Enemies: Black Cat, Black Panther (T'Challa), Black Widow , Boomerang, Hardshell, Ka-Zar, Killer Shrike, Lizard (Curt Connors), Mandroids, Man-Wolf, Manticore, Plunderer, Puma, Rhino, Saboteur, Shanna, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Roxxon Oil, Strikeback, Swarm, Thunderstrike, Vermin, Vulture

Known Relatives: Unidentified mother and father

Aliases: The Dinosaur Man, Lord of the Long-Tails, "the Lizard-King"

Base of Operations: The Savage Land and New York City

Education: Doctorate

First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up I#19 (March, 1974)

Powers/Abilities: Stegron possesses superhuman strength (Class 20), reflexes and speed. He has the thick scaly hide spiked tale of a stegosaurus. His tail is prehensile enough to be used as a weapon or a third arm. Because his human intelligence is retained in this form, he can command dinosaurs through a quasi-telepathic link allowing him to direct their primal urges with one low sonic scream. However, changes in temperature and great cold tend to affect his altered body metabolism, sometimes dropping him into a state of hibernation. Extreme temperature changes can send him into suspended animation or revert him temporarily back to human.

Height: (Human) 5'8"; (dinosaur man) 6' 2"
Weight: (Human) 150 lbs.; (dinosaur man) 610 lbs.
Eyes: (Human) Brown; (dinosaur man) green
Hair: (Human) Brown; (dinosaur man) none

History:
(Sensational Spider-Man II#27 (fb) - BTS) - Dr. Vincent Stegron was colleagues with geologist Richard Treyman.

(Marvel Team-Up I#19 (fb)) - Dr. Vincent Stegron was a research scientist hired by SHIELD to work with Dr. Curt Connors (a.k.a. the Lizard) to study the cell samples of dinosaurs from the Savage Land. Possibly fascinated by reviving the world of the dinosaurs beyond the Savage Land, he stole the cell samples from Connors, but along the way realized that they had much more potential. Knowing Connors' reputation as the Lizard, he used the cell samples with Connors' cell regeneration serum and turned himself into Stegron the Dinosaur Man intent on returning the world to the dinosaurs and ruling it as their king.

(Marvel Team-Up I#19-20) - Stegron was granted a flying ark by They Who Wield Power.

(Marvel Team-Up I#19-20/Code of Honor#1 (endfight only) ) - Clashing with Spider-Man, Ka-Zar and the Black Panther, he escaped back to New York with several dinosaurs on a SHIELD Heli-carrier modified into a flying ark. Despite terrorizing the city, Stegron was knocked off a pterodactyl by Spider-Man near Liberty Island and lost in the waters as SHIELD rounded up the dinosaurs and returned them home.

(Code of Honor#1 - BTS) - One of Stegron's dinosaurs was later found by Lt. Piper and Mike Badalino in a local alleyway after Stegron's defeat.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#165-166) - His metabolism reduced to a state of hibernation, Stegron takes some time to drift back to shore. When he does, he kidnapped Connors' son, Billy, and forced him to create a "retro-generation ray" to reanimate fossilized dinosaurs. The stress, however, causes Connors to revert back to the Lizard as the two clashed and took turns terrorizing Spider-Man. Returning to normal again, Connors helped to restore Stegron's animated dinosaurs back into fossils as the winter weather forced Stegron into prolonged suspended animation.

(Lethal Foes of Spider-Man#1-4) - Forced back to human, Stegron ended up wandering Central Park with no memory to his identity or past. A significant period of time later, a stray laser blast by the Vulture from a Nuclear Blaster hit Stegron while he was distracted. The hot blast of energy warmed him and reactivated his dinosaur DNA and memories. He plotted to convert all the inhabitants of New York City into dinosaur men like himself, but entered into a pact with the Beetle to steal the blaster from the Vulture. Believing it to be vital to his personal plans, Stegron clashed with Spider-Man and got into an eight-way feud with Hardshell, Boomerang, Rhino, Vulture, Strikeback, the Beetle and Swarm for the weapon. A blast from Strikeback's armor however rendered Stegron unconscious.

(Thunderstike#20) - Possibly escaping prison, Stegron decided to return to the Savage Land after several defeats. He took over a SHIELD observation post and killed the scientists, attracting the attention of Thunderstrike, the Black Panther and the Black Widow. After some skirmish, the heroes released Stegron to the cold beyond the Savage Land.

(Sensational Spider-Man I#13-15) - Frozen in a glacier for some time, Stegron was thawed out in the middle of a battle between Spider-Man, Ka-Zar, Shanna the She-Devil, and Roxxon Oil. The confrontation was joined by the Hulk and Chtylok as Stegron helped to save the Savage Land, but only for his own selfish unknown schemes.

(Sensational Spider-Man II#27 (fb)) - "Following defeat at the hands of Spider-Man and his warm-blooded compatriots," Stegron returned to human form and exiled himself to the "edge of the world."

(Sensational Spider-Man II#27 (fb)) - Vincent Stegron found the Rock of Life within the Arctic Circle. He brought it with him in his ship-ride to America, and its energies transformed him back into Stegron the Dinosaur Man. He further sent the Rock to his old colleague Richard Treyman, who placed it in the Museum of Natural History. Stegron planned to revert all living beings to a more primitive state which he and his dinosaurs could then rule.

(Sensational Spider-Man II#23-26 - BTS) - The radiation from the Rock of Life began to affect the minds and bodies of everyone in New York, though those with some sort of animal connection were affected most severely. Those affected were reverted to a more primitive, savage state. These included the Black Cat, the Lizard (and his son Billy, whom the Lizard also briefly transformed into a Lizard as well), Man-Wolf, Puma, Spider-Man, Vermin, and Vulture.

(Sensational Spider-Man II#26) - Spider-Man tracked the energies to the Museum of Natural History, where he encountered Stegron.

(Sensational Spider-Man II#27) - Stegron battled Spider-Man, but Reed Richards guided Spider-Man to the Rock of Life. Spider-Man's new Tony Stark-designed costume had adapted to block out the Rock's radiation, and Spider-Man wrapped some of his costume around the Rock, blocking its transmissions. A disheartened Stegron stopped fighting, and Spider-Man beat him into submission.

(Marvel Comisc Presents II#6/2) - Back in the Savage Land Stegron joined forces with Ka-Zar and the Savage Land Mutates to oppose the Roxxon Energy Corporation.

(Marvel Comics Presents II#7/2 - BTS) - Brainchild built under Stegron's guidance a smaller version of the device Stegron had used years ago to reanimate dinosaur skeletons.

(Marvel Comisc Presents II#6/2) - In the initial attack on Roxxon's forces many of Stegron's dinosaurs were killed.

(Marvel Comics Presents II#7/2) - Stegron used the device Brainchild had built for him to reanimate the recently deceased dinosaurs. The battle resumed and after most of the mercenaries were hypnotized by Lorelei Roxxon's forces were defeated by Ka-Zar and his allies.

Comments: Created by Len Wein and Gil Kane.

    With his name, Dr. Vincent Stegron could only have been a dinosaur man or a stage magician. He was probably one of those geeky kids who had ever dinosaur toy ever made.

    Spider-Man's crack in MTU#20 that dinosaurs were bad swimmers shows his lack of info on them. Some dinosaurs twice as big as Stegron, such as the megalosaurus, were very good albeit clumsy swimmers. Perhaps, Stegron never could swim worth a darn.

    There is no dino DNA in fossils; Connors' "retro-generation ray" should not have worked as well as it did. Fossils are solid rock; perhaps a bit more brittle than the rock around them. At the most, it might have been able to exchange the fossils through time with their counterparts, but this would be beyond his expertise. But then of course, there would be the manner of the rods, beams, chains and steel pins in the dino bones. The poor critters would be spiked to death once return to life with a steel beam through their spines. (Dino-Wolverine perhaps ?)

    Spider-Man is quite casual about Stegron's return in "Lethal Foes" considering he'd been out of action for fifteen years. The only reason for his return was to capitalize on the "Jurassic Park" movie success at the time.
--ahh, young grasshopper....In Marvel's sliding timescale, 15 years have not passed since the FF first flew their rocket. Marvel time does NOT equal Real Time--Snood

    The only living relatives dinosaurs have outside the Savage Land are crocodiles, alligators and birds. It's unknown whether Stegron has any control on them, but he does have control over pterodactyls.

Stegron has a one page profile (not very informative) as one of "Spider-Man's Forgotten Foes!" in Web of Spider-Man Annual#3.
--Markus Raymond

Stegron got an entry in OHotMU 2006 A-Z#10.

Profile by William Uchtman and The Anti-Grimm, images and coordination by The Anti-Grimm, and thanks to Peter Kroon at the Spider-Fan website for the info from Stegron’s profile there. And updates by Snood & Markus Raymond.

Clarifications:

• Stegor, father of Kamuu @ 6000 B.C. @ Sub-Mariner I#64/2
• any other dinosaurs

images: (without ads)
Marvel Team-Up I#20, p10-11 (riding a dinosaur)
  p19, pan4 (sinking)
  p3, pan5 (hits Spidey)
Sensational Spider-Man II#27, p3, panel 3 (human face)
        p5, panel 4 (profile (main image))
        p8, panel 1 (face close up)
        p15, panel 1 (landing from leap)
Web of Spider-Man Annual#3: A Gallery of Spider-Man's famous foes: Stegron: by Jim Mooney
       

Appearances:
Marvel Team-Up I#19 (March, 1974) - Len Wein (writer), Gil Kane (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Marvel Team-Up I#20 (April, 1974) - Len Wein (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Frank Giacoia & Mike Esposito (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man I#165-166 (February-March, 1977) - Len Wein (writer/editor), Ross Andru (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks)
Web of Spider-Man Annual#3 (1987) - Roger Stern (writer), Jim Mooney (artist), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Lethal Foes of Spider-Man#1-2 (September-October, 1993) - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Scott McDaniel (pencils), Brad Vancata & Frank Turner (#2) (inks), Rob Tokar (editor)
Lethal Foes of Spider-Man#3-4 (November-December, 1993) - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Keith Pollard (#3) & David Boller (pencils), Ian Akin, Keith Aiken, Jim Amash, Brad Vancata (#4) & Mike DeCarlo (#4) (inks), Rob Tokar (editor)
Thunderstrike#20 (May, 1995) - Randall & Ron Frenz (writers), Rich Yanizeski (pencils), Kevin Yeats (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Sensational Spider-Man I#13-15 (February-April, 1997) - Todd Dezago (writer), Mike Wieringo (pencils), Richard Case (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Code of Honor#1 (January, 1997) - Chuck Dixon (writer), Brad Parker & Tristan Shane (artists), Kelly Corvese (editor)
Sensational Spider-Man II#23-27 (April-June 2006) - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer), Angel Medina (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Warren Simons (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents II#6-7 (April-May, 2008) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Joyce Chin (penciler/inker), Andy Schmidt, John Barber (editors)