Ducking Consequences Isn't Very Heroic

I'm a little annoyed that Dr. Octopus is still running around calling himself a hero, whether he's going by Superior Octopus or Superior Spider-Man (I don't know which it is these days).

Normally I'm fond of how several of Spider-Man's former enemies reformed. Prowler, Rocket Racer, Sandman, Black Cat, so on. Granted, none of those other than Sandman have anything close to Ock's track record. With Sandman you could debate whether being on the Most Wanted list even before he got super-powers counterbalances stuff like Ock trying to threaten the entire city of New York with a nuclear weapon. Sandman has the longer criminal career, but Octavius has a higher peak.

But I've been generally OK with Magneto's periodic turns towards heroism, and his list of crimes dwarfs Ock's. The real issue is Doc Ock tried kicking off his whole hero thing by hijacking Spider-Man's body. When Sandman or Magneto tried their face turns, they did so as themselves. When Sandman joins the Avengers as a Reserve, he has to stand up there next to Captain America in front of the press as Sandman. He doesn't get to disguise himself as Hercules and pretend some other guy committed all those crimes. Same for Magneto. They're out there in public as themselves, and they have to deal with people fearing them, or other heroes not trusting their motives.

(Although those things happen to heroes who don't have criminal pasts in the Marvel Universe, so it's just an occupational hazard. The public will throw rotten fruit and call you a freak, and other heroes will want to fight you the first time they meet.)

Ock sidestepped that. Took over the life of someone who was already established and ran with it. For all that Octavius disparaged Peter for not being more organized or accomplishing more, it was still a heck of a lot easier for Ock to manage what he did, starting a company, when he can pose as someone who shouldn't be serving multiple life sentences.

I can't see it as turning over a new leaf where your first act was to dodge all responsibility for your past crimes, and steal someone's life. He did ultimately fail as Spider-Man, Peter took his body back, but Octavius survived. First inside that old robot, and now in a younger, stronger clone body. He even worked with HYDRA for a while during Secret Empire. Even if that wasn't widely known to the public, which I can believe, I don't buy that none of the heroes or former SHIELD types knew about it. But nobody seems to be after him. He's going to team-up with Dr. Strange in a few months. I know Stephen's usually got his eyes on a grander scale than that, but still, it wouldn't be hard to thrash Ock and throw him in prison. Take maybe three minutes.