Marvel Comics' Stan Lee set for Supanova Expo - 3rd June 2014

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Stan Lee: It was watching a fly crawl on the wall of his studio, that sparked idea for the Amazing Spider-Man. Photo: Supplied

When Stan Lee saw the X-Men on the big screen for the first time, his reaction was visceral and immediate. “I said, ‘Oh man, if we could do more movies like this, we’d take over the world’.”

The comic book writer, who created the mutant superheroes in the 1960s, laughs at the recollection over the phone from Los Angeles. Since 20th Century Fox’s X-Men movie in 2000, he has watched with fascination as his creations came to life on screen, one after another: the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and the Amazing Spider-Man – a character Lee says he dreamed up while observing a fly on his writing room wall. Another Lee creation, Ant-Man, will soon join the packed roster, but not before the Avengers enjoy another outing and the Fantastic Four gets another reboot.

Comic-book movies have become Hollywood’s own superheroes, wielding awesome power over audiences and generating box office receipts that would make even billionaire Tony Stark crack a smile behind his gleaming Iron Man exterior.

The films have led to renewed interest in Lee, the man behind the man behind the mask. At 91, he remains a lively and committed ambassador for Marvel, the comic books publisher-turned-juggernaut with whom he has been connected for more than 70 years. He will soon arrive in Sydney for his appearance at the Supanova Pop Culture Expo.

Lee began as a low-level assistant at Timely Comics in 1939, when he was 17 and harbouring serious literary aspirations. He had no special interest in comic books, having grown up reading the likes of Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain and Shakespeare. He planned to deploy his full name, Stanley Martin Lieber, only when he got around to writing the great American novel.

Instead, working his way up the ranks as a writer at what eventually became Marvel Comics, Lee applied his literary sensibilities to a new batch of superheroes, and injected some inspiration into a genre running low on ideas.

From the outset, he broke from the convention of portraying superheroes as idealised, invincible archetypes. He rejected artist Jack Kirby’s original drawings for Peter Parker/Spider-Man as too “glamorous”. He set out to emphasise the essential flawed humanity of each of his heroes – Peter Parker’s angst, Tony Stark’s vanity, the Fantastic Four’s petty in-fighting, the Incredible Hulk’s incredible self-loathing.

Many of Lee’s characters felt cursed by their abilities and wrestled with feelings and situations, that were instantly relatable to readers. In one comic, the Fantastic Four faced eviction for not paying their rent.

“I was bored with stories of perfect heroes who had no faults,” Lee says. “They didn't seem interesting to me. It seemed to me if I could take someone like Spider-Man – he’s worried about money, he’s not that successful with girls, he's worried about his aunt and her health. It’s the kind of hero that any reader can identify with, because he has the same problems they have. I know I would rather read that sort of story.

“I did anything I could do, to make where they lived seem real and what they did seem real,” he says.

In the same way, Lee’s stories were set in the real world, not some fictionalised Gotham, with a firmer footing in real-world themes. Beyond the explosive battle sequences, X-Men, for example, is a thoroughly human allegory of persecution and intolerance.

It is obvious Lee approves of the recent blitz of Marvel blockbusters – he has made regular cameo roles in just about all of them so far. He will not accept credit for their success, but argues that the fundamental appeal is the same as in the original comics.

“We all loved stories of giants and wizards and witches when we were children, but as you get a bit older you're not going to read fairy tales anymore,” says Lee. “But along comes these superhero comics and stories and – to me – they’re really fairy tales for grown-ups. They have all the elements of the stories we loved as children, but adults can enjoy them. And, I might add, children love them too.”

In case you were wondering, Lee hasn’t given his former high-flown literary aspirations much thought in recent years. “I guess, if you put all the stories I’ve written together, there's probably one big novel there. So yeah, I'm satisfied.”

Anyway, in the minds of his many fans, Lee has attained superhero status himself. In one of the side-quests of the recent Amazing Spider-Man video games, Lee is a playable character: a dapper, silver-haired man with web-slinging-powers, soaring through New York City on a mission to track down the pages of a manuscript.

“I just hope nobody picks a fight with me because of it,” says Lee, “thinking I’m indestructible.”

Stan Lee will appear at the Supanova Pop Culture Expo at Sydney Showground from June 13-15.

(The Sydney Morning Herald)