Doc Ock is a Marvel Comics villain who usually flies under the radar, as he’s not as smart as someone like Reed Richards, and he’s not as dangerous as someone like Doctor Doom. However, in a more recent storyline, Doctor Octopus sought to change that by taking to the multiverse and seeking out his most powerful variants in order to use them for his own sinister purposes. But during that time, Doc Ock never came across the smartest one of them all: Reed Richards himself.
In the Amalgam Universe comic Challengers of the Fantastic #1 by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett, fans meet the Fantastic Four of Earth-9602, otherwise known as the Challengers of the Fantastic. In this universe, not one member of Marvel’s First Family got superpowers, as the ray shields they used in space actually held, protecting them from the cosmic radiation. Unfortunately, not having powers left them at a major disadvantage when the Earth was invaded by a variant of Galactus, whose goals were nearly identical to the original. However, Reed–using his resourceful brilliance–quickly adapted, and found a version of Doc Ock’s tentacles in a lab he frequently worked in. Reed’s research in this lab led to the development of these robotic tentacles, and while he wasn’t their original creator/wearer, he made them his own during this potentially world-ending event, effectively making himself the Amalgam Universe’s Doctor Octopus.
Reed Richards’ Doc Ock Should Have Been in Devil’s Reign
In the 2021/2022 Marvel crossover event Devil’s Reign, Doc Ock is granted access to the Fantastic Four’s laboratory after the Kingpin makes all superheroes illegal. Using his private police force made up of supervillains, the Kingpin rounds up all the heroes and throws them in prison, which includes the Fantastic Four. Doc Ock, being an ally of the Kingpin, moves into the Baxter Building and gets very familiar with Reed’s lab, including and especially the working multiversal portal. Doc Ock traverses the multiverse, scooping up Doc Ocks wherever he finds them. However, Otto Octavius seemed to miss the most brilliant of them all: the Amalgam Universe’s Reed Richards, which is ironic given how he wouldn’t have been able to take to the multiverse to begin with without Reed Richard’s tech.
Marvel Is Pretending the Amalgam Universe Doesn’t Exist
While the Amalgam Universe was originally an entirely new reality unaffiliated with the established multiverse of either Marvel or DC, it became an official part of both multiverses with the launch of the post-Crisis DC continuity. In DC, Amalgam was designated Earth-496, while over in Marvel, it was numbered Earth-9602. Basically all this means is that on Doc Ock’s journey through the multiverse, he could have conceivably come across the Reed Richards Doc Ock variant, which would have put him face-to-face with the smartest one of them all.
The reason Reed Richards can be considered the smartest Doc Ock variant is actually pretty simple: Reed Richards is, in potentially every universe, smarter than Otto Octavius. While there was one contender for the smartest Doc Ock with the Doctor Doom variant Otto came across during Devil’s Reign, he was outsmarted by Otto himself, which automatically takes him out of the running. As for the rest of the variants, Devil’s Reign makes it clear that Earth-616 Otto is superior to them all, and one of the main reasons for this is his access to multiversal technology–which he stole from Reed Richards. So, if Otto is the best Doc Ock because of Richards’ tech, then it is safe to assume the combination of Reed Richards and Doc Ock would be the smartest of them all–too bad Marvel totally forgot about him.
