The Inquisition of Mr. Marvel
On the (surprisingly complicated) legacy of Stan Lee

This is an awesome little article.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/790 ... d-stan-lee

I just stumbled across a link to that one myself, while looking at something completely different. I wouldn't call it a "little" article, though!

A lot there about Stan Lee's career, Marvel, and the controversies. And a few interesting observations about fans who feel left behind now that the comics characters they love are movie stars and are written now for the moviegoing public and not for them.

I doubt Stan Lee is ever going to fall to his knees and cry "I'm a fraud!"
Nor should he,but he is one lucky bastard.

You should put Stan's name in the title. I skipped this because I assumed this was about some lame new haracter Marvel was doing until I finally clicked in here. Had I seen Stan's name, instant thread click.

He's like the nicer and more creative version of Bob Kane.

Through circumstance and contracts, he found himself in an enviable position among the work-for-hire crowd. It's not that he hogged all the credit for Kirby and Ditko, it's just he managed to make himself indispensable to the company and he made them pay through the nose to keep him around as company mascot.

I don't think I've ever begrudged him his position in comics. I still fondly remember talking to him on the phone for all of ten seconds, despite not being a fan of Marvel or his writing. It's probably the biggest fanboy moment of life since seeing Adam West in person when I was a wee one.

That Marvel should have treated Kirby and Ditko better is the real sticking point.

He ran the thing.

He genned up what he wanted. He rejected stuff that wasn't what he wanted. He did thumbs down on Kirby's attempt at his (Stan's) idea for Spider-man.

He created Daredevil, a blind superhero. Kirby and Ditko did not.

He created Iron Man, a rich and snotty industrialist who is humbled in the jungle, and has a piece of shrapnel inching ever closer to his heart.

He was obviously the force behind launching the line -- da boss.

He has nothing to apologize for. His only failing was allowing himself to be portrayed as the "creator" of all these things in some pretty sloppy journalism at the time (civilians don't care much about those details). And he has admitted to a personal bias that he considered the writer to be the true creator. He's wrong, but he's admitted that's just how he sees it.

I don't buy the theories that he was just some guy stealing credit for comic books that were essentially written by Kirby and Ditko -- Lee's fingerprints are unmistakable over all of it.

(Except that Ditko is secretly deserving of credit for all of it).

I completely agree with Jay. He really is "Mr. Marvel".

I kinda wish every Marvel Studios movie started with "Stan Lee presents...."

I don't think it's accurate to say its entirely the fault of sloppy journalists. Stan did write the credits, and in the first several years of Marvel the credits simply said things like "Stan Lee: script, Jack Kirby: art" or "Written by Stan Lee, drawn by Steve Ditko." Now I know it's true that he eventually began giving Ditko accurate plotting credit when Ditko demanded it, and he did eventually describe how the Marvel method worked in mid-60s' letters pages and bullpen bulletins. But that doesn't change the fact that before that there were several hundred Marvel comics published whose credits inaccurately gave the impression that Stan wrote the stories all by himself. He laid the foundation for that popular misconception, even if he later made some efforts to correct it.



No, he co-created those characters.

It was only a matter of time.