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When you think of Doctor Otto Octavius, what's the first thing you think of? The big glasses? The "fuck ass bob" haircut? Let's not kid ourselves here, it's the arms. And since we all remember that horrifying scene with Otto's arms in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2, it would be remiss for Doc Ock's tentacles to not get an upgrade in the upcoming horror series, Midnight Spider-Man by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and ScieTronc. 

At San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Marvel Comics revealed a look at Peach Momoko’s Midnight Special variant cover for Midnight Spider-Man #2, which gives us our first look at Midnight Doc Ock. He’s the grinning fella in the background below, and while he’s still got his glasses and a questionable hair situation going on, writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson has created a new interpretation of Doc and his “arms,” which are the people standing on either side of him. 

"His relationship with the arms in this book is extremely different and when you first meet him in the book, he's at the beginning of a journey, we'll say," Johnson began. "So each of those people has two arms and so between the four of them, they make up the eight arms of Doctor Octopus," editor Nick Lowe chimed in. Johnson continued, "We take a name like 'Doctor Octopus,' we take that name to a much, much different place than you've seen in the comics up 'til now. It's upsetting." 

I’m a sicko and want Peter Parker to always have a hard time, so the idea that Doc Ock could get even more upsetting gets me excited. Elsewhere in the panel, Johnson mentioned the work of filmmaker David Cronenberg as an influence on Midnight Spider-Man, which has me thinking of his classic movie, The Fly, starring Jeff Goldblum. It’s high tide for invertebrates, humans, and everything in between in the Midnight Universe. Let’s go, fellow sickos! 

Midnight Spider-Man #1 launches on October 7, 2026. 

Interested? Here's where to find your closest local comic store, courtesy of Sweet, and here's a guide to how (and where) to read comics online. If you're looking for the best comics in recent memory, check out the Eisner Awards winners and the Harvey Awards nominees. And if you like free comics, here's everything we know about Free Comic Book Day 2027.