Characters : Stegron the Dinosaur Man

Background

Dr. Vincent Stegron was working as an assistant to Dr. Curtis Connors (the human alter-ego of the Lizard) on a project for SHIELD that used dinosaur tissue supplied by Ka-Zar from the Savage Land. Vincent became obsessed with the Lizard experiments and decided to steal (or "sssteal", in Stegron- speak) the dinosaur extract. He fled to the Savage Land and ingested the formula, turning himself into a Dinosaur Man.

Spider-Man travels to the Savage Land, teams up with Ka-Zar and finds Stegron in full reptile mode, ruling over the Swamp-Men. His plan? To RULE THE WORLD! When Spidey and Ka-Zar beat up on his Swamp-Men, Stegron escapes to New York on a flying Ark. He takes a few dinosaurs with him.

Sure enough, soon after, Stegron leads a stampede of dinosaurs down Broadway. He is stopped by Spider-Man and the Black Panther and tries to escape on a pterodactyl. Instead he is knocked into the water by Spider-Man and sinks like a rock.

But Stegron reduces his metabolism and eventually drifts to shore. He returns to Manhattan, kidnaps Billy Connors and forces Curt Connors to work for him. He creates a "retro-generation ray" that animates the dinosaur skeletons at the Natural History museum. Under the strain of Billy's kidnapping, Curt Connors turns into the Lizard and goes after Stegron. Unfortunately, Stegron chooses December to start his plan and eventually succumbs to the cold weather. He slips under the ice on a Central Park lake and disappears from sight.

Somehow Stegron survives, reverts to human form and becomes a homeless resident of the park. In the wrong place at the wrong time, he gets hit by a stray shot from a Nuclear Blaster wielded by the Vulture and is changed back into the Dinosaur Man. He returns to the Museum of Natural History, with plans to create a race of dinosaur people but ends up in the midst of a struggle between Spider-Man and the "Lethal Foes", Doctor Octopus, the Vulture, the Rhino, the Beetle, Boomerang, the Answer, Swarm, Strikeback, and Hardshell. Stegron tries to steal the Nuclear Blaster to create his dinosaur army and, well, he doesn't pull it off. Instead, he gets blasted into unconsciousness by Strikeback.

Now, growing more and more bestial, Stegron's only desire is to return to his home in the Savage Land. He stows away on a supply ship bound for Antarctica and gets into a SHIELD observation post where he begins killing off scientists. Thunderstrike, the Black Panther and the Black Widow answer the distress call. 'Strike and the Panther release Stegron to the outside elements. The Dinosaur Man tries to make it to the Savage Land but comes up just short, felled by the harsh cold of Antarctica.

But you can't keep a good dino man down. This time, Stegron falls into hibernation, frozen inside a glacier. He thaws and joins the Savage Land battle between Spider-Man, Ka-Zar, Shanna the She-Devil, and the Roxxon Oil Company. The Hulk and Chtylok the Che-k'n Kau arrive to complicate things further, Stegron opts for fighting on the side of the good guys against Roxxon, and walks off into the sunset at the end vowing, next time, to be everybody's enemy.

He made good on that threat after finding a magic gem in the arctic that could bring out the aggressive animal nature inside human beings. Bringing the gem to New York, it transformed him back into his dinosaur form, as well as the animal forms of the Man-Wolf, Lizard, Vermin, Vulture, Black Cat and Puma. He planned to use the gem to change New York into a prehistoric jungle paradise, complete with dinosaurs, giant insects and dangerously aggressive human beings. Spider-Man was able to defeat the Dinosaur Man, as Puma and Black Cat dealt with the creatures causing havoc in the streets.

He was briefly seen in the Negative Zone prison while Ben Grimm and the Human Torch looked for the Tinkerer.

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By Al Sjoerdsma (E-Mail) & Dave Sippel (E-Mail)