Stan Lee on Spider-Man, His Creative Process, Social Media and Future Characters

Forbes.com - 7/12/2012 @ 8:56AM

Stan Lee

Stan Lee co-created some of the most recognizable and lucrative characters in global pop culture history. His franchise characters include Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, and hundreds of others. He also came up with the idea for The Avengers, which is just became the third highest grossing movie of all time. The Amazing Spider-Man movie, a reboot of the original, is now in theaters. His company, POW! Entertainment is now publishing a new line of comics, “Stan Lee Comics,” in partnership with Archie and A2 Entertainment. Other publications include the New York Times’ Bestselling Graphic Novel Romeo and Juliet: The War and a series geared toward a youth audience ages 2-12, in collaboration with 1821 Comics. His official YouTube channel is called Stan Lee’s World of Heroes , and you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook .

In this interview, Stan talks about The Amazing Spider-Man movie, what new characters he’s working on, why everyone loves superhero movies, his use of social media, and more.

Are you pleased with how “The Amazing Spider-Man” came out? What was your favorite part of the movie and why?

My favorite part of the Spider-Man movie of course was my cameo (saying that while laughing), so I think that answers that question for you. And the reason is because it was my cameo. It set the tone for the whole film.

What is your creative process like for creating new characters? What new characters on on the horizon?

To explain the creative process would just be to give me a lot more competitors, if anybody is listening to this. So, I would have to say I really have no idea. If we need a new character and decide we need a new project, I just go home and do some thinking, some doodling with a pencil and paper until an idea comes to me.

We have a new Chinese superhero and I think he’s going to be incredibly popular. It’s not a Chinese movie, it’s a movie for the whole world. But our hero is Chinese and we wanted to do something different. Something different is what we always try to do. This story, which at the moment is called “The Annihilator”, we think is going to be like no superhero movie that anyone has ever seen. That’s all I can tell you now or Gil will shoot me. But that’s one thing that we’re excited about.

We also have another movie in the works called “The Prodigal”. Again, it’s different than most superhero movies, although there is a lot of super stuff involved, but it is a story about a family – a family like none you have ever known. That’s all I can say about that.

Then, of course, there’s…we have so many things, I forget. We have another one called “The Retaliator”.“The Retaliator”, I think, is the first superhero that focuses on ecological problems mainly. On people and organizations that are threatening the very life and safety of the planet we live on.

We do have an Indian superhero called “Chakra” and he is so different that I can’t even begin to tell you what the difference is, mainly because I have forgot it.

Well, I have a long theory about that. It goes back to the fact that all of us, including you, loved fairy tales when we were kids. Tales of monsters and dragons and witches and giants, but you outgrow the fairy tale. You can’t read them when you’re an adult, but I don’t think you ever really outgrow your love for them. If you think about it, these superhero stories are fairy tales for grown-ups. Everything about them is realistic except for the one element, which is the super power or the super threat that the world faces or something of that sort, but these stories give you a chance to recapture the fun and excitement that you had when you were very young and when you were fascinated by fairy tales. That is my theory, it is an original theory and I think it puts me in a class with Socrates and Plato when it comes to deep thinkers. “He also said with a laugh” Damn it!

If you could be any one of your characters for a day, who would it be and why?

I’d be happy being any one of them for a day. I’d like to have Tony Stark’s money and charm and irresistibility. I would like to have Spider-Man’s ability to swing through the city. I would like to be able to go up to Asgard, like Thor, and consult with the gods. I wish I were as strong as the Hulk. Every one of them has something good about them.

But they also have weaknesses too, correct?

Oh, they have to. To me it is very important that every character has an Achilles Heal, have a weakness, something in his or her personal life that becomes a problem because every human being has that sort of thing and we want our characters, despite their one super power, we want them to be believable people.

In “The Avengers” movie, the characters fight at certain points and then come together at the end to fight against the villain as a team. How do you think this relates to creating projects in companies?

I think that is very easy to identify. I think it happens everywhere you go. It happens in marriages where husbands and wives will argue and quarrel, but when the chips are down they will stand together with whatever serious thing is upsetting them.

Gil and I are partners. We’ll sometimes disagree about anything at all. I’ll sometime say I’d like to take a two month vacation and he says I can only take six weeks, so we fight about that. But we eventually come together.

People are that way all the time. Friends and families, they never see eye to eye all the time, but somehow there is a bond that ties the good guys together, the families together, the friends together and despite the disagreements, they’ll always be together when the chips are down and that’s the way I see our superheroes.

Tell me about your future initiative’s with Pow! Entertainment and your new Youtube channel that launches?

One of the big things we are doing now, we are single-handedly, or single companied-lly, invading the internet. We have a new channel called “Stan Lee’s World of Heroes. We partnered with Vuguru on YouTube and we have all sorts of new programming coming along on this channel and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. One of the things I was just recording now is called “Stan’s Rants” where I complain about things that bother me. There are many things that bother me and I’m sure the whole world wants to know what they are. We have Science Fiction stories, we have funny stories and anything that in any way relates to superheroes or in some way relates to anything that is high concept, entertaining and exciting.

What’s your take on social media? How have you used it? Do you enjoy using it? Do you think it’s valuable for you personally and professionally?

I think it’s not valuable, it’s invaluable. It’s highly valuable. I think that social media is the wave of the future. It’s the way all of us will be communicating and 90 percent of the way we’ll get all of our entertainment. It’s the coming thing and that’s why Pow! Entertainment wants to get into it feet first, with a big impact.

Are you going to see “The Dark Night Rises” when it comes out next month?

Absolutely. Even though they have made the most tremendous mistake in the world.

What mistake?

I was hoping you would say that. Can you imagine how many more people would go to see that movie if they knew I had a cameo in it? If you were the producer, wouldn’t that be the first thing you would think of? Let’s give Stan a cameo, nobody would believe it! Everybody would want to come see it. But they missed the ball, there is nothing I can do about that.

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