Happy 95th birthday, Stan Lee

Stan Lee on a 1971 episode of To Tell The Truth

Dec. 28 is the 95th birthday for Stan Lee, the long-time editor and writer at Marvel Comics. More recently, he has been part of the marketing of Marvel Studios movies.

Stan (born Stanley Martin Lieber) has outlived many of his collaborators, including Jack Kirby, Wally Wood, Gene Colan, Don Heck and John Buscema. Others, including Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr. are hanging in there. Also, Stan’s wife Joan passed away earlier this year.

As the blog has remarked before, Stan’s legacy is a complicated one. He has been depicted as the creator of the Marvel Universe while Kirby, Ditko, et al. did considerable work in devising those stories.

That legacy remains complicated today. There’s plenty of time to analyze that again later. Today? The blog wishes Stan a happy birthday.

With that in mind, here’s one of Stan’s many comic book cameos (along with Joan) in an issue of Daredevil from 1971:

Stan Lee (and his wife Joan) make a cameo in Daredevil No. 79, written by Gerry Conway, drawn by Gene Colan and inked by Tom Palmer

Will creators be remembered for 2014 comic book movies?

John Romita Sr.’s cover to Amazing Spider-Man No. 121, written by Gerry Conway

There’s a spoiler concerning Amazing Spider-Man 2 in the post below.

April 4 is the start of the comic book movie season with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The presence of SHIELD, Marvel’s spy organization, merits inclusion of the subject here. The film’s arrival raises the question how much recognition those who created the original source material will receive.

Movies made by Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel Studios have settled into a pattern. The comic book creators aren’t included in the screenplay credit. But, for the most part, they show up in the long “crawl” of the end titles. Those who did the original comic story get a “based on the comic book by” credit and later there’s a “special thanks” credit for those who worked on stories the film’s writers used in crafting their story.

Example: the first Captain America film in 2011 had a credit for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who wrote and drew the original 1941 comic book. The “special thanks” credit included Kirby and Stan Lee, among others, who did various stories that helped form the final movie.

Meanwhile, movies where Marvel licensed characters haven’t even done that much. The X-Men movies and the 2003 Daredevil movie released by 20th Century Fox never mentioned the comic book creators, for example.

For that matter, DC Comics-based movies only reference comic book creators where Warner Bros. is contractually obligated to do so. So you’ll see Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s names on a Superman film as well as Bob Kane on a Batman film. But you won’t see Bill Finger, Mark Waid, John Broome, Gil Kane or others who did comic book stories that the movies used. Jerry Robinson got a consultant credit on 2008’s The Dark Knight that didn’t say he actually created The Joker.

Which brings us to Amazing Spider-Man 2, which Sony Corp. will release early next month, having licensed Spider-Man from Marvel. The Spider-Man movies released since 2002 do include Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the original creative team on Marvel’s most successful character.

Gerry Conway, who wrote Spider-Man stories in the 1970s, has taken to HIS TWITTER FEED to let folks know one of his stories — arguably his most important Spidey tale — figures into the 2014 movie.

I see in Entertainment Weekly that Spider-Man 2 is, in fact, based partly on my Amazing Spider-Man 121. Waiting for invite to premiere.

The Los Angeles Times noticed and a post on its Hero Complex blog. Conway’s original story included the death of a major character and there have been hints that will replicated with the 2014 movie.

In any event, many millions of dollars are riding on all this as Disney/Marvel, Sony and Fox all come out with superhero movies this year, with more scheduled for 2015 and 2016. None of those films would be possible without the comic book creators who, for the most part, aren’t with us. The likes of Kirby, Simon, Kane, Finger and others have died. Creators, such as Lee (91) and Ditko (86), are at an advanced age.

Only Stan Lee, with his gift of self promotion, is remembered by much of the population. Outside of comics fans, not many are aware the likes of Kirby, Finger, Larry Lieber (Stan Lee’s brother), Don Heck, Dave Cockrum, Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Herb Trimpe, etc., etc., etc., created the characters that are the foundations of the movies.

It’d be nice if that changed in 2014. But don’t count on it.

UPDATE (April 3): Gerry Conway says on Twitter he has been invited to the premier of Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Iron Man Three: Tony Stark’s 007 moment

Cover to Iron Man No. 125

In Iron Man Three, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark can’t use his Iron Man armor for an extended sequence. As he searches for the Mandarin, Downey/Stark seems downright 007-like infiltrating an estate in search of the villain and using gadgets and a firearm.

The movie’s sequence is partially based on a 1979 comic book story by writer David Michelinie and artists John Romita Jr. and Bob Layton, which was co-plotted by Michelinie and Layton.

Michelinie and Layton are included in a “special thanks” credit along with other writers and artists of comic book stories used in the movie. This is separate from a “based on the comic book by” credit for Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby for creating the character.

The context of the Michelinie-Layton plotted story is different than the 2013 film, but the writer and artist also separated Stark from his armor. One major difference in the original comic book story is that Stark knows he needs additional physical training before he attempts 007-like deeds. He receives such training from none other than Captain America.

As in the new movie, Stark eventually regains access to the armor. But for a time he has to use his own wits and abilities. The cover to issue 125, drawn by Layton, evokes James Bond films.

To read more about the original comic book story, you can CLICK HERE FOR A SYNOPSIS OF IRON MAN 124 (which sets up the situation where Stark is separated from his armor) HERE FOR A SYNOPSIS OF IRON MAN 125, HERE FOR ISSUE 126 and HERE FOR ISSUE 127, which concluded the story arc.

Iron Man: the Cold War Years

One of the big hits in movie theaters this year was “Iron Man” with Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, the billionaire industrialist who moonlights as a super hero. The character debuted back in 1963 and, arguably, was the Marvel Comics character most tied to the Cold War. Soviet premiers ordered hits on Tony Stark and the Soviets kept coming up with their own versions of Iron Man.

For example, the Soviets, in a 1965 multi-part story in Tales of Suspense came up with Titanium Man, who challenged Iron Man to a fight on neutral ground.

A year later, this story was turned into a cartoon with extremely limited animation. But it closely mirrored the original Stan Lee/Don Heck story. The cartoon used original Heck drawings (even sneaking in a few drawings by Gene Colan, who succeeded Heck on Iron Man).

A shortened version of the cartoon showed up on YouTube. The late John Vernon (who would later play Dean Wormer in “Animal House”) is the voice of Iron Man/Tony Stark. So, without further blabbing…