Stan Lee is a 2023 American documentary film, centered around the lifetime and career of the famous comic book writer of the same name. There are few people who have inspired my love of superheroes and comic books the way that Stan Lee has, so it’s almost impossible for an 86 minute straightforward Disney+ documentary to fully capture all the man’s brought to the world of pop culture. Nonetheless, director David Gelb’s fast paced and vivacious documentary benefits from using archival video/audio material from Lee and his coworkers to tell the nearly century long story of Marvel comics. Even though Lee started working as a gofer for Timely Comics in 1939, the film touches on the early days of him writing Captain America comics alongside Joe Simon and Jack Kirby up until he became burnt out in the mid 50’s. In that time period, it’s important to note that Lee was rather embarrassed to bring up the fact that he was a comic book writer at these boujee cocktails events. The movie uses a simple yet clever way of telling the story by syncing the archival audio with clay figures to convey what it was like to be right in the middle of Lee and his creative team’s lively discussions and oftentimes humorous arguments.
Once the title card 1961 appears on the screen, that’s when the true magic and feeling of wonderment sets in. It’s great to see that the film acknowledges the impact Stan’s wife Joan had on paving the road for him to write characters that he can genuinely relate to. In 1960, the Justice League of America took the world by storm and with Lee on the verge of quitting the comic book business, he came up with a team of superheroes of his own, grounded in the reality of ordinary people’s problems. The creation of the Fantastic Four laid the foundation for just about everything to follow, not just in the context of Marvel’s shared comic universe, but also the way in which Lee and Kirby cranked out comic issues on the daily. One of the most interesting aspects is how the film dives in to Lee’s intentions on creating heroes that the everyday person can get behind, whether it’s empathizing for the tortured Bruce Banner/Hulk or relating to the teenage high school problems of the nerdy Peter Parker. The film doesn’t shy away from the fact that Lee was very heavily influenced by real world events (i.e. Civil Rights Movement/Vietnam War) in his creation of the X-Men and Iron Man.
Perhaps the creation of Spider-Man with illustrator Steve Ditko is one of the most fascinating stories in the mix. Publisher Martin Goodman initially refused to allow Lee to release Spider-Man to the public, but after the influx of positive fan mail received, the wall crawler was granted his own series, and the rest is history. Highlighting the different artistic styles of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko is something that any comic book art lover will be glad to see. Gelb effectively captures how upbeat, outgoing, and positive Lee was as a person, from his humble working class beginnings to his rise to fame in the 60’s and 70’s. Whether it’s the well known fallout between Lee and Kirby or Steve Ditko’s unexpectedly sudden departure from Marvel, the last 30 minutes will be a hot topic of discussion for many. Who’s really responsible for creating Spider-Man? Was it really Kirby or Lee who made the building blocks of the Fantastic Four? Is it the person who thinks up the idea of a character or the person who draws that idea? That is and will be the topic of debate for plenty of viewers who watch this film. Through a radio show interview in the 1980’s, it’s made crystal clear that there was no love lost between Lee and Kirby.
Just yesterday, Neal Kirby, son of Jack Kirby, issued a rather scathing statement in response to this documentary, saying how it’s one sided towards Lee’s favor. While there is much truth in this statement, it can be argued that an entirely separate documentary from the perspective of the Kirby family can be made as a rebuttal to this particular subject. These aren’t necessarily faults of the film itself, as they are touched on towards the end, but it’s more-so a result of the short runtime. With all that said, it’s quite impressive how informative and educational this documentary is to both hardcore Marvel fans and general viewers alike. What it does best is exactly what Lee did so majestically: humanize the creative impact and imagination of superheroes. Overall, it can't tell the complete “warts and all” story of Stan Lee in only 86 minutes, but David Gelb’s inventive direction and the archival audio/video material from Lee's various interviews do more than enough to give true believers an entertaining examination of one of the most influential people in the world of comic books and pop culture. A must watch for any Marvel and superhero fan. EXCELSIOR!
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