Amazing Facts About Legendary Marvel Comics Creator Stan Lee (26 Photos)
Stan Lee is an American writer, actor, producer, television host, screenwriter, editor and creator of many comic book characters, and former president and chairman of the board of directors of Marvel Comics. We can say that the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is his merit. Here are some interesting facts about this man.
1. Stan Lee had a younger brother, Larry, who created Thor, Iron Man and Ant-Man. Larry Lieber is now 90 years old and only retired from the comics industry in 2018
2. Stan Lee came up with Spider-Man when he had writer's block about new superpowers and saw a fly crawling on the wall.
Lee then started thinking of names like "Bug Man", "Fly Man", "Sticky Man" and "Mosquito Man" before settling on "Spider-Man" because it sounded scary and dramatic .
3. Stan Lee created the X-Men as "mutants" because he didn't want to explain how they got their powers. They were BORN with their abilities.
4. Stan Lee, one of the creators of comic books that have grossed over $11 billion worldwide, was a victim of elder abuse. His business manager Keya Morgan is to blame
5. Stan Lee and Dr. Seuss served in the same military unit during World War II
6. When Stan Lee first pitched Spider-Man, the publisher turned him down. Stan Lee didn't give up and brought Spider-Man into the final issue of the closed series "Amazing Fantasy", which became a success
7. Stan Lee, co-creator of Daredevil, was worried that blind people would be offended by how much he exaggerated how a blind person's other senses were improved...
But then he started getting letters saying that blind people really enjoyed having Daredevil comics read to them.
8. In the late 1990s, Michael Jackson almost bought Marvel Comics to play Spider-Man in the first film. Michael Jackson and Stan Lee were planning to buy a company together
When the deal fell through, he also tried to play Professor X in the first X-Men film.
9. When Stan Lee came up with Iron Man, he had a difficult task ahead of him. It was necessary to create a hero that no one should like, and make people love him
10. Stan Lee proposed to his wife after two weeks of dating. She was already married and quickly filed for divorce in Nevada an hour before her wedding to Stan. The judge who granted the divorce was the same one who performed the marriage ceremony
11. Stan Lee had a contract where he received 10% of the net profits from anything based on his characters.
Spider-Man (2002) grossed more than $800 million, but producers say it didn't make any money as defined in Lee's contract.
12. Kevin Smith took an elderly Stan Lee into his home after news of his abuse
13. Stan Lee was planning to retire from the comics industry until his wife Joan encouraged him to write the characters he wanted for his latest project.
The result was Fantastic Four, which created a type of superhero with more human flaws.
14. When Stan Lee was in the military, he never missed a delivery deadline for a Timely Comics magazine (Marvel in the 40s)
One day he discovered that mail was being kept from him, broke into the mail room and opened the mailbox with a screwdriver, for which he was almost imprisoned.
15. Stan Lee used alliterative names like Peter Parker and Reed Richards because he has a bad memory—if his first and last names start with the same letter, they're easier to remember
16. According to Stan Lee and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno, CBS thought the name Bruce Banner sounded "too gay." The main character's name was then changed to David Banner in The Incredible Hulk series.
According to Ferrigno, in his entire life he had never encountered anything more absurd and ridiculous.
17. In Deadpool, Stan Lee played a DJ at a Vancouver strip club. He later revealed that he was actually filming his part in the studio and was disappointed that he wasn't next to the topless dancer.
18. Gwen Stacy was killed in Spider-Man comics because Stan Lee was in a hurry to get to a meeting in Europe
He really wanted the writers to get out of his office and told them, “If that's what you want to do, fine,” not realizing what he had just agreed to. He returned to find Gwen dead.
19. Stan Lee once remarked that he liked to add "science" to all his stories, and that Hulk's pants were the only time he never had the slightest idea how the exact science behind it worked
20. Although Stan Lee gave the Hulk's alter ego the alliterative name "Bruce Banner", Lee misremembered it and referred to him as "Bob Banner" in some later stories - an error that readers quickly noticed
To resolve this discrepancy, he decided that the hero's official name would be "Robert Bruce Banner".
21. When Spider-Man married Mary Jane in 1987, Marvel held a public wedding with actors dressed as the characters and Stan Lee performed the wedding ceremony
22. Stan Lee served in the Army during World War II for three years after hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor.
23. The Hulk was originally supposed to be gray. Ink problems encountered in the first edition led Stan Lee to decide that the monster should be green.
24. In 2016, Stan Lee named Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002) his favorite superhero film
25. Stan Lee based the characters Professor X and Magneto on Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, respectively.