Before Doctor Octopus
Otto Gunther Octavius was born to Torbert and Mary Octavius. Torbert, a construction worker, hardly approved of his son's peaceful nature and often berated him for letting schoolyard bullies take advantage of him. Mary, however, encouraged Otto to be sensitive and refined.
Otto made it through high school, appointed President of the Science Club (although the other students quit in protest), and was given his choice of college scholarships. During his first year of college, his father was killed in a construction accident, and his mother warned him to focus on his studies so he wouldn't be reduced to manual labor and share his father's fate. He graduated from college at the top of his class, and he proceeded on to graduate school and helped support his mother.
After graduate school he quickly established his genius in the field of nuclear research. Dr. Seward Trainer, a geneticist who admired Doctor Octopus's research, introduced his daughter Carolyn Trainer to him. She was immediately enthralled and began to stalk him.
The people who worked with Octavius at the U.S. Atomic Research Center did not think so fondly of Octavius. Thanks to his mother's advice, he was nasty, arogant, and aloof toward anyone he considered subordinate to himself. They referred to him as being a "condescending and self-absorbed tyrant who gobbled up six lab assistants each year". He was dubbed the nickname Doctor Octopus. He made his mechanical arms just to avoid manual labor and it in turn kept people from getting closer to him.
At the center he met Mary Alice Anders. They fell deeply in love and he asked Mary to be his wife. When he told his mother she refused to allow him to go through with the marraige, so he immediately called it off. For the next few weeks he was excrutiating to his co-workers. He often average twenty-hour workdays. One day he came home early to find his mother going out on a date. He screamed at her, yelling, "If you can enjoy a social life, why couldn't I? Why did I have to break up with Mary Alice?! Wasn't I entitled to a little happiness?!" His tirade ended in his mother having a heart attack.
For the next three weeks Octavius trudged around in a daze, until his distraction led to the accident that created him.