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Lady Octopus

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Lady Octopus
Marvel Masterpieces (1996) lithograph. Art by Boris Vallejo
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceAmazing Spider-Man #406 (October 1995)
Created byJ.M. DeMatteis
Angel Medina
In-story information
Alter egoCarolyn Trainor
Notable aliasesDoctor Octopus
AbilitiesGenius-level intellect
Wears super-strong and highly-resistant mechanical appendages, impervious to conventional attacks and armed with lasers
Force-field generation via harness

Lady Octopus (real name Carolyn Trainer and also known as the second Doctor Octopus) is a supervillainess in Marvel Comics. The character is depicted as a protégée to her predecessor of the name and primarily an enemy to Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly).

Publication history

Lady Octopus first appearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #406 (October 1995) and was created by J.M. DeMatteis and Angel Medina.

Fictional character biography

Carolyn Trainer is the daughter of Seward Trainer who was a student of Doctor Octopus. After Doctor Octopus was killed by Kaine during the Clone Saga, Carolyn replaced the teacher she adored.[1]

She obtained a set of four tentacles identical to Octavius's and made use of a personal force-field that kept anything from hitting her. However, her tentacles could lash out from the shield at any time during its use. She took the "Doctor Octopus" name in honor of her beloved instructor and began a campaign to steal her father's research in merging reality and virtual reality.[2]

When she found her father was being protected by Scarlet Spider, she became jealous of the father-son relationship between him and her father. She tried but failed to blackmail her way into gaining Trainer's data by stealing a serum that could cure a seriously ill Mary Jane Watson, resulting in her being beaten heavily by Spider-Man and revealing she was working for the mysterious Master Programmer.[3][4][5]

Carolyn continued her efforts to merge reality and virtual reality, ending up in a technological gang war against Mr. Tso and his boss Alistair Smythe with the Scarlet Spider in the middle of it. She hired the Looter, Override and Aura, and the Pro to assist her in this, as well as Stunner (Octavius's lover), and eventually succeeded in defeating Smythe and gaining the technology she needed before the Scarlet Spider thwarted her.[6][7][8][9]

The Master Programmer was revealed to be a digitized copy of Octavius's mind, and Carolyn's overall plan had been to allow Master Programmer to exist in the real world, effectively resurrecting the original Doctor Octopus. This thwarted, she attempted to claim her father's then-comatose body and was finally captured by the police.[10]

Later, however, she was involved in the resurrection of Otto Octavius. The cult group known as The Hand, working for the Rose, dug up Octavius' corpse and brought him back from the dead, albeit with large mental gaps. Carolyn injected him with all the data of the Master Programmer and returned the tentacles to him. She joined him as an assistant and faded into the background.[11]

She made a small appearance in Secret War as Lady Octopus to distinguish her from her mentor. She was given a new suit of armor by Lucia von Bardas and Tinkerer. She and Hobgoblin V were sent to assassinate Captain America, but were defeated. They regrouped to a dock where a small army of Tinkerer's clients where waiting (consisting of Boomerang, Constrictor, Crimson Dynamo IX, Crossfire, Eel II, Goldbug, Grim Reaper, King Cobra, Mentallo, Scorcher, Scorpion, Shocker, Spider-Slayer XIX, Trapster and Wizard).[12] Lady Octopus fought Spider-Man and Captain America when the Fantastic Four join the battle. Just then, Lucia von Bardas activated the devices in the villains' suits linking them together to a giant bomb.[13] After Daisy Johnson deactivated von Bardas, Lady Octopus and the other villains Lucia von Bardas manipulated were all hospitalized with severe injuries.[14]

Lady Octopus has been hired by Walter Declun (a former member of Damage Control) to assist Absorbing Man, Hydro-Man, Killer Shrike, a Mandroid, Porcupine II, and Rock to defend him from Black Panther and the Fantastic Four after they uncovered his plot to destabilize all of Wakanda on Doctor Doom's behalf. Walter Declun also upgraded their technological equipment in order to perform the job.[15]

Lady Octopus was later seen shortly before the Siege of Asgard when she went on a rampage in New York only to be defeated by Mockingbird and Ronin.[16]

Powers and abilities

A demonstration of Lady Octopus's personal force-field.

Lady Octopus has no superhuman abilities. The harness she uses can act as an extension of her own body, and can lift far more than her human body, provided she braces herself appropriately with other tentacles. The reaction time of these "tentacles" is superhumanly fast. The tentacles also enable her to traverse very difficult terrain and cover ground at car-like speeds. The tentacles are also armed with lasers.

Through the tentacles, Lady Octopus seems able to interface with appropriately equipped computer systems and enter virtual-reality interfaces telepathically.

The force field the harness projected over her body was resistant to most traumatic concussive force and conventional weapons attack. The weak point of the force field is around the tentacles themselves, something Scarlet Spider took advantage of with his impact webbing.

Aside from her harness, Lady Octopus was highly learned in the science of robotics, information technology, applied physics, and mechanical engineering.

Other versions

MC2

A version of her in the MC2 alternate future series Spider-Girl returned to supervillainy years after Otto Octavius's death, initially reclaiming the 'Doctor Octopus' title. Intending to create mutate soldiers for the mob, Carolyn Trainer briefly turned John Jameson back into Man-Wolf, before beating Spider-Girl in a pitched battle. Later, she freed crime boss Canis from prison in the hope of uniting to take over the criminal underworld and oppose the Black Tarantula; it turned out she was in fact working for the Tarantula, setting Canis up for a fall. Spider-Girl battled her once again and finally took her down.[volume & issue needed]

In other media

Video games

  • Lady Octopus appears in a teaser image for Season Two of Marvel: Avengers Alliance where it parodies the cover of X-Men #141 (the opening issue of the Days of Future Past storyline).[17] In Chapter 9 as part of the fifth mission, Lady Octopus is found dead alongside Armless Tiger Man and Shockwave where the three of them end up victims of the Circle of Eight.
  • An exclusive, female Marvel 2099 version of Doctor Octopus appears as a boss character in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.[18] Dr. Serena Patel (voiced by Tara Strong) is the head scientist of Alchemax's Shadow Division which is dedicated to the creation of dangerous super-weapons and twisted experiments. Serena creates a battle suit with six high-tech mechanical arms and gives herself the "Doctor Octopus" title after her idol Dr. Otto Octavius. Patel also uses her genius to create a new Hobgoblin with Alchemax's technology and manipulate the Scorpion (Kron Stone) into helping her. After Hobgoblin and Scorpion are defeated, Doctor Octopus finds a fragment of the Tablet of Order and Chaos and goes mad with power. She then builds a Condensed Matter Reactor powered by the fragment to wreak havoc and take over the world. Found by Spider-Man, she attacks Spider-Man and escapes upon setting off the self-destruct sequence. Spider-Man escapes the explosion and finds Patel at the Condensed Matter Reactor. Doctor Octopus ends up unleashing some strange creatures wielding a copy of her tentacles on Spider-Man as he moves about to shut down the 4 reactor cores. After shutting down the reactor cores, Spider-Man confronts Serena in the reactor. Patel is eventually defeated by Spider-Man, claiming the tablet fragment from her. In the credits, she is shown with her mask off raising infant versions of Hobgoblin and Scorpion.

References

  1. ^ Spider-Man Unlimited #18
  2. ^ Amazing Spider-Man #405
  3. ^ Amazing Spider-Man #406
  4. ^ Spider-Man #62–63
  5. ^ Spectaculer Spider-Man #229
  6. ^ Web of Scarlet Spider #1–2
  7. ^ Amazing Scarlet Spider #1–2
  8. ^ Scarlet Spider #1–2
  9. ^ Spectacular Scarlet Spider #1–2
  10. ^ Spectaculer Spider-Man #232
  11. ^ Amazing Spider-Man #425–428
  12. ^ Secret War #3
  13. ^ Secret War #4
  14. ^ Secret War #5
  15. ^ Black Panther vol. 5 #11
  16. ^ New Avengers #63
  17. ^ "Get Set for Avengers Alliance Season 2," Marvel
  18. ^ Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Achievements
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