The Houston Chronicle interviewed Alfred Molina:
“He loved comics as a kid.
“We got all the American comics,” he said, “and I much preferred Marvel’s over DC’s, whose characters I found incredibly moral and dull. But I wasn’t a big collector, and when I went to college I gave them all away.”
Molina disliked Ock’s appearance in the early comics. “He looked like a ’50s wrestler gone to seed, with a strange bowl haircut.”
The comics Ock was a mad-scientist type, though at one point he audaciously wooed Peter’s Aunt May.
“He’s almost one of the family, later on,” Molina said. “At least, he tries to be. But he keeps getting destroyed and coming back. That’s the great thing about villains in the comics universe: They never die.”
Indeed, since his creation in 1963, Ock has returned many times, and now has a limited-series comic about his origins. Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada considers him “definitely in the top three of Spidey villains, with the Green Goblin and Venom. And like a lot of classic villains, he’s similar to the hero.”
Molina’s Ock is dapper, tragic and conflicted.
“His powers do kind of match Spider-Man’s, in terms of strength and versatility,” Molina said. “The irony is that, with the tentacles, he’s almost as spidery as Spider-Man. I’m sure that wasn’t an accidental thing, but probably a subversion of the artists.”
Also like Peter/Spidey, Ock is torn by inner torment.
“That’s the interesting thing about Marvel characters, both villains and heroes,” Molina said. “They’re all rather reluctant. I think that helped (director) Sam Raimi to push a little bit and extend the story’s possibilities.””
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Source: Houston Chronicle
