Stan Lee and Spider-Man

[DanMad1977]

With that being said, I have only one question left:

Who created Spider-Man? Stan Lee, Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

With that being said, I have only one question left:

Who created Spider-Man? Stan Lee, Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby?

The question is who had the least to do with it? Not all collaborations are equal or equally proportionate.

Of the lot, Stan Lee had the least to do with the generation and formation of the character, concept, and story.

[BlueElf94]

The person who compared you to an evangelical new nonsmoker was spot on. People have known this about Stan Lee and have been discussing it openly for over thirty years; there have been multiple articles and books written on the subject. But because you just learnt about it for the first time from a book you read like two weeks ago you have to condescend and talk down to everyone.

I'm glad to see others are tired of the semantics-policing and finger wagging that's pervaded threads like this as of late.

[NC_Yankee]

With that being said, I have only one question left:

Who created Spider-Man? Stan Lee, Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby?

For me the most revealing clue is the picture of a teenage Steve Ditko that looks quite a bit like Peter Parker.

[Snoop Dogg]

I will now drop the huge bombshell that Stan Lee liked Spider-Man and Silver Surfer more than other characters.

[Somecrazyaussie]

I will now drop the huge bombshell that Stan Lee liked Spider-Man and Silver Surfer more than other characters.

But, but, Stan is a liar. You cannot take his comments at face value! Now, if somebody else said those were Stan's favourites....

.... oh, who am I kidding? They are liars too.

Excelsior, true believers!

[JackDaw]

I think at least some of us think Stan’s favourite and greatest creation was “good old Uncle Stan”.

I have wondered a few times in recent weeks if Stan deliberately styled his latter day public persona on Walt Disney.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I think at least some of us think Stan’s favourite and greatest creation was “good old Uncle Stan”.

I have wondered a few times in recent weeks if Stan deliberately styled his latter day public persona on Walt Disney.

There was likely an influence, yeah.

The difference is that Disney's public persona was more staid and formal, trying to be everyone's dad and grandpa, while Stan Lee's affect was "Cool Uncle" or if you want to be less charitable, embarrassing uncle at weddings. Ultimately every 'cool uncle' becomes the embarrassing uncle because coolness fades.

This early Stan Lee video from the 1960s before he molded his famous look shows Lee trying the Walt Disney '60s TV style:


Eventually he created his own persona. Tom Scioli's graphic novel/biography of Kirby has a couple of panels expressing Kirby's reactions to Lee's personality change (which is drawn from opinions he had stated on different occasions privately and publicly) and also the deliberate process by which Lee transformed himself from the guy in the video to the guy in the cameos:

Tom Scioli - Kirby on Lee persona Change 1.jpg


Tom Scioli - Kirby on Lee persona Change 2.jpg

When Stan changed his look, he tried calling Kirby "Jackie" which the latter hated. That actually did happen. By the way Kirby in-person always called Lee "Stanley".