Chameleon (comics)
The Chameleon was born a Soviet citizen named Dmitri Smerdyakov (Дмитрий Смердяков). In his youth, he was a servant and half-brother to Sergei Kravinoff and eventually became a minor associate to Gustav Fiers. Although Dmitri and Sergei were friends, Sergei was often abusive to Smerdyakov, leading to a combination of admiration and resentment towards Kravinoff. Eventually, Smerdyakov emigrated to the United States of America. As he had made a talent for himself during his youth, impressing his brother by impersonating friends and neighbors, he assumed an even more impressive disguise: the identity of Chameleon. During his first known criminal outing, he impersonated Spider-Man, though he was exposed and arrested. Shortly afterward, Kraven the Hunter himself came to America, and the Chameleon set his old associate's sights on Spider-Man. Both men became long-time enemies of Spider-Man, part of his primary rogues' gallery.
List of Spider-Man (1994 TV series) characters
Chameleon was an international hitman and spy. He also cannot (or does not) speak while he is in his true form, though his grunts were once provided by Jim Cummings. Though in the episode "Framed" Richard Fisk indicates that Chameleon told them about Peter Parker's parents. Chameleon has a belt, which is capable of capturing an image of a person, so that he can turn into a person to disguise himself, and then makes a perfect imitation of his disguise's voice. In his first appearance, he attempts to kill two diplomats at a U.N. conference to start a war, but is foiled by Spider-Man who easily picks the Chameleon out from the crowd since he had taken the appearance of Peter Parker, secretly Spider-Man's alter ego. In "The Insidious Six" and "Battle of the Insidious Six", Chameleon became a member of the Insidious Six. In "Framed" and "The Man Without Fear", he was working for the Kingpin's son, Richard Fisk in framing Peter Parker for getting restricted government information. But Parker's name was cleared by the machinations of Spider-Man and Daredevil, thus Richard and the Chameleon were sentenced to jail. Later, in "The Cat", it was revealed that he was jailed in S.H.I.E.L.D. for his dangerous international activities and he was assigned by the Kingpin to release Felicia Hardy's father. Chameleon was infused with a techo-organic virus prior to his incarceration in S.H.I.E.L.D., which made him part-machine and was able to change into any person without the belt. He successfully disguised himself as Felicia's father so no one would know the real Hardesky was abducted. Eventually, his ruse was uncovered by Nick Fury. Later, in "Six Forgotten Warriors" parts 1-5, he was rescued by the rest of the Insidious Six and became a member again, but would betray them and join forces with his foster father, the Red Skull (they have no relation in the comics), and his brother, Rhienholdt Kragov, who would later become Electro. In the end, Electro and the Red Skull, along with Captain America, were trapped in a time dilation loophole and the Chameleon escaped, never to be seen again. However, he was trapped by Spider-Man and webbed. The Chameleon was presumably killed, when the Doomsday Weapon was destroyed once and for all. It was not mentioned that he escaped from the reactor room.