So Stan Lee has made another underhanded move on the world of geekdome.  I know he is seen as the father of Marvel Comics, but there is just more to the story than the general public knows.  Did he make his contributions?  Yes, he did. Did he do it alone? No man is an island unto himself (No!).

I do know some on this subject from what has been gathered from over 20-years as a comic reader and thought some Pullbox connections. I say that Stan Lee basically has lied about his role in the creation of the characters he has claimed he created.

Stan Lee received stories plotted out in advance to him ever scripting a word, penciled by artists like icon Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Stan “The Man”  just wrote the dialogue and then was given credit in the book as writer. He is essentially taking credit of having plotted the story and created the magic.

In addition,  Stan Lee has no record of being a creative genius prior to or after working with Jack Kirby, and to a lesser extent Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr. Kirby had a track record of creating characters, prime example being Captain America. The Invaders were also in full swing at the time, created by Sal Buscema and Roy Thomas.  To my knowledge Lee never created anything before the Fantastic Four.  The other creators mentioned also went on to create comic gold for other companies, Stan is associated with Marvel because he never recieved any noteriaty anywhere else….and no, Stipperella doesn’t count.

So why the reason for this rant?  Because Stan is at it again!  The below article is from Entertainment Weekly and it states that Stan Lee has filed a law suit for 100% of the proceeds from the latest Conan movie.  Lee claims that when his creative company, Stan Lee Media Inc, went under he never lost the rights to Robert E Howard’s classic character, Conan.  Planning and production of Conan has been happening for years (Stan’s company went under in 2001) and Stan decided to wait until lots of people put in tons of hard work on a movie, waited until it’s opening weekend, and then decided to file a lawsuit to get his greedy little hands on what little money the movie is making.  It’s really doesn’t matter if the movie sucks or not (search the internets for lots of mixed reviews), what Stan Lee is doing is flat out wrong.

Here is the article from EW online.

“Stan Lee Media, Inc., a company founded by comic book legend Stan Lee, wants a judge to rule that it is still the rightful owner of the character Conan the Barbarian. In a lawsuit filed Aug. 19 in federal court in L.A. and obtained by EW, SLMI is demanding 100 percent of the film’s proceeds. The company claims its bankruptcy in 2001 would have prevented anyone from taking the rights to the Conan character away. In the suit, Stan Lee Media, Inc. claims the company was betrayed by a former lawyer who made an illegal deal to transfer the rights to another company that would later green-light this summer’s Conan movie. The poorly reviewed remake earned $10 million on its opening weekend, barely beating the debut of the original Conan the Barbarian in 1982.”