Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Four: Doctor Octopus: Armed and Dangerous

Doctor Octopus: Armed and Dangerous

First Aired: February 18th, 1995

Synopsis: Peter Parker shows up to Felicia Hardy's elaborate mansion so that he can take her to a science exhibit as her tutor, but Doctor Octopus breaks into her room and captures her. Felicia's held for ransom and her mother recognises the writing on the note as belonging to that of Doctor Octavius, whom her foundation refused to grant money to. Peter himself recognises the name as being the person who ran a science camp he attended when he was younger. In his memory, Octavius was kindly and cared strongly about science. Meanwhile, Octavius talks to Felicia about his origin - he wanted to be able to do cold fusion in a battery but was laughed at. Although Felicia's mother's foundation gave him a grant he was progressing too slowly for them, and the money was cut off. Resorting to doing experiments by himself, he couldn't afford proper protection and ended up getting caught in an explosion which fused his tentacles to his spine.

J. Jonah Jameson puts out an announcement to Ock that they want to know what Ock wants, and ends up getting forced to deliver the ransom himself. Doctor Octopus takes Jonah hostage too and demands double the ransom in spite of Spider-Man showing up to try and stop him. When Octopus calls up about the second ransom, Peter answers and manages to impress him with his knowledge of journals Octopus has written. He gets told to deliver the ransom, but after doing so Octopus reveals that he intends for this to be only the first payment and that he'll hold Felicia and Jonah indefinitely. Peter changes to Spider-Man and fights Octopus, managing to magnetise his tentacles using a dynamo in the warehouse they're fighting in, which keeps Ock restrained. While Octopus is taken to prison, he ends up laughing that "iron bars do not a prison make", especially to a mind like his.

Miscellaneous Notes: 

• Doctor Octopus has a German-ish accent when he speaks. His surname is - I want to say faux-Latin? - so making him vaguely European kind of makes sense, but it's a bit of a change from how he's usually portrayed.
• In case you forgot that this show was made in the 1990s, Doctor Octopus tells Jonah that he'll fax him instructions about how to deliver the ransom.
• When Peter's interacting with Octopus, Felicia quips that he "Reminds me of Flash Thompson - all hands." Pretty risque given the target audience of this show.

Review: While I appreciate the attempt to give Doc Ock a sympathetic backstory, and this is definitely a lot more interesting character than the gangster that comics Ock was throughout most of his existence up to this point, I can't say that this version is really all that interesting. I think it comes down to a lack of a reason for why he wants to make a fusion battery - while I buy that it's his dream and that it's something that would benefit the world, I'm not really sure why he wants to make one, and whether it's for personal or altruistic reasons.

The decision to give Peter a connection to Octavius is a good one to make, and it almost feels like a prototype of the (excellent) relationship between the Peter Parker and Otto Octavius of the PS4 game. Peter impressing Octavius over the phone means that this connection does pay off (and in a dose of realism, there's never any indication that Octavius remembers who Peter Parker is), and it gives him an excuse to show up at the final scene by himself. All of this feels pretty natural and flows pretty well.

But ultimately there's something about this episode that just doesn't quite work. The fights between Spidey and Ock certainly aren't that dynamic, and the second one is just plain confusing - Spider-Man turns on a dynamo to magnetise Ock's tentacles, but then Jonah and Felicia are in danger, which somehow means that Ock's free...so Spider-Man has to turn on the dynamo again to magnetise Ock? Did I miss something here? Also, while I'm complaining - are we really not following up on Peter meeting Mary Jane Watson at the end of the previous episode? What's happened to that?

Overall, this isn't the worst cartoon with Doctor Octopus in it, but I can't say that that automatically makes it great, either.