The Power of the Sun, in the Palm of My Hand

About

The Power of the Sun, in the Palm of My Hand is a memorable quote by the character Doctor Octopus from the 2004 superhero film Spider-Man 2. Initially a popular meme caption, the quote went on to become an element of the Raimiposting subculture on 4chan before gaining popularity as an image macro on /r/raimimemes and other subreddits.

Origin

On June 30th, 2004, superhero film Spider-Man 2 premiered in the theaters^[1]. In one scene, the character Doctor Otto Octavius (Doctor Octopus) holds a demonstration of a fusion reactor, handling the reactor core with the help of robotic appendages and commenting that "he has the power of the sun in the palm of his hand".

Spread

Before 2016, the quote had seen use as a caption in memes in which various individuals appeared to hold sun-like or otherwise hot objects in their hands. On April 24th, 2008, an anonymous ICanHazCheezburger user^[2] posted an image of a cat hugging a radiator paired with the caption (shown below, top left), marking one of the earliest uses of the quote in memes. Between 2008 and 2016, more memes using the quote appeared on Cheezburger, Memecenter, Facebook, Reddit and other websites.

On June 28th, 2012, Funnyjunk^[3] user strawberriesrock posted the first known meme in which the quote was paired with the close-up of Doctor Octopus looking at the fusion core. The post gained 41 points in six years.

In Raimiposting

On July 27th, 2016, an anonymous 4chan^[4] user posted a screen capture of the scene paired with an edited quote to /tv/ board as a part of the Raimiposting trend.

In the following month, several other posts repeating the fake quote were posted to the /tv/ board^[5][6].

Popularity on Reddit

On June 27th, 2017, Redditor^[7] MildlyFrustrating used the macro based on the scene in a four-panel meme posted to /r/raimimemes subreddit (shown below, left). The post gained over 80 upvotes in six months. The quote and the macro gained significant popularity in the subreddit, with multiple posts utilizing both appearing in the following years.

On January 10th, 2019, Redditor^[8] Bringer116 posted a meme based on the macro to /r/dankmemes subreddit. The post received over 78,500 upvotes in three weeks, prompting a surge in the popularity of the macro on the platform.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References