It’s like ‘Toy Story’ — some toys enjoy a life of playtime with children, while others are collectors items, doomed to live out their fading lives in glass cases.
So it was at the Gibraltar Trade Center. Here, the characters of my youth — Ninja Turtles and WWF wrestlers and Spider-Man — existed in purgatory. Premium prices on shitty quality toys placed in precarious positions.
Consider the Marvel super heroes chained by their Pac-Man overlord to duel with their counterpart villains. Every day. Forever.
Or the poor headless Star Wars figurine ensnared in the jaws of an unforgiving and sadistic toy shark. The horror.
Spider-Man tried to make his escape, and we rooted for him.
Dr. Octopus has been with Spider-Man, and Marvel, since forever.
He’s also a tough customer. I mean, the guy took on the Hulk. C’mon.
But Doctor Octopus has never been a cool Spider-Man villain. He doesn’t have the edge of Venom, or the mania of Green Goblin. He just has those arms. And those glasses. And that gut.
Which is why my favorite rendition of Otto Octavius was Erik Larsen’s in the early 1990s.
Octopus was the scientist whose mechanical arms were grafted to his body in an experiment gone wrong (naturally), driving him to a life of crime. Probably Spider-Man’s most intelligent foe, Dr. Octopus was the schemer. He was also a good organizer, drafting the Sinister Six into existence.
Until Larsen’s run, and especially in the early Spider-Man issues. Larsen portrays Otto with a snazzy double-breasted white suit and black shirt. The glasses stay, as does the bowl cut, but the simple addition of the suit does wonders.
Erik Larsen was my canonical Spider-Man. His rendition of Black Cat, his work on Savage Dragon, his return to Amazing Spider-Man, the weird way he draws…did I mention I got to meet him once? In Chicago?
Anyway.
During Larsen’s reign, Doc Ock was stylish without being handsome, exactly. He looked like a professional villain. With self respect. He’s all business.
Which is why the above panel is probably my favorite super villain quote ever. Strictly business, that’s what that is.
“You’re going to die Spider-Man. I’m going to kill you.”
Since then, Doc Ock has taken on many forms and appearances (Ock’s new career as Spider-Man is both weird and hilarious), but Larsen’s will always stand out as, at the least, the most dignified.
