Disney Race And Gender Swaps Dr. Connors – A.K.A. The Lizard – For Marvel Studios Animated Series ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’
In a typical example of ‘modern day comic book adaptation writing’ applied to an admittedly atypical target, the premiere of Marvel Studios’ new Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man animated Disney Plus series has revealed that the latest character to receive the race- and gender-swap treatment from the House of Mouse is none other than the wall-crawler’s long-time friend-slash-villain, Dr. Curt Connors – otherwise known as The Lizard.
Created by none other than original Spider-Man creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, The Lizard was one of the first official ‘super villains’ to be added to the hero’s rogue’s gallery, making his debut all the way back in 1963’s Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #6.
A brilliant biologist, Connors held a special interest in the same reptiles that would eventually become his namesake, dedicating his time and efforts to studying their regenerative abilities to find a way to regrow human limbs – in particular his own right arm, which he lost during his time as a US Army army surgeon serving in Vietnam.
Eventually, Dr. Connors’ years of research finally pay off in the form a drinkable serum, as concocted from lizard DNA, that would theoretically stimulate limb growth in humans.
However, rather than subjecting the serum to the proper testing procedures, the eager scientist instead decides to use himself as its first guinea pig, injecting the experimental cure directly into his veins.
And though the serum initially proves to be a rousing success, with Dr. Connors near-instantaneously regrowing his arm, it also comes with the unfortunate side-effect of turning him into the mindless, half-man, half-lizard hybrid that he’s primarily known as today.
Initially depicted as a white male, Dr. Connors’ appearance has held consistent across his 60 year history, with even his multiversal versions – including those appearing in live-action, animated, and video game projects – all sharing the same general description.
However, despite its art style taking inspiration from Lee and Ditko’s original comics, the same cannot be said of the version of the villain seen in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
The series, which originally began life as a direct entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before being spun-off into its own pseudo-stand-alone endeavor, introduces viewers to its take on Dr. Connors in its second episode, The Parker Luck.
Therein, after performing a series of aptitude tests to determine which division of Oscorp he will be serving his upcoming internship in, Peter Parker is introduced to his new mentor, company Energy Research Division member Dr. Carla Connors – a dark-skinned woman of an unspecified ethnic background.
Unfortunately for those wondering, as of the end of the series’ second episode, this version of Dr. Connors has yet to transform into her more well-known form, and it’s currently unknown if there are any plans for her to do so in the future.
Notably, not only is Dr. Connors the fourth member of Spider-Man’s supporting cast to receive the race-swap treatment in their jump from the comics to Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, but she’s also the second of the hero’s villains (or third if one wants to get technical) to get it overall.
As seen in the series, in addition to the would-be Lizard, both Harry Osborn his father, the Green Goblin himself, Norman Osborn, have also been race-swapped, their shared ethnicity being changed from white to black.
Curiously, the reveal of the series’ race-swapped Dr. Connors comes just a day after the voice actor behind Peter Parker himself, Hudson Thames, claimed that the series was anything but “annoying and woke”.
“I thought it was awesome,” said Thames when asked by Collider‘s Adam Blevins about his experience bringing a brand new version of the web-slinger to life. “I mean, my biggest fear was that it was gonna be annoying and woke, and it wasn’t, and I was like, ‘Yes, this is great, it’s so well written,’ like it feels real. I’m the oldest of five boys, so I feel like I kind of know what’s happening in their lives and in high school, and it felt like it was doing that justice.”
It should be noted that when later pressed about Thames’ comments during an AMA given to the /r/MarvelStudios Reddit community, series showrunner Jeff Trammell would assert, “Ha, I love Hudson and didn’t focus too much on what he said.”
“I believe he simply misspoke, and I know that’s been weighing on him,” he added. “I think we made a fantastic show that is going to appeal to a wide audience and hopefully captures what I love about this Spider-Man: that he’s a guy who cares deeply about the people around him and always tries to do the right thing.”
At current, new episodes of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man are being released in batches of three episodes (with the final batch, like the first, only consisting of two) every Wednesday exclusively on Disney Plus.
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