Lizard

Publication history

The Lizard first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #6 (November 1963), and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Fictional character biography

Origin

Curtis "Curt" Connors was born in Coral Gables, Florida. He was a gifted surgeon who enlisted in the U.S. Army. He performed emergency battlefield surgery on wounded GIs. However, his right arm was injured in a wartime blast, resulting in its amputation.

After his return to civilian life as a research technologist, Connors became obsessed with uncovering the secrets of reptilian limb regeneration. Working from his home in the Florida Everglades with the help of war buddy Ted Sallis, he finally developed an experimental serum taken from reptilian DNA. The serum successfully regrew the missing limb of a rabbit, so then Connors chose to test the serum on himself. He ingested the formula and he did indeed grow a new arm.

However, the formula had an unfortunate side effect: Connors was subsequently transformed into a reptilian humanoid monster. Spider-Man discovered this situation during a trip to Florida to investigate newspaper reports of the Lizard after his employer the Daily Bugle challenged him. After discovering the Lizard's true identity and origin, Spider-Man used Connors's notes to create an antidote to restore him to his human form and mentality. Another attempt to develop this serum for safe use again resulted in Connors transforming into the Lizard, but on this occasion, he was saved thanks to his former colleague Professor X and his first team of X-Men, Beast and Angel tracking the Lizard down in the swamps so that the Iceman could send him into hibernation long enough to develop a cure.

Life in New York

Later, Curt Connors relocated to New York City attending Empire State University. He was able to repay Spider-Man by developing a formula to save May Parker's life after Peter Parker had given his aunt his radioactive blood during a transfusion, unintentionally putting her in mortal peril. It later became clear that the success of Connors's apparent cure from the Lizard persona was short-lived. A repeating pattern soon occurred, with stress or a chemical reaction turning Connors into the Lizard, Spider-Man fighting him, and then forcing him to swallow the antidote to reverse the transformation until the next time. A second personality had formed with the Lizard, one with the familiar goal shared by many villains of taking over the world. The Lizard envisioned a world where all humans had been transformed into (or replaced by) super-reptiles like himself. Despite the Lizard's overall hatred of humans, he was often shown to be unwilling to harm his wife Martha or young son Billy.

As Connors, he aided Spider-Man in defeating the Rhino by developing a formula to dissolve the Rhino's bulletproof hide, but accidentally transformed himself into the Lizard due to exposure to the chemicals needed to create the formula and was restored by Spider-Man. Connors was later abducted and forced to create a rejuvenation serum for Silvermane. However, the stress from this caused Connors to again transform; the Lizard then battled Spider-Man and the Human Torch, and was restored to normal once again by Spider-Man.

During another encounter with Spider-Man after Peter's attempts to remove his powers resulted in him growing four extra arms, a bite from Morbius endowed the Lizard with Connors's personality via the infection of a strange enzyme. Connors then synthesized an antidote for himself and Spider-Man using the Morbius enzyme. Curt Connors later aided Spider-Man, Ka-Zar, and Black Panther against Stegron. After the apparent death of the Jackal, Connors determined that Spider-Man was not a clone. Later, the Lizard battled both Stegron and Spider-Man after Stegron kidnapped Billy Connors. For a time, Peter Parker worked as a teaching assistant to Connors at Empire State University, although Connors had no idea that Peter was Spider-Man. During this time, Spider-Man and Connors dealt with one of Connors's previous experiments in the form of the Iguana.

During the first of the Secret Wars, the Lizard had reverted to his more primitive state and refused to participate on either side of the conflict. Although he was collected by the Beyonder along with other villains, he broke away from the main group after the first battle to settle in a swamp, where he befriended the Wasp, who had helped him treat an injury that he had sustained in the first battle. After the Lizard was blasted by the magic of the Enchantress, he reverted to human form.

The 1990s through 2007: Civil War

Connors then tried to straighten out his life and control the Lizard, with some degree of success. This ended when the villainess Calypso used her voodoo magic to take control of the Lizard (during the Torment storyline) for her purposes, reducing him to a mindless, savage state. After a series of bloody battles, the Lizard and Calypso were defeated by Spider-Man, and Spider-Man assumed that he perished under Calypso's spell. Connors once again gained control of the Lizard's mind and body, although it was very weak. Curt carried out a plan to cure himself temporarily, after which he voluntarily submitted to incarceration in the supervillain prison the Vault. When Calypso forces the transformation and attempted to control the Lizard once again, the creature killed her and escaped from the Vault. After this escape, the Lizard falls into a quicksand pit during a battle in the Everglades with Spider-Man and the bounty hunter Warrant and was believed to have died.

Later, a huge bestial Lizard appeared, shortly after Connors was called in to investigate Peter Parker's sudden sickness (the result of Peter's recently lost spider-powers returning). Spider-Man (Ben Reilly) realized that not only had the Lizard survived, but revealed later his new monstrous transformation seemed to be permanent and the personality of Curt Connors appeared completely lost. However, when this savage mindless Lizard later unexpectedly encountered Dr. Connors himself while Connors was helping Peter, Curt became the true Lizard once again and saved his family by killing the "Lizard-clone." It was revealed that the Lizard clone was a scientific accident resulting from an experimental formula being tested on a piece of the original Lizard's tail, which had then grown into a fully formed second creature.

Although reunited after Curt's apparent death, Martha and Billy were diagnosed with cancer after being exposed to carcinogens from living near an industrial lab in Florida. Spider-Man assisted Curt in successfully forcing Monnano, the lab's owner, to admit culpability, but Martha died from her cancer. Billy recovered but remained bitter towards his father. Curt's guilt and internalized anger led him to become the Lizard once again, and once human, Curt attempted a bank robbery so that he would be sent to prison. After a short-lived term, Connors was released and changed into the Lizard once more, this time due to a scheme by Norman Osborn to form the Sinister Twelve to kill Spider-Man. The Sinister Twelve were defeated and captured by the combined forces of Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers.

Brand New Day (2008) and beyond

Doctor Curt Connors appeared in the 2008 Brand New Day storyline, where he experimented with animal stem cells as well as aiding forensic specialist Carlie Cooper. The third Freak mistook Connors's stem cells experiment for drugs. Connors helped Spider-Man defeat the Freak during their second encounter.

During the events of The Gauntlet, Curt Connors was working for the pharmaceutical company Phelcorp under executive Brian King. Connors had lost custody of his son, Billy, and started hearing the voice of the Lizard persona goading him to let it have control. After Connors's assistant slept with King, Connors began struggling to contain the Lizard, ultimately losing control when King stopped him from taking a dose of his Lizard suppressing antidote. When Connors changed into the Lizard, he devoured King as a rival male. Knowing that the Lizard has targeted Connors's son Billy in the past, Peter Parker decides to protect Billy and swings to his foster parents' home. There, he finds that Billy was kidnapped and his new parents are being held hostage by Ana Kravinoff. Ana had left Billy in an alley, where the Lizard ate him, the trauma of which functionally destroyed the Connors persona. No longer having Connors internally warring with the Lizard, he enters a metamorphosis, emerging in a new form, sporting a leaner physique, long brown spikes on its head, spikes on its right forearm, human intelligence, and the ability to telepathically communicate with the underdeveloped "lizard hindbrain" portion of human brains. He demonstrated the latter ability by triggering the instinctual prey response of Spider-man's lizard brain, temporarily overwhelming the superhero and causing him to flee in terror. Back on the street, the Lizard mentally triggered the lizard portion of numerous people's brains, causing them to behave in savage and often violent ways. Away from the Lizard, Spider-Man ingested Connors's Lizard suppressant formula, temporarily making him immune to the Lizard's mind controlling powers. Spider-Man then injected the Lizard with some of the formula, hoping that Connors would be able to resume control. Although Connors is no longer present, the formula does increase the prominence of the Lizard's "monkey brain", aka the human intelligence portion of its brain. This causes him to consider (and regret) some of his actions, including killing Billy and trying to make people embrace their lizard instincts. Reverting most of the people he had affected with his telepathic powers, The Lizard disappeared into the sewers after the fight.

During the Origin of the Species, the Lizard joined Doctor Octopus's supervillain team and stole Menace's baby. As Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man fought within the Lizard's hideout, the Lizard at first attacked Spider-Man, but then gladly returned the baby. He revealed that he already took a blood sample from the baby and found out that Norman Osborn was not the father; therefore, the baby was useless to him and all of the villains. Doctor Octopus, angry about the Lizard's hypnotism obstructing his intellect, attacked him while Spider-Man escaped with the baby. Both Doctor Octopus and the Lizard survived this fight.

Powers and abilities

Dr. Curtis Connors gave himself superhuman powers as a result of exposure to the Lizard Formula, allowing him to transform into the Lizard. In human form, he has none of his superhuman powers, but he is highly intelligent and a well known scientist in fields of genetics, physics, biochemistry, and herpetology.

When Connors is transformed into the Lizard, his strength is increased to superhuman levels. Likewise, his speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes are also raised to a level equivalent to that of Spider-Man. He can also scale walls using a combination of his sharp claws and micro-scales on his hands and feet that create molecular friction like those of a gecko. He is highly resistant to injury due to his thick scaly hide, allowing him to resist punctures and lacerations from ordinary weapons and lower-caliber firearms. In addition, the Lizard has highly enhanced healing abilities which allow him to quickly recover from grievous wounds, including regenerating lost limbs. He also has a powerful tail which he can whip at high speeds. The Lizard has razor-sharp teeth set in muscular jaws that can deal a lethal bite (the latter is established in the Lizard's later appearances; in his earlier appearances he seems to have no teeth at all). Like a reptile, he has cold-blooded characteristics and is therefore sensitive to drops in temperature; a sufficiently cold environment will cause his metabolism to slow drastically and become dormant if he is exposed to cold temperatures for too long.

The Lizard can mentally communicate and command all reptiles within a mile of himself via limited telepathy. He has also on at least one occasion secreted powerful pheromones which caused nearby humans to behave violently. Post-Brand New Day, a further enhancement of his telepathy granted him the power of telepathically compelling humans to act out their primal urges, by suppressing emotional control in their amygdala (the "lizard brain").

Based on various physiological and environmental factors, the Lizard's intelligence can range from bestial and animalistic to normal human intelligence. The Lizard personality has most often manifested with human intelligence, capable of speech and higher reasoning, although some versions have been more feral than others. During the "Secret Wars" in particular, he appeared less ruthless than his normal portrayal, showing concern for Volcana and the Wasp after they showed him kindness despite his usual disdain for humans. However, even when operating at the level of a human, the Lizard is rarely as intelligent as Dr. Connors, showing on many occasions an inability to understand his human self's work and use it to further his own ends despite his best efforts.

Continuity

In a 2004 story arc entitled Lizard's Tale, written by Paul Jenkins in the Spectacular Spider-Man comic book, it was revealed that the Lizard persona was not a separate personality from Dr. Connors after all—Curt had been consciously controlling his reptilian alter ego all along. Furthermore, Connors was shown to know that Peter Parker was Spider-Man, despite the discovery of the secret identity never being explained or depicted. The story ended with Dr. Connors deliberately getting himself sent to prison and hoping the Lizard would not be unleashed again. The Lizard's next appearance after this was as a member of the Sinister Twelve, where he showed no indication of being controlled by the mind of Dr. Connors. Although the idea of Connors controlling the Lizard was subsequently ignored, when the Lizard's mind was briefly trapped in Connors' human form, he attempted to mutate the staff of Horizon Labs into lizard people like himself, with none of the other lizards demonstrating the same hostility to humans as the Lizard, prompting Spider-Man to speculate that the Lizard's anti-human traits came from Connors' anger at the world for his lost arm and family rather than the Lizard being completely separate from Connors.

Another continuity-related issue involves Connors' son Billy. Unlike many other Marvel Comics children, he has not appreciably grown up since the comics' stories of the 1960s. Billy's visible age also seems to waver back and forth between approximately eight and 13 years old, depending on the particular comic artist drawing the character.

Other versions

Many alternate versions of Lizard have appeared throughout the character's publication history.

Earth-66

On Earth-66, Lizard is an ordinary lizard who sought revenge on Spider-Rex after he accidentally ripped off his tail. Despite opposition from his wife Lizzy and Spider-Rex, who both insist that his tail would have eventually grown back, the Lizard uses a meteorite fragment to transform into a Chimera and eventually obtain a human form.

Marvel 1602

In Marvel 1602, Connors is a philosopher whose transformed state resembles a Velociraptor and retains his human mind.

Spider-Gwen

On Earth-65, Peter Parker was the first Lizard, with Harry Osborn and Curt Connors later succeeding him.

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Curt Connors is a friend of Reed Richards who created the Carnage symbiote and goes on to join S.H.I.E.L.D.

In other media

Television

A character based on the Lizard named Curt Conner/The Lizard Man appears in Spider-Man (1967), voiced by Gillie Fenwick. He has both of his arms. In the episode "Where Crawls the Lizard", he works on a serum intended to cure "swamp fever", only for it to transform him. He plots to create an army of lizard people like himself and take over the world until Spider-Man foils his plans and restores him to his human form. In "Conner's Reptiles", Conner experiments with increasing reptiles' intelligence, but inadvertently turns a regular alligator into another humanoid lizard called Reptilla (voiced by Paul Soles). It kidnaps Conner, but Spider-Man rescues the latter and restores Reptilla.

The Lizard appears in the Spider-Man (1981) episode "Lizards, Lizards, Everywhere", voiced by Corey Burton.

Dr. Curt Connors / Lizard appears in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, voiced by Joseph Campanella. This version maintains his genius-level intellect as the Lizard coupled with his alter ego's savage mindset from the comics. In the pilot episode "Night of the Lizard", Connors transforms into the eponymous character after using himself as a test subject for his experiments with lizard DNA in the hopes of regenerating his right arm. While transformed, the Lizard abducts his wife Margaret and attempts to transform New York's population into lizards like himself, only to be defeated by Spider-Man and restored to his human form. In "The Lizard King", a number of sewer lizards become mutated by Connors's chemicals and abduct him, who transforms into the Lizard to become their king. With Debra Whitman's help, Margaret and Mary Jane Watson create a cure, which Spider-Man administers, restoring the mutated lizards to normal. In the three-part episode "Secret Wars", the Lizard is among several supervillains that the Beyonder transports to an alien planet to engage in a war against a team of heroes led by Spider-Man, though the Lizard defects to the heroes' side after Iron Man and Mister Fantastic use a machine to allow Connors's mind to take control of the Lizard's body. After the war ends, Connors is returned to Earth with no memory of what happened.

Dr. Curt Connors / Lizard appears in the Spider-Man: The New Animated Series episode "Law of the Jungle", voiced by Rob Zombie. This version is Peter Parker's science teacher at Empire State University who lost his right arm as a result of an accident while testing Oscorp Industries' Wide Area Fragmentation Explosive Round (WAFER). Connors intentionally transforms into the Lizard to exact revenge, maintaining his intelligence and ability to speak. Following a battle with Spider-Man, the Lizard is left hanging by webbing from a helicopter. Spider-Man tries to reason with him, but the Lizard lunges at him, accidentally cutting the webbing and falling to his death.

Film

Dr. Curt Connors appears in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, portrayed by Dylan Baker. This version is a former college classmate and friend of Otto Octavius and a Columbia University physics professor who is concerned for Peter Parker's well-being and academic performance in his quantum mechanics course. While Connors did not become the Lizard in the films, Raimi, Baker and producer Grant Curtis expressed interest in exploring the concept in sequels.

Rhys Ifans portrays Dr. Curt Connors / Lizard in two Marvel films. This version is an Oscorp biologist and former partner of Richard Parker whose research focused on genetically combining animal traits with humans to improve health. Additionally, Connors is a sympathetic yet misguided individual driven by the loss of his right arm and a desire to do genuine good while his Lizard alter-ego is more feral than most incarnations despite retaining Connors' intelligence. Additionally, he does not wear clothes and has a less pronounced snout, giving him a more humanoid appearance.

Connors first appears in the Sony film The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). Peter Parker finds Richard's notes and visits Connors to continue what he and Richard started. The two successfully formulate a serum together, which Connors injects himself with after being fired from Oscorp for refusing to rush into human trials. The serum regenerates Connors' lost arm, but eventually mutates him into the Lizard, who goes on a rampage until Spider-Man intervenes. Escaping into the sewer, he reverts to his human self, but the effects of the serum makes him obsessed with his abilities. He builds a makeshift off-site lab while the Lizard persona further corrupts his mind by manipulating him to experiment on himself further. The Lizard discovers Spider-Man's secret identity, develops a mind of his own, and asserts himself as the dominant personality while seeking to mutate all of New York into lizards like himself. However, Spider-Man foils his plan with Captain George Stacy's help and cures him. With the Lizard's personality gone and his sanity restored, Connors surrenders to the authorities. In the film's mid-credits scene, Connors is remanded to Beloit Psychiatric Hospital, where he speaks with the Gentleman regarding the Parkers' knowledge of him.

Ifans reprised his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). Sometime after learning Peter's secret identity, Connors is transported to an alternate universe (MCU), where he is found and imprisoned by Doctor Strange alongside other alternate universe-displaced supervillains. He encounters the MCU's version of Peter Parker, who offers to cure them and avert their original fates upon returning to their respective universes. Skeptical of this for fear of unforeseen consequences, Connors joins Green Goblin in fighting back. The former later joins Sandman and Electro in fighting three Spider-Men before he is eventually defeated and cured by the second Parker. After reverting to his human form, Strange returns Connors and the other displaced individuals to their respective home universes.

Video games

The Lizard appears in Questprobe featuring Spider-Man.

The Lizard appears in Spider-Man: The Video Game.

The Lizard appears as a boss in The Amazing Spider-Man (1990).

The Lizard appears as a boss in Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin.

The Lizard appears as a boss in The Amazing Spider-Man (1992).

The Lizard appears as an optional boss in Spider-Man (1995).

The Lizard appears as a boss in Spider-Man: Lethal Foes.

The Lizard appears in Spider-Man (2000), voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.

The Lizard appears as a boss in Spider-Man 2: Enter: Electro, voiced again by Dee Bradley Baker.

Curt Connors, based on the Sam Raimi film incarnation, appears in Spider-Man 2 (2004), voiced by Joe Alaskey. The Lizard appears as a boss exclusively in the Game Boy Advance version of the game although he was planned to appear in the main console release but was scrapped due to time restraints, however Lizard-like enemies still appear in the game's arena mode as remnants from the development.

The Lizard appears as a mini-boss in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, voiced by James Arnold Taylor. This version is a member of Doctor Doom's Masters of Evil.

Curt Connors / Lizard, based on the Sam Raimi film incarnation, appears in Spider-Man 3, voiced by Nathan Carlson. After transforming into the Lizard, he kidnaps and converts numerous people into lizards as part of a plot to replace New York's population with reptiles. While he is thwarted by Spider-Man, the Lizard escapes. He is later hunted by Kraven the Hunter and Calypso before the latter uses a magic potion to transform him into the Mega Lizard. After Spider-Man defeats Mega Lizard, he reverts to Connors and is taken to the hospital. Connors also helps Spider-Man analyze a piece of his symbiote suit and treat Dr. Michael Morbius' vampirism.

Merchandise

The Lizard received a figure in Mego's "World's Greatest Super-Heroes" line.

The Lizard received several figures from Toy Biz as part of the Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in line, Spider-Man Classics, and the Marvel Legends series.

The Lizard received a figure in Hasbro's 2007 Spider-Man 3 film tie-in toyline based on his appearance in the video game of the same name.

The Lizard received several mini-busts from Art Asylum and Bowen Designs, with the latter also producing a statue of the character.

The Spectacular Spider-Man incarnation of the Lizard received a figure from Hasbro.

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) incarnation of the Lizard received several figures and toys in Hasbro's tie-in toy line.

Miscellaneous

The Lizard appears in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, portrayed by Brandon Rubendall. This version was originally an Oscorp Industries scientist before the Green Goblin turns him into a member of his Sinister Six.

The Lizard appears in Marvel Universe Live!. This version is a member of the Sinister Six.

Reception

The Lizard was ranked No. 9 on a listing of Marvel Comics' monster characters in 2015.

In 2022, CBR.com ranked Lizard 5th in their "10 Most Violent Spider-Man Villains" list.