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Did CNN Just Pull From Stan Lee's Obituary File?

Published Fri, 10 Sep 2010 08:00:16 -0500

Last updated Fri, 10 Sep 2010 08:14:30 -0500

As Stan Lee made a big appearance on the channel, answering the questions of everyday folk, the CNN website's accompanying piece raises a bigger question – did the journalist copy and paste from the channel's obituary file? See what I mean when I remove some of the quotes from the video appearance… I won't even tweak the tenses.

Lee played a major part in creating most of the world's favorite comic book superheroes. He conceived of — or co-created — and wrote decades of story lines for Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil, Doctor Strange and plenty others in the Marvel pantheon. All told, he has contributed to 90 percent of the company's comic book characters and made them recognizable through marketing and licensing.

Through his prolific work and desire to entertain, Lee has influenced pop culture for 71 years. He started working as a writer and proofreader in 1939 for the comic book company that would become Marvel. He wrote his first entire comic book (Captain America No. 3) in 1941.

By the early 1960s he was editor and chief writer at Marvel, leading what became known as the "Marvel revolution." In response to DC Comics' re-vamped version of "The Flash" and successful superhero team comic, "Justice League of America," Marvel created a group of superheroes. They were distinguished in the comic book world for their complex narratives and continuity — they all saved lives in the same world, and in some cases crossed over into each other's storylines.

But it was Lee's promotion and licensing of those characters that gave them a lasting influence. Since 1965, Marvel superheroes have jumped from the pages of comic books to costume and toy stores, Saturday morning cartoons and blockbuster movies.

He's not afraid to tackle serious issues either. He famously took the Comics Code Authority to task over rules banning the depiction of drug use. He used "The Amazing Spider-Man" to discuss the social problems of drug abuse in 1971. Despite the CCA's disapproval, Lee published the three-book story arc anyway, illustrating the havoc that LSD could wreak. It was so well received that the CCA changed the rules.

Many of Lee's superheroes and villains are complicated characters, allowing him to weave social discussions into comic book story lines.

"X-Men characters "Professor X" and "Magneto," for example, struggled with opposing philosophies as mutant outsiders who were persecuted — even outlawed — which was a struggle that comic book readers could see similarly played out in real life on the evening news.

For all his success and fame and fortune, Lee reaches out to fans in a very personal fashion, fostering an in-the-club-like feeling while at Marvel Comics. In all his comics, he wrote a column called, "Stan's Soapbox," as well as a page called "Bullpen Bulletins," in which he wrote directly to the reader, more like a letter from a friend than a letter from the editor.

Lee makes many cameo appearances in movies based on his comic books. He has appeared uncredited as himself in movies like 2007's "The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."

He also makes more scripted appearances. Finding him in Marvel-based movies is almost like playing "Where's Waldo?" In 2000's "X-Men," he was a hot dog vendor. In 2003's "Hulk," he was a security guard. In 2005's "Fantastic Four" he appeared as Willie Lumpkin. In 2008's "Iron Man," Tony Stark mistakes him for Hugh Hefner.

All you have to do at the end is tweak one or two tenses and add "Stan Lee died in his sleep yesterday. Unlike the passengers of the jet he was flying who screamed all the way down."

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