Lizard (Marvel)

The Lizard is a monstrous reptilian supervillain from the Marvel comic book series of Spider-Man. Originally, he was a biologist who was one of Peter Parker's college professors, '''Dr. Curtis "Curt" Connors'''. Connors became the Lizard after injecting himself with reconstructed lizard DNA to regrow his right arm, which he lost in war. The arm grew back, but Connors was also mutated into a savage man-lizard, with bulletproof scaly skin, wall-crawling abilities, superhuman strength, agility, and durability, and the power to telepathically control any reptile within a two mile radius of him. He is also extremely uncontrollable, obstreperous, and unstable, due to the Lizard transformation.

In his Lizard persona, he wants to create an army of super-reptiles and take over the world by destroying all mammals - including humans. He is one of Spider-Man's few villains that can physically overpower him in every way.

One of the only ways that Spider-Man can defeat the Lizard is by forcibly giving him a "gene cleanser" antidote, which transforms him back into a human. But even the antidote can never erase the Lizard from the good doctor's subconscious forever, and under times of great stress, the monster would come out again.

Later, the Lizard gained the ability to emit phonemes that would bring out the "primitive" part of a victim's brain and make them go into an animal-like state of mind; cowering, running, and acting like hunted prey.

Much like the Hulk, Lizard's intelligence has varied, as sometimes he retains Connors' brilliant intellect, and is able to perform scientific experiments as the Lizard.

Recently the Lizard killed Dr. Conners's son, Billy, and that finally made Conners snap. His Lizard persona is now in complete control, and continues in his quest for the extinction of humans.

The Lizard was created by Stan Lee and the late Steve Ditko.

Appearances in other media
The Lizard has appeared in several Spider-Man TV shows and video games. His alter-ego, Dr. Conners, appeared briefly in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3, played by Dylan Baker. It was planned that he would become the Lizard in Spider-Man 4, before it was canceled. In Spider-Man: The Animated Series, he was voiced by the late Joseph Campanella.

Movies
The Lizard is, however, the main antagonist for the 2012 reboot movie, The Amazing Spider-Man, played by Rhys Ifans. In this version, Dr. Connors is a biologist for Oscorp and a former partner of Richard Parker where they worked on combining desirable physical attributes of animals with humans to improve health, including restoring his own amputated right arm. Richard's son Peter starts a friendship with him after the boy finds his father's notes that contain a critical equation to make a critical breakthrough. When the representative of Norman Osborn named Dr. Ratha Ratha fires Connors after he refuses to rush into human trials, Connors experiments on himself and finds he has regenerated his arm. Learning that Dr. Ratha is on his way to the VA hospital, Connors goes to intercept him, but it quickly becomes apparent that his "cure" is doing more than was intended as his skin grows scaly and claws sprout from his fingers. By the time he gets to the traffic-jammed Williamsburg Bridge, Connors has transformed a superhumanly strong humanoid lizard where he tossed some cars (including Dr. Ratha's car) over the side. Spider-Man saves each fallen car with the biocable "web" that he fires from devices he built on his wrists. The Lizard escapes into the sewers and transforms back into Connors, but it's clear that the chemicals have affected his mind, creating an obsession with his new abilities and seeing it as "perfection". He continues to further experiment on himself in an makeshift lab. Spider-Man, who has come to suspect Connors as being the creature who attacked the bridge, confronts the Lizard in the sewers, barely escaping alive, and Lizard learns Spider-Man's real identity. He attacks Peter at school. The Lizard then develops a plan to make all humans lizard-like, starting with the release of a chemical cloud from Oscorp's tower. The police hunt both Spider-Man and the Lizard. Spider-Man eventually disperses an antidote cloud restoring Connors and his victims to normal. A once again sane Connors then proceeds to save Spider-Man from falling from a building using what's left of his quickly dissipating lizard strength. Afterwards, he is arrested for his crimes. In a scene during the end credits, Connors (who has been placed in Beloit Psychiatric Hospital) appears to speak with a mysterious man who asks if Connors told Peter the truth about his father. Connors replies "No" and demands that he leaves Peter alone. The man then mysteriously vanishes.

Trivia

 * Dylan Baker plays Curt Connors in the Sam Raimi trilogy, appearing in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 (the character was also mentioned in the first film). He was considered to become the Lizard in the fourth film until it was cancelled in favor for a reboot. However in the Spider-Man 3 videogame, Curt does become the Lizard and is a boss.