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NOCC: Talking to the Real Stan Lee |
Company: Wizard World
Product: New Orleans Comic Con 2012 Coverage
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Excelsior! Stan Lee is definitely still the man, but I didn't realize how out-of-the-loop he was when it comes to the Marvel feature films. When asked how much control or creative vision he had in the process of creating the cameos, he used the filming of the Avengers cameo as an example.
Studio: Are you free today?
Stan: Yup.
Studio: Get down to the studio. We need you. We're doing your cameo.
Stan: What should I wear?
Studio: Doesn't matter, we'll clothe you when you get down here.
When asked if the costume from the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man movie was true to his vision of Spider-Man, Stan Lee admitted that he honestly didn't know that they had changed the suit. Later, when asked about the multi-cultural (Ultimate) Spider-Man (Miles Morales, Earth-1610), he was unaware of that and said,"Wow, that's great! I had no idea." He explained that Marvel sends him the new comics, but he doesn't have time to read them; he mainly looks at the covers to get some idea of the events that are going on in the Marvel universe. |
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Stan Lee also shared a tale of the one character that he considers a failure. He and Jack Kirby were working on a Fantastic Four comic and were rushed for time. Stan Lee thought to use the name, Diablo. Kirby ran with it and created a truly evil looking character for the villain, but they didn't have a story and they had to throw something together quickly to meet the deadline. Stan Lee said that they never received any fan mail, and to this day, he doesn't remember what the story was about. As Stan said, "I don't know who he was or what we did... and he lives in forgetfulness."
As to which of his characters was the most unique and original, Stan Lee suggested that it may be the Silver Surfer. Stan quipped, "First of all, how many naked super heroes do you see?" Lee tried to make Silver Surfer philosophical and sort of a good guy / bad guy, although he said that to him, Silver Surfer was more of a good guy. According to Stan, Silver Surfer is one of the more original super heroes around. |
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When asked if, after all these years, there's anything he would have done differently, Stan Lee says he would have been more of a businessman. Instead of continually working for the same publisher, he would have started his own publishing company. Stan said, "I know all of you think I'm brilliant. This shows you I'm not; I'm probably the stupidest guy on Earth, cause I never did the one thing that any intelligent guy would have done. But that's the only regret I have; otherwise, it's been fun."
When asked who his biggest role model was and whether they inspired any characters, Lee said that Errol Flynn was his role model. When Lee was growing up, Errol Flynn was the action star, whether he be swashbuckling on a pirate ship, the mayor of Dodge City, robbing from the rich as Robin Hood or playing the part of a super hero, Errol Flynn was the guy that would get the girl and thwart the evil-doers, all the time with a smile on his face. Lee shared with the audience, "I remember when I was about eleven - twelve years old, I would leave a theater that had an Errol Flynn movie and I had a crooked little smile on my face, I thought the way he smiled, and I'd have an imaginary sword by my side and I was looking for a little girl that some bully might be picking on, so I could defend her from the bully, I mean, that guy made such an impression on me. And I found out later that he wasn't that nice a guy in real life, but it didn't matter; he played a great hero."
There were, of course, lighter moments, when the questions asked were a bit more tongue in cheek, such as:
- Q: What inspired you to create all these characters?
- Stan: "Greed. Hey, I have to make a living and that's the field I got into, so the more characters I created, the more my job was more or less assured."
- Q: Which live action adaptations of your characters do you think really captured the essence of what you were going for?
- Stan: "I think the two of them are Spider-Man and Iron Man; I think they turned out the best."
- Q: Are any of the super heroes based off of you?
- Stan: "'Based off of' is incorrect grammatically. Are they based 'on' me, not 'off of' me. And, it's okay, because we can consider that a colloquialism and colloquialisms are all right. What the hell was the question?"
- Q: Which of the cameos was your favorite to do?
- Stan: "One of my favorites was when they wouldn't let me into the wedding of Reed and Sue Richards. But wait 'til you see my two new ones! The one in Spider-Man is funny as Hell, the one in the Avengers was more than a cameo, it's more of a role. Yes, I'm really saying something meaningful.
- Q: If you could choose a favorite Marvel character that you created, who would it be and why?
- Stan: I don't really have any favorites because I love them all, I mean they're all so wonderful and brilliant, but if I had to pick a favorite, I'd probably have to say Spider-Man, because he's the most popular all around the world, so why should I be different than the rest of the world? I love him, too.
- Q: Who's one of your favorite characters that you didn't create?
- Stan: I don't have any. If I didn't create 'em, how good could they be?
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Someone asked Stan Lee which movie was the first film adaptation of one of his characters and what his reaction was to the first time seeing one of his creations interpreted as a movie. He explained that the first one was Fantastic Four and it wasn't very good... and it wasn't supposed to be released. Long before the more recent Fantastic Four films, someone owned the rights to make a movie, but would lose the rights if they didn't start filming by a certain date. They hadn't managed to get a good script together, but, with the threat of losing the rights altogether, they called Roger Corman, a man who was known for shooting really cheap movies. According to Lee, they asked him to "bat out some kind of a movie for a budget of, like, a dollar ninty-eight. ...and he did." Stan explained that the film was only intended to serve as proof of due diligence. "The pathetic thing is that the actors and the director didn't know that; they thought they were doing a real movie that would be released and they worked their hearts out, but there was no money... they were lucky they could get film for the camera. And that was probably the most amateurish movie of all that was done of a Marvel character. There was once a Captain America movie done a long time ago. Let me be charitable and say it isn't one I would recommend. And, there was a Spider-Man TV show - a live action TV show - that was not a masterpiece, either. Aside from that, I think everything that's been put out has been pretty good."
Stan Lee is a man who's seen a lot, and imagined much more. So, in the past 50 years, what scientific invention most impressed Stan Lee? The GPS. "You know, you sit in your car and this disembodied voice says take a left turn. I will never understand how they do that. How some satellite up there knows where I am and knows where I should turn; That's impressive." |
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-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins |
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