Spider-Man: TAS "Dr. Octopus: Armed & Dangerous" Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

Discuss this Spider-Man: The Animated Series episode!

Episode #6 - Doctor Octopus: Armed and Dangerous
Original Airdate - February 18, 1995

Spider-Man battles the villain known as Doctor Octopus, who has kidnapped Felicia Hardy and J. Jonah Jameson for ransom. Spider-Man discovers that Doctor Octopus has a personal vendetta against Felicia's mother, Anastasia. Now, Spider-Man must find a way to put an end to the grudge and save two innocent lives.

Comments?

[Brainiac]

One of my favorite Doc Ock storylines, it was great to see him introduced in such a fashion. Also, the ending with Ock in the prison cell talking to himself was great!

[BlackCat]

How could I forget to record this episode? Didn't it run this Sunday morning? A good episode. A great introduction to Doc Ock.

[Spider-Man]

This episode is airing today on ABCFamily so I thought I'd bump it up for all to enjoy.

Probably one of my favorite episodes becuase it has some killer animation in there. You have the love the scene as Spider-Man flips and dodges out of the way of Doc Ock's tentacles! TMS did a great job on that sequence. The animation people just did a really good job on the episode, going all out on some of the more quick, intense sequences.

Granted the whole 'Felicia Hardy/J. Jonah Jameson under some sort of rocket engine' trap is a bit convoluted, this episode still does a good job at painting Doc Ock as a great villian. I also like what the series did with connecting Doc Ock to Peter's youth. I can't remember if they did that in the comics.

[Stu]

Season 1 had awesome animation all the way through it.
This episode was the best of the bunch of Doc Ock episodes, and it had some funny quips from J Jonah Jameson. I think I remember that Stan Lee and Avi Arad wrote this (along with The Alien Costume part 1). Am I right?

[Drachentöter]

I've finally found a niche for Spider-Man! Since the major network Saturday morning 10am-11am hour SUCKS, I can switch to ABCFamily.

It's been awhile since I've been able to pay full attnetion to a Spidey ep, but it's just as good as I remember. The storyline is great, I like how Spidey makes use of his Peter Parker persona. As others have said, the animation is excellent.

My only gripe, and this goes for the entire series, is the overbearing music. The theme can get repetitive and it blares at full volume, making the actual dialouge and sound effects hard to hear. Maybe it was just my TV. But I'm pretty sure the entire series would have benefitted from more, original music

[Zebi]

I'm a bit late with my responses to this talkback, but this is my favourite Spider-Man episode, so I had to reply!

I don't remember watching Spider-Man TAS when it aired for the first time. However, after seeing the movie, I watched as many of the episodes that I could find. This one sparked my interest in Dr. Octopus, and got me interested in reading the comics so that I could learn more.

I liked how they did not use the entire episode as an origin story; instead they told us about Doc Ock's origin and past through a couple of flashbacks. There were also a few memorable quotes and sequences that I really enjoyed.

Originally posted by Spider-Man
I also like what the series did with connecting Doc Ock to Peter's youth. I can't remember if they did that in the comics.

I don't think that any of the comics ever connected Otto Octavius to Peter Parker's childhood. I liked how the episode made him a teacher of Peter's; we see that he likely was an influence on Peter's interest in science (when he speaks to Ock over the phone, Pete tells him that he's read all of his research papers).

We also get some insight into Octavius' mindset when he spoke to Peter after an experiment blew up. Otto tells him that "Science is the important thing. It justifies all that we do in its service." This statement may very well be the rationale behind the crimes he has committed as Doctor Octopus.

Originally posted by The Red Bird
Season 1 had awesome animation all the way through it.
This episode was the best of the bunch of Doc Ock episodes, and it had some funny quips from J Jonah Jameson. I think I remember that Stan Lee and Avi Arad wrote this (along with The Alien Costume part 1). Am I right?

Yes, you are right. Avi Arad & Stan Lee wrote the story for this episode, and the teleplay was written by Brooks Wachtel & Cynthia Harrison.

The story of The Alien Costume, Part 1 was written by Avi Arad & Stan Lee, and the teleplay was written by Len Wein, Meg McLaughlin, Stan Berkowitz, and John Semper.

[Spider-Man]

I really liked this episode, too. This was my first real introduction to Spider-Man. I read the Spidey books before the cartoon, but rarely touched upon Doc Ock. I got my first real interest in the charatcer from this episode. It's a great idea for the character, too. An eight legged (so to speak) monster out for Spider-Man. And the voice work on him? Perfect!

[Zebi]

ABC Family airs this episode this Saturday at 10 AM (EST).

Episode #6 - Doctor Octopus: Armed and Dangerous
Original Airdate - February 18, 1995

Dr. Otto Octavius is permanently endowed with four mechanical arms after an accident he blames on the Hardy Foundation. Assuming the persona Dr. Octopus, he kidnaps Felicia Hardy, and later J. Jonah Jameson - can Spider-Man save them in time?

Comments?

[Knightmare]

This episode is airing today on ABCFamily so I thought I'd bump it up for all to enjoy.

Probably one of my favorite episodes becuase it has some killer animation in there. You have the love the scene as Spider-Man flips and dodges out of the way of Doc Ock's tentacles! TMS did a great job on that sequence. The animation people just did a really good job on the episode, going all out on some of the more quick, intense sequences.

Granted the whole 'Felicia Hardy/J. Jonah Jameson under some sort of rocket engine' trap is a bit convoluted, this episode still does a good job at painting Doc Ock as a great villian. I also like what the series did with connecting Doc Ock to Peter's youth. I can't remember if they did that in the comics.

They did as part of the Spider-Man Chapter 1 maxi-series from the late 90's (I know that most Spider-Man fans would love to forget about Chapter 1 and the long run I agree with them, but I thought the first issue and the Zero issue(in which they dealt the origins for the Lizard,the Vulture and the Sandman) were both pretty good, plus the idea of ting Doc OCk to Spidey's origin is a great idea to me.)

Then Brian Micheal Bendis did much better a few years later in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man by not just conect Doc Ock. to Spidey's origin but the Green Goblin to it as well.

[oranthal]

It seems like season one is all about introducing the cast of Spidey villains.

[Toon Capone]

I think Doctor Octopus could have been a bigger villain on the cartoon instead of becoming another lackey for the Kingpin because must of the stories involving Doc Ock were kind of weak. I also feel they should have did the original Sinister Six story with Doc Ock putting the group together not the Kingpin.

Overall I did like the connection he had with Peter on the cartoon. In the comic there was no connection between Doc Ock and Spider-Man.

[Stu]

It seems like season one is all about introducing the cast of Spidey villains

Pretty much, they had bigger plans for them in the later seasons.

Actually, they noticed X-Men was doing better than Batman in the ratings, so switched more towards thier style of storytelling, which John Semper wanted, as far as I can tell. He felt restricted with only 22 minutes of airtime.

[TheScarecrow]

Just an excellent episode from Spider-Man TAS. Doc Ock was introduced very well in this episode, and was made into one of the more interesting villains on the show. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr is great as the good doctor. Even the lame armored costume doesn’t spoil it for me.

The lines were great. Doc had some great ones ("My name? What’s in a name? An octopus by any other name would still be just as deadly!") ("A broken promise? Um, that sounds familiar." *Looks at Felicia*). Spidey had some good ones too, especially his response to Ock’s gripe that Spidey is making a career out of meddlesome interference, which was classic wisecracking Spider-Man. ("Some career! No money! No insurance! No dental plan! *Dodges tentacle* And talk about the health hazards!) Even Felicia got a good line in. (“He reminds me of Flash Thompson. All hands!”)

The animation was very fluid and well done.

Is it just me or does a lot of the elements of this episode seem similar to some of the plot elements in Spider-Man 2?

Spoiler:

Namely, fusion playing a part of Otto’s transformation into Doc Ock, Otto Octavius not being a complete bad guy before the accident, Peter being a big admirer of his, and even Doc using science as justification for his crimes.

Well Avi Arad did help write the story of this episode, and he is a big influence on every Marvel comic book film, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

[Zebi]

Spidey had some good ones too, especially his response to Ock’s gripe that Spidey is making a career out of meddlesome interference, which was classic wisecracking Spider-Man. ("Some career! No money! No insurance! No dental plan! *Dodges tentacle* And talk about the health hazards!)

I loved that line as well! :anime: But it actually went like this:

Ock: You're making a career of interference!
Spidey: Some career! No salary, no vacation - and talk about on the job health hazards!

And I even have a clip if anyone wants to listen!

Is it just me or does a lot of the elements of this episode seem similar to some of the plot elements in Spider-Man 2?

Spoiler:

Namely, fusion playing a part of Otto’s transformation into Doc Ock, Otto Octavius not being a complete bad guy before the accident, Peter being a big admirer of his, and even Doc using science as justification for his crimes.

Well Avi Arad did help write the story of this episode, and he is a big influence on every Marvel comic book film, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

I agree with you, and I like the idea. We are seeing elements from the various comic book stories used, so why not a few from the cartoons as well?

[Kolbar]

ABC Family aired this episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series today at 8:30 AM EST.

Episode #6 - Doctor Octopus: Armed and Dangerous
Original Airdate - February 18, 1995

Dr. Otto Octavius is permanently endowed with four mechanical arms after an accident he blames on the Hardy Foundation. Assuming the persona Dr. Octopus, he kidnaps Felicia Hardy, and later J. Jonah Jameson - can Spider-Man save them in time?

Comments?

[Stu]

I watched this episode before I got my Spider-Man 2 DVD, to get my anticipation up. It still holds up pretty well, especially the animation. The nice thing about this episode is the pace. For once, every is pretty slow, and makes the fights all the more entertaining. Perhaps some of the greatest fight scenes the show did were in this very episode.

The fusion elements were similar to Ock's intentions in the movie. The one thing I never liked about this version of Ock is his costume, the armour thing simply doesn't work for Octavious. The Eric Larsen style white suit, or a lab coat would've been so much more in character, especially from someone who claims to be a scientist rather than a superhero.

[Spider-Man]

I watched this the night before I picked up Spider-Man 2 and it still holds up as a good episode. I really don't like the armor plating he has for his costume but the story isn't bad at all. This episode contains one of my favorite animated sequences where Spider-Man is dodging all of those arms. He's flipping and jumping in front of a series of box crates as the Octo-arms just demolish everyone.

And considering how tight they are with the censors I'm surprised "bloodsmear" got through.

[Spider-Man]

The fusion elements were similar to Ock's intentions in the movie. The one thing I never liked about this version of Ock is his costume, the armour thing simply doesn't work for Octavious. The Eric Larsen style white suit, or a lab coat would've been so much more in character, especially from someone who claims to be a scientist rather than a superhero.

Looking back at this episode I agree. The armor is probably the major weakness when it comes to Doc Ock's character in the cartoon. Overall they did a good job with his character. The voice acting was sharp and his character stayed true to his comic roots for the most part. Tieing his past with Peter's remains a favorite tidbit of mine. I wonder if they pulled that out frpom the comics. I could never find that connection in the books.

[Toon Capone]

I liked Doc Ock's battle armor but I would have liked to have seen him wear a suit in later episodes like he did in the comics.