Every superhero has the ability to harness something extraordinary.
Spider-Man can spin sticky webs. Thor has his mighty hammer. Iron Man owns a flying suit of armor.
But Stan Lee, the 92-year-old comic book writer who helped create those characters, turns to an old brown notebook when he wants to tap the derring-do that made him a household name. If you see him reach for the notebook, perhaps when he’s in Honolulu next week for Amazing Hawaii Comic Con, don’t stop him. The godfather of superheroes could be dreaming up something really big.
Lee is the headliner at the event, which is being held at the Hawai’i Convention Center. The three-day event features an array of industry stars, including Kevin Eastman, the man behind the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles; Rob Liefeld, creator of the hugely popular Deadpool; and artist Greg Capullo, who draws Batman for DC Comics. There will be exhibits, local artists, autograph sessions and cosplay (of course).
Lee towers above all of that. He is easily the biggest name in the comic book industry. His characters have become blockbuster movies, from "Spider-Man" to "Iron Man" to "X-Men" — and all the sequels and spinoffs they’ve inspired.
But even after 76 years of creating fantastic characters, Lee can’t say where he gets his inspiration.
"I sit and think until the idea comes to me," he said in a phone call from his office in Beverly Hills, Calif., practically aw-shucksing at what he does. "Luckily, it has always been easy to me. I have never had what you call writer’s block. I just sit down and I write."
When Lee writes, his characters come out ready to go — at least, in his eyes.
"Luckily I’m really my biggest fan and I always like what I write the first time," he said. "If I had to rewrite and rewrite I would get bored. I don’t do any writing until I have it clear in my mind. First I think about it and then I write and that’s the end of it."
Lee, the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics, is credited with changing the image of superheroes by giving them personalities that were less than squeaky clean. He made them cranky, opinionated, flawed. Just because they could fly didn’t mean they were immune to relationship troubles or life’s sticky moments.
"It seems to me that in order to be believable, a superhero has to have a private life you can relate to and that is interesting," Lee said. "If he is just a guy in a costume who runs around fighting the bad guys, that gets pretty dull. If he has his own personal problems and personal life, that’s interesting."
Lee has seen his creations come to life. He got his first comic book job in 1939 and for decades his characters, no matter how imaginative or expertly drawn, were prisoners of the printed page.
Computer-generated special effects, however, changed all that.
"They were real to me but only real in my imagination," he said. "But now I go to the theater and they are bigger than life and exactly how I imagined them to be. It’s a thrill."
A creature of habit, Lee still works every day at POW! Entertainment, a company that creates and licenses characters for film and TV, according to his assistant and friend, Max Anderson.
A driver takes Lee from his home in the Hollywood Hills to his office by 9 a.m. He eats lunch at midday, walking down the street to his favorite restaurant. And he’s home by 4 p.m. to have a martini and dinner with his wife of 66 years, Joan Lee.
After dinner, he writes some more.
"His mind is always on writing," Anderson said. "We are on a plane together and we’re talking and he will suddenly go, ‘Hang on Max, I got an idea.’ He’ll take out his famous little brown notepad and he’ll write a little note. He’ll think about a superpower and write it down."
Part of Anderson’s job is to rein in the sometimes feisty Lee, who has already said he wants to swim with sharks and stingrays, and parasail, while he is in Hawaii.
"He’s dead serious," Anderson said. "I said no. Do you have any idea what his wife would do if anything happened to him while he was in my care?"
Anderson’s own superpower may be nerves of steel. When Lee jumps off a stage, Anderson’s heart skips a beat. The same thing happened when Lee zoomed off on a Segway — one of those two-wheeled scooters that look ready to topple forward at any moment.
AMAZING HAWAII COMIC CON
>> When: 3-8 p.m. Sept. 18; 10 a.m.- 7 p.m. Sept.19; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sept. 20
>> Where: Hawai’i Convention Center
>> Cost: $25 on Sept. 18; $35 on Sept. 19; $25 on Sept. 20. Three day passes: $60 and $150
>> Info: amazinghawaiicomiccon.com |
"Stan is Stan," Anderson said. "He is his own man."
Lee’s Hawaii visit is a big deal for fans who would normally have to fly to the mainland to catch him at comic book conventions.
Lee’s only other visit to Hawaii was in February 1993, when he toured local comic book stores to meet fans. Loretta Whitesell, co-owner of Other Realms, a comic book and gaming shop on Nimitz Highway, drove him around Oahu and they had a blast.
"He was so funny and quick-witted," she said. "We laughed the whole time."
This was before Lee’s Marvel characters became blockbuster movie heroes, and the fans that greeted him were largely comic book readers, Whitesell said.
"I think now he is more of a household name," she said. "His notoriety was more fan-based but he was the founder of the modern superhero."
Fans gave him original art they created of his superheroes and Whitesell sent it to Lee’s California offices.
"He basks in the attention of fans, for sure, but I always felt he was humbled by it," she said. "He was genuinely pleased with that attention and that recognition to what he had committed his life to."
Lee, who is hard of hearing and has a pacemaker implant to control irregular heart rhythms, doesn’t appear ready to slow down. He scoffs at retirement, saying that retirees spend their newly found free time doing what they love — and he already does that.
"And besides, I enjoy writing these stories," he said. "To me they’re like fairy tales for grownups. When I was a kid I read about giants and monsters and evil wizards. And the superhero stories are like that, only for older readers."
When he gets to Hawaii he promises to be thinking about a superhero for the islands. Just watch for the notebook.
