Dmitri was the son of a Russian aristocrat and a servant he married when he fled the Communist Revolution. His mother found him embarrassing, and his father thought him weak. While his half-brother Sergei disliked him, he grudgingly acknowledged his existence, and thus in his youth, Dmitri would try to please Sergei however he could, often putting on little plays while doing all the roles himself. Years later, this would become his job, as he took on the name Chameleon. With a base mask hiding his real face, he developed his skills as an impersonator so well that even friends of his roles were fooled. Unfortunately for him, while his acting is great, his stage combat is much more lacking, and thus he has to fight the Spider-Man with his intellect rather than with his fists.