Farewell to the man who knew heartache makes a hero stronger.
It was April 2002, and we were sitting in the Santa Monica offices of his new company POW!
Entertainment except Lee wasnt really sitting.
REED SAXON/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Even at age 79 he was practically crawling up the walls himself.
Remember, this was six years beforeIron Manand the launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The films were not yet interconnected, not that there were many to string together.
Stan Lee cameos were not yet a phenomenon.
He had played a beachside hotdog vendor in theX-Menfilm.
(You missed me?
I was like the lead of the movie!)
So I reach out to Peter Parker and say, Would you like a pair of these?
Theyre the kind of sunglasses they wore inX-Men!
He clapped his hands and rocked in his chair, a big grin spreading beneath his peppery mustache.
It would have gotten the biggest laugh!
But they cut it out because the film ran a little long.
He still made the final cut, and Raimi included one of the changes that Lee suggested.
After creating so many heroes, Lee wanted to play one himself.
The Green Goblin drops a bomb and we all ran, Lee said.
After he shot it, I said.
Sam, that isnt right.
I shouldnt leave that poor little girl and go running for my life.
Im going to carry her with me.
A HERO … STUMBLES
On the next take of the scene, Raimi gave him the go-ahead.
I tried to lift her and tried to lift her and I couldnt!
She was only a little girl, but she must have weighed 500 pounds.
He ended up grabbing her hand and leading her away instead.
Ang Lee is doing the Hulk, he said.
Theres a scene for me, so Ill go to San Francisco and make a fool of myself again.
Another guy is doing a Daredevil movie.
He crossed his arms in his mustard-colored cardigan and shrugged.
How long would this superhero movie thing last?
He was glad to be along for the ride.
Happy to see the old characters he helped create being brought to life onscreen.
He had started working there when he was 17.
His dream was to become a writer.
A novelist, maybe.
But before any of that could happen, he earned cash by working a series of small jobs.
(Are you all right, young man?
His writing career began with obituaries.
I got depressed writing about living people in the past tense, Lee told me.
He didnt want to write about death.
He wanted to write about things that were larger than life.
When I got into comics, nobody, nobody had any respect for them, he told me.
Even most of the people in the field were embarrassed.
Thats why he created a pen name by cutting his first name in half.
Decades later, he described it as his biggest regret.
My name was Stanley Martin Leiber, he said, his outstretched hand marked the syllables in the air.
A real legitimate name with alilt!
I always thought Id be a really good writer someday.
Goodman came to Stan Lee and asked for ideas that Marvel could pursue.
Instead of the loner hero, Lee proposed a family of heroes and the Fantastic 4 was born.
Then he thought he would take a villainous character a monster and makethatthe hero.
The Incredible Hulk smashed his way into pop culture history.
With Hulk I had the strongest living human being.
I thought, Whats left?
The next thing I needed was a name.
Nah, that didnt have it.
I ran down the list.
Mosquito-Man, Beetle-Man, Fly-Man.
Then I hit on …. Spider-Man.
With those words, Lees hands flashed in the air.
His eyebrows shot up.
It somehow had a dramatic feeling, a scary feeling, he said.
I thought, Thats it!
And lo, a legend was born.
CREDIT WHERE DUE
One of the controversies surrounding Lee was how much credit he actually deserved.
I venture to share the responsibility, Lee said.
Steve is the guy who designed Spider-Man and gave Spider-Man so much of that eerie spidery feeling.
Later, he helped with the plots and did the plots.
The key to Spider-Man, he revealed, was failure.
With great power comes great responsibility was a lesson that haunted him because he learned it too late.
The most important thing is to make the reader care and sympathize with a character, Lee said.
You cant call a hero Spider-Man!
Stan, dont you understand that teenagers can only be sidekicks?
After absorbing all the Spider-Man criticism, Lee delivered more bad news to Goodman.
Its obvious you have no conception of what a hero really is!
The thing that saved Spider-Mans life was the death of one of the brands.
We were killing that magazine, much as I loved it, Lee said.
We tried to doAmazing Adult FantasyasThe Twilight Zone.
But it hadnt succeeded.
So I figured Id get Spider-Man out of my system.
We put him on the cover and forgot about him, Lee said.
The Stan Lee smile propped up that mustache again.
That Spider-Man of yours…?
Why dont we make a series out of him?
By that point, he had too many characters to juggle without a large team.
After that I got kinda used to it, Lee said.
It gave theX-Mena surprising power in the real world as a metaphor for civil rights of all kinds.
I thought maybe we could even get a little moral lesson in this thing.
I modeled him after me.
He was dumb and loudmouthed and opinionated.
Of all the characters he helped create, Peter Parker remained his favorite.
A Favorite Son
In a way Spider-Man is more special than the others, he said.
People seem to identify me with Spider-Man, a little like Walt Disney makes people think of Mickey Mouse.
What made him Lees favorite?
Nothing ever goes right for Peter.
I think for most people in the world, nothing ever goes right.
He has his share of mistakes and his share of problems as he goes through life.
Peter Parker also never gives up, a trait he shares with his originator.
People always ask me, Why dont you retire?
When you retire what do you do?
You say, At last I can do all the things Ive always wanted to do.
But Imalreadydoing the things I always wanted to do!
Back in 2002, he said that she was his fun.
When I go home I love being with my wife.
I love watching television.
I love sitting at the computer and coming up with whatever I come up with.
Hobby is my work.
He relished his newfound fame as a star.
Im one of the top cameo actors, he said.
If you dont blink, youll see me running fearfully for my life.
