Food & Drink

Stan Lee on Zombies, Spiderman and the Superhero that got Away

Our exclusive with the genius, just in time for Avengers: Age of Ultron opening weekend

By Rachel Hart April 30, 2015

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Comic fans around the country just might spontaneously combust this weekend: Saturday, May 2, is Free Comic Book Day and more buzzworthy, the new Marvel Avengers: Age of Ultron movie opens. How about I throw one more log on the fanboy/girl flames with Seattle mag’s exclusive interview with Stan Lee while he was in town for Emerald City Comicon this past March? After getting to know the local team behind ECCC for the story we did on the Con in our March issue, I had the opportunity talk to with the godfather and elder (yet ageless) statesman of comics—the beloved Lee, co-creator of Marvel’s most popular characters such as Spider Man, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, The Fantastic Four, X-Men and so many others.

Dodging the near fire-hazard crowds in the celebrity photo opp area of the Con and juggling Stan’s napping schedule between appearances (he is 92, after all) I caught up with him in a tiny hospitality suite in behind an opaque glass door in a hallway just off the 6th floor celebrity signing area in the Washington Convention Center. (Making mental note for celeb stalking next year: “Oops, I thought this was the bathroom….Well, hello, Nathan Fillion, fancy meeting you here.”)

Lee was sitting at a narrow built-in desk in blue jeans, a white shirt, a black sweater and his signature tinted glasses, signing comics and posters as furiously as they were handed to him by three guys on his team. With the swish (and smell) of his Sharpie filling the air, all I could think of is that this guy is 92, but could still run laps around all of us, with his entertainment licensing company, his many Con appearances and those brilliant cameos we nerds sit in the theaters till the last credit has rolled to make sure we don’t miss a single scene. He could level us all just with his obvious sheer joy and excitement for this business.

Though I enjoy the avalanche of movies and television shows set around comic characters this is, admittedly, a world I have married into. My husband has an ongoing subscription box at Comics Dungeon in Wallingford. My boys wax on about obscure characters to an eye-glazing degree. So when I sat down to chat, I warned him that my questions (culled from my circle of comic nerds and comic book artists) would likely sound smarter than I really am on the subject. He laughed in that wonderfully raspy recognizable voice and I felt like the luckiest geek in the building.

Who is your favorite superhero that never materialized?
I never had a name for him, but I had a superhero who had no superpower but he could do everything better than anybody else. And he was never ruffled. Remember Cary Grant the actor? If he was alive he’d play the role. Like if 20 people wanted to attack him he’d stand still and maybe as they came toward him he’d pull the rug out from under them and they’d all fall and he’d walk away. Everything would be easy for him. But I never found the right name for him.

How was your first black superhero, Luke Cage, received?
I had a black commando in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos… but I forgot his name now. Luke Cage might be the first one that we starred in his own title. I called him “Luke Cage: Power Man.” The readers loved him. In fact it’s funny; I wrote a column called “Stan’s Soap Box” every month. Some man, a middle aged man who was black, came up to me during a signing period and showed how he saved the soap box column because it was an anti bigotry column I had written. He said he saved it all these years and was glad “I could see you and thank you for the column.” It was very touching.

Did you create any story lines or characters you regret?
Nope, I’ve loved every one of them. I’m my own biggest fan. (laughs)

With the zombie craze currently going strong, do you think Marvel will or should release a zombie superhero?
I don’t know, ‘cuz I’m not involved any more. They may well. I have a funny feeling about Zombies. I figure that whole concept is wrong. Because I think If anyone was dead and came back to life, he’d be so happy he’s living again he wouldn’t want to kill anyone—he’d want to party!

Which superhero are you most proud of?
Well, maybe Spiderman. Only because he’s the most popular of all of them.

Were you disappointed they are casting again for the new Spiderman movie?
No, I don’t have anything to do with the movies. If they do well, I take credit for them. But if they do badly, nobody can blame me. It’s a great position to be in.

Regarding those famous cameos (Lee has made an appearance in every Marvel movie): do you get to pick the parts?
No, the director always gives me the cameo. When I report for the cameo I have no idea what I’ll be doing. The funniest part is wardrobe. I remember once I came to do a cameo and I was wearing a pair of jeans, and white sneakers and white shoes. And I was sent to wardrobe and they said, “Ok, now you have to wear a pair of jeans, white sneakers and a white shirt. I said I’m already wearing that and they said, “No you have to wear ours.”

Are any of your superheros situated in Seattle?
Not that I know of.

Which superhero should be in Seattle?
Anyone that you want.

Rain Man?
Sure, it does rain a bit here doesn’t it? I put most of the superheroes in New York only because I live in New York and it’s easier to make it accurate and authentic.

Are there any superheroes DC did you wish you would have done?
No. But actually, I did all of their leading superheroes a few years ago. For some reason they contacted me and said they’d like to do a series called “What if Stan Lee Had Created…” and I did Superman, Batman, all the big ones–The Flash, Wonder Woman- and I did one issue of each the way I would have done it if I had dreamed it up. And that was the end of it. Though I hear they may be bringing that back. But that was years ago.

Who is the first female superhero you wanted to create and did you have to compromise anything with this character?
I have the world’s worst memory so I’m not sure, but, I think it might have been She Hulk. And no, there weren’t any problems because in those days I could do whatever I wanted to do I do.

It sounds like you’re still in the same situation.
(Laughs)

As Amazing Fantasy was about to be cancelled you created Spiderman with Steve Ditko, was that part of an experiment to do more meaningful work?
No…We had a few superheroes that were doing very well. So my publisher said to me, “I want you to dream up a new superhero”. I was trying to think what I could come up with and I saw a fly climbing on the wall. I thought it might be fun to get a superhero who had the power of an insect and who could stick to the walls. So I thought, what should I call him? The next thing you need is a good name. Insect man? Nah. Fly man? Mosquito man? I went down the list and then I got to Spiderman and it just sounded dramatic to me. And then to make him different, I’ll make him a teenager and to make him even more different I’ll give him a lot of personal problems. He’ll be poor, he’ll live with his widowed aunt and so forth. So I gave the idea to my publisher. And he said, “Stan, that is the worst idea I have ever heard. People hate spiders, you can’t call a hero Spiderman. You can’t make him a teenager—a teenager can only be a sidekick. And you want him to have personal problems? Stan, don’t you know what a superhero is?!” So I left the office shame-faced but we were killing a book that hadn’t been selling well, Amazing Fantasy. Now when you kill a book, nobody cares what you put in the last issue. So just to get it out of my system, I put Spiderman in the last issue. Later on the sales figures came in and it was the best selling book we had had that month So my boss calls me in and said, “Stan, remember that Spiderman idea of yours for a character that we both liked so much? He said, “Why don’t we make it a series.” And that’s how Spidey was born.

Was Peter Parker inspired by someone you knew or something inside yourself?
No, but it’s not hard to think of a kid like that. I didn’t want a kid who was an athlete or incredibly handsome and had all the girls…. I just wanted an average kid, but he was very good in science, a good student. And I wanted him to live with his aunt and uncle. I wanted him to live in Forest Hills, which is a suburb in New York. I never base characters on a real life person I knew. They’re all made up though there are elements of they all have elements of people. For instance, Tony Stark/Iron Man I sort of thought of Howard Hughes or someone like that.

Mind if I get a photo of you when you are done?
But I never seem to be done. And yes, anybody who wears a Captain America tee shirt can’t be all bad.

Stan Lee at Emerald City Comicon and Seattle magazine editor Rachel Hart

 

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