Stan the Man

For whatever reason, the batch of Marvel movies made since Spider-Man have been, for the most part, pretty good. Not just successful, but basically good stuff. Sure, a few of them have been throwaways, and a few just didn't make it (Eric Bana's—and Ang Lee's!—Hulk was enough to keep me away from Edward Norton's Incredible Hulk, and I think Edward Norton walks on water, except there's no way Hulk is walking on any water, so you know I was totally Hulked out by the first flop), but most of them have been good, entertaining pop movies, the kind that insist you grab some popcorn and sit in a movie theater and go whole hog with them. The Avengers, something of a culmination of a whole bunch that came before, with the bonus of Joss Whedon at the helm (I'm still waiting for season 2 of Firefly), is one of the best of the bunch. For once even the Hulk works, although they do keep him under wraps most of the time. Smart idea. Smart movie, with Whedon the icing on the cake. How many billions is this thing going to make, anyhow? And how right was Disney to buy out this franchise?

Of course, the movies are a phenomenon that couldn't exist without the comics that established these characters. And those comics came out originally over a very short period, a sort of Golden Age when we went from zero to Hulk, Spidey, Fantastic 4, Thor, Iron Man and, every philosopher's favorite, the Silver Surfer, in sixty seconds. (Silver Surfer: Now there's a character who's gotten short shrift in the movies, if you ask me. The Fantastic 4 pictures are the least of the franchise, for some reason. Too bad. The Surfer deserved better.) And all of this had the thumbprints of good old Stan Lee.

What, exactly, did Lee do in creating these characters and these stories? Well, there's the rub. None of those comics exist without a little thing called the artists, most especially Jack Kirby. There's no question that over the years Marvel pushed its artists in their promotion, but when all was said and done, the artists were hired guns, literally work for hire as it's called. Which means that, whatever his contributions, Lee is still getting the credit. Everyone else? Find their names in the movie credits. It's reached a point where certain members of the comic community are boycotting the Marvel films. But as Alex Pappademas says in his article The Inquisition of Mr. Marvel, the world at large has taken these films to heart; they don't need the comics community anymore.

I liked Pappademas's article a lot. It gives the history, and it goes mano a mano with Lee today. It's one of the best I've read (Grantland has to be among the best sites out there), and given that we are now in an Avengers feeding frenzy, now is the time to read it.

'Nuff said.
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