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Sometimes in life you do get a second chance. Or even a second second chance.
Otto Octavius suits up in a high tech spider suit to protect the city as the Superior Octopus.
Let's go way back, and start at the beginning. When he learned he was dying, Dr. Octopus found a way to transfer his mind into Peter Parker's body, becoming the Superior Spider-Man. Unable to defeat the Green Goblin on his own, he gave the body back to the remnant of Parker's consciousness, willingly sacrificing his (semblance of) life in the process. Then during the "Clone Conspiracy" story, the Jackal (not that one) stole Otto's original body and cloned a new one, putting a saved copy of Ock's consciousness in it. When that body died, his mind was moved into a new, "perfected" clone he'd been developing, one that was a blend of his genes and Spidey's.
Returning to one of his old secret bases, he found it had been taken over by Hydra. After kicking their butts, he was recruited to the organization (because why wouldn't the octopus-themed villain group want an octopus-themed villain on their team?), and was given a new costume. Though frankly, they should have been able to guess he'd eventually abandon them, since neither the colors nor the pattern are very "Hydra-y."
The head is a new sculpt, because no one else wears goggles as squared off as these. The head and upper chest are gray, with
black stripes that run to the center of the chest, where you'll find a stylish neon green line art logo representing an octopus. It is pretty cool, and definitely sells the "Doctor Octopus, but a hero" idea. He wears metal gauntlets, which are made via pieces that fit around the toy's forearms, and hands molded with armor on the backs and knuckles.
Quite shockingly, this is not a reused body -
not entirely, at least. Although it gets many of its parts from one we've seen before, the torso is new. How can we tell? Because it's not a hinge, it's balljointed! Why'd Hasbro bother with that instead of just keeping the existing torso? We don't know for sure, but we're not complaining. He's still got the extra pectoral hinges, and the toes point a little too far to the inside like they always do, but the abdominal ball is an unexpected and welcome addition.
This costume is a reworking of
Otto's Superior Spider-Man costume, blended with the tentacles he used for most of his career. The figure comes with a small backpack and four tentacles that plug into it. Like the last Ock, they're permanently molded in whatever shape, and onlt swivel where they enter the backpack and at the "wrist" - not a great combo at all when it comes to poseability. They're never going to look natural, no matter which way you turn them or which spot you plug them in. It is kind of amusing that as his body gets thinner, his mechanical tentacles do, too.
The figure includes the arms of this series' Build-A-Figure, Demogoblin. Yes, despite all the new molds that went into his creation. That's out of the ordinary.
Comics being comics, Superior Octopus has been reverted to his old self, because natural growth and change is scary. But his turn to the light side was a grand idea, and with this cool costume, he makes for an interesting action figure. Shame about the tentacles, though.
-- 03/14/20
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