The nerd world is still mourning the loss of Stan Lee, he who created the vast majority of the Marvel stable back in the 1960s. I think a lot of people have forgotten just exactly how Stan Lee revolutionized comics. He was the first guy who gave superheroes real-world problems. I mean, the Fantastic Four. Mr. Fantastic is a workaholic, and it puts a strain on his marriage to the Invisible Woman. Spider-Man is always struggling to pay the bills. Iron Man is a recovering alcoholic. And that all started with Stan Lee.
So, as part of the mourning, I dug deep into my DVD collection and dug out Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters, and Marvels. This DVD was produced in 2002, as a tie-in to the first Spider-Man movie. It's just Stan Lee, sitting down with Kevin Smith, for a 90-miinute interview about Lee's life and times. I got it as a gift around that time, and figured it was worth another spin.
It's actually divided into two parts. The first one, running about 40-minutes long, is specifically about the history of Spider-Man. Like I said, it was tie-in to the first movie. So we get the insights into the creation of Spider-Man and his spectacular supporting cast. He talks about the origins of Aunt May, which kind of ties in to giving heroes real-world problems. He figured that struggling to support an ailing mother figure back home was much more dramatically ripe than the usual damsel-in-distress tropes.
The second one, running 50 minutes, is much more biographical in scope, focusing on Stan Lee's life. We learn about his military career, and his desire to be a writer, and the story we've heard many times before, about how his creation of the Fantastic Four kicked off what we know refer to as the Silver Age of Comics.
The story, for those who haven't heard it. Lee was pushing 40. He just wasn't feeling it anymore. He thought he'd be writing the Great American Novel, not the funny books. He was thinking about quitting, when his boss comes into the room. Announces that across the street at DC, they just put out a comic called Justice League, so he wanted Lee to put together a new comic about a superhero team. Lee went home that night and just unloaded on his wife Joan about how unhappy he was. Joan said, "Well, why don't you do one more, but do it your way. Just do a comic book completely the way you want to do. I mean, the worst they can do is fire you, and you already said you're thinking about quitting, so that's really no different."
Re-invigorated after his wife's words, Stan Lee went back into work that day and cranked out issue number one of Fantastic Four. And the rest is history.
They only kind of touch upon the creation of other heroes, mainly the ones that had movies coming out in the early 2000s. They touch upon Hulk, they touch upon X-Men, they touch upon Daredevil. Lee reveals that he originally feared he'd get angry letters about Daredevil. He thought blind people would think he was mocking them. Instead, he got lavish letters of praise that the blind were finally represented.
I wish they got more in-depth about the creation of some of those characters, though. I remember leafing through Stan Lee's memoirs a few years ago, where he did go into it. I love how he pretty much created Nick Fury just to placate his ego. One day, Stan Lee got into a scrap with his publisher. They were talking about how Marvel was topping the sales charts. Stan Lee said it was because they had the top talent in the business. The top artists, and of course, himself, the top writer. The publisher disagreed. The publisher figured it was because they were mostly cranking out superhero comics, and superhero comics were big at the time. They were just cashing in on the fad.
So, Lee looked at the sales figures. Yes, superhero comics were at the top of the charts. At the bottom was war comics...tales of troops fighting in the trenches of World War II. Notable heroes in that genre include Sgt. Rock. So Lee decided that his next comic would be a war comic. And to further dampen its chances, he gave it worst title he could think of...Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. And, to the surprise of everyone but Lee, Sgt. Fury shot to the top of the charts. Lee's publisher conceded that it's the talent that makes or breaks a comic, not whatever's popular right now. Lee never did explain, though, why he decided to eventually turn Nick Fury from a 1940s war hero to a contemporary superspy. I'm assuming it's because it was the 1960s, and with superspies being a full-on fad thanks to James Bond, and with his point having been proven, Lee decided to just re-purpose Fury.
I managed to see Stan Lee at the Edmonton Expo a few years ago. Thanks to this DVD, I'd already heard most of the stories. But there was something about hearing him tell them live. I've always likened it to your favourite band. You may have listened to the albums, but there's nothing like that live experience. Luckily, the albums live on. Excellsior, Stan Lee!
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