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| “ | That changing like the snake, I might be free to cast off flesh where I dwell confined. | „ |
| ~ Curt Connors before transforming. |
| “ | Trust me, Peter. When you try to change people, there are always consequences. | „ |
| ~ Curtis Connors to MCU Spider-Man. |
Dr. Curtis “Curt” Connors, also known as the Lizard, is the main antagonist of the 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man and a supporting character in the 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: No Way Home. He is a brilliant geneticist and is a mentor to Spider-Man. However he gets an accident which turns him into the Lizard and the main villain of them film. He wanted to use his research to help human life.
He was portrayed by Rhys Ifans.
History[]
The Amazing Spider-Man[]
Dr. Connors is first seen attempting to engineer a revolutionary regeneration serum to help re-grow limbs and human tissue. He worked with Richard Parker on the cross-species genetics theory, but when Richard disappeared, all seemed lost until Connors met Peter Parker, Richard's son.
Their first meeting occurred when Peter and his friends are having tour in OsCorp tower, where Peter learned that Connors is used to be a friend of his father. Later, Peter visited him again, where Connor thought that he came for autograph. Instead, Peter introduces himself as Richard Parker's son and gives Connors his father's "decay rate algorithm", the missing piece in Connors' experiments on regenerating limbs, which is especially important to Connors since he is missing his right arm.
Afterwards, with Peter's help, he managed to complete the formula and tries it on the guinea pigs, two white mouses named Fred and Wilma.
After his transformation, the next day at Oscorp, Connors finds Peter there, and Peter asks how a predator would catch a reptile. Connors tells him that they can't since most reptiles are predators at the top of their food chain. Connors then dismisses Peter telling him that he is working on a secret project, not knowing that Peter figured out that Connors is the Lizard after he finds that Fred has mutated into reptilian hybrid and has eaten Wilma. He then is pursued by Peter as Spider-Man and fought with him in the sewers. After the fight, Peter escapes injured. The Lizard, however, discovers that Peter is Spider-Man when he finds Peter's camera, that he intended to use to get a picture of him. Later that night, Connors begins thinking after learning Peter is Spider-Man, he takes the serum and decides not let Peter stop his plans.
The next day, The Lizard enters Peter's high school, Midtown Science High School, through the bathrooms. Then he enters the halls of the school, where almost everyone runs out of the building terrified. He then confronts Peter and tries to attack him, then explains how he make sure there are no more outcasts in the world, and there no need to stop him. Peter gets into his Spider-Man costume and tries to convince The Lizard to stop what he is doing, telling The Lizard it isn't him, but he does not listen. The two begin to fight in the school, before the Lizard manages to subdue Spider-Man. However, Gwen Stacy, Peter's girlfriend, helps Spider-Man by hitting the Lizard with a trophy. When The Lizard tries to attack her too, Spider-Man traps him in his webs. After Spider-Man gets Gwen to safety, The Lizard breaks free from the webs and then hears police sirens coming toward the school. After the two continue to fight in the school library, The Lizard overpowers Spider-Man and then escapes back into the sewers. After Peter follows him into the sewers and finds the underground lab, he learns from a video that Connors believes there is no perfect human being and that he plans to infect the city with the serum with the Ganali disbursement device from top of Oscorp Tower, and turn everyone into reptilian hybrids like him.
After The Lizard begins to walk towards Oscorp with the serum, he is confronted by members of the NYPD SWAT team who shoot him on sight. But The Lizard quickly heals and defeats the SWAT team members and infects them with the serum. He then begins continues toward to Oscorp, and infecting more people with the serum. Upon arriving at Oscorp, The Lizard begins climbing up the tower, then goes into his lab for the Ganali device, but he finds it missing. The Lizard then finds Gwen, who was making antidote for the serum, hiding with Ganali device. He then takes the device and Gwen uses a blowtorch to burn him but it does not affect him and The Lizard for the top of Oscorp Tower.
On top of Oscorp Tower, the Lizard and Spider-Man get into a fight. Lizard then chokes Spider-Man until Captain George Stacy arrives and shoots the Lizard multiple times, buying Spider-Man time to get free and retrieve the cure to Connors' mutagen from Stacy. The Lizard recovers and fatally wounds Stacy. He then attempts to stop Spider-Man stopping the Ganali device from unleashing his lizard formula but fails as Peter loads the antidote into the machine. Once exposed to the antidote, the Lizard transforms back into Connors, who saves Peter from falling off the building, and everyone who was infected with the serum reverts back to normal. Connors is then arrested.
During the credits of the film, Connors is incarcerated in the Beloit Psychiatric Hospital. He then meets a character credited as "The Man in the Shadows", asking him if Connors told Peter the truth about his father, Dr. Richard Parker. Connors replies "no" while the darkened figure says "Well, that's very good". Before returning to the credits of the film, Connors gives out his last words by stating "You should leave him alone!", prompting the mysterious man to somehow vanish from the cell, leaving Connors alone.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2[]
Connors doesn't appear in the film, but is mentioned a couple of times. Following Norman's death, Norman's son Harry takes over Norman's position as Oscorp's CEO. During a meeting at the Osborn Manor, Harry is informed by Donald Menken how Oscorp's reputation was nearly ruined in the wake of the Lizard's attack, leading the company to shut down every animal hybrid programs Connors was involved with to restore confidence among their investors, much to Harry's chagrin.
Harry later mentions the Lizard while taking a walk with Peter after spending many years away from him, musing how New York City had seen "giant lizards and spider guys" during his absence. Harry mentions Connors yet again when he tells Peter how he plans to request Spider-Man some of his blood so he can avoid his father's fate, leading Peter to warn him about the dangers and using Connors' transformation as an example, leading Harry to dismiss that danger by saying that Connors was weak.
Marvel Cinematic Universe[]
Spider-Man: No Way Home[]
During the year 2024 in an alternate universe (Earth-199999 ), after that universe's Peter Parker accidentally botches Doctor Strange's spell to make everyone forget his secret identity after being outed and framed by Mysterio, a past version of Connors from the time he was stuck as the Lizard (possibly around the time he discovered his Peter was Spiderman following their fight in the sewer), was transported to Earth-199999 by accident and ended up in the sewers under New York City, but he was almost immediately found by Doctor Strange who contained him in a cell underneath the Sanctum Sanctorum. There, meets up with an alternate version of Electro as well as alternate versions of Doctor Octopus and Sandman, who were displaced from another period of time before meeting with versions of Peter Parker who was native to the universes from which the other villains were displaced in. Like most of the others, the Lizard had no interest in being cured and instead wished to continue his plan to turn everyone into Lizard-people like himself. He eventually escaped thanks to the alternate Green Goblin.
During the final battle at the Statue of Liberty, the Lizard battled the three Spider-Men, one of whom is the Earth-120703 version of Peter, alongside the alternate Electro and Sandman. At one point, the Lizard spotted a portal accidentally left open by Ned Leeds and chased him and MJ around through it before Ned blasted him away using water from another portal. MJ threw the Earth-199999 Peter the cure that the Earth-120703 Peter created for Connors. Peter forced it into the Lizard's mouth, causing the bottle to break open when the Lizard bit down. The Lizard was surrounded by green gas and was cured, transforming back into a silently crying Dr. Connors. Peter welcomed him back and when the scaffolding collapsed, Connors was saved from falling to his death by the Earth-96283 version of Peter. He was subsequently returned to his own universe along with Max and the Earth-120703 Peter by Strange.
In the video game[]
In the 2012 video game, Dr. Connors is a supporting character, assisting Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy against the machinations of Alistair Smythe and his army of S-Bots in the wake of an outbreak of cross-species hybrid test subjects. Near the end of the game, Connors is forced to reinject himself with his serum and become the Lizard once more in order to fight against Smythe. However, due to the mental regression, the Lizard ends up being the final boss of the game. After his defeat, he reverts back to Connors, and willingly returns to his sentence.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- Max Dillon/Electro - Former Colleague and Situational Ally
- Peter Parker/Spider-Man - Friend, Former Enemy, Former Attempted Victim, Savior and Curer
- Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus
- Peter Parker/MCU Spider-Man - Temporary Enemy and Curer
- Michelle Jones - Temporary Enemy
- Ned Leeds - Temporary Enemy
- Flint Marko/Sandman - Situational Ally
- Norman Osborn/Green Goblin - Situational Ally
- MCU May Parker †
- Peter Parker/Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man - Temporary Enemy and Savior
Enemies[]
- Gwen Stacy † - Former Protégé
- Dr. Rajit Ratha † - Former Superior and Victim
- Captain George Stacy † - Attempted Killer and Victim
- Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange - Situational Enemy and Capturer
- Damage Control
- J. Jonah Jameson
Powers and Abilities[]
Artificially Enhanced Physiology: Connors transformed himself into a giant mutant lizard after experimenting with cross-species genetics; he harnessed the DNA of a lizard and transferred its capabilities to himself, granting him enhanced reptilian physical attributes.
- Superhuman Strength: Connors has remarkable superhuman strength, able to lift weight that no human ever could. He is able to tear through steel and metals effortlessly, and overpower multiple men with ease.
- Superhuman Durability: Connors' skin, bone, and muscle tissue are denser and tougher than ordinary humans.
- Superhuman Speed: Connors has the ability to travel at great speeds.
- Superhuman Agility: In his Lizard form, Connors possess a level of agility superior to humans.
- Superhuman Stamina: Connors can do intense physical activity for long periods of time without being fatigued.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Connors can coordinate his body with unnatural equilibrium, dexterity, and flexibility and his reflexes is capable of reacting much better than ordinary human beings.
- Enhanced Senses: Connors has superhuman senses. He is able to see farther than ordinary, and can smell humans scent from great distances.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: Connors can heal much quicker than even Spider-Man. He could heal from multiple gunshot wounds within a few seconds,
- Wall-Crawling: Connors uses his sharp claws to penetrate walls and crawl on them.
- Fangs: In his Lizard form, Connors has sharp and dangerous fangs.
- Claws: Connors's claws are extremely sharp and dangerous. He has the ability to climb up walls with them, and can penetrate dense objects.
- Tail: As the Lizard, Connors has a prehensile tail which he uses to smack his enemies.
Trivia[]
- The Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man is missing several key features that he usually has in the comics, such as a snout and torn clothes (usually a white lab coat and purple pants). Marc Webb has stated that Lizard lacks a snout because Rhys Ifans is using motion-capture to play the character, and he believes that Ifan's emotions would have been lost if a snout was present. The clothes were also removed to give the character a more realistic look. Though he is seen wearing a lab coat a few of times in the movie. The Lizard's appearance is also based off of the original Lizard design by Steve Ditko, which also lacked a snout.
- The concept of the Lizard in the film is an indirect nod to the character's incarnation in Spider-Man: The New Animated Series that too, lacked of clothing.
- This has also been slightly averted by The Lizard's return in Spider-Man: No Way Home where his facial features are slightly modified to appear more reptilian.
- The concept of the Lizard in the film is an indirect nod to the character's incarnation in Spider-Man: The New Animated Series that too, lacked of clothing.
- The Daily Bugle viral site confirms that Connors was found guilty.
- Actor Rhys Ifans described his character as a flawed character comparable to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Ifans described Connors as a force for good throughout his life: "He's a geneticist who wants to help people, like him, who are limbless. In his eagerness to advance that science, he makes a mistake and that's an occurrence we've seen throughout time, sometimes to our benefit, sometimes to our detriment." "...He is a broken man who wants to fix himself." These statement shows that much like his comic books counterpart, he developed a second, sinister personality that called The Lizard himself. This secondary personality was the one that whispered on Connors in the sewers when he already reverted into human form after discovering Peter's true identity as Spider-Man.
- Several scenes featuring Curt Connors/Lizard were cut from the final film. Two notable ones included scenes where Connors talks to his son (who is completely absent from the final film) and Lizard killing Dr. Ratha (who disappears after the bridge scene in the final film).
- It has not stated when Lizard was pulled from his universe in No Way Home, but due to him being found in the sewer by Doctor Strange, it is possible he was pulled while in the sewer around the time he discovered Peter was Spider-Man following their fight in the sewer.
- However, it could also be possible that he was pulled from his final showdown with Spider-Man which would explain why he has the regrown four fingers.
- The fact that the Lizard was present in the sewers under New York City is a reference to the famous urban legend of the alligators found in sewers under New York City.
Enemies[]
- Gwen Stacy † - Former Protégé
- Dr. Rajit Ratha † - Former Superior and Victim
- Captain George Stacy † - Attempted Killer and Victim
- Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange - Situational Enemy and Capturer
- Damage Control
- J. Jonah Jameson
External links[]
- Lizard at the Villains Wiki.
- Lizard on the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
- Lizard on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
- Lizard on the Spider-Man Films Wiki
[]
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