 Between the two appearances he was working with Henri Le Pym, a natural philosopher employed by Baron Octavius to create a potion that will counteract the effects an octopus based serum have had on his physiology.Testing some of the potions on himself, Hal becomes more bestial in appearance.When he first appears in "Spider-Man 1602" #1, he is imprisoned in Le Pym's laboratory, treated as a source of mutagenic blood rather than a fellow scientist.