This story begins in quite a different location, as we
open upon a swamp in the Florida Everglades, where a creature calling itself
the Lizard is scaring people away from his domain! Reports start to circulate
all over about the mysterious and dangerous Lizard, even reaching New York,
where Spider-Man sees that the Daily Bugle has issued a challenge for
Spider-Man to stop the Lizard. Spidey decides to swing over to the Bugle and
see if J. Jonah Jameson will send him as Peter Parker to Florida to get photos of
the Lizard. Jameson however, doesn’t even believe that the Lizard is real and
just printed the challenge to sell papers.
The next day, Peter heads to the Natural History
Museum to try and learn as much as he can about lizards, just in case, where he
runs into Flash Thompson and Liz Allan. While engaging with the exhibit,
Peter’s spider-sense suddenly alerts him to two thieves trying to subtly escape
the museum after having just stolen something. Peter changes to Spider-Man and
finds that the thieves have taken Liz as a hostage. He jumps down before they
can see him to knocks the two thugs out, saving Liz and leaving her completely
enamored with Spider-Man. After switching back to Pete, he hears on a nearby
kid’s portable radio that people are wondering why Spider-Man still hasn’t gone
after the Lizard.
Deciding that was the last straw, Peter, as
Spider-Man, corners Jameson in his office, webs him to the ceiling, and tells
him that he’s accepting the challenge to face the Lizard and that Jameson
should send a photographer to Florida to get photos. Peter stops by again as
himself and Betty Brant tells him that Jameson’s been looking everywhere for
him. Peter tries to ask out Betty but Jameson calls him in and tells him that
they’re BOTH going to Florida to get the story on the Lizard. Peter goes home
to check with Aunt May, who is skeptical at first, but relaxes when Peter tells
her that the “nice” J. Jonah Jameson will be going with him.
Peter and Jonah fly down to Florida, where Peter is
able to ditch Jonah and heads to the swamp where the Lizard has been reported,
as Spider-Man. Spidey encounters the Lizard, and discovers that he’s much
stronger than Spidey anticipated, as Lizard ends up flinging Peter halfway
across the swamp. From his landing point, he spots a house in the distance and
theorizes that it must be the home of Dr. Curt Connors, an expert on lizards
that Peter read about on the flight down. At the house, Peter finds Connors’
wife crying and tells her that it’s not safe here because of the Lizard.
Connors’ wife, however, tells Spidey the shocking revelation that Dr. Connors
IS the Lizard!
She recounts how Connors was a doctor who lost his
right arm in the war. Since then, Connors had been studying lizards and
reptiles, theorizing that since lizards can regrow extremities, he could
potentially harness that to regrow his own arm and help countless other people
as well. His experiments ended up being successful and he was able to regrow
his arm, but it then came with the unintended side effect of turning him into a
scaly lizard creature. He fled the house after being unable to devise an antidote.
After hearing Connors’ backstory, Spider-Man rushes outside after hearing a
scream to find Connors’ son, Billy, terrified of the nearby Lizard. Spidey
swoops in and saves Billy and tries to fight the Lizard. He finds that the
Lizard’s hide to too tough to hurt and that the Lizard can easily tear through
his webbing.
The Lizard flees at the sound of his wife’s voice, and
she and Billy take Spider-Man back to the house, where Spidey is able to use
his science knowledge to create an antidote for the Lizard’s condition. Just
then, the Lizard bursts into the room and stuns Spider-Man, knocking a pile of
debris on top of him. Thinking he has now disposed of the only one standing in
his way, the Lizard leaves, and Spidey comes to not long after. He follows the
Lizard through the swamp and finds him at an old, abandoned fort where he finds
that the Lizard is planning to use his formula on other reptiles in order to
create Super Lizards for an army to take over the earth with. The wall
Spider-Man is on gives way and he is suddenly being attacked on all sides by
the Lizard and his alligators.
Spider-Man lures the Lizard into a large cylindrical
room, where he locks the two of them inside. Spider-Man climbs to the top of
the room and then, after the Lizard chases up after him, suddenly drops down
and flings the Lizard to the ground below, where he is able to force his
antidote into the Lizard’s mouth. The Lizard strikes back, and just as he has
Spider-Man at his mercy, the serum takes effect, and he is transformed back
into Dr. Curt Connors. Spider-Man takes Connors home to be reunited with his family,
where Connors burns his notes so that no one else can use them, and Spider-Man
suggests they keep the entire thing a secret, leaving Connors and his wife
eternally grateful. Peter makes his way back to Jameson to give him photos of
the Lizard he said he bought, but Jameson tears them up, believing they’re
fakes. The issue ends with Peter, now home, trying to call up Liz, but she says
that she’s waiting for a call from Spider-Man, leaving Peter amused that he’s
his own competition.