“Take Superman… Actually You Can Have Him”: A Night with Stan Lee
By Kelly Kinas ‘17
Where to begin with this USC Program Board event? USC Speakers Committee were absolutely fantastic and got the creator of Marvel, creative, hilarious, the man that every student at USC now wants as their grandfather, Stan Lee.
You could start that Stan was born in the Bronx and lived through the Depression. You could also say that in 1942, he joined the Armed Forces but never actually got to go overseas. You also could start by stating that this man has influenced generations of people with the superheroes he created.
I’m going to start by saying that Stan Lee can engage an audience like no other. All the students who were in Bovard on September 23rd were in awe of this 91-year-old man and what he has created.
Stan Lee started as an assistant in the comic magazine department in a larger company. The two people he worked for were fired and at 17 (“and a half”, Stan pointed out) he was running the comic magazine section. Stan Lee helped Atlas publishing become Marvel with the Marvel method of creating comics. At Marvel, the plot is the first idea to enter Stan’s mind and then he gave that idea to the artists. They would completely create the 20-22 paged comic book based on that plot. Stan than wrote in all of the speech bubbles and conversations. It became one illustration, instead of words and pictures.
As expected, Stan was diplomatic when speaking of DC comics but he did state that his “characters are more realistic” and Marvel is “a company that cares.” Marvel is friendly company that has superheroes who are heroic and fantastic but still have flaws. To demonstrate how Marvel cares, Stan pointed out how Superman, a DC comics creation, can leap over buildings without even trying. Stan wanted Marvel’s characters to have some scientific backing so, when creating Thor and in wanting Thor to fly, he found the most scientific way to do it; Thor is connected to his hammer and he spins the hammer at lightening speed which can carry him.
It were these little insights (and Stan’s many tangents) that made this event extremely enjoyable. Some other random facts about Stan Lee you might be interested in are: If he could be any Marvel superhero, he would be Iron Man; He has been married for 66 years; His cameo in Avengers 2 is apparently “his funniest yet”; and his favorite Marvel movie was the first Spiderman movie.
Also my favorite quote from the night was “Obama would have less trouble with the terrorists than we had with DC.” While it might be slight hyperbole, his relationship with DC, while one based off competition, is still rather friendly.
This entire evening was absolutely amazing. Stan Lee grew from nothing but creativity and an amazing talent. He is a true legend.
Excelsior, Mr. Lee. Thank you so much for speaking to us. You are an inspiration. Fight on!
