries shut down for safety violations. Otto recognizes it as Norman's thinly veiled attempt to force Otto to return to Oscorp. This incident reignites Otto's hatred for Norman, leading him to see his former partner as a cancer on the world, and triggering his transformation into Doctor Octopus. Ironically, Otto's plan does work somewhat, as Norman is eventually forced to resign as Mayor after his role in the Devil's Breath catastrophe — while retaining his title of CEO of Oscorp, Norman is publicly disgraced. Martin Li Otto met when the latter was a child. Based on the recording retrieved from Norman Osborn's secret room, Otto was unaware of Li's injection with GR-27 until it was too late. However, as his hatred for Osborn increases during the course of the game, Otto sees Li's actions as inspiration. It is revealed over the course of the game that Otto has supplied Li with medication to help him control his powers for years, indicating that the two are on amicable terms at the very least. That would explain why Li seems keen on following his orders to not kill Spider-Man at the , as he actually knows and trusts Otto. Behind the scenes Doctor Octopus is voiced by , who also provided motion capture for the character. Doctor Octopus' inclusion in the game was leaked during a live stream of a game by Chris Jai Alex, the motion-capture actor for , commenting on the size difference while doing motion capture between Rhino and Doctor Octopus; he was quick to stop talking, however, and speculation about this leak lingered until the game released.
