On screen, Stan Lee – the public face of Marvel Comics and especially the subject of David Gelb’s chipper documentary of the same name – had cameos as an astronaut, a general, a strip club MC, a beauty pageant judge, a letter carrier, an intergalactic barber, a resident of a psychiatric ward, a hot dog vendor and many hapless pedestrians. He was never the superhero. But Lee believed his success was because his superheroes’ neuroses, flaws, and ego trips made them all look a little like him.
Lee, of course, lived a life unlike most mortals. He seemed to get younger as he got older (using sunglasses and a toupee). From his gateway job as an office boy at Timely Publications in 1939 until his death in 2018, Lee’s decades in the comics industry ticked by at a pace that seems to bend the space-time continuum. According to his own archive audio that narrates the film, he didn’t respect his career until 1961, possibly still hoping to regain his real name – Stanley Martin Lieber – when he wrote the great American novel.
It’s disappointing, but inevitable, that Lee’s creation story gives way to the characters he helped create. The doc awkwardly alludes to the ownership squabbles between Lee and his star illustrators Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, whose heirs have waged a copyright battle against the company. (Marvel also produced this movie.) That’s about as dark as Gelb wants or can get — though fans taking sides in the cultural cockfight between DC and Marvel will light up as the Human Torch in a clip by former DC editor Julius Schwartz insists his readers “don’t want to be educated,” as Lee visibly chuckles.
Stan Lee
Not judged. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. Watch on Disney+.