Lizard (comics)

Publication history

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

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 terribly 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 his missing arm did indeed grow back.

However, the formula had a 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' 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 Charles Xavier and his first team of X-Men, Beast and Angel tracking the Lizard down in the swamps so that Iceman could send him into hibernation long enough to develop a cure.

Life in New York

Later, Curt Connors relocated to New York City. 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' apparent cure from the Lizard persona was short-lived. A repeating pattern occurred, with stress or a chemical reaction turning Connors into the Lizard, Spider-Man fighting him, and then forming some kind of temporary cure 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 bullet-proof 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 kidnapped and forced to create a rejuvenation serum for Silvermane. However, the stress from this caused Connors to transform, the Lizard battled Spider-Man and the Human Torch, and was then 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' 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 the Black Panther against Stegron. After the apparent death of the Jackal, Dr. Connors determined that Spider-Man was not a clone. Later, the Lizard battled with Stegron and Spider-Man after Stegron kidnapped Billy Connors. For a time, Peter Parker worked as a teaching assistant to Dr. Connors at Empire State University, although Connors had no idea that Peter was actually Spider-Man.

During the first of the Secret Wars, the Lizard 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 he sustained in the first battle. After the Lizard was blasted by the magic of the Enchantress, he reverted to human form. After Connors' return from this event, his wife took their son Billy and separated from Curt. The Lizard had apparently been affected by inter-dimensional teleportation so that Connors' mind presided over the Lizard, and battled the Owl alongside Spider-Man. However, mystical activity during the Inferno crisis once again brought the Lizard's bestial nature to the fore, and Spider-Man cured him again.

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 villain Calypso used her voodoo magic to take control of the Lizard (during the Torment storyline) for her own 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 forced the transformation and attempted to control the Lizard once again, the creature killed her and escaped from the Vault. After this escape, the Lizard fell into a quicksand pit during a battle 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 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.

The Lizard resurfaced to face Spider-Man with the aid of Billy Connors, who was changed into an adolescent Lizard by his father. Both the Lizard and his son were captured and reverted. Billy's transformational ability has been ignored since. A new Sinister Six team, including new member Lizard, appeared during the superhero Civil War, but it was stopped by Captain America and his Secret Avengers.

Post-Civil War, Curt Connors aided Spider-Man in developing a cure for the victims of Mister Hyde who were mutated with unstable versions of Spider-Man's powers. Dr. Connors has also monitored the progress of the hero Komodo, a female grad student who stole a sample of Connors' Lizard formula. She modified the formula for her own DNA to grow back her missing legs and to give herself reptilian powers.

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. New villain Freak (the third version) mistook Connors' stem cells experiment for drugs. Connors helped Spider-Man defeat Freak during their second encounter.

During the events of The Gauntlet, Doctor Curt Connors is working for the pharmaceutical company Phelcorp under executive Brian King. Connors has lost custody of his son, Billy. The lizard persona tries to goad Connors to give it control, and he relents when his assistant sleeps with King. When he changes, the Lizard devours King. Peter Parker decides to protect Billy and swings to his foster parents' home, where he finds that Billy was kidnapped and his new parents held hostage by Ana Kravinoff. Ana has left Billy in an alley, where the Lizard eats him and destroys the Connors persona temporarily. The devouring of Billy causes the Lizard to gain a new form, sporting a leaner physique, long brown hair, spikes on its right forearm, human intelligence and the telepathic ability to communicate with the underdeveloped "lizard part" of human brains; he demonstrates the latter ability by hypnotizing Spider-Man into thinking he has prey to stalk, causing the superhero to leave. Operating from the sewers, the Lizard hypnotizes several people into taking what they want. Away from the Lizard, Spider-Man ingests Connors' lizard suppressant formula, which makes Spider-Man immune to the Lizard's mind controlling powers. Spider-Man then combats the Lizard and injects him with some of the formula and reveals he regrets what he has done: Connors' psyche is still in the Lizard's body. The Lizard disappears after the fight.

During the Origin of the Species, the Lizard joins Doctor Octopus's supervillain team and steals Menace's baby. As Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man fight within the Lizard's hideout, the Lizard at first attacks Spider-Man, but then gladly returns the baby. He reveals that he already took a blood sample from the baby and found out that Norman Osborn is not the father; therefore, the baby is useless to him and all the villains. Doctor Octopus, angry about the Lizard's hypnotism obstructing his intellect, attacks him while Spider-Man escapes with the baby. Both Doctor Octopus and the Lizard would survive this fight.

A short time later, while investigating kidnappings in New York, the X-Men find themselves working with Spider-Man after they discover that the abductor is the Lizard, who has been turning the victims into lizard people while maintaining his control over the city's reptile population. The X-Men and Spider-Man discover that Lizard is being used by the Dark Beast, who has given the Lizard his 'reptilian shift' abilities by using a machine. During the battle, Lizard shifts Gambit, Storm, and Wolverine into lizard people, Emma Frost and Spider-Man escape the machine's effects and release the Lizard and use him to defeat Dark Beast, who is arrested while Lizard escapes.

Sometime later, Doctor Morbius discovers the Lizard and used DNA samples from Billy Connors' corpse to restore Curt Connors to humanity. Unfortunately, the lizard's psyche is still present and is pretending to be Connors so that he will be left alone. Lizard/Connors releases blood into the air supply to provoke Morbius into attacking other lab workers. Lizard/Connors then tries to recreate his original Lizard formula so he can change again, but Morbius' cure instead only allows him to regrow his missing arm. Lizard/Connors then injects Max Modell and other Horizon Lab personnel with his formula to discover how to "cure" himself. Attempting to appear to be the "normal" Connors, Lizard/Connors cuts off his regrown limb, but the Lizard begins to appreciate human life, to the point that when he finds the correct Lizard serum, he contemplates remaining human, but he takes the cure when Spider-Man arrives and threatens him with custody. This results in yet another streamlined, new form. A new cure is developed for the lab employees he changed, but this formula fails on Lizard's new form; he is instead knocked out and taken to the Raft. Visiting him in the Raft, Spider-Man is unaware that the serum restored Connors' psyche, and Connors remains in prison willingly as he feels he deserves it for his actions as the Lizard.

Peter Parker (whose mind was trapped within Doctor Octopus' dying body) is freed from the Raft by Trapster, Hydro-Man, and Scorpion. Trapster offers to free the Lizard, but Connors declines. When Morbius the Living Vampire manages to escape his cell, the Lizard points out that he still has nowhere to go. For unknown reasons, Morbius then frees the Lizard.

The Lizard is seen back in his cell, being one of the few inmates left to be transported out of the decommissioned Raft. When Alistair Smythe attempts an escape from the Raft, he temporarily shuts down the Raft's power, letting the Lizard out of his cell. The Lizard protects J. Jonah Jameson from Scorpion, revealing that he has the mind of Curt Conners, and that he "will never let the monsters win again." Jameson defends the Lizard from the raft's warden, calling him a hero, and protesting the use of a restraining device, though the Lizard himself prefers to be cautious. During Smythe's final escape attempt, the Lizard is impaled through the shoulder, but survives.

As part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel event as part of the lead-up to the Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy storyline, Lizard is shown at the Andry Corrections Facility. He is escorted to the visitor's room and his restraints are removed. After the guards leave the visitor's room, Lizard meets the mysterious red-suited man where he claims to have met Curt Connors before. Lizard detects familiar scents accompanying the man, scents that can not be there, and warns him not to toy with the Lizard. The red-suited man replies that he is not the Lizard, inside he is Curt Connors, a model prisoner who saved Mayor J. Jonah Jameson and various civilians before, and is trapped in a monster's body. Lizard lashes out at him, demanding to know how can the people he is smelling be there. The man says that the Lizard has abilities he can use and if he escapes and joins him, he can give him anything. He snaps his fingers and Martha Connors and Billy Connors step forward where they are somehow alive. The red-suited man asks if they have a deal. The Lizard tearfully accepts his deal. It is revealed that the revived Martha Connors and Billy Connors are clones that red-suited man had gathered to grow clones with false memories that span all the way to their deaths. The Lizard and a depowered Electro are later sprung from Andry Corrections Facility by Rhino on the red-suited man's behalf. Lizard worked with Jackal on a procedure that would repower Electro. The first time it was interrupted, Lizard was present when Jackal summons a somehow-revived Francine appears in order to convince Maxwell to go through with it. The second time it was interrupted was when Martha Connors informed everyone present about a fire in Edmond, Oklahoma that neither of them was responsible for. While escaping from New U Technologies, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman of Earth-65 quickly incapacitate Lizard. When Doctor Octopus pulls a switch which activates the Carrion Virus in all of the clones and causes them to start rapidly decaying, Lizard sees that Martha Connors and Billy Connors are affected. During the ensuing battle, Lizard escapes with Martha and Billy as he vows to find a way to keep them from dying. In the sewers of San Francisco, Lizard has saved Martha and Billy Connors from the Carrion Virus by injecting them with the Lizard Formula, turning his wife and son into Lizards like him.

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 lizard. 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.

The Lizard has apparently "destroyed" the Curt Connors persona, but has subsequently begun to display some of Connors's human emotions. In contrast to his previously feral nature, he has also shown sufficient intellectual capabilities to replicate Connors' work for himself, although he is still hampered by his inability to fully comprehend human emotions.

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 wouldn't 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-creatures 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 had not appreciably grown up since the comics' stories of the 1960s. Billy's visible age also seemed to waver back and forth between approximately eight and thirteen years old, depending on the particular comic artist drawing the character.

Ultimate Marvel

The one comic storyline to date featuring the Ultimate Marvel universe version of Lizard appeared in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #10. The character has appeared in a few subsequent issues of Ultimate Spider-Man, but only in flashbacks and dream sequences. Lizard appears to be based on a basilisk lizard in design and has been presented as being less intelligent than the original Marvel iteration. Dr. Curt Connors is a noted geneticist who lost his right arm under unrevealed circumstances. He dedicated himself to finding a means of restoring lost limbs studying the regenerative capabilities of reptiles. However, after five years without major breakthroughs, his sponsors were on the verge of cutting his funding. Drowning his disappointment with alcohol, a drunken Conners injected himself with an experimental serum in a desperate attempt to achieve results. The serum regenerated his right arm, but also transformed Connors into an inhuman reptilian creature. Seeking refuge in the sewers, he became an urban legend dubbed "The Lizard" by the press. A sympathetic Spider-Man sought out Lizard who attacked the young hero until Man-Thing happened upon the scene and restored Conners to human form. Conners' restored right arm soon withered and died. However, his DNA remained irreparably damaged with dormant potential for further transformation. Connors cut himself off from his wife and son out of fear for their safety.

Dr. Connors also unintentionally created the Ultimate version of Carnage using DNA from Spider-Man and based on an analysis of his old friend Richard Parker's work on the Venom suit. Due to the ensuing chaos, he was arrested and Stark Industries canceled their financial support of his experiments, but his assistant Ben Reilly still had one sample of Spider-Man's DNA, setting the stage for the Ultimate Clone Saga. He was last seen in Ultimate Spider-Man #127, where Dr. Connors was pardoned and recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. where he and Tony Stark when the Triskellion was blown apart by the Norman Osborn during an escape.

Early details of the character's history match his 616 counterpart, with him studying reptiles to fix his arm (the cause of this has yet to be revealed), and the condition of him leaving his wife and son (Doris and Timmy) out of fear, thereby turning to alcoholism.

Howard the Human

During the Secret Wars storyline, the Battleworld domain of New Quack City has a version of Curt Connors in it. This Curt Connors is a tough, anthropomorphic lizard who is a bartender at a place that Howard the Human frequently visits.

Exiles

The reality-hopping heroic team, the Exiles, once found themselves on an alternate earth where Connors' experiment (in this world for a left arm rather than a right) had taken a different turn. Finding himself as the Lizard, Curt felt the need to "reproduce" by immediately injecting the Lizard-formula into other people. He infected his family and they infected others, all feeling the urge to spread the transformation into Lizard-men. The forces of this particular world eventually managed to restrain the infected reptile-people behind miles-long, man-made walls. When the Exiles visited this world, they discovered that Connors - having turned back into his human form a year ago - was intending to detonate a nuclear bomb in an abandoned submarine to wipe out the lizard race, but they were able to talk him down by arguing that the radioactive fallout would cause more damage, particularly since the lizards were now mere herbivores (albeit partly because of the absence of other kinds of meat). Grief-stricken over what had become of his life, Connors subsequently killed himself.

Marvel 1602

In this reality, Curtis Connors is a philosopher who was infected with the bubonic plague. He created an elixir that transformed him into a reptilian creature that resembled a Velociraptor, but retained his mind. He worked with Baron Victor Octavius to capture the Spider.

Marvel Noir

In the Marvel Noir reality, Curt Connors is an assistant to Dr. Otto Octavius. They operated in an abandoned hospital building on Ellis Island, where they secretly used kidnapped African-Americans as specimen subjects in turning them into mindless slaves. It is unknown what happened to Connors after federal authorities raided the hospital, though he was presumably arrested among Octavius' affiliates.

Marvel Zombies

In Marvel Zombies, the Lizard, like almost every other hero and villain, has become a zombie. This particular incarnation of the Lizard is apparently destroyed when he is blasted apart by several cosmic-powered heroes while fighting (and eating) Galactus.

MC2

The Connors Family appear in the first story of the Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man series, set in the MC2 universe. Mary Jane comforts a distraught Martha when Curt goes missing again, whilst Peter, now a parent to his infant daughter May ("Mayday"), is more hesitant than before to become Spider-Man. He is eventually encouraged by his wife to track down and prevent the Lizard's latest rampage.

Spider-Gwen

On Earth-65 where Gwen Stacy became Spider-Woman after being bitten by the spider, Peter Parker attempts to exact revenge on those who bullied him, becoming this universe's version of the Lizard. Gwen subdues him, but Peter ended up dying towards the end of the battle due to his use of the chemicals that transformed him. Spider-Woman is blamed for his death, causing an uproar for her arrest, led by J. Jonah Jameson, with Peter essentially becoming Gwen's Uncle Ben, serving as inspiration of the need to use her powers to help others.

It is later revealed that Curt Connors was a teacher at Gwen's high school and was studying Lizard genetics, possibly being involved in Peter's transformation into the Lizard and the recent sightings of multiple Lizard-people wreaking havoc on the city.

Marvel Age

Lizard's history is the same in this reality. Spider-Man went to Florida to investigate the "Lizard Man" sightings. Spider-Man meets Martha Connors and learns that Lizard is her husband Dr. Curt Connors. After making an antidote, Spider-Man ensnares Lizard and uses the antidote to restore him to Curt Connors. Peter Parker later told J. Jonah Jameson that the "Lizard Man" was a hoax.

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