Given his status as the preeminent impresario of American comics in the 20th century, it’s only fitting that Stan Lee has become an icon of reality who backs away from self-promotion. In nearly 80 years as a writer, editor, publisher, and informal representative at Timely/Marvel Comics, he co-created many of its most iconic characters, including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and Iron Man. Lee is unquestionably a vital figure in the field, but in popular consciousness his status has mutated beyond mere importance to become the only comic book figure the average person can identify with. Stan Leea new documentary produced for Disney+, adds nothing to the historical record or the collective conversation about Lee, but works to bolster the mythology of the man.
The film is directed by David Gelb, notable for shaping the contemporary aesthetic of food photography with documentary work like that of 2011. Jiro dreams of sushi and the TV series Chief‘stable. Here he employs almost none of that visual sensibility. Along with stock photography and standard interviews, the film recreates past events with diorama-like miniatures. Although it’s a novel approach, it certainly doesn’t evoke any comic book feeling. The Marvel Comics of the 1960s and 1970s are crucial elements of Pop art, characterized by their dynamism and bright colors, but this is a film dominated by stillness and beige.
Stan Lee has always been extremely engaged with the fan community, enthusiastically attending conventions, TV specials and more during his time at Marvel and after his departure in the 90s. comics failed (along with many of his comic-related ventures), he understood personal brand as a concept earlier than most artists, arguably even Andy Warhol, and he was done with success the face of Marvel for many. It paid off beyond its wildest dreams as the superhero genre evolved in the 21st century from a fixation for kids or “nerds” to a dominant part of popular culture. Starting with x-men (2000) and Spider Man (2002), it became mandatory for any Marvel movie to feature him. He was at every red carpet premiere, at countless convention panels, and always up for an interview. Now, Lee is almost considered a deity for Marvel, as his various collaborators over the decades – Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Joe Simon and many more – have faded into the minds of all but Marvel aficionados. the most dedicated comics.
For every character Lee was involved with, there’s an official backstory, each repeated enough over the years that most comic book fans know it by heart. (Along with “Excelsior,” “True Believers,” and “Nuff Said,” one of Lee’s lesser-known catchphrases was “I’ve told this story so many times it might even be true.”) Stan Lee mainly consists of reiterating these familiar tales. While Lee passed away in 2018, the voluminous number of interviews he gave over the years provided him with more than enough archival material to allow him to seamlessly narrate almost the entire documentary.
The problem is that every story Lee repeats has a counter-narrative from his colleagues – the distinction almost always being that Lee greatly inflates his own role in creation while downplaying those of his artists. The longstanding “Marvel method”, which relied heavily on pooling and remixing the ideas of numerous authors while leaving official credits ambiguous, means that hard evidence of an individual’s story is often non-existent. It’s a 40-year-old case of “X said/Y said”. But while artists like Kirby fought long and bitter battles for any official recognition and especially for any rewards from Marvel and other comic companies, Lee stayed inside. While he may not have received his own deserved royalties for his role in creating these characters, he could more than live off his income as an editor and publisher, not to mention the cultural cachet he has accumulated as an actual Marvel mascot. It therefore does not seem accidental that his version of events is the one that prevails and is validated by the general public. It’s not even the first documentary in which he takes center stage to tell his point of view; almost all the same anecdotes are in the 2010s With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story.
A difference between Stan Lee and that prequel film is Gelb giving controversy some space, acknowledging that Kirby took issue with Lee’s portrayal of their partnership. But with 90% of the runtime devoted to Lee without recoil, its nod to Kirby’s argument, with no inquiry into either tale, seems nominal at best. Kirby’s family was unimpressed; at the film’s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, they released a statement so heartbreaking it stings to readcalling it “Stan Lee’s greatest tribute to himself”.
While definitive proof of the truth of their stories may be lacking, one could, for example, examine how Lee and Kirby’s tales changed (or not) over the years, who was more consistent, and who had better backgrounds. related facts. This is precisely what Abraham Joséphine Riesman does in true believer, his 2022 biography of Lee. One of the few major works to critically and rigorously examine Stan Lee the man rather than the myth, the book lays bare his pattern of self-glorification. In stark contrast to his avuncular public image, Riesman provides evidence that Lee could be shockingly cold to friends and family. That’s not to say he was “actually” a villain – it’s only in the most cliched superhero comics that someone is simply a hero or a villain. But Lee was way more complicated than the cuddly cameo image suggests.
Another thing Riesman does that few other biographies do is examine in depth Lee’s post-Marvel years, marked by an endless series of dead-end projects, ill-received new superhero ideas, and commercial ventures. missed. Stan Lee ends in the early 1970s. He has no interest in Lee beyond when he helped design his most lucrative properties. It’s a disappointing and very corporate mercenary approach to the life of a human being.
Stan Lee is now available to stream on Disney+.
