Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-2.122.199.184-20141111223147/@comment-571861-20170401051642

One of the common mistakes people make is that it's not an octopus, it's a hexopus. A decade earlier a movie was produced featuring a hexopus called "It Came From Beneath The Sea". https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gsCM40PWxTg/UXaG9sV5ESI/AAAAAAAAE3Y/IR_UGwL4r70/s1600/IT-CAME-FROM-BEANEATH-copy2.jpg

The poster features an octopus, however, the movie's special effects featured a hexopus or "sixopus" as they called it. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (the penciler of Strange Tales 135) were known for "adopting" what was popular which in that era was creature features. Strange Tales has many of these creatures more here: https://comiclists.wordpress.com/tag/jack-kirby/

Combine that with the backstory of Hydra, which is suspciously similar to the real world Brotherhood of the Snake with the Nazi twist on it and their logo:  https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_URwFD6kIDb4/Szp7i-CjP3I/AAAAAAAAAGg/fEy8QmR98vY/s320/brotherhood_of_the_snake.jpg