Appearing in "Night of the Lizard"
Featured Characters:
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Daily Bugle (First appearance)
- J. Jonah Jameson (First appearance)
- Joe Robertson (First appearance)
- Eddie Brock (First appearance)
- Aunt May Parker (First appearance)
- Deb Whitman (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- The Lizard (Curt Connors) (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Other Characters:
- Emilio's Ristorante owner
- Thugs outside Emilio's Ristorante
- Subway repairmen
- John (First appearance)
- Ray (First appearance)
- New York City Police Department (First appearance)
- Detective at Connor's home
- Jeanie (First appearance) (Bugle employee)
- Margaret Connors (First appearance)
- Billy Connors (First appearance)
- Thing (Mentioned)
- Hulk (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth-TRN566
- Earth
- United States of America
- New York
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Emilio's Ristorante (First appearance) (candy store)
- Downtown Subway (First appearance)
- Daily Bugle Building (First appearance)
- Empire State University (First appearance)
- Library (Mentioned)
- Administration Building (First appearance)
- 59th Street Bridge
- Manhattan
- Curt Connors' Home (First appearance)
- Sewer
- New York City
- New York
- United States of America
- Moon
- Earth
Items:
- Spider-Man's Suit (First appearance)
- Spider-Man's Web-Shooters (First appearance)
- Spider-Man's Camera (First appearance)
- Neogenic Recombinator (Main story and flashback) (First appearance)
Vehicles:
- Subway repairmen's van
- Traffic
- Police cars
Synopsis for "Night of the Lizard"
Spider-Man foils the attempted robbery of a candy store by three armed thugs, telling the owner to contact the police after he neutralizes the crooks. Meanwhile, two subway repairmen are attacked by a reptilian creature, escaping above ground after one throws his flashlight at the creature. Spider-Man encounters the terrified men as they flee in their van, using his web to stop the dangerously driven vehicle, before leaving its occupants for the police.
At the Daily Bugle, Joe Robertson tells Peter Parker of a giant lizard terrorizing New York City, and J. Jonah Jameson informs Peter and Eddie Brock that he is offering $1000 to anyone who can get a picture of the creature. After Aunt May phones Peter to remind him of his study date with Deb Whitman, he decides to investigate the Lizard story and obtain the reward money to support his aunt.
Before meeting Deb at the library at Empire State University, Peter plans to visit the office of Dr. Curt Connors, an expert in reptile mutagenics. Deb catches up to Peter, and the two visit the office together, only to encounter the Lizard there, with Connors nowhere to be found. Peter and Deb both help each other fend off the creature's attack, until it flees the building by smashing through a window. A security guard arrives shortly thereafter and Peter leaves Deb to pursue the Lizard as Spider-Man.
Hoping to find a lead on the Lizard, Spider-Man visits Connor's home, where his wife Margaret tells him that Curt himself is the Lizard; he was transformed after attempting to re-grow his lost arm with the 'Neogenic Recombinator'. Distracted by Eddie Brock outside the window, Spider-Man is attacked by the Lizard inside the house, and momentarily subdued. The Lizard then kidnaps his wife and son Billy, knocking over Brock as he flees into the sewer. As Spider-Man follows them, Brock is stopped by the police outside the Connors' home, suspecting him of being a burglar.
In the sewer, Curt tells Margaret that he plans to use the Neogenic Recombinator to transform everyone in New York into reptilian creatures like him, in order to create a new super race where everyone would be able to heal any wound or replace any lost limb. Having overheard his plan, and taken a photograph of the Lizard for Jameson, Spider-Man attacks. As they fight, Spider-Man steals the Recombinator, but the Lizard causes them to plunge into the water. In the ensuing struggle, Spider-Man manages to use the Recombinator to transform Curt safely back to his human form.
Later, the Connors' clear up matters with the police outside their home, claiming ignorance to anything unusual having happened. Jameson arrives on the scene to vouch for Brock with the police and to reprimand him for his overeagerness in chasing the Lizard story. Satisfied that the Connors are safe, Spider-Man hopes to never see the Lizard again, then suddenly remembers having abandoned Deb at ESU to deal with police there, chalking it up to another "normal" day in his life.
Notes
- This issue adapts "Night of the Lizard", the first episode of Spider-Man (1994 animated series). Spider-Man Adventures would continue to adapt the rest of the Season 1 episodes, then switch to all-new stories for the rest of the run (and its subsequent replacement title Adventures of Spider-Man.) The all-new stories would ignore what the cartoon was doing from then on.
- In the TV episode, Eddie Brock learns that Curt Connors is the Lizard (by eavesdropping on Spider-Man and Margaret Connors'), but could not prove it to J. Jonah Jameson. In this issue, Brock only witnesses the Lizard attacking Spider-Man and abducting the Connors, yet doesn't make the connection. Brock also gets in trouble, not for wasting Jameson's time with a story he couldn't prove (as in the show), but instead is arrested for being a suspect of the disturbances near Connors' neighborhood (that were actually caused by the Lizard). This is one of many instances where Earth-TRN566 diverges from Earth-92131.
- Other differences from the TV episode include:
- the subway repairmen having different names and appearances, and both escaping the Lizard's attack;
- Deb Whitman fighting back against the Lizard in Connors' office at ESU, with Peter then abandoning her to pursue the creature;
- The Lizard not only taking his wife into the sewer, but his son Billy too.
- Alex Saviuk's art style for this issue and the next four issues are closer to the comic book style. However, this changes with the sixth issue, where Saviuk's style is more simplified to a more cartoon look (presumably to make it closer to the cartoon's style).
Trivia
- Curt Connors name is given as "Conners" on one occasion; conversely, the TV episode mostly uses the latter spelling.
- While following the Lizard's trail of destruction, Spider-Man comments on how a damaged sewer cover looked like it had been in the middle of a fight between the Thing and the Hulk.