Robserecaps Twenty Three – episode 56 Stan Lee! The Legend! The Icon! The Man!
by Joe
Back when I first started writing these, inspired by the tales of the Heroes Reborn Saga, I called the Rob the modern day Stan Lee. And here we are, the Rob talking about Stan Lee! Check out the episode for yourself here!
- the Rob call Stan ‘a figurehead without equal’
- Again, the Rob mentions how both the Transformers and Iron Man films looked like something that came out of an Apple store with their sleek, white plastic designs and blue lights
- Hollywood, in the 90’s wanted Hollywood movies to be campy and it wasn’t until X-Men that they changed their tune, which I don’t feel is correct
- The Rob continues to say Blade is not a comic book movie, but marketed, sold and did business as a horror movie
- the Hulk TV show was Stan’s first Hollywood success, followed by Spider-Man which was very cheap and not the same level of hit as Hulk and Doctor Strange, which was better than you remember it being
- The Rob cites the myth that Human Torch was kept off the Fantastic Four cartoon to prevent kids from trying to light themselves on fire. He then follows this up with a story of he and a friend of his, Matt, spraying their arms with lighter fluid and lighting their arms on fire. And holding matches up to Raid cans to light cockroaches on file. Please don’t do this.
- The Rob is correct in stating Spider-Man has the best villains
- As important as Stan was as a creator of comics, he was more important as the brand ambassador
- The edict at Marvel to go to single issue stories, like DC was doing, hurt their character development, leading to new characters like the Kangaroo, Cobra and Mr. Hyde that resonated with no one
- the Star Wars comics, which Stan was against until Roy Thomas begged him to take, helped keep Marvel afloat for the late 70’s and early 80’s
- in 1991, Stan was not in a great place and during the filming of the Comic Book Greats video series, Bob Kane (who sounds like Snagglepuss) was flexing on Stan, which is why Stan was so mean to Todd McFarlane and the Rob in their video
- the Rob mentions the ‘Stan Lee Imagines the DCU’ books and calls them a fun exercise in marketing, but ultimately a failure because the designs were bad
- About six years ago, on a flight from LA to Cincinnati, Stan was late getting on the plane, entered like Kramer on Seinfeld and began swearing that he had to sit in the bulkhead so the Rob offered to switch seats with him
- On the flight, Stan was loudly commenting on the Marvel movies he was watching like Winter Soldier (“Who the Hell is the Winter Soldier?”) and Civil War (“Why are Cap and Iron Man fighting?”)
- Stan’s legacy will be that he put a human face to comic book creators
- The first week of January begins the Rob’s five part series of the creation of Deadpool, mark your calendars!
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