Stan Lee

The son of Jewish immigrants from Romania, Stanley Martin Lieber, as much a New Yorker as the illustrious Peter Parker, was born on December 28, 1922. Passionate about adventure literature, as a child he devoured the works of Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Determined to become as famous an author as they were, right out of high school he looked for a job in publishing, hoping they would let him write. With this letter of introduction he only got a job as an assistant, in a modest publisher dedicated to comics, Timely Comics, where they had promised him that over time they would let him compose texts. He expected to be little there; He was unaware that he would dedicate his entire life to the house, that thanks to him it would become a mega-corporation, and that over time it would change its name to Marvel Comics.

At the age of 20 they allowed him to debut as a screenwriter, in the pages of one of the main characters of the factory of the late 40s, Captain America. As he hoped to achieve his goal of becoming a literary reference in a few years, he did not want anyone to remind him of such a humble past, so he decided to convert his name to Stan Lee , which is pronounced very similarly to Stanley, the name of stack of him.

As it took off, he took a liking to cartoons, which is why he continued writing the adventures of various characters throughout the 50s, although success eluded him. Everything changed exactly on November 8, 1961, a cult date for comic book geeks, since that day the first Marvel comic was released: “The Fantastic Four”. It was a revolution, since some of Lee’s hallmarks were already present, which would give him success. Above all, compared to the all-powerful superheroes who triumphed at that time, defeating evil without breaking a sweat, their characters, a married couple, her brother and his best friend, spent more time solving daily problems than battling with the super-villains of turn.

He followed the same line with the rest of the characters he created together with cartoonists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko , today icons known throughout the world, always with some weak point, such as Thor, Iron Man, the incredible Hulk, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, Black Panther (first black superhero), while reinventing Captain America, bringing many of them together in The Avengers. Although he also invented the X-Men, he failed to succeed with them, it was other authors who later brought them to glory.

Spider-Man stands out above all things, for many the best by far, for his likeable sense of humor, and because with him he took his humanization of superheroes to the extreme, since Peter Parker had to do filigree to pay for his studies and reach end of the month, even selling photos to the editor of the newspaper who continually maligns his alter ego. Parker, by the way, is not the only one of his creations whose first and last names begin with the same letter. Stan Lee took this practice to the extreme, to achieve sonority, in the style of Marilyn Monroe or Brigitte Bardot, in characters like Matt Murdoch, Stephen Strange, Doctor Doom, Bruce Banner, Scott Summer and surpassing himself J. Jonah Jameson).

It was a matter of time before his characters passed to the audiovisual field. The first to enter with a clean fist, full of anger, were The Incredible Hulk , and Thor , in the form of an animated series, in 1966. The Spider-Man series of that decade , also animated, had a great impact. The Turkish Tevfik Sen was the first real actor to put on the Trepamuros uniform, in the cult-worthy Mexican cutrez Captain America and El Santo vs. Spiderman , where the famous Aztec wrestler appears with the Marvel heroes.

He was followed by Nicholas Hammond , in the live-action Spider-Man series (1977-1979), which had some success, although the special effects today would cause hilarity. In Spain, in the wake of the success of Superman, the feature film Spider-Man: The Dragon’s Challenge was released in theaters , actually a compilation of two consecutive television episodes. At that time, the silly box also gave rise to the telefilm Doctor Strange (1978) .

The eighties children were made happy by the series The Incredible Hulk , where paradoxically Dr. Bruce Banner (BB) changed his name to David Bruce Banner, and he used to be referred to only as David. The reason is unknown, one of the great mysteries of cathodic history, although there is a theory that this is how David and Goliath are referred to. His special effects basically consisted of the fact that at the moment of the transformation the actor Bill Bixby was replaced by the muscular actor Lou Ferrigno painted in green. Then Lee began his cameos in the films dedicated to his creations, since he served as a narrator, in addition to being seen in a special chapter, The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, as a member of the jury. It is not understood why on TV the Hulk does not speak with his characteristic short phrases: Hulk crushes!

Despite the worldwide impact of this production, during the following two decades there were hardly any attempts to adapt Lee’s characters, only some crazy ones, such as The Fantastic Four , directed in 1994 by Oley Sassone. Factory character Frank Castle gave rise to the ridiculous Punisher . The vampire slayer Blade would change the landscape , which in 1998 became the first Marvel hero that gave money in theaters.

Two key adaptations would be released shortly after. Bryan Singer’s X-Men and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man were distinguished by their enormous fidelity to the source material (although Spider-Man’s body can generate its own webs in the film). They devastated in such a way that the sequels soon followed, Iron Man , Thor , Doctor Strange and a film that the followers of this creator did not even dream was going to be so spectacular, Marvel The Avengers . Sometimes not even reinventing the blockbuster is achieved, since the Hulk (directed by Ang Lee ) and The Incredible Hulk (by Louis Leterrier ) did not finish hitting), and if Tim Story ‘s Fantastic 4 could have made more money, Josh Trank ‘s Fantastic 4 was the big hit.

The interrelation of stories that already existed in comics, whose protagonists cohabit in the same universe, was respected in cinema, which has a great commercial advantage: viewers are pushed to see the rest of the films. He always appears in the titles dedicated to his creations, with a few exceptions.

Like his heroes, in addition to his public identity, he also has a private life, for which we assume that he will take off his sunglasses, so that he will go unnoticed. For that reason, little is known about his private life, with Joan Clayton Boocock Lee, his wife since 1947. Both appeared together in a cameo in X-Men: Apocalypse , where they both witness all the missiles in the world soar

In cinema, his cameos in superhero movies became as popular as those of Alfred Hitchcock, always with his point of humor.