Billy Connors (character)

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Billy Connors
William Conners (Earth-616) from Amazing Spider-Man Vol 5 16 001.jpg
Billy Connors as Lizard Jr. as seen in The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #16 (April 2019).
Art by Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque (penciller/inker) and Laura Martin, Brian Reber, and Carlos Lopez (colorists).
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance The Amazing Spider-Man #6 (Nov. 1963)
Created by Stan Lee (writer)
Steve Ditko (artist)
In-story information
Alter egoWilliam Connors
SpeciesHuman Mutate
Team affiliationsNew U Technologies
Sewer Enclave
Sinister Six
Notable aliasesLizard Jr.
Lizard Boy
AbilitiesAs a lizard:
  • Superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina, durability, and reflexes
  • Regenerative healing factor
  • Hardened scale-like skin
  • Razor-sharp claws and teeth
  • Powerful tail

William "Billy" Connors is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is usually depicted as a supporting character of Spider-Man, and the son of Dr. Curt Connors, also known as the Lizard. Much of his character's story deals with the trauma of his father's uncontrollable powers. Billy was later injected with Curt's Lizard Formula to cure him of a deadly virus, which also mutated him into an anthropomorphic lizard.

Contents

Publication history

The character was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #6 (November 1963).

Fictional character biography

Billy was born in Florida to Curt and Martha Connors, the former of whom is a biologist. The family move to New York City so that Curt can continue his research in limb regrowth. Curt's research leads him to transform himself into a reptilian creature called the Lizard, who attempts to kill Billy. Billy is rescued by Spider-Man, who returns Curt to normal with an antidote to the Lizard formula. [1]

Curt eventually chooses to leave his family, saddening Billy and Martha. [2] Curt later returns and turns Billy into another lizard creature dubbed Lizard Jr., but the two are captured and returned to normal by Spider-Man. [3] [4]

Sometime later, Martha and Billy contract cancer after being exposed to carcinogenic chemicals. Martha dies while Billy survives and is forced to live with his aunt. [5] [6] [7] During The Gauntlet and Grim Hunt storyline, Curt loses custody of Billy, who the Lizard kills in an attempt to suppress Curt's personality. [8] [4] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

In the Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy storyline, Ben Reilly resurrects Billy and Martha in clone bodies. [14] They are later infected with the Carrion virus, which threatens to degrade their bodies, and are transformed into lizard hybrids to save their lives. [15] [16] [6] [7] [10] [13]

While Billy and his family live peacefully in the sewers, getting occasional friendly visits from Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, he longs to return to the surface and attend a regular school. Despite this, his father angrily rebuffs his pleas and he, in turn, has started to rebel. [17]

During the Hunted storyline, Billy is captured and used as a hostage by Kraven the Hunter as part of Kraven's efforts to test his clone, the Last Son of Kraven, and provoke Spider-Man into becoming the "hunter" Kraven feels his enemy should be. When trapped in a cage with Curt, Spider-Man learns that Curt took Billy to Doctor Strange after his resurrection. Strange confirmed that the resurrected Billy is the original Billy's soul reborn in a cloned body rather than a separate individual. [18]

An amnesiac Billy later appears as a member of Squid Kid's Sinister Six as Lizard Boy. [19] He and Martha are later recruited into the Sewer Enclave by Miles Morales' clone Shift. [20]

Other versions

Ultimate Marvel

An alternate universe variant of Billy Connors from Earth-1610, renamed Timothy Connors, appears in Ultimate Marvel . [21]

What If

An alternate universe variant of Billy Connors who became a separate incarnation of the Lizard appears in What If? vol. 2 #53. [22]

In other media

Television

Film

Billy Connors appears in a deleted scene that was cut from The Amazing Spider-Man , portrayed by Miles Elliot. [24]

References

  1. The Amazing Spider-Man #6 (November 1963)
  2. The Amazing Spider-Man #313 (March 1989)
  3. The Sensational Spider-Man (vol. 2) #23-27 (May - August 2006)
  4. 1 2 Davison, Josh (May 1, 2020). "Spider-Man: The 13 Worst Things That The Lizard Has Ever Done". CBR . Retrieved March 14, 2025.
  5. Spider-Man: Quality of Life #4 (October 2002)
  6. 1 2 Harn, Darby (November 19, 2021). "10 Things Only Spider-Man Comic Book Fans Know About The Lizard". Screen Rant . Retrieved March 14, 2025. Billy Connors, Dr. Connors' son, eventually gained the powers of The Lizard after a long and tragic sequence of events. Billy initially got cancer from exposure to toxic chemicals from a lab where Dr. Connors worked. His mother died, but Billy lived and was eventually mutated into a form of The Lizard.
  7. 1 2 Harn, Darby (November 21, 2021). "10 Most Powerful Versions Of The Lizard In Spider-Man Comics". Screen Rant . Retrieved March 14, 2025. Billy Connors is the son of Dr. Curt Connors who possesses all the powers and abilities of his father. These include superhuman agility and reflexes, making him as fast and deadly as the original Lizard... Billy Connors acquired his powers when he was injected with the same special Lizard formula that his father developed and used on himself, after a series of tragic events that included Billy developing cancer.
  8. The Amazing Spider-Man #631 (July 2010)
  9. Wilding, Josh (August 16, 2023). "SPIDER-MAN: 10 Of The Most Notorious (And Controversial) Comic Book Moments In Peter Parker's History". ComicBookMovie.com. Retrieved March 14, 2025. Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo's "Shed" storyline took place in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #630 and #631. Taking a deep dive into the mind of Dr. Curt Connors and what it means for him to share his psyche with the Lizard, we watch as the mild-mannered scientist is eventually overwhelmed by his other side, and murders his son in the process.
  10. 1 2 Leroy, Kath (July 9, 2020). "Spider-Man: 13 Things Fans Should Know About The Lizard". CBR . Retrieved March 14, 2025.
  11. Gudge, Elliot (June 23, 2024). "10 Villains Spider-Man Should've Killed". CBR . Retrieved March 14, 2025. Nonetheless, pity only goes so far, and fans were pushed to their limit with Zeb Wells' disturbing storyline, Shed. In this arc, the Lizard became more animalistic than ever, murdering and eating Billy Connors, his own son.
  12. McNulty, Mike (April 22, 2019). "Amazing Spider-Man No. 19.HU: How the Lizard becomes part of Hunted". Bam Smack Pow. Retrieved March 14, 2025.
  13. 1 2 Francisco, Mikael Angelo (September 7, 2021). "The Untold Truth Of Marvel's Lizard". Looper. Retrieved March 14, 2025.
  14. The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 4) #4 (February 2016)
  15. Clone Conspiracy #5 (April 2017)
  16. Clone Conspiracy Omega one-shot (May 2017)
  17. The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #14 (March 2019)
  18. The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #21 (July 2019)
  19. Avengers Academy: Marvel's Voices #5 (July 2024)
  20. Spectacular Spider-Men #11 (March 2025)
  21. Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #10 (January 2002)
  22. What If? (vol. 2) #53 (September 1993)
  23. 1 2 3 "Billy Connors Voices (Spider-Man)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved August 17, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
  24. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : "DR CURT CONNORS AND HIS SON BILLY [DELETED SCENE] THE AMAZING SPIDER MAN". YouTube . July 2013.