A new documentary about the life and times of the late Stan Lee has been released on Disney+, and the family of one of Lee’s most frequent collaborators isn’t too happy about the project. Saturday, Jack Kirby’s son Neal released a statement through the Twitter account of his daughter Jillian, criticizing the documentary for treating Kirby—a creator of many of Marvel’s most popular characters—as an after thought.
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“It’s not any big secret that there has always been controversy over the parts that were played in the creation and success of Marvel’s characters. Stan Lee had the fortunate circumstance to have access to the corporate megaphone and media, and he used these to create his own mythos as to the creation of the Marvel character pantheon,” the statement reads.
It adds, “He made himself the voice of Marvel. So, for several decades he was the ‘only’ man standing, and blessed with a long life, the last man standing (my father died in 1994). It should be noted and is generally accepted that Stan Lee had a limited knowledge of history, mythology, or science. On the other hand, my father’s knowledge of these subjects, to which I and many others can personally attest, was extensive. Einstein summed it up better; ‘More the knowledge, lesser the ego. Lesser the knowledge, more the ego.’”
Neal’s statement goes on the criticize the credits Lee received when it comes to character creation, noting the writer-turned-publisher is listed as a co-creator of virtually every character created by the House of Ideas throughout the 1960s.
“Are we to assume Lee had a hand in creating every Marvel character? Are we to assume that it was never the other co-creator that walked into Lee’s office and said, ‘Stand I have a great idea for a character!’ According to Lee, it was always his idea,” Neal adds. “Lee spends a fair amount of time talking about how and why he created the Fantastic Four, with only one fleeting reference to my father. Indeed, most comics historians recognize that my father based the Fantastic Four on a 1957 comic he created for DC, Challengers of the Unknown, even naming Ben Grimm (The Thing) after his father Benjamin, and Sue Storm after my older sister Susan.”
Neal eventually signs his scathing statement with a simple, “’nuff said.”
Released on Friday, the documentary focuses on the rise of Lee’s popularity at Marvel from his first moments with his company to achieving publisher status and beyond, including the popularity garnered by appearing in most live-action Marvel projects released between the late 1990s and his death in 2018.
Stan Lee is now streaming on Disney+.
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