With Great Power; The Stan Lee Story - Tow Jockey Five Second Review Hot

Stan Lee is actually the Most Interesting Man In The World. That other guy is simply his stunt double.

He is the only man alive that can make a Members Only jacket look good.

He is the salesman I wish I could be.

God bless him.

And after seeing Kirsten Dunst completely buck nekked in Melancholia, I have to admit that I honestly don't care about what she knows about comics. :)

Isn't there some controversy with Stan's treatment of/sharing credit with Jack Kirby. Does this explore that at all?

I love what Stan has done for comics, but I do wish they didn't have to shoehorn in stupid scenes in Marvel movies to get him a cameo. His appearance in Captain America was terribly done and really took me out of the movie for a brief time. If you can get him in seamlessly, great. Otherwise, don't force it.

Ho ho..."isn't there some controversy"...I haven't seen the doc but I'm sure it doesn't get into that.

I love Stan Lee, I really do. I can't not love him. He is, for better or worse, the public face of comic books. But honestly, Jack Kirby should be the household name, and there are reasons that he's not.

I've seen this on the Netflix menus, I'll have to take a look.

Based on the looks of it, it's pretty unlikely that this covers the controversy. If it goes in a certain direction while he's talking about the Marvel days, it'd be hard to imagine that I could watch it without fuming. It's also way more than a comment like this can possibly handle; I recommend google, specifically looking for the story of how Marvel withholding the original art, as well as a comparison between the money the Kirby family gets from these Marvel movies vs. how much Stan Lee gets from them.

He's an ENTERTAINING weasel, though. See the "Funky Flashman" chapter in Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus vol. 2 (which is also just a fantastic series, and despite my love for the 60s Marvel age comics I think it's better and way more modern-feeling, though not "modern comics"-feeling, than any of those) for an interesting depiction of the man (and his lackey, Roy Thomas).

It is mentioned in so far as saying that Kirby felt he wasn't getting the credit he deserved. Lee says that he never disputed that Kirby was co-creator on everything. The details are not gone into outside of saying Kirby quit and then came back later on.

Lee actually testified in court that he came up with all the characters: see the Stan Lee link here http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/07/28/court-rules-in-favor-of-marvel-in-kirby- copyright-case-with-text-of-ruling-and-depositions/ and skip to pages 26 and 27. Also see his discussion of his "synposes".

Also
http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/dynamics/2012/04/02/fantastic-four-lees-testimony- 2011/

The very first trade paperbacks that I ever bought were the first three Origins books that Marvel published in the mid-'70s: Origins of Marvel Comics, Son of Origins, and Bring on the Bad Guys. Every section starts out with a few pages of introductory text where Stan talks about how the character or team was created. He gives plenty of credit to Kirby and Ditko. Then follows a color reprint of the origin story for that character and sometimes one later story from the late '60s or early '70s. If Stan later told a different tale in a court of law, I'm sure it was on the advice of legal counsel just to win the case. I have heard stories about Stan holding back original artwork, but I don't know if that was normal practice in the industry back then. I do know that creators were generally work-for-hire back then, and didn't have much in the way of creative rights.

Fake Stan Lee at Comic Con is also totally hilarious, I don't think he keeps it up much but for a while his twitter was solid gold.

Was anyone else into that sci fi channel reality show like five years ago where there was a competition for Stan Lee to pick the next superhero? We loved it.

Fuck yeah we were. EXCELSIOR!!!

That show rocked. The ending was lame, but I didn't mind.

Doesn't that just make it worse? I'd like to think I'd tell the truth, rather than lie just because my lawyer tells me too. We aren't talking about a death penalty trial, just a civil suit. Money is great and all, but at some point isn't integrity worth more?

Check out some of the info referred to here:
http://www.tcj.com/sdcc12-cac-session-7-jack-kirby-and-the-auteur-theory-of- comics/#comment-54935
"Stan went through a period where he wrongly said it was he who created everything, and as someone who has been a Marvel fan since 1967, that was never clearer than when I first read a six-page story (five if you don’t count the opening illustration) Lee himself wrote for the July-August issue of “Quest” magazine titled “How I created Spider-Man.”

To the casual fan or outsider, upon reading that article, one woould come away with the belief that the second most important person involved with the creation of Spider-Man was Stan’s wife. Ditko was barely mentioned at all, and when he was, one got the impression that he was just another interchangeable artist who had worked on Spider-Man over the years. This, even though Ditko was given full “plotter” status for nearly the last two years of his artistic run on Spider-Man.

I was aghast when I read that article and it has colored my view of Lee ever since. Lee eventually softened his stance in recent years, but he still slips back into his old stance on occasion.

Another thing that I ran across during the late 1980 that gave me pause was Lee’s entry in “Who’s Who.” The information for those entries is usually provided by the individual or the individual’s authorized representative, and Lee’s entry stated that he was the “cartoonist” for the Hulk, Spider-Man and other characters. And while I’m always willing to give Lee the benefit of the doubt, that outrageous “Quest” article is always raising doubts in the back of my mind."

Jeet Heer, comic historian, on Lee:
"I think it’s a mistake to look at any of Stan Lee’s statements on these issues as a reflection of what he really believes. Rather, Lee says what he does depending on the audience and also the legal ramifications. If he’s talking to a fan audience that knows the score and his statements won’t carry legal weight, he’ll give the artists some credit. But if he’s talking to a more general audience or give testimony, he reverts to the position of himself as sole creator. Lee has, to be blunt, an opportunistic relationship with the truth."

And here is the article referred to, "How I Invented Spider-Man":
http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/dynamics/2011/08/27/how-stan-lee-invented-spider- man/

Thank goodness he had his wife to help him create Spider-Man so he didn't have to do it all on his own!