Lizard (comics)
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Template:Superherobox Template:Otheruses3 The Lizard is a comic book supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe, and an enemy of Spider-Man (however in his normal human state, he is an ally of Spider-Man). He first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #6 (November 1963), and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
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Character biography
The Lizard is the alter-ego of Dr. Curt Connors, a human scientist whose fields of expertise encompass both herpetology and gene therapy.
Connors' right arm had been amputated as a result of a war injury while he served as a medic in the military, and he later hoped to find a way to regenerate the lost or damaged limbs of disabled people. To this end, he studied the regenerative nature of reptiles and amphibians. He developed a radically advanced form of therapy which could reproduce these regenerative abilities in humans and began to use this therapy in experiments. Unfortunately, Connors was contaminated by his own serum and physically transformed into a bipedal, sapient reptilian humanoid.
As The Lizard, Connors became a threat to humanity, with an insane determination to replace the human race with super-reptiles like himself. The Lizard possesses superhuman strength and durability due to his alligator-like hide. His regenerative powers give him incredible stamina, and he can fight for days without tiring. His tail is strong enough to cut Spider-Man's webbing and smash through solid concrete. The Lizard possesses the ability to scale walls like a gecko. He is also able to communicate with and control any reptiles within a one-mile radius, usually giving them simple commands such as attacking or guarding something. Although usually intelligent and capable of speech, the Lizard has several times reverted to a mindless, bestial savage state.
Image:Asm6 changing.jpg Eventually defeated by Spider-Man and returned to his benevolent human self, Connors still transforms back into the evil Lizard to plague the web-slinger every now and then. Although repeated administration of the "Lizard formula" was originally required to change Connors into the Lizard, it was later revealed that great stress can also trigger the transformation. On several occasions the Lizard has retained the mind of Curt Connors and refrained from attacking Spider-Man or other people, but on the whole the Lizard can only be regarded as villainous in nature.
When Connors' Lizard form is dormant, the scientist often helps Spider-Man in the event of serious medical or scientific problems. Even in his Lizard state he doesn't attack anyone he truly cares for, such as his wife Martha and their son Billy. After years of trying to cope with her husband's split personality, Martha Connors died of cancer caused by exposure to industrial toxic waste. Now Curt has the added guilt and stress of single parenthood while still fighting to control the monster within himself.
Powers and abilities
Doctor Curt Connors has no superhuman powers. His superhuman powers do not manifest unless he transforms into the Lizard. However, he is highly intelligent and studied in the fields of genetics and herpetology.
When he is transformed into the Lizard, his strength, speed, agility, and reflexes are equivalent to Spider-Man's. He can also scale walls like Spider-Man. However, he possesses other powers and weaknesses secondary to his reptilian form. He is highly resistant to injury due to his thick hide and he can regenerate from greivous wounds including lost limbs. He also has a powerful tail which he can whip at high speeds. Like a reptile, he is cold-blooded, and grows weaker if he is exposed to low temperatures for too long.
He can also control all reptiles within a mile of himself via telepathy, and can release powerful pheromones which cause humans to behave violently.
The Lizard's intelligence varies from nearly mindless or animalistic to average human intelligence. He most often has human intelligence.
Controversy
In a 2004 story arc written by Paul Jenkins in the Spectacular Spider-Man comic book, it was revealed that the Lizard persona was not a mindless, uncontrollable beast after all - Dr. Connors had been consciously controlling his reptilian alter ego all along. Furthermore, Connors also knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man, despite this revelation never being explained as to when and how the secret identity was discovered. The story ended with Dr. Connors deliberately getting sent to prison and threatening to once again unleash the Lizard on the world sooner or later.
Given the sheer amount of source material this storyline conflicts and the plot holes it introduces, most fans do not consider it a part of mainstream Spider-Man continuity. The Lizard's next appearance after this was as a member of the Sinister Twelve, where he showed no indication of either knowing Spider-Man's identity or being controlled by the mind of Dr. Connors. It seems likely that this story will be mostly ignored by future writers of Lizard stories.
One fan theory (found here in the section titled "A Lizard by any Other Name") posits that Connors possessed this control only briefly, due to exposure to the same toxic waste that led to his wife's death. Further, Spider-Man may have revealed his identity to Connors at some currently unknown point to help him deal with his grief.
In other media
Animated series
The Lizard has appeared in several of the Spider-Man animated television series over the years. The original 1967 Spider-Man cartoon featured the Lizard in the episode "Where Crawls the Lizard." The character appeared again later on in the 1981 Spider-Man cartoon series episode "Lizards, Lizards Everywhere."
Possibly the most notable of the Lizard's animated appearances was in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, in the 1994 premiere episode "Night of the Lizard". Here, the Lizard was portrayed as possessing a genius level of intelligence but also having the savage mindset from the comics. The Lizard later went on to appear in the episodes "The Tablet of Time", "The Ravages of Time", "The Final Nightmare" and "The Lizard King", as well as the "Secret Wars" 3-part episode from the end of the series' run in 1997. The non-mutated Dr. Curt Connors had many other appearances as a supporting character, including the episodes "The Alien Costume, part 2", "The Insidious Six", "Venom Returns", "Carnage", "The Spot", and "Partners". Dr. Connors and the Lizard were both voiced throughout this series by Joseph Campanella.
The most recent animated appearance of the Lizard was in the "Law of the Jungle" episode of MTV's Spider-Man: The New Animated Series in 2003. Both Dr. Connors and the Lizard were voiced here by rock musician/filmmaker Rob Zombie. While the end of the episode implies that the Lizard dies from falling off a helicopter onto the city streets below, his fate is still left fairly ambiguous.
Video game appearances
The Lizard's first video game appearance was in the 1991 Sega Spider-Man arcade game, one of several popular side-scrolling team fighter games of the time. Other Sega Spider-Man games later released for the Sega Genesis home console during the 1990's also featured the Lizard as part of their villain lineups.
The first Spider-Man 3-D environment video game by Neversoft also included the Lizard. This game was released in 2000 for multiple game platforms, including PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast, and PC.
Although the Lizard has also appeared in several handheld console Spider-Man games, he has not had much of a role in the more recent home console games. Dr. Connors made a minor appearance in Activision's 2004 Spider-Man 2 game, but not the Lizard himself. Originally the Lizard was supposed to have been included in this particular video game, and was even prominently featured in some promotional materials before being suddenly removed. At the time there was speculation that the character had been removed from the game because he was being considered for use in the future Spider-Man 3 film, but this has not been proven.
Live action feature films
Dr. Connors was mentioned briefly in the 2002 film Spider-Man, and appeared in the 2004 sequel Spider-Man 2, where he was played by actor Dylan Baker. Director Sam Raimi had reportedly considered his friend, B-movie legend Bruce Campbell for the role of Dr. Connors, but decided against it since Campbell appeared in the first movie as a wrestling announcer. So far Dr. Connors has not become the Lizard in this franchise, and whether he will in any future film is presently uncertain. In Spider-Man 2, however, he is missing his right arm as in the comic book. He is depicted as a college professor concerned for Peter Parker's well-being and declining academic performance and considers Peter brilliant. The possibility of the Lizard appearing as the villain in Spider-Man 3 was once considered high given Connors' introduction in Spider-Man 2, but is now considered unlikely given that two different actors, Thomas Haden Church (Sandman) and Topher Grace, have been cast for Spider-Man 3's villains. It was rumored for a time that Church might have been cast to replace Baker in the role of Dr. Connors, but Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad eventually confirmed that Baker would indeed be returning for Spider-Man 3 to reprise the Connors role.
Ultimate Lizard
Image:Lizard ultimate.jpg In the Ultimate Marvel universe, in addition to becoming the Lizard, Dr. Curt Conners (note different spelling of the last name) created the Ultimate version of the supervillian Carnage using DNA from both himself and Spider-Man.
The Ultimate universe version of the Lizard first appeared in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up # 10, and appears to be based on a basilisk lizard in design. Ultimate Lizard has so far appeared less intelligent than the original Marvel universe Lizard.