The Lizard (Dr. Curtis "Curt" Connors) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #6 (November 1963) as an enemy of the superhero Spider-Man. The Lizard is primarily depicted as a villainous alternate personality of Connors, who takes over his mind and evolves after each transformation, slowly becoming the predominant personality. Despite this, the Lizard has also been portrayed as an antihero and ally of Spider-Man in various instances. Connors is sometimes an ally of Spider-Man just as himself, and not necessarily as his alter ego. He is also the husband of Martha Connors, and the father of Billy Connors. In the comics, Curt Connors is a geneticist who researched the ability of certain reptiles to regrow missing limbs, and developed a serum that would allow humans to do the same, using lizard DNA as the basis. However, when he decided to test it on himself, hoping to regenerate his missing right arm, he transformed into a feral anthropomorphic lizard. While Spider-Man was able to restore him back to normal, the Lizard remained part of Connors' subconscious, and would be unleashed time and time again to wreak more havoc and try to establish himself as the dominant personality. The Lizard's general goal is to replace the world's population with creatures like himself, while Connors attempts to keep his reptilian alter ego under control and find a way to be rid of him for good; in some reinterpretations, Connors is able to control his transformation, and only uses the Lizard as an excuse to commit heinous crimes himself. The character has appeared in numerous Spider-Man adaptations, including films, animated series, and video games. Curt Connors was portrayed by Dylan Baker in 2004's Spider-Man 2 and 2007's Spider-Man 3, and his Lizard alter-ego was portrayed by Rhys Ifans in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man. In 2009, The Lizard was ranked IGN's 62nd Greatest Comic Villain of All Time.
