Stan Lee
is the face of comic
books to many and has become a sort of celebrity in
his more than 70-year long career as a storyteller.
He began to hone his image on the college lecture circuit in the 1960s while he
created a new type of superhero,
typified by the Fantastic
Four and Spider-Man,
in collaboration with artists including Jack Kirby
and Steve
Ditko. It was a role Lee was ready for; he had been trying out ways to
promote comic books and himself since the 1940s.
Bob
Batchelor presents Lee’s life in Stan
Lee: The Man behind Marvel. Though not a long biography,
it starts with Lee’s childhood in New York City
and runs through his 95th year, when he is still producing ideas for
comics and television.
Lee was present nearly at the beginning of comic books. He started as
an assistant to Joe
Simon and Jack Kirby, the creators of Captain
America. When they moved on after contentions with Timely Comics,
a forerunner to Marvel,
Lee stepped up to become editor while still a teenager.
Lee was ready to quit comics by the time the 1960s. He craved to work
in a respectable field and was tired of chasing trends. The right combination
of opportunity and encouragement from his wife pushed Lee to write the kind of
comics he would want to read, and it became a sensation.
Though Lee will always be associated with Marvel comics, by the 1980s his focus
was shifting to television and film.
It was a rough transition for Lee, but he had some success, especially in the
production of animated
adaptions of Marvel characters that were popular in the 1990s.
Lee has stumbled some in his post-Marvel career, notably the debacle of
new media company Stan Lee
Media. He seems to have recovered somewhat with POW!
Entertainment.
Lee has detractors, which Batchelor acknowledges. Batchelor doesn’t
refute those detractors, but his take on Lee is overall very positive. Lee
appears to be someone who tries not to be tied down by his past, neither
dwelling on his failures nor being content with many successes.
Lee was a central figure in creating some of the most popular
characters and stories in the world. Well into his 90s, he is still working and
coming up with ideas that find their way into print, television and the Internet.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Batchelor, Bob. Stan Lee: The Man
behind Marvel. New York: Rowman
& Littlefield, 2017.
