stan lee hogs the credit again

I’m going to say something that’s pretty obvious: Stan Lee is an ass.

I don’t dismiss what talent Lee had, but he continues to take sole credit for creating the core Marvel comic characters, a claim that has been substantially debunked. In fact, in the new Iron Man movie, the credits include Lee, Larry Lieber, and Don Heck. It’s well established that the artists, especially Kirby and Steve Ditko, actually plotted and detailed the comic story.

Yet, Lee continues to take the sole credit, and the news media goes along. Take this story in USA Today:

At 85, Marvel superhero creator Stan Lee is hardly spending his senior years waxing nostalgic about how he created Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four and two heroes hitting the big screen this summer: Iron Man (burning up theaters now) and The Incredible Hulk (opening June 13).

“Virtually every major character that I created at Marvel is being turned into movies,” Lee says in his POW! Entertainment offices. “When I go to the theater to see these, I’m able to just sit there and enjoy the movies without thinking, ‘Hey, I created that.’ “

Stan doesn’t acknowledge that Jack Kirby co-created most of those characters, a man who’s imagination is obvious from his later stint at DC where he single-handedly created one of the most interesting and deep parts of the DC universe, one that, in fact, really turned the DC universe on its head with all of its implications.

What’s bad, too, is that my son pointed out Stan Lee’s cameo in the Iron Man movie, “Dad! It’s Stan Lee!” Needless to say, I’ve got a lot of re-education to do, but the shame of it is that Lee is doing the same Orwellian tactics that he used in the 70s, erasing all other collaborators. And for many new fans, they’re associating these characters with Lee’s imagination.

It’s not that I’m a Jack Kirby fanatic, but too many great talents have lost out on the recognition [and often money] that they deserve. Kirby was no smooth talker, which is probably one reason Stan was able to grab an abundance of credit for the Marvel Age. Now, the fact is that Lee had probably more business sense than Kirby, who, according to the biography King of Comics, was in a rough patch of finding work before signing on to work again with Stan Lee at Timely > Atlas > Marvel comics.

The first issue of the ‘marvel age’ of comics was the Fantastic Four 1 which appeared in November 1961, followed by Tales to Astonish 22 in January 1962 [first appearance of ant-man/Henry Pym] and then by the Hulk in May 1962. Spider-Man didn’t appear for the first time until August 1962 in Amazing Fantasy 15.

Now, consider that, in 1957, Jack Kirby created a team of heroes called the Challengers of the Unknown, a foursome that survived an aircraft crash. Now, while they didn’t have superpowers, you have some basic similarities to the Fantastic Four origins: a foursome that survived a spaceship accident. Both teams then faced fantastic enemies and monsters.

So, do you really think Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four all by himself and that Kirby ‘just’ drew Stan’s ideas?

Jack Kirby did a lot of monster comics prior to the ‘Marvel Age,’ creating a create called the hulk in Journey into Mystery 62.

And let’s face facts: the Marvel Age didn’t start until Jack Kirby arrived, even though Stan Lee had been there all along at Timely/Atlas/Marvel.

Other comic book fans have articulated better arguments than this of Kirby’s significant contributions to all the properties now coming to film. But my point is to point out to those unfamiliar with Jack Kirby just likely it is that he and not Stan Lee probably has better claim of creator.