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Attributes

Height: (As Connors) 5' 11" (As Lizard) 6' 8"

Weight: (As Connors) 175 lbs (As Lizard) 550 lbs

Eyes: (As Connors) Blue (As Lizard) Red

Hair: (As Connors) Brown (As Lizard) None

Features: Green and ugly.

Summary

Created By: Stan Lee, Steve Ditko

Real Name: Dr. Curtis Connors

Current Aliases: None

Former Aliases: None

Dual Identity: Publically secret, though known by many.

Current Occupation: Mutant lizard

Former Occupation: Geneticist

Citizenship: USA

Legal Status: United States Citizen with a criminal record

Place of Birth: Coral Gables, Florida

Marital Status: Widower

Known Relatives: Martha (wife, deceased), Billy (son), cloned Lizard, unnamed sister

Known Confidants: Spider-Man

Known Allies: Spider-Man, Calypso, Stegron

Major Enemies: Spider-Man, Calypso, Stegron, Morbius, Human Torch, Cloned Lizard, Iguana

Usual Bases: The New York Sewers or The Florida Everglades

Former Bases: Florida, and Empire State University

Current Groups: None

Former Groups: The Sinister Twelve

Education: Doctorate

Powers & Paraphenalia

Strength Level: Average (As Connors) Superhuman (As Lizard)

Powers: (As Lizard) Extraordinary climbing abilities. Great speed and strength. Highly resistant scaled skin. Excretes a pheromone that turn people violent.

Abilities: Ability to summon reptiles through a pseudo-telepathy.

Equipment: None

Weapons: Claws and teeth, plus a powerful and agile tail.

Limitations: Vulnerable to cold, and presumably afraid of fire. Uncertain mental state, due to the two identities constantly struggling for control. Strong affection for his family, even as the 'fleshie-hating' Lizard.

Background

Spider-Man learned about a giant man lizard in Florida from J. Jonah Jameson and traveled to Florida with the newspaper man, helping the doctor by using Connors' notes to invent a serum to cure him. Despite the Lizard being Spider-Man's enemy, Dr Connors has helped both Spider-Man and Peter Parker. Connors was able to repay Spider-Man by developing a formula to save May Parker's life after Peter Parker gave his aunt his radioactive blood poisoning during a transfusion. After he helped cure Aunt May, Connors let Spidey use his labs for his own purposes, such as when Spencer Smythe used police security cameras to spy on the city and managed to see an unmasked Spider-Man. Connors has also helped cure similarly afflicted people, such as Jimmy Santini (Batwing) and John Jameson (Man-Wolf).

For a time, Peter Parker worked as a teaching assistant to Connors. The success of Connors apparent cure from the Lizard personae was short-lived. A repeating pattern occurred: stress or a chemical reaction turned Connors into the Lizard (such as when Connors encountered Morbius about to devour Spider-Man at his Long Island home), Spider-Man would fight him, form some kind of temporary cure to revert the transformation, until the next transformation would begin the cycle again.

Over time, it became apparent that a second personality had formed with the Lizard, one with the neigh impossible goal shared by many villains of taking over the world. Eventually his resorts to using an army of lizards stopped and he began working alone. Curt tried to go back to using his original plan of helping humanity by researching reptiles ability to re-grow limbs. His research resulted in a new reptile menace: the Iguana.

When his wife and son separated from him (due to the martial strain transforming into a Lizard may cause), Connors tried unsuccessfully to straighten up. In despair, The Lizard took control, though it had a weak mental strength, causing the voodoo from Calypso to effect him for her own purposes. After a series of bloody battles, the Lizard and Calypso were defeated by Spider-Man, causing the Lizard to gain control of his mind, though it was so weak, the suppressed Connors persona carried out a plan and cured himself... but only temporarily.

For a time, a huge animalistic Lizard appeared, showing up in many issues (even in Malibu Comics' Prime Issue #Infinity), causing everyone to believe the Lizard persona was now permanent. However, when this second Lizard went after Connors, Curt drank the old serum to become the true Lizard once again, and saved his son's life. The original Lizard returned and killed the second beast, though it also brought the Lizard persona back into action. Later, it was discovered that this new Lizard was an accident from Connors' latest attempt to cure himself. A new formula was tested on a piece of the Lizard's tail, which grew into a fully-formed second creature. Eventually, Curt and his wife reunited.

One of the Lizard's latest scheme to take over the world had him affecting the Miami water supply to turn everyone into his mindless slaves. He first infused the Lizard serum into Miami's street drugs, which turned its users into semi-Lizard slaves. After Connors' son, Billy, almost became one of these zombies, Spider-Man lashed out and attacked the Lizard. After Martha got her share of words in, the Lizard became Connors once again, now begging for help for a cure.

Though reunited with his family, and his missing arm restored by Hammerhead, tragedy struck again in the Connors family - this time, for Martha and Billy. Both mother and son were diagnosed with cancer after years exposed to carcinogens from living near an industrial lab of the Monnano Corporation in Florida. Adding to the tragedy, Curt's new arm degenerated and became useless. Spider-Man assisted Curt against the corporation's assassin, Yith, and successfully forced the Monnano Corp. to admit their environmental culpability. However, Martha succumbed to the cancer. Billy survived, and remains bitter towards his father.

With Billy cared for by Curt's sister, a darker, mentally shaky Connors recently revealed a horrible truth to Spider-Man. Curt had returned to New York in search of a research grant. But when the grant was awarded to another scientist named Eric Richardson, Connors blew up the laboratory, and left his rival badly injured. The Lizard was seen leaving the lab, but Connors plead his innocence to Spidey, who believed his friend. Curt allowed Spider- Man to lock him inside an abandoned vault in the sewers for everyone's safety. Meanwhile, the Daily Bugle obtained a videotape of the transformation, and publicly exposed the truth that the Lizard is the result of a transformation.

Spider-Man went to discuss the latest news with Connors in the vault, but the Lizard persona broke free again. Now, Spider-Man learned the truth - Connors admits he had been lying for a long time - he had been in control of the Lizard for some time, and was using his transformation as an escape mechanism to do horrible things. As Curt told Spider-Man, its hard to feel pain and guilt when your brain is the size of a walnut. The Lizard escaped, battering Spider-Man into unconsciousness. After confronting Billy, the Lizard was shaken-up. As Connors, he allowed himself to be easily arrested for a bank robbery and locked up to protect those he loves.

The Green Goblin (Norman Osborn) recently freed the Lizard from prison, and brokered a deal for the creature to join the very short lived Sinister Twelve. The Twelve failed in an attack against Spider-Man and the Black Cat, after the two broke Osborn out of prison. They were defeated by the assistance of the Fantastic Four and other super-powered allies of Spidey.

The Lizard was last seen as a pawn of Vincent Stegron. The Dinosaur Man had found a crystal in the arctic that could bring out a human's inner animal and he used it to make New York into a prehistoric tropical jungle. The crystal also effected the Vulture, Puma, Black Cat, Vermin and Man- Wolf.

Thanks To:

The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.

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