Curt Connors

*"Planning is not a major at this university. Octavius is a friend of mine. Better do your research, Parker. Get it done, or I'm failing you."*
―Curt Connors to Peter Parker[src]
Doctor **Curtis "Curt" Connors** is a professor at Columbia University and friend of the late Otto Octavius. He would at some point teach Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, but believed the former to be brilliant but lazy. After threatening to fail Parker, his grades started to improve which led to Connors keeping him.

After a year, Parker brought Connors the Venom symbiote, which Connors studied. He was finally able to discover its characteristics and how it was able to affect the host.

## Biography

### Parker's Struggles

#### Firing Parker

*"Are you all right? You look like you just got second place in the science fair."
"I was late for work and Dr. Connors fired me."
"You were late again? I don't get it. Where do you go all the time?"
"Around."*
―Harry Osborn and Peter Parker[src]
Doctor Curt Connors became a professor at Columbia University. In 2002, one of his students, recently graduated Midtown High School student, Peter Parker, also became one of his employees, but Connors fired him due to frequently being late for work, which was because of his duties as Spider-Man.

#### Confrontation with Peter

*"I'm sorry. I'm trying. I wanna be here."
"Then be here."*
―Peter Parker and Curt Connors[src]
Two years later, Peter was struggling to balance his double life as Spider-Man and his normal civilian life, which was frustrating Connors, due to Peter's crime-fighting activities making him late and his grades were suffering. After Parker had been frequently late to his class, which had just finished, Connors was narly bumped by Peter who he spoke to Parker about improving his academic performance. He connected Parker with his friend, Doctor Otto Octavius, to assist with his overdue paper on fusion.

### Peter's Improvement

#### Better Grades

*"And when the borderline is tau equals zero, the eigenvalues are...? Someone, please?"
".23 electron volts."
"Excellent work today, Parker. Keep it up."*
―Curt Connors and Peter Parker[src]
A few days later, Parker chose to give up his superhero duties as Spider-Man, after he mysteriously lost his spider powers from an emotional breakdown. He decided to focus on his academics for his biophysics classes in order to make up for his declining grades. During one class, Connors asked any of his students to answer his biophysics equation, which he allowed Peter to answer, who correctly said what the equation was. After class, Connors commended Parker's improved performance in his class and told him to keep it up.

#### The Symbiote

*"Now, the Hamiltonian shows us that the energy levels are perturbed by the electric field. From the form of this matrix, we can see? Miss Stacy?"
"That only the "m equals zero quantum states" are affected."
"Correct. Good work, Miss Stacy."*
―Curt Connors and Gwen Stacy[src]
Over a year after the death of Doctor Octopus, Connors continued to teach at Columbia University, with his students still including Peter Parker and a new addition, Gwen Stacy. When Connors asked his students what quantum effects in a biophysics equation, both Peter and Gwen held their hands up, and Connors allowed Gwen to answer correctly, which Connors commended for. Peter was blinded by a student shining a reflective light on him to tease him, Connors thought Peter was going to add something, but Peter replied he wasn't.

A few days later, Parker later brought a specimen for Connors to analyze, and he was shocked to discover that the substance was alive and he decided to check it to run some tests. Connors saw the substance piece was approaching Peter after it fled from his mircoscope, but Peter managed to trap it under a glass lid. Connors determined it was a symbiote which needed to bond with a host to survive and can be hard to unbond. He warned Peter not to let any of the symbiote get on him, unaware that it already bonded to Peter.

Connors ran more tests on the symbiote piece where he discovered to his horror that the symbiote does not just bond with a host, it takes over the host and it amplifies the host's characteristics, notably rage, hatred, spite, frustration and aggression. Connors called Peter about what he learned and asked Peter if he didn't keep any of the substance, which a symbiote possessed Peter replied he didn't, when in reality he was already possessed by the symbiote itself.

## Personality

Curt Connors is a caring professor, as he was only looking out for Peter Parker when he observed his struggles and put him through to Otto Octavius to help improve his grades and was impressed when he learned that Peter was able to make it to his classes on time and improving his grades.

## Abilities

*"What do you think?"
"I've never seen anything like it. I'm a physicist, not a biologist... but let me look at it in the morning. Run some tests."*
―Peter Parker and Curt Connors[src]
* **Gifted Intelligence**: Doctor Connors is a professor of physics at the prestigious Columbia University. Even though he was not a biologist, he recognized that Venom had the characteristics of a symbiote. Upon further testing of the specimen, Connors compared its chemistry to that of the chondritic meteorites of the '70s and discovered that it amplified characteristics of its host, especially aggression.

## Relationships

### Allies

* Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus † - Friend
* Peter Parker - Student
* Gwen Stacy - Student and Friend

## Trivia

* This is the first live-action incarnation of Curt Connors.
* In the comics, Curt Connors tested a serum derived from lizard DNA in an attempt to regrow his right arm, which worked but the serum backfired and it caused him to become a giant lizard, becoming an on and off enemy of Spider-Man.

## Behind the Scenes

* While scripting *Spider-Man 4*, Sam Raimi expressed interest in portraying Connors transformation into his villainous alter-ego, the Lizard, and would be antagonist in the film. Both actor Dylan Baker and producer Grant Curtis were also enthusiastic about the idea. However *Spider-Man 4* was eventually scrapped and the series re-booted with 2012's *The Amazing Spider-Man* which had The Lizard as the main antagonist portrayed by Rhys Ifans.
	+ Constantine Sekeris's concept art was released on the internet showing what Baker's character would have looked like had the fourth film went ahead.

## References

The Spider-Man Trilogy Wiki has a collection of images and media related to **Curt Connors**.

The Spider-Man Trilogy Wiki has a collection of quotes related to **Curt Conners**.

## External Links

* Curt Connors on Wikipedia
* Curt Connors on Marvel Database