Stan Lee against the world

[Ozymandias]

In any standard poll, Lee would win hands down (I think), so let's stack the deck against him. You can vote for any Spider-Man writer you can think of, without a required minimum of comics, or any other restriction. If you believe he did a better job on the character, he's eligible against Lee.

[Mister Mets]

I'll vote for Stan Lee. He has a high number of stories that should make "Best Of" lists (Amazing Fantasy #15, The Master Planner saga, Spider-Man and Green Goblin...both Unmasked, Spider-Man No More, Disaster, The first appearance of Mary Jane.)

[Billy Batson]

No, Ditko was :^)

[Ozymandias]

Don't get me wrong, I want to turn the odds against Lee, but if we are to have some sense of FairPlay, we can't accept into the competition, anybody who hasn't both plotted and dialoged, any given Spider-Man comic.

[Billy Batson]

But neither did Stan given that he let Ditko do the plotting.

[Ozymandias]

I'm sure he plotted a lot of Spider-Man comics, specially for Romita.

[Billy Batson]

A bit more for Romita but not so much.

Since John Romita has penciled the vast majority of Stan Lee’s post-Steve Ditko Spider-Man comic books, you could easily make a case that this could be a Stan Lee/John Romita joint credit, since eventually Romita took a much more involved role in plotting the title. Heck, Romita himself has noted that he could have easily gotten a co-plotter credit if he had asked for one. However, one of the reasons Romita has given for NOT asking for one is that it never got to the point where Romita would be coming up with the plots for the issues without consulting with Lee the way Ditko eventually did in the Ditko/Lee issues of Amazing Spider-Man. Lee always gave Romita SOME sort of plot, even if said plot likely became vaguer and vaguer the more that the two men worked together. Romita never had the control over the stories that Ditko had.

[Mister Mets]

In a poll of readers, CBR rated Lee/ Ditko as a sperate writer than Stan Lee. I think that was fair.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources...s-writers-3-1/

There's at least some suspense at the top of the charts, and Ditko's contribution does reach the level of co-writer.

I don't know about Romita, although this also raises questions about the other guys to draw Stan Lee's Amazing Spider-Man, namely Gil Kane, Larry Lieber (the two annuals) and Jim Mooney.

[Ozymandias]

I think the only way to be fair about this, is to consider the issues not plotted by Lee, as not written by him. They not being written by any lone writer, they shouldn't compete, though. Considering the Lee/ Ditko written comics, as pertaining to some abstract entity, is ok in theory, but not in this case, were it would be pitted against Lee, who's part of that entity.

[Mister Mets]

I think the only way to be fair about this, is to consider the issues not plotted by Lee, as not written by him. They not being written by any lone writer, they shouldn't compete, though. Considering the Lee/ Ditko written comics, as pertaining to some abstract entity, is ok in theory, but not in this case, were it would be pitted against Lee, who's part of that entity.

I think for the purposes of this poll, Lee/ Ditko doesn't count as an alternative to Stan Lee as the best Spider-Man writer.

[Darrell D.]

I'm sure he plotted a lot of Spider-Man comics, specially for Romita.

Yeah, he would leave a note for Romita that said, 'Next month, the Rhino.'
That is some high quality plotting there.

[Ozymandias]

Yeah, he would leave a note for Romita that said, 'Next month, the Rhino.'
That is some high quality plotting there.

The Rhino only starred in two comics, written in the Lee era. The first one was his introduction, so I'm going to bet here, that such a sort description could not apply. As for ASM #43, the previous issue said at the end "Next: the Rhino, on the rampage". I don't see why Lee would bother, passing a note that would contain even less information, than what had already been stated.

[Scott Taylor]

Yeah, he would leave a note for Romita that said, 'Next month, the Rhino.'
That is some high quality plotting there.

Or like in many of the Lee/Ditko cases, Lee's contribution seemed to be "sounds good to me!" Of course, most of this is disputable.

To the topical question, I think Lee gets it overall. Both Conway and Stern are the only other ones breathing that same rarefied air. If we treat artists as being co-plotters, the situation gets very muddy indeed. Some artists were so influential, you could say they had as big of an impact as Lee.

[Celgress]

Stan is still the man, no matter what, imo.

[ishikabe]

Stan's stories weren't the most intricate, but they are miles above the current crap Marvel is shoveling out the door.