The new Disney+ documentary, “Stan Lee,” was brought to life Saturday by Neil Kirby, son of respected comics creator Jack Kirby, who described the bio-doc as the latest in “more than 35 years of uncontested promotion” of Lee.
Raising questions about the producer credit for most of his father’s work at Marvel — credits that have fallen to Lee over the years, especially in the public eye — Kirby responded to Lee via his daughter Jillian’s Twitter account. shared a series of messages to express his continued frustration with the omnipresence of the mind behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“If you look at a list and timeline of Marvel characters from 1960 to 1966, the period in which the vast majority of Marvel’s major characters were created during Lee’s tenure, you will see Lee’s name as a creator on every character. Will see as, with the exception of Silver Surfer, built entirely by my father,” wrote Kirby. “Should we assume that Lee had a hand in the making of every Marvel character? Should we assume that no other co-creator ever came into Lee’s office and said, ‘Stan, I have a good idea for a character? Idea!’ According to Lee, it was always his idea.
Kirby further stated that although his father was not credited as a co-producer on Marvel films until 2008’s “Iron Man”, and while he is not a comics historian himself, he grew up watching That’s how the world and characters of Marvel were created. his father’s hand.
“Through middle and high school, I was able to stand over my father’s left shoulder, peering through a cloud of cigar smoke and watching the creation of the Marvel Universe,” he said. “I’m not a comics historian by any means, but there are few, if any, who have personally seen or experienced it, and know the truth with firsthand knowledge.”
The documentary “Stan Lee” debuted on Disney+ on Friday. It comes from director David Gelb, and the vast majority of the narration is Lee’s own voice, retelling Marvel’s origins and recounting his legendary career. Lee died in 2018 at the age of 95.
Read Kirby’s full statement below.
The 13th century Islamic poet/scholar Rumi said, ‘The ego is a veil between man and God.’ In Stan Lee’s Disney+ documentary bio, the veil is lifted. Presented in first man with Lee’s voice, this is Stan Lee’s greatest tribute to himself. The literary expression of the ego is the personal pronoun ‘I’. Any decent English or journalism teacher would advise their students not to overuse it. So, the challenge is for all who want to count the number of ‘I’s’ during the 86 minutes running time of ‘Stan Lee’.
I (duh!) understand that, as ‘a documentary about Stan Lee’, much of the narrative is in his voice, literally and figuratively. It’s no big secret that there has always been controversy about the role Marvel characters play in their creation and success. Stan Lee was fortunate to have a corporate megaphone and access to the media, and he used these to create his own mythos, building the Marvel character pantheon. He made himself the voice of Marvel. So for many decades, he was the “only” man left standing, and blessed with a long life, the last man standing (my father died in 1994). It should also be noted and is generally accepted that Stan Lee had limited knowledge of history, mythology or science. On the other hand, my father’s knowledge of these subjects was extensive, which I and many others can personally attest to. Einstein summed it up better: ‘The more knowledge, the less arrogance. Less knowledge, more ego.
If you look at a list and timeline of Marvel characters from 1960 to 1966, the period in which the vast majority of Marvel’s major characters were created during Lee’s tenure, you can see Lee’s name as a creator on every character, with the exception of Will see as Silver Surfer’s, made only by my father. Are we to assume that Lee had a hand in the making of every Marvel character? Are we to assume that no other co-creator ever walked into Lee’s office and said, ‘Stan, I have a great idea for a character!’ According to Lee, it was always his idea. Lee spends a lot of time talking about how and why he created the Fantastic Four, with only a fleeting reference to my father. In fact, most comics historians agree that my father named the Fantastic Four based on Challengers of the Unknown, a comic he created for DC in 1957 under the name Ben Grimm (The Thing) and my older sister Susan. Sue Storm was named after him. ,
While the dispute between Lee and my father over creator credits gets less attention, more attention is paid to the conflict between Lee and Steve Ditko, in which Lee’s voice says, ‘It was my idea,’ So, I created the character,” Ditko’s rebuttal is that his art and story are what bring Spider-Man to life. In 1501, the Opera del Duomo commissioned a 26-year-old Michelangelo to create a statue of David for the Cathedral of Florence—his idea, his money. The statue is called Michelangelo’s David – his genius, his vision, his creativity.
I was very lucky. My father worked at home in his Long Island basement studio, which we referred to as ‘The Dungeon,’ usually 14-16 hours a day, seven days a week. Most of the writers, artists, inkers, etc. worked at home and not in the Marvel offices as depicted in the program. Through middle and high school, I was able to stand over my father’s left shoulder, peep through a cloud of cigar smoke, and watch the Marvel Universe build. I am by no means a comics historian, but there are few, if any, who have personally seen or experienced what I have, and know the truth with firsthand knowledge.
My father retired from comic books in the early 1980s, and of course he passed away in 1994. Lee had over 35 years of uncontested promotion, naturally, with Marvel’s support and blessing as he promoted the Marvel brand as a side effect. Promote yourself Lee’s decades of self-promotion culminated in more than 35 Marvel movies starting with ‘X-Men’ in 2000, thus cementing his status as creator of all things to an otherwise oblivious movie audience of millions. strengthened, which Marvel was unfamiliar with. The True History of Marvel Comics. My father’s first screen credit didn’t appear until the end of the 2008 film adaptation of Iron Man, after Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Larry Lieber. Battles for creator’s rights have raged since the first inscribed Babylonian tablet. It’s a way to pass the time to at least get this one chapter of literary/art history right. ’nuff said.
