Books are always our free pass to travel the world without moving an inch. They transpire us to see something which we feel might exist in a parallel universe. Imagination has always been a tool stronger than the reality that created space for leisure. Stan Lee’s life is somewhat surrounded by imagination. He saw his childhood come alive in his youth and old age. He often said-‘ Everyone is a product of what they see, hear, or write’. His life poured out in the form of a documentary, is an intuition of a man who always thought there is room for entertainment.
Young Stan Lee’s Hero and Captain America
Stan Lee back in 1930, was a boy who loved to read but his family’s financial conditions always kept his childhood needs unfulfilled. In such a situation, young Lee was doing a job that made him feel puny in a big corporate company. Most of his characters are the product of what life taught him and gave him. Like ‘Fantastic 4‘ edition heroes going bankrupt and when Lee fall in love, his wife Joan became an inspiration to Mary Jane.
He wished to be like Errol Flynn. A step near to becoming a writer, he took a job at ‘Time Comics’ and worked with Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby. With ‘Captain America‘ already a popular comic in the early 40’s, Lee found him appealing to be a hero of the people. fantastic 4 in New York.
Stan Lee was given to show his talent when both the artist Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby left the publication and Martin Goodman asked him to do something. With ‘Captain America- Revenge of the Trailer‘, and ‘Fantastic 4‘ living with people in New York came the greatest comic writer into the making. Comics in the 40s and 50s were more inclined towards what was happening around the world, our Captain America taking down Hitler and against all odds serving their country and his people.
Tragic Flaw and Heroic Deeds
Those times can be considered as non-competitive ones where people worked as a machine. In the documentary, Stan Lee says that all we could do was write as many pages to we could to get bread on the table. Comics made Lee think that it was the best way to get people to read something in a short time. With ‘Spiderman‘, Stan Lee got an idea by looking at a fly crawling a wall and he got the idea for this comic. But it got rejected.
Stan Lee wanted to quit his job; since his ‘Spiderman‘ idea was rejected, he thought to start something else, and as their competitor DC Comics did release an annual book with all the stories about their characters, so did Time Comics. Stan Lee put the cover of the book with ‘Spiderman‘ and the rest is history. His ‘Spiderman‘ story worked.
‘Fantastic Four‘ came into existence as the year 1969 marked the first person to go on the moon. The art director, editor, and writer of Time asked Jack Kirby to do a piece where some scientists of to outer space and become superheroes. Fantastic Four came into existence like this. It worked tremendously. Later Stan Lee wanted to experiment with the villains area. He saw that there is always a tragic flaw that made them the bad guys. He asked Steve Ditko to make a Frankenstein monster and we got Stan Lee’s Frankenstein– ‘HULK’. He was the product of a failed experiment but had emotional touches and wanted to find his way out. In ‘Fantastic 4‘ Silver Surfer was a character with an emotional touch.
America through the eyes of in Marvel
Life for Stan Lee was just started. He received fan emails and people thanking him for his work. LGBTQ, wars, and colorism existed in America. With his, he created ‘X- Men’. People are not born perfect and so are these superheroes which are called mutants. Later he created ‘Black Panther‘, the first superhero of color, and juxtaposed him with Marvel and Avengers.
‘With great responsibilities, comes great power’- this statement left him alone. The reason is that both co-creators Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby left him at the pinnacle of his career. This left him with lots of questions about whether he kept all the name and fame to himself.
Later he introduced women superheroes like Ms. Marvel and Black Widow. He was loved by all generations. He gave ‘The Amazing Spiderman‘ to a teenage guy with problems. Being a kid and as well as the protector of the city. His life was dedicated to comics and what he loved. Without a second thought, he made stories that intrigued him not the public.
Stan Lee says- ‘If you genuinely have an idea that you think is genius don’t let any idiot let you out of it’. He believed in himself and did always what he loved. Seeing the documentary brings out the beautiful fact about Lee’s life that he did what he loved and continued to do so till he was alive and his spirit is kept alive through his work.
Out of 5, we rate ‘Stan Lee’ on Disney+ a 4.5.
