The Amazing Spider-Man: Who Is The Lizard?

The Lizard

THERE MAY BE CONTENT BELOW THAT COULD BE SPOILERS FOR THE UPCOMING 'THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN'

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Doctor Curtis 'Curt' Connors is a gifted surgeon who first appeared in issue #6 of The Amazing Spider-man in 1963. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Doctor Connors and his alter-ego that came to be known as the Lizard have become mainstay characters in the long standing run several of the Spider-man series.

Originally from Coral Gables, Florida, Doctor Curt Connors became a gifted surgeon who eventually enlisted in the U.S. Amy and was sent off to war as a surgeon for the troops on the battlefields.  During one battle a bomb blast injured his arm, requiring the appendage to be amputated. When Connors was discharged from service and returned to civilian life he became a genetic researcher, becoming obsessed with trying to take reptilian DNA to regrow appendages in lab animals. Showing promise and success, Connors decided to inject himself with the serum in an effort to regenerate his own missing arm. Unfortunately, the major side-effect to the serum proved to be that Connors turned into a monstrous reptilian humanoid - The Lizard. Losing his mental faculties in place of a more aggressive primal instinct, Connors as the Lizard was eventually subdued by the Amazing Spider-man and returned to his natural form with a serum cure.

As Doctor Connors, the geneticist and surgeon has been an asset to both Peter Parker and his alter-ego Spider-man on many occasions, both assisting in combating several of Spider-man's villains with his scientific skills and even saving the life of life of Peter Parker's Aunt May. Unfortunately, the cure that was originally administered to reform Connors to human form was not permanent. Whenever Connors was overly stressed or came in contact with a combination of the chemicals that were ingredients in the original reptile formula, his would lose his command on his human form and revert to the seemingly unstoppable Lizard again. Each time the Lizard would make an appearance, Spider-man would have to battle him into submission to administer a modified version of the anti-formula to return Doctor Curt Connors to his original form.

Several of the Marvel Studios films have based their origin stories for their heroes on updated and modern variations or have pulled inspiration from the Marvel's Ultimate Universe. As an update, Tony Stark's capture was moved from the jungles of the Asia / Pacific Rim to the dry sands of the Middle East. As a nod to Marvel's Ultimates, Captain Steve Rogers awoke from his icy stasis in a hospital bed in New York City under SHIELD supervision versus found by the original Avengers in a submarine in the arctic. From The Amazing Spider-Man trailer, Peter's father and mother leave him in the care of his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. In the original series, the readers were never really given a reason as to why. But in modern tales, Peter's mother and father have taken on the roles of scientists and, possibly, spies. In the Ultimate Universe, Peter Parker knows that Connors and his father worked together on projects, trusting him when he was injured as Spider-man. Connors took DNA from Peter and inadvertently created the symbiotic evil force known as Carnage. Some of these story threads made find themselves into Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man.

The Lizard has many heightened abilities similar to that of a lizard or non-specific reptile. 

• Superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, stamina, and durability.
• A heightened healing factor.
• Hardened scale-like skin.
• Razor-sharp teeth and claws.
• Dangerous 6 foot long tail.
• Ferocious, bestial nature.

A personal favorite story arc from Marvel Comics came from Todd MacFarlane's launch of Spider-Man The Spider-man villain Calypso used magic to control the Lizard, reducing the creature to a mindless bestial state. In the first four or five issues of the series were filled with gorgeous artwork from MacFarlane, with battle after battle between Calypso, the Lizard and Spider-man. The wall crawler eventually defeated both villains and assumed that both had perished.

I will have to say that I feel bad that actor Dylan Baker, who played the one-armed Doctor Kurt Connors in both Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 never got his due to play one of Spider-Man's rogues in either of the films or the rumored 4th Sam Raimi film. Rhys Ifans is a phenomenal actor and will play Doctor Connors as well as he played the stalking friend opposite Daniel Craig in the 2004 Enduring Love, but who have to feel a little pity for Dylan for being the Spider-man villain who never got off the bench.