Damn right!
It would still be him doing most of the work even if he caught a lucky break, but yeah, it's fine for him to start from scratch.
That's because they often put him in a regular prison in the early days. No way that works for me in my movies.
Remember I'd have his tentacles locked into very strong magnetic restraints in the ceiling. I want there to be some kind of negating effect for his tentacles, maybe. He can try to move them, but the force running through them from the machinery of the cell makes them go limp. Through this, they can also electrically shock Otto if they need to.
I'd have him "flex" his tentacles constantly (not just the claws), and while the guards were concerned at first, he insisted it was, if not involuntary, a nevous habit. Some people flex their extremities constantly out of habit. I know I personally do that with my feet when they're in boots, etc. It's kind of like that. Anyway, him doing this constantly has built up a kind of tolerance for the negating effect, although he lets the negation field do its job. It means that if he strained himself, he could keep it up for several seconds.
I'd have him befriend one of the Guardsmen that regularly guard his cell and bring him food. I'd have him pull a Hannibal Lecter on him, basically. The Guardsmen are completely encased in Iron Man type armor (not as advanced and strong, but it's still a strength-enhancing exoskeleton and very tough) and carry advanced weapons that can range from stunning prisoners to killing them if absolutely necessary. They are forboding, scary looking people, and you'd never think to actually become too familiar with them, right? Octavius fears no one, and is smart enough to get past that shell and make a connection to the person underneath. He is a model prisoner, and more. He is courteous, amiable, considerate, and ever so gradually shows an interest in the Guardsman's life. We'll call him Officer Mark (get it?) for now. He becomes relatively familiar with Officer Mark's character, asking after his family, etc. He even reccommends books. He even makes jokes once in a while about his convict status. What a nice, personable, normal man, that Otto Octavius. Mark starts getting too comfortable around Octavius. One day, he gets so comfortable, he actually takes his gun (which they usually lock into secure, code-locked panels in the walls before entering a cell) into the cell when collecting two books that Otto read that day. He takes him books, you see, because Otto had been such a good prisoner. He even has a poster with the Periodic Element Chart on his wall. Oh yeah, that was a good idea, right? Anyway, Mark walks in with his gun, thinking nothing of it. Sure, Otto is a big guy, but he's a Guardsman, and it'll only take a second. What's there to worry about?
All of a sudden, Otto flexes one of his upper tentacles, rippling it in and bowing it forward so the curve knocks poor Officer Mark in his armored face plate, knocking him back. Otto has the power rifle in his hands and switches it to full power, pointing it up at the devices on the ceiling that hold his tentacles and blasting several times unil one is free. He uses the other tentacle to gather up Officer Mark, wrapping around him to keep him powerless, and holds the gun at his head, knowing that another Guardsman is on his way right then. When he gets to the cell, he aims at Otto with his blaster (which can be held with one hand if you're a Guardsman) and has his other hand on the control panel for the cell. He's thinking of shocking Otto through his tentacles. Otto knows this, and is ready. He says that if he is shocked, it will force his hand to contract, pulling the trigger and blowing Mark's head off. If the other Guardsman doesn't release the other three tentacles right now, Ock will slowly crush Mark in his own armor, breaking each bone in his body, one by one. It's essentially torture. Horrified by Ock's cruelty and out of compassion for his teammate, the Guardsmen does as he's told and gets slapped around real hard for it. Ock let's Mark live. He doesn't actually kill anyone, but he uses two of the Guardsmen as both shields and cudgels to break out. Dr. Octopus is free, and he feels no remorse for what he did to get out.
The earlier part of that is hard to get across in one scene, but there are ways. It could be at Officer Mark's debriefing, or we see little snippets, distributing the flashback across the latter half of the movie. I think it's really important to show the seductive power of Dr. Octopus and the lengths to which he'll go to get what he wants. He may be impatient on the outside (i.e., out of prison) a lot of the time, especially in terms of dealing with people, but he was able to get control of himself and exercised perfect discipline while in prison. He ranted and raved a bit at first and then calmed down gradually, making the guards on staff believe it was a temporary madness and him dealing with the accident and not being a respectable scientist afterward. Doesn't mean they'll let him out, but it means they let their guard down just a bit, and that was all he needed.
I figured this take on Ock is right up your alley.
Good idea. I said earlier how I thought it should be done.
Thanks for the feedback, Ock.
