Avengers Showdown

Once upon a time, Doctor Octopus had faced Spider-Man alone more times than anyone could bother to count. Eleven times, in fact, if you had been keeping track the way this story has been keeping track for you. But in all those eleven fights, he had never once faced the Avengers.

That changed one particular night, when Otto Octavius broke into a Stark Industries vault, hoping, as usual, to find something new and valuable to steal.

He stepped inside quietly, his four arms moving him along the shadows the way they always did. But this time, when the lights flickered on, Otto found something he had not expected at all. Iron Man was standing there. Thor was standing there, Mjolnir resting easily in one hand. And Spider-Man was there too, arms crossed, clearly not surprised to see him.

They had been tracking his plans for weeks.

Otto realized, half a second too late, that he had walked directly into a trap of his own careless making. For just a moment, standing there in that vault, he felt something rare for him: real uncertainty.

But give Otto Octavius credit where credit is due. He did not run, and he did not beg. Instead, he raised all four of his powerful arms and prepared to fight three of Earth's Mightiest Heroes at once, right there in a vault that had certainly never been built to survive anything close to what happened next.

Iron Man's repulsors scorched long black marks across the vault walls. Thor swung Mjolnir in wide, thunderous arcs that shook dust from the ceiling with every pass. Spider-Man darted between them both, quick and clever as always, webbing whatever Otto's arms couldn't quite reach in time.

It was, by every account, an extraordinary battle.

And then came a moment that nobody in that vault would ever forget. Doctor Octopus, moving faster than seemed possible, deflected a full, mighty swing of Mjolnir with nothing but one raised claw. The hammer, true to its ancient enchantment, always follows wherever Thor's grip leads it — but this particular deflection sent it slamming sideways instead, straight into the vault wall, embedding itself deep in solid steel.

And here is the funny part, dear listener. Because Mjolnir does not easily let go of the hand that wields it, Thor found himself briefly, rather awkwardly, anchored to that very wall — tugging with all his considerable godly strength, trying his best to pull his own hammer free.

It should have been Otto's perfect chance to press his advantage and strike. Instead, he simply stood there, for one long, foolish second, staring at the truly remarkable sight of an actual god of thunder stuck fast to a wall because of him. And in that one frozen second, Otto Octavius felt something dangerously, unmistakably close to pride.

That pause cost him everything.

Iron Man's repulsor caught him square in the chest, and Spider-Man's webs pinned all four of his arms at once, wrapping them tight before he could react. And just like that, quite suddenly, the fight was over.

Still, it must be said — Doctor Octopus had lasted a full eleven minutes against three heroes fighting together as one team. That was longer than almost anyone in that vault's long, storied history of intruders, and it was a fact that Otto Octavius would go on to mention, with no small amount of pride, for years and years afterward, to absolutely anyone who would listen.

Sprawled against the vault wall, his four arms bound tightly in sticky webbing, Otto looked up at Iron Man, Thor, and Spider-Man standing over him. And with every last ounce of dignity a defeated genius could possibly muster, he said the only thing that felt right to say.

"I surrender, gracefully."

Iron Man's faceplate lifted with something close to a laugh. Thor, still working his hammer free from the wall, gave a low, rumbling chuckle of his own. And Spider-Man just shook his head, grinning behind his mask.

Everyone in that vault agreed, later, telling the story again and again — that was, without question, the single most Otto Octavius thing that Otto Octavius had ever said in his entire strange, brilliant, complicated life.

And somehow, even in defeat, that made it a little easier for three of the greatest heroes on Earth to almost, almost respect him.