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Quote1 I couldn't help but feel responsible for Mary Alice. Even though I hadn't seen her in years, the poor woman couldn't escape the curse of knowing me. Quote2
Otto Octavius[src]

History

Mary Alice Anders was a physicist, and was one of the few people to get along with her co-worker, Otto Octavius (who would later become the super villain known as Doctor Octopus), when they worked together at a nuclear facility for the United States Department of Defense. Anders was impressed by Octavius' mechanical arms which he had invented to handle dangerous radioactive material.[2]

As Anders and Octavius worked together, they developed feelings for each other and a romantic relationship blossomed. Conflicting accounts of how their relationship ended exist. According to one report, Anders agreed to marry Octavius at some point. Overjoyed, Octavius told his overbearing mother, who responded with rage, feeling her son's engagement was an act of abandoning her. Octavius' mother influenced her son to call off his engagement, breaking both his own, and Mary Alice's hearts.[3] In another account, Octavius and Anders did not get engaged, but developed a physical relationship. During this time, Octavius' mother found a painting of Anders that Otto was working on and realized what Anders' relationship was with her son. Similar to the alternative account, in this telling Octavius' enraged mother berated Octavius and caused her distressed son to cut off his relationship with Anders. After Octavius cut off his relationship, he discovered his mother had hypocritcally been seeing a secret lover as well, prompting Octavius to kill his mother in fury.[2]

Mary Alice continued working with Octavius even after the conclusion of their mutual romantic relationship. Mary Alice would later die from an HIV infection, despite Otto Octavius' attempts to synthesize a cure.[3] It was later revealed that Norman Osborn was the one who was responsible for infecting Mary with HIV. He had her run off the road, and then infected her with a blood transfusion, in an attempt to desensitize Doc Ock.[4]

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Links and References

References

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