Stan "The Man Lee Speaks!, Part I
September 8, 2008

This summer, I was lucky enough to wangle an interview with Stan “The Man” Lee,  legendary co-creator of the greatest superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe, including Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Iron Man, The Hulk and Daredevil. I actually chatted with him prior to this year’s Comic Con, which he attended to discuss, amongst other things, Sony’s The Spectacular Spider-Man: Attack of the Lizard!, which hits the street this week!

VB: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us!

LEE: Pretty damned nice of me, isn’t it?

VB: Oh yes…and we’ve heard you can be a real son-of-a-bitch!

LEE: (laughs) Those are just stories…

VB: Let’s talk about the Spectacular Spider-Man: Attack of the Lizard, which you executive produced.

VB: Forty years ago, could you have guessed that Spidey would be the biggest break-out star of all those you created in the Marvel universe?

LEE: I think I would have. He’s always been the most popular of the Marvel heroes as far back as I can remember. Readers liked that he was a teenager and that he wasn’t doing that well in his civilian life, which is something people can relate to. And the costume that Steve Ditko designed for him was a masterpiece. It’s a very compelling costume—not just a guy wearing a cape. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he’s a was a New Yorker

VB: Would you like to see Spidey grow out of his 20s and continue to fight crime as a middle-aged or even elderly superhero?

LEE: I don’t think we’ll ever make him too old. We have aged him—from a teenager to high school to grad school, and then we got him married. But with every comic book character, different writers take the script over at different times, just like in the movies. Every new writer likes to put his imprimatur on a character, so there’ll always be changes of some sort.

 Check back later in the week for the second half of my interview with Stan Lee!!

Posted by Laurence Lerman on September 8, 2008 | Comments (0)