When Marvel mattered--in defense of Stan Lee

I spent the past weekend reading and enjoying immensely the latest issue of Alter Ego, one of my favorite mags and one I wholeheartedly recommend for anyone fascinated by comic book history.



I enjoy pretty much every issue of this Roy Thomas-edited mag a lot, but this issue was special, being a tribute to Marvel Comics' publisher/editor/scribe Stan Lee, who celebrated his 85th birthday a few weeks back.

Now Stan, somewhat rightly, gets criticized for being a shameless huckster and self-promoter and most new interviews with him reveal essentially nothing--he trots out the same old stories and anecdotes time and time again.

But, perhaps realizing all that, this Alter Ego yields some fascinating interviews with Stan--the difference being that these are all vintage chats from the late 1960s and early 70s when he and Marvel were at their peak.

Stan, with the considerable and too frequently overlooked contributions of artists Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others, had helped revitalize the superhero genre.

The new approach--dynamic, powerful art, superheroes that argued with one another and who had "real" problems--plus Stan's hyping of such was generating lots of outside-the-genre interest, yielding coverage in the mainstream media. These more sophisticated comics were attracting not just young kids, but college-age readers, too. And Stan was getting invitations to speak on campuses nationwide.

It was a pretty remarkable time, and these interviews--mostly from comics fanzine and hippieish alternative mags of the period--do a great job of capturing it.

I'm an instinctive defender of underdogs so, typically, I'm one of those people who immediately starts touting the contributions of Kirby, Ditko, et. al., any time Stan's name comes up. Too often, he gets sole credit for the creation of multi-million dollar-generating characters others had an equal share in creating--the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Hulk, etc. And it's important that people speak up to put the record straight.

But that said, Marvel wouldn't have been Marvel without Stan. Just as much as Kirby or Ditko's art, his dialogue and over-the-top narration and cover blurbs made those comics come alive. His Bullpen Bulletins and Stan's Soapbox columns and Marvel's fan clubs--first the Merry Marvel Marching Society and later F.O.O.M.--made readers feel like they were part of a movement to make comics more meaningful and fun.

While Stan may have not solely created the Marvel characters, I believe he should get credit for creating the Marvel Universe.

Sure, it was on one level shrewd cross-promotion with the aim of selling more comics, but by establishing that all the Marvel heroes inhabited a shared world and that they regularly encountered one another in each other's titles and were living out a shared history was pretty cool.

For many years, that imaginary, imaginative world was a pretty special place to visit. Unfortunately, like the real world, it's lately become over-populated, chaotic and confusing, but it was great while it lasted. And Stan deserves the credit for creating it.

So, happy late birthday Stan! And thanks!

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