Stan Lee

The better title would have been stan lee and building marvel comics. It's a mix of animation and actual footage. Even archival film from the bombing of pearl harbor. Stan lee narrates his own story. Of course, he died in 2018, and this didn't come out until 2023. One wonders if he had prepared this in advance, for when he passed. Some interesting tales of events along the way, how he came up with various characters, or why some issues don't carry the stamp of comic book approval. Some controversy over who should have credit for the different parts of the empire. We hear some recordings of interviews with lee and jack kirby. It's a shame that the director didn't have a one on one interview with just jack kirby, or the new owners of marvel, when it got sold. Kirby died in 1994, so it would have had to take place before that! A really professional documentary looks at the subject from all angles, and most of the material told here seems to be from lee's point of view, and mostly told by lee himself. Directed by david gelb, who has been nominated for emmys and grammys. An interesting story, for sure. And pretty good.

A glossy cover without substance inside. You know how when your grandpa tells stories that as he gets older the stories get retconned so he sounds more and more like a hero? Stan Lee has been doing this since the '70s. Stuff that just happened by chance or that Ditko or Kirby came up with, Lee says came to him after some inspiration or consideration. Sure, Stan. Anyone who has seen him speak at a con knows he was all hot air and self-hagiography. Lee became a salesman in the '70s, and frankly he had to, to stay in the biz. And it was through his ruthless salemanship that comic books became as influential as they became to you and me. Did he screw over Kirby and Ditko? Most certainly. Roy Thomas is the one who says the smartest thing in this doc-that Kirby and Ditko and Lee were able to do what they did only because they worked together. But for the most part that of nuance is missing from this CBS Sunday Morning-style puff piece. The story of Lee and Marvel needs to be told alongside the story of the commercialization/corporate takeover and cheapening of the value of comic book heroes. That's the crossover event I want to see.

The story of Stan Lee as told mostly by Stan Lee. While it is interesting to hear from the subject of a documentary, the film makers themselves should be a little more detached. They do touch upon the idea that Stan Lee may not have come up with this iconic characters himself, but an interview with Jack Kirby is edited in a way that makes Kirby look like he doesn't have much of a case, and he did. The other part of this film is that it really wants to be a happy story, but the end of Stan Lee's life was anything but. He was accused of sexual assualt, and he definitely was the victim of elder abuse. (there was even a trial). Neither of these things were mentioned.

I'm not a professional art critic, but as an ordinary person that only knew Lee by its achievements not by the processes to get there, this documentary gave me a wider and deeper perspective not only about how Lee was a genius in the using of empathy but also in translating the reality around him (especially the youth one) into something amazingly simple and accessible to the mass audience, in a very different and lighter way that institutions and governments do so. To be honest, I've never truly understood why Marcel comics was much more effective then DC get into the heart of all generation, race, origin ranges of people around the world, now I got it.

A well-made yet simple documentary that can feel a bit too corporate-y at times, it is most interesting when it starts to delve into dramatic moments such as Kirby and Lee's complicated history in the 70's, but it instantly steers away to remind audiences of the cultural iconography of Stan Lee and act as an ad for the MCU.

Most of the information isn't groundbreaking if you are familiar with the history of Stan Lee and his work at Marvel Comics, but it's told in a really nice way with some great graphics, animation, and overall editing.

I love how vibrantly they presented the vintage comic books and the way they chose to visualise the past through sculptures, a really unique way that fits the overall vibe. I wish it had more depth or nuance, because I feel like I've already seen all of it's content in other docs before, but nevertheless the presentation stands out here. A great watch for any comic book fan, or anyone interested in learning about a integral persona in the world of comics.

Comics have perhaps the strongest physical nostalgic impact on me. The feeling of touching a new comic book and the smell of it has an undeniable warmth for me, I have countless memories attached to these characters and stories that I will never get tired or ashamed of enjoying. Forget any media adaptation that has come and any that is yet to, whether good or bad, nothing ever beats those hues found in a comic strip.