Origin

As an assistant to Dr. Curt Connors (before he became the Lizard), they worked on a project for SHIELD that involved experimentation of dinosaur tissue provided by a Savage Land native, Ka-Zar. Vincent soon became obsessed with the experiments on the lizard tissue and decided to steal the experiments. He quickly fled to the Savage land to further his experiments in the way he wished. He soon created a formula in which he drank turning him into "Dinosaur Man".

Creation

Stegron debuted in Marvel Team-Up (1972) #19 by Len Wein and Gil Kane

Major Story Arcs

Stalks the City

Ka-Zar seeks the aid of Spider Man to find and capture Stegron, who has completely transformed into a reptile and rules over entities called the Swamp Men. In an attempt to escape, Stegron uses the Swamp Men to delay Spider Man and Ka-Zar while he leaves with a few other dinosaurs on a flying Ark, making his way to New York to conquer the world.

Soon after, Black Panther and Spider Man catch up to Stegron, who has already marched dinosaurs down Broadway. He engages Spider Man and Black Panther only to be defeated and, in an attempt to flee on a pterodactyl, he is knocked into the water by Spider Man and sinks quickly.

He quickly reduces his metabolism where he is able to drift to shore. He returns to Manhattan where he searches for Curtis Connors and forces Connors to work for him as he keeps his son as a hostage. With Connors' help, he creates a ray that reanimates the dinosaur skeletons at the Natural History Museum. At the same time, Connors recreates the formula which turns him into the Lizard to combat Stegron and save his son. Unfortunately, Stegron attempted his plan in the cold winter of December, and he succumbs to the cold weather and falls beneath the ice of a Central Park Lake and vanishes.

Lethal Foes

Stegron survives the chilly waters and changes back into his human form. From then on, he lives in Central Park as a homeless resident. Years later, Stegron is struck with a nuclear blaster that the Sinister Syndicate were fighting over. The energy causes his dormant mutation to return. He desires to steal the nuclear blaster and follow through with his original plan of reviving the dinosaurs within the museum. Beetle, who used to lead the syndicate, offers him the blaster for help getting back at his old team.

Once the villains all started fighting over the weapon, they got the attention of cyborg, Strikeback. Strikeback was secretly a resurrected Ringer, the lover of Syndicate member, Hardshell. He attacked Stegron for attacking his girlfriend. The escalating fight eventually got the attention of Spider-Man as well as Doctor Octopus, who wanted the blaster for himself. After much fighting, Spider-Man secured the blaster, and Stegron was one of many villains left unconscious for the cops.

Return to the Savage Land

Stegron soon gets more annoyed and feral due to his residency in New York and attempts to leave to return to his home, the Savage Land. He hides within a supply ship bound for Antarctica but finds himself within a SHIELD observation post where he starts to go on a killing spree, murdering scientists. Black Panther, Black Widow and Thunderstrike answers a distress call from the SHIELD post.

Thunderstrike and Black Panther find a way to release him out of the observation post and into the wild where he tries to reach the Savage Land but is beaten by the cold weather of the Antarctic. He falls under a deep state of hibernation within a massive glacier but awakens to finally return home in time to join a battle between Spider-Man, Ka-Zar, Shanna the She-Devil, and the Roxxon Oil Company. He joins the Roxxon’s side in the battle, but things start to get worse as the Hulk and Chtylok the Che-k'n Kau arrive.

He decides to fight with the good guys to save him from a horrible fate, but he vows to become everyone's enemy when the battle is done.

The Rock of Life

While exploring the Savage Land in his human form, Stegron came across the Rock of Life, remnants of the supposed asteroid that deposited life onto a barren Earth. He mailed it to an old colleague at the Natural History Museum ahead of his journey back to New York. Stegron waits for the radiation from the asteroid to spread across the city. The first sign that it was having an effect was the increased aggression among the mutant animal hybrids from Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. Puma, Lizard, and Vermin were acting more violently than usual as if they were devolving.

Spider-Man and Black Cat, who were also starting to feel the effects, tracked it to the museum which had become overrun with mutant dinosaurs. Spider-Man believed Stegron was also feeling the effects. To temper him and the others, he used part of his new armor to cover the rock and contain its radiation. Unfortunately, Stegron did not get better. He was not a victim. He was just insane. Spidey manages to knock him out and hands him over to the authorities.

The Initiative

With the passing of the Super-Human Registration Act, SHIELD’s authority was increased tenfold. With this new authority, SHIELD invaded the Savage Land for specimens, including Moon Boy. Moon Boy’s companion, Devil Dinosaur, lost the will to live without him. As he was the only specimen of his kind, Stegron took that personally. And since Ka-Zar was unwilling to make the hard choices and act against SHIELD, Stegron decided to.

The Registration Act also put a SHIELD base in every state in America. By re-animating the local dinosaur exhibits, Stegron searched each one individually, until he finally found Moon Boy in the Wyoming base. At this point, the Initiative had created a task force to stop Stegron, including Reptil, who could mimic dinosaurs and track Stegron. When they defended the Wyoming base, Stegron broke through a wall and revealed the imprisoned Moon Boy.

The task force made a deal with Stegron: they would liberate Moon Boy if he gave himself up for the base attacks, Stegron agreed, confident that he would be able to escape after Moon Boy was returned.

The Savage Six

Stegron was captured by Taskmaster and Black Ant for a big trophy hunt set up by Kraven the Hunter. Kraven chose villains that were animal themed to punish them for disgracing the animal kingdom. Steg was one of six main animal villains that Kraven used to sell rich patrons on the hunt. Arcade, Kraven's partner, referred to them as The Savage Six.

Once freed after Spider-Man's interfering with Kraven's plan, Vulture liked the sound of the Savage Six and pitched to his other advertised big game baddies (Rhino, King Cobra, Tarantula, and Scorpion, in addition to Stegron) that they should stick together.

Once together, they made their way to Hollywood to shut down a production of a biographical movie produced by Mysterio that painted them in a less-than-ideal light. They were unsuccessful though thanks to lead actress, Mary Jane, and the superhumans working on the crew.

Sinister War

Steg and his new team weren't ready to give up on getting back at Mysterio just yet though. They made a second attempt to ruin the movie at the premiere. While fighting off Spider-Man, in attendance as Mary Jane's date, the Savage Six were attacked by a new Sinister Six, looking to add Mysterio to their ranks. The Sinister Six was able to get Mysterio and regroup with Kindred.

When they were sent to a graveyard where Spider-Man was facing off against a number of other villains, The Savage Six followed and joined the rumble. Eventually, Doc Ock uses a piece of Black Ant's helmet to knock everyone, including Steg, out through the ear centipedes Kindred was using to control them.

The Fist

Stegron was broken out of jail by Daredevil and his new team, The Fist, a ninja clan that he founded with Elektra to confront The Hand. He, along with a number of other inmates, agreed to join their ranks for their freedom. His mind control over reptilians came in handy to save brain-washed former member, Bullet, from The Hand. The Hand had a dragon, that Stegron was able to keep unbalance enough not to be a threat.

Unfortunately, their island fortress was attacked by both NY crime family, The Stromwyns, and The Avengers. The Avengers showed up to arrest Elektra for the death of the president, but the Stromwyns dropped the re-cid drug on the island, causing members of The Fist to riot. Despite Stegron being successfully arrested by The Avengers, she was quickly released when Daredevil forced the Stromwyns to use their connections to do so.

Character Profile

• Height: 5' 8" (as a human), 6' 2" (as a dinosaur)
• Weight: 150 lbs. (as a human), 350 lbs. (as a dinosaur)
• Eye Color: Brown (as a human), Green (as a dinosaur)
• Hair Color: Brown (as a human), Bald (as a dinosaur)
• Citizenship: American
• Place of Birth: Moab, Utah
• Marital Status: Engaged
• Occupation: Geneticist and Inventor
• Known Relatives: Jillian Jensen (fiancée)
• Distinguishing Features: In dinosaur form, he has orange skin, dorsal plates, beak, claws, and a spiked tail.

Powers and Abilities

Stegosaurus: Stegron mutated himself into a humanoid stegosaurus. He has a thick orange hide that is bulletproof. He has a spiked tail, claws, and armored plates along his spine.

• Enhanced Physiology: Along with his increased size, his strength, speed, agility, and endurance are enhanced to superhuman levels.
• Weakness: Cold temperature slows his metabolism and forces him into a hibernation state. He also never learned to swim.

Animal Control: Stegron is a low-level psychic capable of controlling reptilian brains. The bigger the reptile, the more difficult it is for him to control. Similarly, the more reptiles he has to control at once, the more difficult it is.

• Life-Force: He was taught to sap life-force from living beings by Sauron.

Variants

Battleworld: A variant of Stegron was saved for Battleworld. He ended up on Spider-Island as a member of Agent Venom's Resistance against the Spider-Queen.

Terminal Six: A variant of Stegron was a member of the Terminal Six, a group of villains from dying universes. This variant was transformed into a stegosaurus like the 616-Stegron, but his form was unstable. His flesh rotted off, leaving him as jut a skeleton. He named himself Fossil.

Earth-138: In the home universe of Spider-Punk, Stegron was a member of a band called the LZRDZ, with Lizard, Sauron, and Iguana. Vulture promised them a record deal if they beat up the Spider-Band.

In Other Media

Film

• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: A version of Stegron is a background inmate in the Spider Society's prison

Television

• Marvel Super Hero Adventures: Stegron appears in episode 10 of season 1 as a member of the Sinister Nineteen.

Video Games

• Marvel Avengers Alliance: Stegron is a boss in a special challenge in this turn-based, social network game
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2020): Stegron does not appear, but a paper he wrote is a findable item among Curt Connors' research paperwork.