Gauntlet Origins: Lizard

Several Years Ago[1]

The Man-Thing is drawn to an abandoned fort in the middle of the swamps of the Florida Everglades. It has been drawn to this area due to the empathic impressions left here from Spider-Man’s first battle with the Lizard. There are more than just emotional impressions left here, but also strong memories of someone who was once connected to Ted Sallis, the man the Man-Thing used to be.

Suddenly the muck monster is seeing visions of a war zone in Bagdad. Curt Connors was the field medic that was part of a team out looking for a missing patrol. Seeing an injured soldier, Curt leaped out of the transport before the soldiers can make sure the area is safe. When attempting to treat the injured man, Curt discovers that the man was booby trapped with an explosive just as it explodes. When Curt woke up in a Combat Support Hospital, he overheard Ted Sallis explaining how nano-scaffolding would theoretically work. When Connors understands what Ted is talking about, they talk about Curt’s educational background from the University of Florida. Ted is impressed and explains that he is part of a team trying to come up with the next generation of super-soldiers . Ted regrets that there is nothing he can do for Curt right now. That’s how Connors discovered that he lost his arm in the blast and begins screaming.

That’s when the Man-Thing snaps back to reality. Moments later, a number of mutated lizards leap out of the swamp to attack the muck monster. These creatures are under the control of the Lizard who, at first, thinks that the Man-Thing is another one of its creations. However, when the Lizard realizes that this is not the case, he orders his minions to attack the creature. The Lizard gloats over the fact that Spider-Man isn’t around to stop him from adding his newest serum to the swamps in order to create an army of beings like himself to overrun all mammals on Earth.

As the Man-Thing fights these monsters he has another flash of memory from years ago. Curt Connors had left the military to become a scientist to find a cure for his condition. Deciding to investigate the regenerative property of some animals, he bounced ideas over the phone with Ted Sallis. At the time, Curt was going to investigate the regenerative properties of the salamander until Ted suggested that he investigate lizards instead since their cellular structure was the proper synthesis. After fighting off the creatures, the Man-Thing gets a good look at the Lizard and his empathic senses detect a total lack of emotions and instinctively attacks the Lizard. The Lizard, at the same time, can smell that the Man-Thing isn’t one of the mammals he hates so much, but senses that there is something familiar about the creature and decides that it must be destroyed. As they two lock in combat, the Man-Thing has another flash of memory. This time it was of Ted Sallis and his with Ellen. After a conversation with Curt Connors, Ted had suggested that they relocate the Florida Everglades so Ted and Curt could be closer together and help each other with their work. It was later, that Ted discovered that his wife betrayed him to AIM. Fleeing for his life with his new super-soldier formula, Ted realized he had lost touch with Curt Connors and as he sped away wondered how his cellular regeneration experiments went. Ultimately, Ted crashed his car into the swamp, injecting himself with his formula before the final impact.

Ironically, their battle is taking place at the very spot where Ted Sallis crashed into the swamps and emerged as the Man-Thing. Finding the car in the muck, the Man-Thing uses it slam the Lizard back. That’s when two memories intersect together. The first, Ted Sallis being affected by something in the swamp. The other, from earlier, shows Spider-Man and the Lizard’s first battle that took place in the same spot where where Ted Sallis would later crash. At the scene were a number of overturned barrels in the swampy water, chemicals that later played their part in Ted Sallis’s transformation into the Man-Thing. By this point, the Lizard finally realizes he’s been fighting Ted Sallis. This realization causes part of his mammalian half resurface and make the Lizard feel fear and whoever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch. Touching the Lizard’s face, the Man-Thing seriously burns it causing the Lizard to retreat. Turning around, the Man-Thing sees the abandoned fort again and due to the empathic nature of his mind, the Man-Thing wonders if it has seen it before as though he didn’t just explore it moments earlier.

Recurring Characters

The Lizard, Man-Thing, Ellen Sallis (flashback)

Continuity Notes

1. Per the Marvel Chronology Project, the scene where the Man-Thing is exploring the scene of Spider-Man’s first battle with the Lizard takes place during the events of Giant-Size Spider-Man #5. With that in mind, here are the chronological placements for each part of the story:

   • The flashbacks of Spider-Man’s battle with the Lizard are from Amazing Spider-Man #6. This battle took place during “year one” of the modern age, putting it as happening 4 years prior to the Man-Thing’s discovery.

   • The flashback featuring Ted Sallis’ transformation into the Man-Thing is from Savage Tales #1. It takes place during “year three” of the Modern Age, placing it one year prior to the Man-Thing’s discovery.

   • As far as “several years”, this comparison is being made relative to stories that were published during the November 2009 until October 2013 publication cycle, or year thirteen. From that perspective the Man-Thing’s discover happened roughly nine years prior to the events of the Gauntlet story arc (Amazing Spider-Man #612-633)

   • From the perspective of the Gauntlet storyline, the flashbacks of Curt Connors losing his arm and bouncing ideas on Ted Sallis all happen prior to the Modern Age. However, their exact placement is unspecified. I’d say that this flashback takes place at least nineteen years prior to the Gauntlet, or six years prior to the start of the Modern Age.

Topical References

• Based on my assessment of time, presumably this story frames the Curt Connor’s military flashback to the early 90s around the end of Desert Storm and the successive American military operations in the region. Any suggestion of the sort should be considered topical.

Shed: Prologue

Curt Connors reflects on where his alter ego — the Lizard — comes from. He theorizes that the creature comes from the darkness before the dawn of man. In the biological soup in which all life was born. From the time of Earth’s earliest life, creatures that operated under the simple impulsive commands, to eat, to chase, to eat, to flee, to mate, and to kill. These impulsive drives that eventually evolved into the reptilian brain that helped the dinosaurs thrive during the Jurassic period. The reptilian brain that remained in the mind of early man as he asserted dominance over society. It was these instincts that led to early man to survive, but as humanity evolved into beings of intellect and self-awareness, these impulses became buried under rational thought.

The Lizard came to life thanks to the thousands of years of science that led to Curt Connors developing a formula in an attempt to regrow his most arm. He recalls his first transformation into the Lizard and how Spider-Man was there to stop him. At the time, the reptilian brain took full control while the personality of Curt Connors sought refuge in the neo-cortex of the brain.

Years later, Connors took a job at Phelcorp for a position that would exploit the reptile brain with drugs. When he first started working, he would have lunch alone and suddenly feel anxiety whenever people got close to his food. Soon that evolved into Curt becoming territorial over his work space. Suspecting something is wrong, Connors then got a CAT scan. To his horror his R-Complex is swollen which could only mean one thing: The Lizard wants out.

He later went to child services to see if they will allow him to see his son, Billy. Unfortunately, Billy has been having nightmares and drawing pictures of himself being attacked by the Lizard. He is told that they will review visitation rights. As Curt leaves the office, he wonders if everyone can tell that the Lizard doesn’t want to raise his young. Returning to work he wonders if his boss knows the Lizard wishes to rip him apart, or if Marissa — a co-worker — knows the Lizard wishes to mate with him. He concludes that only he knows this and after they leave for the day, Curt begins working on a new formula, deciding that it’s time to finally let the Lizard free.

This story continues in Amazing Spider-Man #630…

Recurring Characters

Curt Connors

Curt Connors Timeline

This story gives a look back at the wartime injury that took Curt Connor’s arm. My assessment of time is that Curt’s flashback takes place at least sixteen years prior to the start of the Modern Age in Fantastic Four #1. I come to that assessment via a number of factors when examining relevant facts and measure them up to the Sliding Timescale and comparing the topical references against the date of publication to find the best match.

The primary basis of my measurement is based on the age of Curt’s son, Billy Connors. The first time Billy’s age is listed was in Sensational Spider-Man #24, which stated at the time that Billy was 12 years old. That story was published in 1998 placing it in “year 10” of the Modern Age. Based on that, publications (such as this issue) are placed in year 13. That would make Billy roughly 15 years old around the Gauntlet story arc. That would make Billy about 2 years old when he first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #6.

Flashbacks to the period when Curt lost his arm (this issue as well as Spectacular Spider-Man #238, Spider-Man Unlimited (vol. 3) #15, and Amazing Spider-Man #313 all confirm that Billy was not born until after Curt lost his arm. According to this website, it takes about a year to 18 months for an amputation to heal. My assumption is that Curt and Martha Connors waited until Curt’s amputation fully healed. If Billy was 2 during his first opinion, and assuming that Curt and Martha started a family immediately after his arm was healed that would be three years. However, I suspect that it would have been longer than that because you also have to consider that there would be a significant period of time where Curt began the research that led to the creation of the formula that turned him into the Lizard. There’s not way a scientist (no matter how good) could pull a formula like that over the course of a year.

So where do I get six years prior to the start of the Modern Age? I compare the topical references to the year the comic book was published and make an assessment that way. This story depicts Curt operating as a field medic in Baghdad, Iraq. This comic book was published in 2010. The closest period in time where US soldiers could have been in Baghdad, relative to the years prior to BIlly Connors being born was the Gulf War which took place in 1990-1991. 2010 - 1991 = 19 years ago.