History
Gila began her life as an ordinary lizard who resided in the sewers of New York City, where the steady temperatures made living possible for her (being cold-blooded). This would change when she ingested a Regenerative Serum that was developed (and discarded) by Dr Curtis Connors who at the time was seeking a means of removing The Lizard from himself permanently. The Serum mutated her in both mind and body, turning her into a humanoid lizard with her intellect raised to match that of a human. She would also gain from Dr Connors (The Lizard) his greater strength and endurance though would remain physically one of the weaker members of her young race.
She would attain her new form alongside Gecko and Monitor along with memories belonging to Dr Connors. Specifically knowledge-based that would lead them to conclude that their new existence was intentional. Soon after, they found hundreds more like themselves, and began the work of making the Sewers of New York City their Home.
Schisms Develop
Towards the end of their homebuilding, it became clear that they weren’t completely united in purpose, with a Gladiatorial Arena constructed with the intent of vicious battles between each other, and anyone they captured whether they be working within the sewers, or from when they went “topside” for supplies.
Gila quickly found herself in the minority with the respect she gained for humanity, being one of the most frequent “topside runners”, this allowed her to learn more about them than most of the others, and decide that they and humans were capable of living in a peaceful coexistence.
This was not a belief shared by many of the lizards who lived underground, the bulk of the young race believing themselves to be superior to the humans, sharing their ‘father’s’ belief that they should be the dominant species on the planet.
The Search for Connors
With Gila finding herself becoming ostracised by the others, she began a desperate search for their ‘father‘, hoping that he could be the one to pull the others away from their self-destructive behaviour and lead them onto a path that would give them a future. Weeks of fruitless searching left Gila beginning to despair until she finally found the lead she ‘d been looking for. Returning to the ESU with Gecko and Monitor, they witnessed Dr Connors using a portable form of the Neogenic Recombinator to shrivel his recently re-grown (and scaly) right arm, finally proving to the others that he was their “father”, and the one to lead them.
The Kidnapping
The following night the three returned to the ESU, and after shutting off the power broke into Dr Connors Lab and took him without resistance. After returning to the sewers, they began to answer his questions about themselves, about where they came from, and why they were certain in their belief that he was their ‘father’. Distraught by the knowledge of what his actions had resulted in, the stress was more than he could take and he began to become The Lizard and attempted to escape. Not making it very far before their efforts to subdue him completed the transformation.
The Lizard Reigns
When The Lizard emerged, he quickly made clear the fact that he was truly their ‘father’, and would lead them in their crusade to rid the surface world of the humans he despised. Not being what Gila was after at all, she attempted to reason with him, explaining her belief that coexistence was possible, and the key to their own future. The Lizard would have none of that, and ordered her to be locked up, to be used as a spectacle for the others in the Arena.
Imprisoned
Chained up in the prison room, Gila sank into despair as her kind began to rally behind their ‘father’ who had since proclaimed himself their new leader, and his twisted ambitions for dominance over the humans. Only let out to serve as sport for the others as combatants were sent to attack her, and she would be forced to fight them to survive and leave with fresh wounds and wondering why she still lived.
Escape
Some weeks later (though Gila had lost track of time by this point), a small handful of humanoid lizards snuck into her cell to release her, explaining their plan to warn the humans about what The Lizard and his followers had planned. They were fortunate in that the first one they encountered was Spider-Man, who had been searching for Dr Connors upon learning from his wife that he’d been missing for a long time.
Understandably furious that they were the ones who had kidnapped him, he calmed down when Gila was able to convince him of the reason why they’d done so, and how The Lizard was now in charge of the others, and his followers numbers hundreds. Agreeing that there were too many to face at that time, they decided to meet at Connors’ Lab to develop a strategy to halting The Lizard’s plans.
Counterattack
When they arrived at the ESU, the first thing they noticed was that there was a lot of equipment missing, soon realising that everything missing was required for the Neogenic Recombinator, and that The Lizard was planning to re-enact his original goal of turning the whole of New York into Lizard Creatures like himself.
With time against them, Spider-Man had to quickly develop a plan to stop him before New York became “Lizard City”, returning to Margaret Connors who produced for him a Neogenic Bomb developed by Dr Connors as a Last Resort to kill him if he ever became out of control. While unwilling to kill him, Spider-Man accepted that he may be left no choice in the matter and took it with him, hoping he would have no need of it.
Returning to the ESU, he and the others finalised their attack plan and prepared to stop The Lizard, whatever it took.
Meeting her Maker
Spider-Man, Gila, and the others returned to the sewers and began their search for the Lizard Army, finding them in the Coliseum where The Lizard was making a rallying call to his followers. They were soon spotted and a fierce battle broke out as The Lizard commanded his followers to kill the traitors as he went after Spider-Man himself.
Outnumbered and with less combat experience, they were soon overrun and it seemed as if they were to lose had it not been for the intervention of S.H.I.E.L.D. which despite the help was barely enough to even out the playing field.
The Neogenic Bomb that Spider-Man had brought with him became damaged in the battle, and when Gila found it, seeing the senseless fighting around her took to the throne and called out to every single one in the Arena, calling them out on their senselessness, brutality, and accused the lizards of acting like a bunch of animals, before activating the Bomb herself when she reached the ring, intending to wipe them all out in one go.
Due to the damage to the Neogenic Bomb, it failed to kill even one of them, but was enough to render unconsciousness in everything that had been affected by Dr Connors Neogenic research. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Operatives present swiftly captured and imprisoned all the lizard people taking Spider-Man as well for treatment.
Recovery
Awaking in a hospital bed, Gila learned in time that most of those captured were now in S.H.I.E.L.D. Custody and would likely remain so until a facility could be set up to house them, and that The Lizard was among them. She herself, however, had been offered a Pardon for her role in stopping The Lizard and the chance to live on the surface along with the ones who had sided with her.
Before leaving, she would see The Lizard one final time, making the Final Rejection of him being her ‘father’, that he almost brought about their demise with his hatred of humans that fuelled his mad ambitions.
Margaret Connors would take her in, as she and Billy moved to their other home in Florida where they could start their lives anew.
Powers and Abilities
Strength level
Enhanced Strength, Endurance, Accelerated Healing and tough scaly skin that can take greater punishement
Weaknesses
Cold-blooded, becomes weak in low temperatures
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Footnotes