| Lady Octopus | |
|---|---|
Lady Octopus from Amazing Spider-Man #406 |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Amazing Spider-Man #406 (October 1995) |
| Created by | J. M. DeMatteis Angel Medina (based upon Doctor Octopus by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Carolyn Trainer |
| Notable aliases | Doctor Octopus |
| Abilities |
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Lady Octopus (Carolyn Trainer, formerly the second Doctor Octopus), is a fictional character, a supervillainess in the Marvel Universe. Her first appearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #406 (October 1995). She was created by J. M. DeMatteis and Angel Medina.
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During the Clone Saga, Dr. Otto Octavius was killed by Kaine and was replaced not long after by Carolyn Trainer, daughter of Seward Trainer and adoring student of Octavius.[1]
She obtained a set of four tentacles identical to Octavius' 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 name Doctor Octopus in honor of her beloved instructor, the original Dr. Octopus, 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 the 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 Octavius' lover Stunner, 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 digitised copy of Octavius' mind, and Carolyn's overall plan had been to allow the 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 (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 Lucia 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.[15] She was later seen shortly before Siege of Asgard, when she tried capture Mockingbird and Ronin. Carolyn is briefly encountered by Mockingbird.[16]
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 the 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 Ben Reilly, as the 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.
A version of her in the MC2 alternate future series Spider-Girl returned to supervillainy years after Octavius' death, initially reclaiming the title of Doctor Octopus. 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.