One of the best Spider-Man villains is returning to the big screen. Alfred Molina will reprise his role as the iconic Doctor Octopus from the 2004 Sami Raimi Spider-Man 2 movie in the upcoming Spider-Man 3 from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This raises a lot of questions, not least of which is who else could form an MCU Sinister Six.
The Alfred Molina version of Doctor Octopus is one of the best - arguably the best - but he's far from the only incarnation of the character. There have been many in the comics, television shows, and feature films over the years.
Lady Octopus
A female Doctor Octopus is an idea with a lot of potential as fans have seen in Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, but it first got traction in the comics.
Carolyn Trainer was a student of Otoo Octavius and after his presumed death, took over the role as Lady Octopus. She was a very 90s character in design and approach, which makes sense considering she usually clashed with the Ben Reilly Spider-Man, just one of the many Peter Parker clones from the Clone Saga.
Doctor Octopus III
The third version of the multi-limbed villain in the comics was Luke Carlyle. Carlyle was Octavius' boss at Nexus Industries for a time but betrayed Otto by stealing his designs for his own. Carlyle built his own, ostensibly more advanced, suit with six limbs instead of the traditional four.
He didn't fare too long as Doctor Octopus teamed up with Spider-Man to defeat him. The six-armed suit was destroyed and Doc Ock continued to use his own original design.
Doctor Octopus 2099
2099 was a comics initiative from the 90s that had Marvel create future versions of their characters a century into the future. Spider-Man was by far the most successful of these efforts, with one of the most unique Spider-Man suits.
The 2099 Doctor Octopus accordingly was one of the more interesting takes on a classic villain. Serena Patel modeled her own suit of armor on the original Doc Ock, after discovering that he had evidently killed the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker.
Spider-Man: The Animated Series
Spider-Man: The Animated Series is a classic for fans of Marvel and one of the best-animated superhero shows of the 90s. Spidey's entire Rogues Gallery and then some appeared and Doctor Octopus made his mark. There were some key differences between the comic and animated versions of the villain though.
Doc Ock was an antagonist in the comics from the beginning but in the series, he is initially something of a mentor to Peter Parker, running a science camp Peter attends. This relationship helps make their eventual confrontation that much more dramatic.
Marvel's Spider-Man Video Game
The recent Spider-Man video game gave fans a couple of different takes on the Wall-Crawler (and Miles Morales, too, in the recent spin-off). It also gave fans one of the most unique iterations of Doctor Octopus.
The video game version is in many ways a literal translation of the comic one but brought to life with many practical updates to his costume. The arms of the character borrow some design elements from the Sam Raimi version, which were all-time classics.
Ultimate Comics
Ultimate Comics was another effort by Marvel in the early 2000s to breathe new life into their existing characters. The Ultimate universe of Earth-1610 gave them a chance to play with classic characters outside the bounds of existing continuity.
This version likely had some influence on the look of the Sam Raimi character. This was a much more modern and complex take on the character, who was a scientist in pursuit of discovery instead of riches, like the original version.
Superior Spider-Man
The Superior Spider-Man is perhaps the best modern take on the character in the comic books. His dramatic role reversal, swapping Peter Parker's mind into his dying body and then taking over the young hero's, inspired as much Twitter reaction as the news about Alfred Molina returning.
Doc Ock did more than just cosplay as Spider-Man. He lived like him, with the role of being a hero having a real and lasting impact on the mind and heart of the classic villain.
Classic Comic Book
The classic version of the character remains the foundation for all those that follow. Doctor Octopus is a great, simple design that is instantly iconic. Otto Octavius suffered from some very Silver Age motivations, wanting only to steal from banks and increase his wealth, but over time, he became a major of Spider-Man.
Doc Ock founded the Sinister Six and has been behind virtually every incarnation of it. His presence in Spider-Man 3 is a likely indicator that this supervillain superteam will finally make their screen debut.
Into The Spider-Verse
One of the best versions of the character appeared in Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. One of the best surprises in recent movies came when fans discovered that Liv was in fact, Olivia Octavius.
Not a lot is known about Olivia Octavius right now, but what is known makes her very intriguing. Like the Ultimate Comics version, she is a scientist doing a bad thing for the sake of discovery, though she clearly has a mean streak (and an intriguing connection to Aunt May, who knows her by her first name).
Spider-Man 2
The gold standard for Doctor Octopus in any medium is Alfred Molina. His nuanced portrayal of the scientist deformed physically and emotionally by the failure of his greatest experiment helped make Spider-Man 2 one of the best comic book movies ever. It's unclear how exactly he will return to the MCU, as his character died in the movie.
One theory is that this is the same character, but blasted out of his reality by the events at the end Spider-Man 2. It's also possible he somehow crosses over into the MCU through means that might have something to do with the events of WandaVision.