Newsday: COOL 2 KNOW - Stan Lee's Marvel-ous moments

[esquirecomics]

COOL 2 KNOW

 

Stan Lee's Marvel-ous moments

BY JOSEPH DIONISIO

Newsday Staff Writer

 

October 18, 2006

 

Like most teens during the Great Depression, Stanley Lieber discovered joy - and escape - by visiting the silver screen. "When I was a kid, I loved going to the movies," says the New York native, who was raised in Washington Heights and the Bronx.

 

Most folks now know him better as Stan Lee: the 83-year-old mustachioed face of Marvel Comics, the creator of numerous iconic superheroes, and by proxy, godfather of the American dweeb. So you'd assume he gets an adrenaline rush whenever his creations such as Spider-Man, Hulk and The Fantastic Four are adapted into blockbuster films, right? Not really.

 

"So many people ask me what it's like to see things I created years ago on the screen, with all those special effects," Lee says. "To be honest, when I see Spider-Man or any of our characters, I never think 'Wow, I created that!' I'm just sitting in the audience, enjoying it like anybody else."

 

That's just one of the revelations in "Stan Lee's Amazing Marvel Universe" (Sterling, $50), an audio-enhanced book by fellow comics legend Roy Thomas that depicts Lee's favorite 50 moments in Marvel history. Through a two-inch speaker, Lee regales readers with 68 audio tracks.

 

"We started off with 100 moments and whittled them down," said Thomas, whose other book, "Conan: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Most Savage Barbarian," was released last month. When asked about the boyish exuberance in the tracks Lee recorded in Los Angeles, Thomas laughs. "Nobody ever had to teach Stan how to talk," he said.

 

Lee's high profile has earned him cameos in many superhero films. Unfortunately, other industry luminaries get little respect when their creations hit theaters.

 

"I wish [producers] were a little better about putting the names of creators in the movies," Thomas said from his South Carolina home. "Nobody seems eager to. It's a shame, and it's shortsighted."

 

Others weren't credited

 

Although Thomas co-conceived Wolverine and his adamantium claws (popularized by Hugh Jackman in the "X-Men" films), he isn't self-serving with his concerns. He says countless talents, such as writer Len Wein, who also contributed to Wolverine's genesis, earn no movie credentials.

 

Thomas - who joined Marvel in 1965 as Lee's assistant editor, and later became editor in chief - says it's ironic "caterers and unions with clout get mentioned, but not the folks who actually were in on the creative process." Nonetheless, he says, seeing his work on-screen "is really gratifying."

 

Lee found gratification of his own in 1962, after an argument with the publisher of Timely Comics (Marvel's predecessor).

 

"When I suggested Spider-Man to Martin Goodman, he thought it was the worst idea ever," Lee says in one audio track. "He said, 'Stan, you can't give a hero the name Spider-Man. People hate spiders!' Then, when I told him I wanted Peter Parker to have a lot of personal problems - he's not that popular, he has to worry about schoolwork, he doesn't have enough money - Martin said, 'Stan, don't you realize what a superhero is? They don't have these kinds of problems.'" Luckily for webslinger fans, Lee stood his ground, and Spidey became a worldwide hit.

 

Lee's first credit

 

"Amazing Marvel Universe" also details how Lee first got his name in print, in a 1941 issue of Captain America.

 

"In those days," he says, "the post office had a law that publishers couldn't call a comic magazine a 'magazine' unless it had at least two pages of just words without panels." Thus came his first assignment for Timely, a text called "The Traitor's Revenge."

 

More recently, Lee made a name for himself as host-producer of SciFi's "Who Wants to be a Superhero?" Oh, the irony. Under his guidance in the '60s and '70s, Marvel earned acclaim for its naturalistic universe, by setting its stories in actual cities (unlike DC Comics' Metropolis), making Iron Man an alcoholic, etc. Yet Lee now helms a "reality" show whose contestants include Cell Phone Girl, Fat Momma and Monkey Woman, whose superpower is that she can disguise gadgets as bananas. Only in America.

 

Speaking of which ... after 65 years of bylines, what's his proudest moment as a writer? Lee, who enlisted in the Army in 1942, cites a Vietnam-era issue of Captain America.

 

Walking a lonely street at night, the patriotic superhero contemplates his nation's participation in war, saying: "I've spent a lifetime defending the flag, and the law. Perhaps I should have battled less - and questioned more."

 

"I think that's one of the best lines I've ever written," Lee recalls. "This was ... in the days of people protesting the war, and the hippies and the dissenters, and it was a tough time in America." Oh, the irony.

 

Superheroes push the envelope

 

The Joker couldn't conquer Batman. Lex Luthor couldn't defeat Superman. But if you've got 39 cents, you can lick either superhero, thanks to U.S. Postal Service stamps that honor 10 of DC Comics' most beloved characters.

 

Besides the Dark Knight and Man of Steel, the stamps spotlight other A- listers in DC's pantheon - Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Flash - as well as second-tier stars Hawkman, Supergirl, Plastic Man and Green Arrow. Each is depicted twice: once in a portrait and then on a comic-book cover.

 

The collection, on sale since July and available at usps.com, is selling faster than a speeding bullet, says postal spokesman Mark Saunders. "They're doing much better than most of our commemorative stamps," of which 20 to 25 editions are offered annually. "We got more media coverage - on all continents - from these stamps than for our baseball stamps" (featuring sluggers such as Mickey Mantle).

 

Since the 1930s, DC's heroes "have been a beloved part of America's culture [and] the most significant characters to emerge from comic books - a true American art form," said DC president Paul Levitz during the unveiling at San Diego's Comic-Con.

 

A set of Marvel Comics stamps, Saunders says, will be issued next year. Which begs the question: Will Spider-Man's stamp need any adhesive?

 

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

[benz]

thanks Mark, on my shopping cart now in amazon

[Aman619]

what? No Biff! Bam! Pow!! what a lousy writer! sheesh!