Lee, Stan

▪ 2003

      On May 3, 2002, the motion picture Spider-Man opened on 3,600 screens in the U.S. By the end of May 5, the movie—about a shy teenager given superhero powers when bitten by a radioactive spider—had set an American record for opening-weekend box-office receipts by grossing $114,894,116. For American cartoonist Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man, the movie's triumph was the capstone in a career that had begun more than 60 years earlier.

      Lee was born Stanley Lieber in New York City in 1922. At the age of 17, he became an assistant editor for the Timely comics group, and in 1942 he was promoted to editor. During the 1940s and '50s, while the group—later named Atlas—struggled financially, Lee created several comic-book series, including The Witness, The Destroyer, Jack Frost, Whizzer, and Black Marvel.

      In 1961 Atlas was renamed Marvel Group, and one year later Lee created Spider-Man. It joined a roster of increasingly successful series that included Lee's The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk. Lee added another winner to the group when he created The X-Men in 1963. Marvel continued to prosper, and in 1972 Lee became publisher and editorial director of the group. He published a book, Origins of Marvel Comics, in 1974.

      A distinctive feature of Lee's comic-book heroes, typified by Spider-Man, was that they combined superhuman powers with human insecurities and emotions. In commenting on Spider-Man, Lee said, “Most of the young readers could identify with him because he had all the hang-ups that they did and that I used to have when I was a kid.”

      Lee suffered a personal and financial setback in 2001 when Stan Lee Media, an Internet entertainment company built around Lee's creations, went bankrupt. Formed in 1999, the firm enjoyed early success with its first project, an animated on-line series called 7th Portal. The series featured aliens who enter Earth through a “7th portal,” the Internet. Late in 2000 the company's stock price fell 49% in one day to $3 per share. By mid-December most of the staff of 150 had been laid off, and the firm filed for bankruptcy in February 2001. In November 2002 Lee filed a $10 million lawsuit against Marvel after failing to receive any profits from Spider-Man. Big-screen adaptations of two of his comic series, The Incredible Hulk and Daredevil, were set for release in 2003.

David R. Calhoun

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