Lizard

"No! I mustn't tell him! No one can ever know. The cure worked. My brain--My mind's restored. And I know why I'm here... For the choices I've made. For Martha. For Billy. My name is Curt Connors. And this is my prison. My penance. My hell. And I deserve it."

- Dr. Curtis Connors, The Lizard

Curtis "Curt" Connors was born in Coral Gables, Florida. He was a gifted surgeon who enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent off to war. He performed emergency battlefield surgery on wounded GIs, but his right arm was injured in a blast and had to be amputated.[2][3] 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.[3] He successfully regrew the missing limb of a rabbit and then chose to test it on himself. Connors ingested the formula and his missing arm did indeed grow back. 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 the Bugle challenged him. Spider-Man was then able to use Connors' notes to create an antidote to restore him to his human form and mentality.[2] 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.[4] ater, 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.[5] 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 costume, but accidentally transformed himself into the Lizard due to exposure to the chemicals needed to create the formula and was restored by Spider-Man.[6] Connors was later kidnapped and forced to create a rejuvenation serum for Silvermane.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] Curt Connors later aided Spider-Man, Ka-Zar, and the Black Panther against Stegron.[10] After the apparent death of the Jackal, Dr. Connors determined that Spider-Man was not a clone.[11] Later, the Lizard battled with Stegron and Spider-Man after Stegron kidnapped Billy Connors.[12] 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.[13][14] 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.[15] 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.[16] However, mystical activity during the Inferno crisis once again brought the Lizard's bestial nature to the fore, and Spider-Man cured him again.[17]