“The important thing was to show his humanity”

The legend of Stan Lee is not only the legend of the creation of Marvel: it is also the creation of a marketing model, of a way of selling, of the creation of a community”, says David Gelb, the director of Stan Lee, the documentary available on Disney + that tells the life of the famous co-creator of the Marvel universe. The most impressive thing is, precisely, who counts: the vast majority of the audios that are heard in the documentary premiered in Tribeca are precisely from Lee himself, who disappeared a few years ago and owner of the nickname of the creator of the Marvel universe, the factory of characters that has become the largest empire in Hollywood, they are from Lee himself. Says Gelb: “One of the ways to create a documentary like never before was the access that the Lee family gave us to material that had never been seen before. One of the challenges was how to count someone who has been counted throughout his life? How to bring something new? Well, the first base was to understand that, yes, Stan Lee had a social person, his character, the famous character of him that we saw in movies, in interviews and more. But there was much more, there was a man, with fears, who founded a genre along with other names, who rewrote the myth of the hero for an entire generation, and who had ambitions as a storyteller.

“What was your previous connection to Stan Lee?”

—I am what could be defined as a geek, that is, Stan Lee was always a giant name in my life. His person, his voice speaking about him, even before hearing it (he read it on his pages where they spoke to Marvel readers) was part of my life. It is impossible to have a life in popular culture, even global, and not know who Stan Lee is. He is a landmark, an icon. So, if he was a landmark decades ago, how can he modify the man and everything to modify so that superheroes are what they are today? Because one thing is certain, without Stan Lee, beyond the controversies, superheroes would not have reached this level of popularity today. That’s where the challenge comes in: there were literally hours and hours of Stan Lee material. I’m talking about miles of hours. But even so, how is what has been achieved processed and explained? The important thing was to show his humanity.

—What was then the purpose of a story told a thousand times?

We believe there is an untold story. We know that there is the story of the son of immigrants, the nephew of the owner who saves the company, the co-creator of characters like Spider-Man or the X-Men, and the founder of a new type of fan, who define modernity. of the current fan, which is the germ if you will of communities. Someone who tells the best origins of modern superheroes deserves to tell his story in the best possible way. That is why his voice was crucial, that it felt like a memory, like a personal narrative, in the first person. It was very important to me to show how American culture, the one he consumed, shaped him. I wanted to realize that his inspiration was important to many people, to millions. What he and his co-creators accomplished was unique, and he responds more to a group of people working together than anything else.

—What do you feel satisfied about Stan Lee that perhaps you did not suspect?

—Stan Lee said that the world he showed in Marvel was the world outside his window, that is, the world he saw from his office. The world itself. He was inspired by real life, and real problems, and that’s a crucial part of everything he’s created. The real world and its problems were enough, and that revolution formed many generations of readers and authors. The X-Men as an allegory for the rights of excluded communities, such as gay rights or even the civil rights movement. That example comes from your own interests. Lee was part of creating the first black character. Also of a character who follows a real identification with the worker, such as Spider-Man. Lee was able to translate a fiction that raised questions from the world. That is why they improved that his characters will have that popularity, that regardless of the decade they are popular, that long after they are something that defines a lot of popular culture. You have to understand that this achievement is crucial and that this achievement had a path, that it had mistakes, that it had successes, that it was not an easy path. It is a unique story of the 20th century, of the United States, of a subject who completely changed everything in the middle of his life.

the sensitivity of the narrator

“Lee was a very sensitive person,” says David Gelb, and his search behind the giant proves his sustenance. And he continues: “There are things that never left him: he was always worried about money, because he came from a family with no money. At one point, he remembers how worried he was when he heard his parents arguing over money. He was someone who loved his family, and he suffered personal tragedies few knew about. It’s easy to confuse him with that entertainment giant, because he always wanted to be seen that way. But there were a lot of problems, there were problems with his co-creators, with names like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. He was never indifferent to the anger they have towards him. He always said he wanted to give them credit, but he was also sure that he had been instrumental in creating some characters. All of that, that material that fans loved to discuss, hurt him. At the same time, the fear that people will leave superheroes, of losing their livelihood. He was someone who lived in much more fear than he showed, but also had the courage to go on.” And he adds: “There was something crucial in Stan Lee: he talked a lot about believing in himself, in oneself. In betting on what one believes. It sounds like a self-help course, but you have to imagine someone who takes what society discarded, believes there is a story there, begins to tell it, builds a world, that world finds readers and, faced with the fear that it will disappear, he manages to survive for decades, and no one doubts that these characters will be there forever. It’s a huge life lesson.”