Stan Lee

He is the legend. The Man. Stan The Man. And there he was on stage, mere metres from a thousand or so of his biggest fans, all of whom waited an hour or more in line just for a chance to see him; to hang on his every word.

Creator or co-creator of nearly every character in the Marvel universe. Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the X-Men, Thor, Daredevil, Iron Man.  You could argue he is bigger than any super hero on the list. He is Stan Lee, and at 90 years old (91 on December 28) he ain’t slowing down just yet.

This is his thing now: talking to fans, spreading the good word about everything Marvel. Watching as his creations move to the big screen and make billions at the box office. He obviously loves his job (who wouldn’t?) and the fans – his fans – can’t get enough of him. They even ask him for marital advice – he’s been married for more than 65 years, which is not nearly as long as he’s been in the comics business – and they ask him about the secrets to living a long life.

“Don`t die,” is his response.

Eventually they get around to asking about the comics and how he came up with all those characters in the early 60s, launching the Silver Age of comic books. But if the fans were expecting some nuggets of comic writing brilliance, or even something he hasn’t told a few thousand times before, they would be disappointed.

But not too disappointed. It’s Stan Lee, man.

“I had to. It was my job,” answered the ever pragmatic Lee. “My boss asked me to come up with some superheroes and I had bills to pay, so I came up with super heroes.”

First out of the fertile mind of Lee was the Fantastic Four, which debuted in November 1961. The Hulk followed in May and in August 1962 he hit the home run with Thor and the Amazing Spider-Man.

Spider-Man, Marvel’s biggest star (besides Lee, of course), was also Lee’s favourite character, partly because the wall-crawler almost never made it into print, thanks to a sceptical Martin Goodman, Lee’s boss.

“I wanted a teenage super hero because there weren’t any of those around. And I wanted him to have problems,” he said, recounting a much-told tale that is never exactly the same with each telling.  “But my publisher thought it was the worst idea I’d ever had.”

“He said, ‘no one wants a teenage super hero – they’re only sidekicks. And no one wants a super hero with problems. That’s why they’re super heroes.’”

Lee decided to give his idea a shot in the Amazing Fantasy book, which was scheduled to be cancelled.

“We were killing the book so I figured I’d get it out of my system ‘cause no one cares what we put in the last issue,” he said. “After the sales numbers came in (Goodman) came back and said ‘remember that Spider-Man character we both loved?’”

These days Lee doesn’t get too creative anymore – though there is a movie in the works that features a brand new, Lee-created, Chinese super hero called the Annihilator – preferring to spend his time keeping an eye on his empire. He does voice-overs for animated features, works on new media projects, keeps an eye out for new artists/writers – “we always have to be on the lookout for new talent” – and hangs out with fans at conventions like Fan Expo.

The huge success of Marvel’s movie division has also been a pleasant diversion of late for Lee. The Avengers took in more than $1.5 billion and the Iron Man series has also been wildly successful. And we’re not even counting other Marvel properties, such as the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises, which are in the hands of other studios.

The films have been so successful, in fact, that there’s a back-up in the movie production department. The second Thor film opens this fall, the second Captain America movie will be released next year and Avengers 2, Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy are in production. That doesn’t leave much time for other projects, pleads one fan to Lee.

 “It’s not that Marvel and Disney don’t want to do it, but there are only so many days in the week and only so many people to do it,” Lee answers. “We’re trapped by our own success.”

After all these years and all these characters, another fan asked, was there a character he’d like a do-over on?

After some thought, Lee said, “maybe Diablo,” a villain he dreamed up in 1964.

“I was pressed for time on a Fantastic Four story and I don’t even remember doing it, so I guess I’d like a do-over on that. Did anybody even read that issue?”

One fan said he had and declared that it “wasn’t bad.”

“Oh well, I guess there’s nothing I’d do over,” he said to much laughter. “Everything’s great.”

By the way, Lee’s secret to marital bliss with wife Joan? Humility. “Here I’m being treated like royalty but at home she just wants to know if I took out the garbage.”

That’s why he’s Stan the Man.