Curtis Connors (Earth-1600)

"All these souls, lost and alone, I can save them! I can cure them! There's no need to stop me, Peter!"

- The Lizard Dr. Curtis Connors (a.k.a. the Lizard) is a biologist and a former scientist of Oscorp. He lost his arm due to an explosion while conducting an experiment at Oscorp and lost his job afterwards. He devoted himself into making a serum that could regrow missing limbs based on reptilian DNA, but secretly to regrow his own arm. This transforms him into a giant, humanoid lizard.

Early Life
Curt was born into an abusive, dysfunctional family in Florida. His stepfather showed no regard for him and his interest in science and viewed his accomplishments with contempt. When Curt was a teen, his stepfather began to become violent on both him and his mother due to Curt's genius interferring with his down time. His mother was more supportive towards Curt and constantly tried to make peace between the two, but things took a drastic turn when Curt stood up to his father in an argument and he finally beat him up in self-defense, resulting in him moving out of the family household before graduating high school.

Oscorp
After getting a dectorate in animal science at college, he began working at Oscorp as a scientist. He met fellow scientist Richard Parker and they worked together to create a revolutionary way to cure human amputation through cross-species genetics, which Connors writes a book about. During this time, Curt loses his arm in a lab explosion and is forced to lose his job for his own safety, but learns how to work with his left arm easily. When Richard leaves for unknown reasons, Curt is left to finish his work, while also trying to find a way to regrow his arm. This leads him into becoming extremely depressed, with only his family to support him, and ignoring other brilliant scientists from hearing about their work, like Miles Warren, an expert in cloning.

Becoming the Lizard
Connors meets Peter Parker for the first time while he's touring through the campus of Empire State University, and asks for his help in correcting his lizard formula. He tests it on himself to see if it really works. The serum successfully regrows his missing arm, but then it slowly turns him into a giant lizard. He goes through the city with his newfound speed to get to Oscorp but is stopped by Spider-Man and escapes to the sewers. Spider-Man goes after him to take pictures of him, but a fight ensures and is forced to leave it behind. The camera shows the Lizard that Peter is Spider-Man and goes to his school to confront him. His left behind coat in the bathroom shows Peter that Curt is the Lizard goes into the sewers for an ultimate battle. Now in a more beastal form, the Lizard proves too much for Spidey until he tricks him into drinking a genetic cleanser he brought along, turning him back into a human temporarily. Curt is then hospitalized, relieved that there was no proof of the Lizard's secret identity.