The Lizard was portrayed by Rhys Ifans in the recent Spider-Man reboot, so we won't be using him in our class script. However it's always enjoyable to go over the debut issue of an iconic villain and we can always find interesting plot point to pull from each issue to use in our master project. Last class we laid out a checklist of elements in our script. Our initial plan to review the first 20 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man before we actually move on to formulating our script with the official screenwriting software. Our project begins with a dream and hopefully ends in the lap of a Disney head muckity muck.
One consistent aspect of this class is to constantly have the students coming in with pictures and designs based on the reality aspects of the characters and stories we go over. If students don't have computer access at home, they can use the internet resources at the library or in class. Either way, having them bring in tattoo designs of each respective animal helps keep the lesson relevant to the type of things they enjoy. On with the show.
When a series of monster attacks are reported all over the Everglades, Spider-Man is called into action by J Jonah Jameson to go after it as he sends down his top photographer, Peter Parker, to exploit the action.
Peter is coincidentally across town checking out the dinosaur exhibit at the Natural History Museum when foils a robbery and saves the life of Flash Thompson's girlfriend Liz Allen, who from then on out only has eyes for the wall crawler. While Peter basks in his revenge he is finally summoned to go down to Florida to snap pictures of the supposed Lizard.
On the subject of Liz Allen, we tinker with the subject in class of which love interest to focus on in our first screenplay. While Mary Jane Watson seems like the obvious choice and will definitely have some sort of significant role in our story, I still lean the class into the idea of having Peter Parker get involved with secretary Betty Brant.
I bring up Betty Brant because this is the issue where Peter begins to muster up the confidence to flirt with her, which I use as quick discussion on the value of confidence in enriching a person's life and standing. Ultimately it's the class that makes the decision on the who the love interest will be, and we move on to talking about Spider-Man's alter ego Peter Parker, and his new role in our story as a more out there, confident, photographer working for NOW Magazine. We bring up the idea of having the students use their graphic design programs to start designing their own covers for their version of NOW
I feel having Peter work for a magazine in our modern take on the story is hipper and more relevant than a newspaper as a metaphor for how our generation is witnessing the phasing out of a major media influence.
Barely escaping with his life, Spider-Man makes it to Dr Conners' place, only to find out that Dr Conners is indeed The Lizard. As a surgeon who lost his arm during combat, Dr Conners became leading authority on reptiles, moving his studies to the Everglades to study how Lizards were able to regenerate parts of their bodies after being mutilated or force to tear away from their own limbs to evade predators. Dr Conners believed if this principal could be applied to humans, then they would be able to grow new organs, perhaps even a human heart. Dr Conners poured himself into his studies, eventually testing out his master serum on himself. We all know what happens next,
Using Dr Conners notes, Spider-Man uses his mastery of high school science to concoct an antidote for Dr Conners' condition. During his experiments, The Lizard attacks and Spider-Man is forced into another battle to protect Dr Conners' wife and son.
After explaining V and Planet of the Apes to the class, I give them the homework assignment of creating their own reptilian mutant monster as a way of going with the Doomsday scenario of what would happen if The Lizard is successful at dumping his serum into the Everglades, which is the ecosystem that is home to millions of reptiles. Somehow, even the Avengers would crap their pants at that concept.
So Spider-Man pursues The Lizard into the swamps and they do battle into an old fort, where The Lizard traps Spider-Man on the wall with several alligators, snakes and other cold blooded badies gunning for an arachnid flavored filet.
Battling into the abandoned fort, Spider-Man finally maneuvers himself into position and stuffs the antidote down The Lizard's gullet, which after thrashing Spider-Man wall to wall with his tail, finally succumbs to the antidote and reverts back to his human form.
Grateful to Spider-Man for saving his life, Dr Conners burns his notes and vows never to tamper with the forces of nature again. But this wouldn't be the best damn comic in the world if that was the truth
At the end of the issue, Peter tries to use his new found confidence to ask out Flash's girlfriend Liz Allen, but unfortunately she hangs up on him after telling him she's waiting for her dream man to call
Peter revels in becoming his own competition and Marvel uses the last panel to tell you about the exciting return of The Vulture in the next issue, which I use to conclude today's lesson on the subject of a fun tool used in the entertainment industry.............
the Cliffhanger
Vocab Word Web
1- Folly
2- Domain
3- Hospitality
4- Extremity
5- Extracted
6- Serum
7- Slithers
8- Murky
9- Antidote
10- Revert
11- Stamina
12- Fraught
13- Obedient
14- Unerring
15- Vestige
16- Tampered
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