The Lizard - Brain Salad Surgery - R.A. Wonsowski

Layout:  Page divided in thirds:  top row - 3 panels, middle row - 2 panels, bottom row - 1 panel


Panel 1 - The face of NORMAN OSBORN, seen through the hole of a table headrest, like on a massage table or operating table.  His eyes betray his confusion.

OSBORN:  (small lettering) ...can't...move...

CONNORS:  (off-panel, Lizard lettering)  WaKeY-wAkeY.  EgGs-aNd-bAkeY.

CONNORS:  (off-panel, normal lettering)  Norman, please...


Panel 2 - Same as Panel 1, but Norman's eyes show his mind working frantically.

OSBORN:  Connors?  's that you?

CONNORS: (off-panel, Lizard lettering)  Can'T dO tHiS wIThOut yOu Wi-i-iDe aWakE.

CONNORS: (off-panel, Lizard lettering)  DoN't mAkE mE sLaP yOu.

CONNORS: (off-panel, normal lettering)  Norman, you have to keep still...



Panel 3 - Same as above, but now Norman's getting angry.

OSBORN:  Connors, I swear to God, you better -

CONNORS: (off-panel, Lizard lettering)  AmYGdaLa.  CrOcoDiLe bRaiN.

CONNORS: (off-panel, Lizard lettering)  WheRE feAr aNd pLeAsuRe aRe sAMe.

CONNORS: (off-panel, normal lettering)  ...you're anemic.  If you tear the incisions, I may not stop you from bleeding out.


Panel 4 - Same as above, but Norman now shows shock.  To his right (our left side of the panel), we see the right-side profile of CURT CONNORS.

OSBORN:  (small lettering)  ...my...

CONNORS:  (Lizard lettering)  i cAn sMeLL yOuR sWeaT. 

CONNORS:  (Lizard lettering)  TaSte oF coPPeR.  tErrOr-seX-pAniC.


Panel 5 - Same as above, except Norman's face now betrays his fear, a drop of blood has started to run from the edge of his cheek toward his eye.  CONNORS is gone, but to Norman's left, (our right side of the panel), we see the LIZARD's left-side profile.

OSBORN:  Connors.  I can help you...

LIZARD:  (normal lettering)  You are helping.

LIZARD:  (normal lettering)  You're my faithful assistant, on a journey of discovery, to the inner workings of our mutually abnormal brains.



Panel 6 - From slightly above, Norman Osborn face-down on an operating table.  He is strapped down.  The back of his head has been surgically opened, a portion of skull removed, and some pinkish-grey brain is exposed.  Wires extend from somewhere off panel into two probes inserted into the brain.  We see that he is also connected to an IV drip and a medical monitor.  Two surgeons and two nurses are dead on the floor, lying in pools of their own blood.  We also see now that CONNORS and the LIZARD share the same body.  His face/head is split so his left (our right) side is the LIZARD half, and his grin is monstrous.  His left arm however, is human; his regrown right one is reptilian.  He is naked except for an open lab coat, and we see his body is mottled between human and reptile skin.  He is looking down at the open skull, his lizard hand holding a scalpel, gleaming from the overhead light, ready to dig in.

CONNORS/LIZARD:  (normal lettering)  Trust me.

CONNORS/LIZARD:  (Lizard lettering)  i'M a dOcToR...


...to be cont'd...

The Lizard: In Cold Blood - Niel Jacoby

Panel 1: Ben Urich is looking through a scrapbook of his old stories. We can see the title and byline of one of them. It reads:

"Curt Connors: Cold-Blooded Killer or Mostly 'Armless Scientist? An Interview by Ben Urich"

Caption(Urich): I NEVER DID LIKE JAMESON'S TASTE IN PUNS.

Panel 2: A flashback to Connors' days as a scientist before he lost his arm and became the Lizard. He's looking into a microscope in his lab.

Caption(Interview): IT'S TRULY TRAGIC WHEN THE PEOPLE WHO AIM TO BE HUMANITY'S GREATEST BENEFACTORS...

Panel 3: Same framing as panel 2, but instead he's sitting dejected on his cot in the supervillain wing of Riker's Island Prison.

Caption(Interview): ...BECOME THEIR OWN CREATIONS' GREATEST VICTIMS.

Inset Panel: A young(well, younger than the modern day version) Urich stands, nervous, outside the cell. A guard stands next to him.

Guard: HEY CONNORS, THERE'S A REPORTER HERE FOR YA!

The Lizard - One of Us - J.D. Coughlan

SET-UP: Dr. Connors has been kidnapped from prison. He is now in a dark room, tied to a chair, bag over his head.


A series of small, tight panels; two rows of three, with one large panel taking up the bottom third of the page.


Panel 1: Close on Connors. The bag is being removed (suggest it being pulled off quickly). His eyes are squinting, adjusting to the bright light shining in his face. There are men standing behind him.

SFX (BAG): WHUFF

Panel 2: Connors' POV. A man in a suit stands in front of him. The man cannot be seen very well as the light is shining from behind him.

MAN: Good afternoon, Doctor Connors. It has been a while.

Panel 3: Close on Connors again. Confrontational but a little afraid too.

CONNORS: What is this? Who are you people?

Panel 4: Connors' POV again. The man is leaning forward slightly. His face, slightly more visible, shows concern, but it is still largely hidden.

MAN: Oh my. You truly don't remember a thing, do you?

Panel 5: Same as before, the man standing up straight again, lost in shadow.

MAN: You see, Dr. Connors, your "accident" all those years ago did not transform you into a grotesque hybrid.

MAN: It merely reasserted your true nature...

Panel 6: Close on Connors; now completely horrified.

MAN (OP): It is rare we lose a member of the Order...

Panel 7: Large. We now see that the man is in fact a lizard-person! He is grinning vilely. Behind him we can now see several others like him, all grinning too.

MAN: And you've been lost a very long time.

MAN: Welcome back, brother.


END OF PAGE

The Lizard – Blood On My Hands- Shaun Richens.

PAGE ONE.

A FULL PAGE SPLASH.

Dr. Curtis Connors is sat on the floor of his laboratory; the limp body of Peter Parker rests across his legs. Peter is wearing his Spiderman costume but the mask lies bloody on the floor. Dr. Connors holds Peter in his arms like a child. The room is dark and shadows fall all over, half of the Doctors face is cast in shadow, the side of his face we can see is gaunt and haunted, his eye still holds the reptilian look of the LIZARD. Tears roll down his face as he looks at Peter in his arms.

         CAPTION

         Two hours from now. 

The Lizard – Intra-Species Rivalry - MK Stangeland Jr.

(To all our US readers out there, I'd like to first take a moment to wish all of you a happy Independence Day! Even if, technically, the time difference between this and when I'm scheduled for means that July 4th isn't until tomorrow. Time differences can be weird that way. But what the hey!)

(KOMODO is hunting down LIZARD, and has tracked him to a water treatment facility where he attacked her.)

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: LIZARD tries to grab KOMODO as she attaches to his back, her legs wrapped around his torso and her arms grabbing him in a choke hold.

LIZARD: Fixxed it? You ruined it-tssss!

LIZARD: You could have been my equal!

Panel 2: LIZARD tries to slam into a wall to shake KOMODO off. KOMODO has let her legs go of LIZARDs torso and thrown them up behind her to catch herself against the wall instead.

LIZARD: Instead you’re nothhing but a cheap mockery!

Panel 3: KOMODO pushes herself up into the air off of LIZARD with her arms. LIZARD tries futilely to reach back for where KOMODO was in the previous panel.

KOMODO: You mean a ‘dime-store version’?

Panel 4: Still upside down in the air, KOMODO slashes her claws across LIZARDs eyes to temporarily blind him.

KOMODO: I’ve heard that one before.

SFX: Slissh!

LIZARD: RrrAAGH!

Panel 5: KOMODO lands on all fours, hunched down and facing LIZARD’s direction.

KOMODO: If it means not loosing my mind, then I live with it.

Panel 6: Wide panel as we see a side view of LIZARD, his eyes not yet having grown back, lunging at the sound of KOMODO’s voice. KOMODO leaps up so that LIZARD will move right under her, with her arms spread out and ready to grab LIZARD as he travels underneath her.

SFX: Kk-HHHHH!

(END PAGE)

The Lizard- The Germs of Empires -Dan Hill

Page 22: 6 panels.

Panel 1

We OPEN in the dimly lit courtyard of a crumbling temple, somewhere deep in the jungle. A few of the murals and patterns on the columns depict lizards and reptiles in various forms.

Moonlight shines down from the black, cloudless sky with a few scattered wall mounted TORCHES providing the only other light.

A FIGURE bathed in shadow paces back and forth. On the floor and scattered around the panel are various GLASS JARS. Each of them have a lizard in them. Some scramble to get out, others sleep, others are dead. 


Temple reference: /cambodia/images/angkor/ta-prohm/resized/tree4-cc-beggs.webp


FIGURE:  They want the formula, don’t they?



Panel 2



ZOOM IN on the figure. He has stopped, turning to face camera. Part of right arm is revealed by the light.



The arm’s skin is scaly, green in places but not entirely.



FIGURE:  It’s gone.



FIGURE:  I’m all that’s left.



Panel 3



CUT TO a CLOSE UP of some of the jars on the courtyard floor. One of the lizards climbs up the side of the jar, stretching its head towards the top.



CAPTION:  “Leiolepis Ngovantri. Fascinating creatures. Capable of reproducing a complete, perfect genetic clone of themselves.”



Panel 4: Wide panel



CLOSE UP on the figure as he steps into the light for the first time, facing camera-- it's CURT CONNORS.



He’s still partially covered in shadow with only the right hand side of his face visible. Parts of his face are covered in the same green scaly patches we saw in the second panel. He’s wearing a tattered white lab coat, smeared with blood and dirt and a pair of combat issue trousers.



CONNORS:  Nature has so much to teach us.



CONNORS:  We’ve lost our way; a corrupt rabble fascinated by wealth, power and posturing.



CONNORS:  We need to go back. Give ourselves over to our primal nature.



Panel 5: Worms eye view.

Connors steps into the light some more, revealing the entirety of his face. The same scaly patches persist all over, clumps of his hair seem to have just fallen out.



This is offset by the set of white teeth he flashes as he smiles, looking slightly down towards camera as he does so.



CONNORS:  I have.



CONNORS:  You have too.



Panel 7: Wide panel



CLOSE UP on a young and bloodied FRANK CASTLE, looking up at camera with a piercing stare.



NB: This is the Punisher MAX version of the character. Continuity wise this would be around the time of the Tiger scene in Tyger Tyger where it’s hinted Frank carried out a lot of black bag jobs in country.



Reference for Frank’s clothing: /_DeL0kCsBOGk/TQBo5F6B6NI/AAAAAAAABaY/J5uXOFpcNaY/s1600/Vietnam_p01.webp)



CONNORS (CAPTION):  “I can see it in your eyes.”

The Lizard - ExperiMENTAL - Grant McLaughlin

Okay, this is a silly one, but once I got the basic idea in my head, I couldn't think of anything else.  To be read in an old timey radio voice.

1 - This isn't so much a panel as it is a caption box that takes up the top portion of the page.  Not a ton of space, just enough to fit in all them words.  The rest of the page would be evenly divided between the four actual panels.

CAPTION: The Lizard is easily one of Spider-Man's most fearsome foes!  But what if Dr. Curtis Connors' experimental serum been based not on lizards but on some other creature with the awesome powers of regeneration?!  Read on, dear reader, for a tale that will surely shock you to your very core!

TITLE CAPTION: What If Dr. Connors Had Experimented With...?

2 - A generic laboratory.  There's a lab station where you see a whole bunch of sciency goodness (beakers, bunsen burners, and so forth).  Curt Connors has been transformed into a giant, human-sized sea cucumber, which if you'll excuse my juvenile brain, looks might similar to a certain part of the male anatomy (that link is to a sea cucumber, not the male anatomy).  Anyways, the sea cucumber monster would be censored (likely blurred out?) to protect those with weak constitutions.  Important note: the sea cucumber is definitely wearing a white lab coat.

CAPTION: Sea cucumbers!

DR. CONNORS: I don't think this is appropriate for a kids' book...

3 - The same laboratory, except this time Dr. Connors has transformed into SpongeBob SquarePants (along with white lab coat, of course).  Connors / SpongeBob wears a look of concern at he looks at himself.

CAPTION: Sponges!

DR. CONNORS: Closer, but I feel like this might not fly with Nickelodeon.

4 - The same laboratory, except this time Dr. Connors has transformed into Patrick Star (also of SpongeBob fame) (also with a white lab coat).  Donnors / Patrick is getting frustrated, which consists mostly of angry eyebrows and crossed arms.

CAPTION: Star fish!

DR. CONNORS: Not better.

5 - The same laboratory, except this time Dr. Connors has transformed into Spider-Man (i.e. but with a white lab coat).  Connors / Spider-Man is face palming.  The real Spider-Man is leaning in from the panel border and is yelling at Dr. Connors.

CAPTION: Spiders!

DR. CONNORS (muttering): Forget it...

SPIDER-MAN: Hey!  Get your own shtick!

The Lizard - Hurt - Ben Rosenthal

These can be drawn however you see fit, however Panels 5-7 would be best to be all of the same size and on the same line.

1. A dark tunnel in the sewers under New York.  In the background we can see a shadowed figure lying on the ground. A white lab coat covers the sleeping figure.

2. Same as Panel 1, but tighter on the sleeping figure.

3.  A frightened and unshaven Curt Conners has woken with horror in his eyes.  He is in a mess, both physically and emotionally.

CURT

NO!

4.  Curt is looking down at his hands.  Besides his lab coat, he is naked.  Tears are beginning to flow down his cheeks.

CURT

All those people.

Billy....

5. A close up of Curt’s eye, tear visible.

CURT

My son.

6. Same as panel 5, however the pupil of the eye has transformed into that of The Lizard.  There is still a human face on display, however.

7.  Same framing as the above two panels, however Curt is now The Lizard.

THE LIZARD

Hungry.

Why The Lizard?

Put simply – cos we’ve already done Spidey.

It was decided long ago in the Thought Balloon cave that whenever a movie came out, we would focus on that character on opening week.  Some of you may have realised this with the recent Avengerthon leading up to The Avengers cinematic release.

However, there comes a time when a movie is released where we have already tackled the main character.  I believe with the release of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, this is the first of those times.  Instead of tackling Spidey again, we decided that the Thought Balloons gang would instead tackle the Big Bad of the new film: The Lizard.

Now for a very brief introduction for those of you who do not know of the Lizard – Dr Curt Conners is a brilliant scientist with only one arm. He wants two. He injects himself with a lizard serum to grow the other arm back. It does, but also turns him into a giant lizard.  So he refers to himself as The Lizard.  After many battles with Spider-Man, Curt Conner’s wife dies, he falls into despair and becomes estranged from his son. The Lizard takes over as the primary personality and eats people, including Curt’s son.  All while wearing his white lab coat. Curt is gone forever, and only The Lizard remains.

Hey, I said it was brief.

So now it is up to my fellow tenured writers to let their animalistic (writing) urges go and script a page for one of Spidey’s oldest foes. Don’t forget, YOU TOO can submit a script! Simply post your page of single script in the section below and have your words read by REAL people!