FabSwingers.com forum: R.I.P. Stan.

m1 communter belt

Sorry to see Stan Lee pass but anyone who knows the history of the industry knows Lee didn’t create any of the characters he claims, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Bill Everett did.

Lee was a relation of the company owner and so an employee while the Kirby et al were freelance contractees. If the artists and writers go credit for their creations then marvel would face legal challenges as to who owns them. So Lee said he created them and as a company man they belonged to marvel. The artists were told they would get no,work in the industry if they protested.

You can argue about the rights and wrongs of that as a work-for-hire issue but in terms of legacy Lee isn’t the person history should credit, A good publicist, a decent dialogue editor but not the creator of these characters.

It’s telling that Kirby and Ditko went to their graves without a good word to say about Lee and with no money from the million dollar movies you all love, Stans reputation in the industry stank for many decades until people finally relented and decided there was little point begrudging an old man despite his past wrongs.

Still, he rocked s great moustache in the 70s.