Interview With Stan Lee: The Creator of Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and X-Men

As you might imagine, Stan Lee, the father of Spider-Man, is pretty busy these days. Fresh off the heels of The Avengers, the next movie debuting in Marvel’s story arc is Spider-Man. I was fortunate enough to get a few minutes of Lee’s time on the phone for a quick interview. He was very humbled by how much the fans still love his comic book characters decades after he first created them. He also wants everyone to keep an eye out for his cameo in the film The Amazing Spider-Man and the new video game of the same name which is also out this summer.

Tell us about the new Spider-Man movie.

Now we’re talking! I’m really heartbroken because they’re having the premier of Spider-Man in a few days and I’ll be in Australia and I’m going to miss the red carpet opening, it’s going to be the first one that I’ve missed since they started the series but I’ve seen a little bit of the movie and I think It’s going to be just great and I think this new actor [Andrew] Garfield is going to be a wonderful Peter Parker, a wonderful Spider-man. I think the fans will love him.

Do you have a special message for your fans?

Stan Lee: The only message that I would like to say is that I love the fact that so many fans are interested in these superhero movies that Marvel does and I’ve been asked why they seem to be so popular and it seems to me that most people enjoyed fairy tales when they were kids, ya know tales of giants and ogres and witches and magicians and people much bigger than life, but you get a little bit older and you can’t read fairy tales anymore but you never outgrow your love for those types of stories and then suddenly along comes superhero comics and superhero movies and they’re like fairy tales for grown-ups. I think they just help all of us relive the fun we had when we were young reading fairy tales. I think that these superhero movies, these very high concept movies that I think we excel in, I think they’ll always be popular as long as we can keep doing good ones.

Anything else?

I hope everyone enjoys my cameo in the Spider-Man movie. It’s one of the few I’ve done where I don’t say anything at all, there’s no dialog but it gives me a chance to show my acting ability (Lee Laughs). You gotta say I said it with a laugh so people don’t think I’m crazy!

Ok! You’ve got it! There’s actually a word my friend said he hoped you would use in this interview. It starts with an “E”, do you know what word I am talking about?

No.

Excelsior!?

Oh, well I have to end by saying “excelsior,” you know what that means of course?

I am afraid I don’t…

Well, it’s a word on the great seal of the state of New York and I looked it up and it’s an old English saying which means upward and onward to greater glory! Can’t have a better ending word then that can you?

No you can’t. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us today!

Anytime. I leave all of you MethodShop readers with a fond EXCELSIOR!

Photo via gageskidmore