Image source: Visual China
Text | Stonestone Business Review, author | Kim Mei
A year after losing the lover he had been in love with for 70 years, 95-year-old Stan Lee struggled.
In addition to being plagued by illness, he was also framed for sexually harassing nurses, turning his face with a former agent, and being robbed by two men... Even his own daughter repeatedly abused, scolded, and coerced him in order to compete for property.
He refutes rumors many times, saying that his daughter is good to him, but almost everyone knows that he is telling a lie.
There were even companies, along with nurses, who stole Stan Lee's blood and sold it. The 95-year-old's blood was diluted and made into an ink signature, printed on a cartoon, for five hundred dollars a book.
Who would have thought that Stan Lee, who was so depressed and bullied, would be the creator of superheroes such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, Hulk and so on. Stan Lee, who has shaped so many heroes, saved people from fire and water, and even saved the entire planet, but no one saved him from this humiliating situation on the verge of life and death.
On November 12, 2018, the funeral of martial arts giant Jin Yong was held at a funeral home in Hong Kong. Meanwhile on the other side of the globe, Stan Lee closed his eyes. The two masters took the memories of generations of growth, left this complicated earthly world, and went to another planet to continue the legend.
Stan Lee smiled and said, "Don't cry for me, I'm going to meet the perfect girl I've loved for 70 years." ”
<h2>First, the most bitter miscellaneous servant and the great hero in his heart</h2>
Being in a difficult situation, but still being able to keep smiling, is perhaps the most fundamental reason why a hero is a hero.
Stan Lee (formerly known as Stanley Martin Liebo) was born into a very poor Jewish family.
Stan Lee, Photo/Visual China
"The impression is that my mother spends most of her time in the kitchen or cleaning a humble room, my father is often unemployed, the family does not have enough money to buy enough food, sometimes even has no money to pay rent and has to move frequently, and parents often quarrel at home."
In order to subsidize the family, the young Stan Lee began to work early, but fortunately there were no child labor punishment measures that year. Write obituaries for newspapers, write press releases for tuberculosis centers, give sandwiches to visiting groups, be a seater for a Broadway theater... He had eaten everything. He was always the youngest student in his class.
Faced with a difficult life, he began to find comfort in those fantasy stories. These wild fantasies have become the best "spiritual food" for coping with a difficult life and dealing with the bullying of others. A heroic seed takes root and sprouts in the heart of the sleepy, helpless Stan Lee.
When he was in high school, there was a newspaper newspaper that ran a contest, the key was to pay bonuses, and in order to make money, Stan Lee participated every time. Of course, you can win every time. As a result, the newspaper changed the rules in order to prevent him from competing again...
In 1939, publisher Martin Goodman founded Marvel Magazine. The comic magazine, which was originally priced at just 10 cents, witnessed the rise and fall of the entire American comic book industry. Stan Lee, 16, can no longer make money by delivering pizza, and he used nepotism to join Martin Goodman's comic book company as an assistant for $8 a week.
But the little assistant learned quickly. From the very beginning, he was mainly responsible for filling ink bottles, to proofreading as a trainee editor, to starting to write dialogue for comic characters, until he began to create comics himself, and it took only 2 years in between.
Why did Stan Lee rise so quickly? It wasn't really because Of Martin's eccentricity, but joe Simon and Jack Bryant, who were at the time in Timely (Marvel's name, renamed Marvel in '61) comics.
One day at work, Martin Goodman came to Stan Lee to the effect that, boy, Joe and Jack ran too fast, I haven't found anyone to take them over, you guys overcame the difficulties for two days? So Stan Lee took on the heavy lifting, and did a decent job.
<h2>Second, hold hands for a lifetime of 70 years</h2>
Despite some improvement in work, Stan Lee is still a poor boy. At this time, someone introduced him to the object, a poor and white dick man, who originally had no confidence. But I thought about it, after all, I still had a good skin bag, so I decided to try it.
Following the guidance of the introducer, Stan Lee came to the date and was greeted by a girl, who inadvertently fell into his life and walked hand in hand with him for a lifetime. But in fact, this person is not Stan Lee's blind date.
"Hello, I'm Joanna, a model for this store. What can help you? Stan Lee blurted out, "I'm in love with you." The two fell in love at first sight, and at lunch, Stan Lee proposed to Joanna.
Stan Lee and his wife, photo/Visual China
On December 5, 1947, the two married. The two spent a sweet married life together. At the most difficult time, Stan Lee can't stand it and wants to give up, his wife gives him faith again and again.
Just as the young and weak Stan Lee needed the protection of heroes, during World War II, people longed for the appearance of a savior in the chaos of war, so Marvel comics sold very well.
But with the end of World War II, and in the early 1950s, in order to cater to audiences for profit maximization, a large number of comics related to pornography, horror, and violence emerged, many of which were burned and banned from publication, and many companies faced the fate of bankruptcy.
Stan Lee once wanted to give up drawing comics, but Joanna told him, "Why don't you make a comic that makes you proud and give up?" So Stan Lee adjusted his mindset and threw himself into the creation again. Time pays off, not to mention that he is so talented, and opportunities are slowly approaching him.
Once DC's boss and Martin Goodman went to a cocktail party, the two big bosses lamented that "business is not good", and then dc boss said that he was going to put all the characters in his hands together and name it "Justice League".
The ghostly Martin Goodman copes with a few words and runs away, telling Stan Lee the message and telling him "Draw me a superhero group!" So there was the 1961 hit "Four Heroes", which was called "the greatest comic in the world".
If "Fantastic Four" made Stan Lee famous, he was an industry leader after the birth of "Spider-Man". It is said that at that time, Stan Lee saw a small bug lying on the wall, and wanted to draw a hero who could climb the wall, and after a lot of names, he had a flash of inspiration to determine "Spider-Man".
Many people feel that the character of Spider-Man is Stan Lee's own "avatar" in the comics, and the old man himself has said that he loves Spider-Man the most. They were all small, inconspicuous figures in the crowd, and both had white-haired beauties who had partners.
However, while Stan Lee was on vacation, his colleagues took the opportunity to paint one of the most poignant scenes in the history of American comics, "Gwen's Death.". The Amazing Spider-Man 2 recreates this classic scene on the big screen. Fortunately, in real life, Stan Lee and his lover are still very loving.
Stan Lee, who has a double harvest of word of mouth and money, becomes a billionaire and lives a happy life with Joanna. But he didn't change his mind, and the two got tired of being together all day and had a martini every night. The reporter asked him how to dispose of hundreds of millions of family properties, he said: "Of course, it is stored in the bank and given to the wife to spend!"
<h2>Revolutionary changes to heroes</h2>
In the 1930s, during the Great Depression and social unrest in the United States, "Superman" was born. "Superman" is a hero with natural abilities, recognized as the ancestor of superhero characters, and the DC Comics that created this character gradually became the manga publishing company with the largest market share. And the advent of Marvel Comics broke the monopoly of DC Comics.
Stan Lee's heroes are widely sought after by everyone, and a very important reason is that he gave up the tall and complete "green tea" superman, and turned the hero into a flawed, funny and vivid person.
Unlike the DC Comics characters represented by Superman and Batman, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow, etc., more or less hide the dark past, the shadow of childhood, the biggest theme of adulthood is - revenge, with revenge to break free from the darkness that surrounds themselves.
From the strange shape and revenge of the society to the heroic image, the teacher of justice, and finally to the diverse image, character flaws. Marvel Comics' superhero characters gradually found their ground.
In fact, China also has this process, and Li Yunlong and Xu Sanduo's heroes of the Huoba Film Review some time ago are this tendency. On the one hand, people have become tired of traditional heroes, even subversive. On the other hand, when every little person watches the hero in the storm, he naturally hopes that he can also be angry, so the rough hero appears.
Stan Lee's friend asked him one day: It's good that your character has some flaws, but the character flaws can't be too big, so that everyone will hate him.
Stan Lee's rebellious spirit came up: "I'll draw you a superhero with a problem, what's the bet?" Then he began to think, what kind of people do everyone hate? Well, the rich second generation... As a result, the character was actually still on fire, and Stan Lee said that I didn't know where to go.
As an early participant, Stan Lee not only laid a foundation that seemed extremely important to Marvel in the future, but also created the "cosmic system". He created a universe out of thin air and put different superheroes into different axes of the universe, both interconnected and independent of each other, and then created an IP universe with infinite possibilities.
"In 1963, the Fantastic Four made a cameo appearance in the first episode of The Incredible Spider-Man, the first time that Marvel's hero characters worked together outside of their own independent comics, and Marvel's superhero characters interacted in a completely different comic book world through cross-border connections, forming a systematic Marvel universe."
It may be hard to believe that Stan Lee doesn't actually know how to draw, he's mainly responsible for coming up with concepts and story frameworks, writing dialogue at most, and painting partly ghostwriting by someone else. Spider-Man's painter Steve Dietko is indignant about this, and the two old partners have fallen out over this, but Stan Lee is still convinced that he is the author.
Today, Stan Lee has created more than 90% of Marvel's comic book character reserves, creating characters including more than 20 successful characters such as Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Daredevil. These characters have become Marvel's inexhaustible treasure trove.
Marvel has always been very good at de-cartoonization in live-action film production, which is inseparable from the foundation laid by Stan Lee. Stan Lee upgraded the comics from childish children's books to adult fairy tales with connotations.
<h2>Fourth, the Marvel character's dick counterattack</h2>
Stan Lee's characters, like him, are undergoing a qualitative change.
From vulgar to popular, Marvel characters are also personally interpreting the process of a counterattack that people are not familiar with.
Popularity is a complex existence in Marvel's history. Stan Lee, the father of Marvel's superheroes, was once constrained by popularity, and had to draw strange and curious vulgar versions in order to cater to the popularity.
The 1980s were the golden age of DC and Warner dominating the comic book market. The sequels to Batman and Superman have come out one after another. Marvel, on the other hand, can only watch ASD follow Warner to eat and drink spicy, a lot of copyrights in his hands, but did not go home.
It was difficult to sell the copyright, but no one was willing to take over the auction for a long time.
1978's Doctor Strange and 1990's Hulk were both made into TV movies, and 1979's Captain America went straight to the home video market. Starring "Howard Duck" from the Guardians of the Galaxy easter egg, 1986's "Skyfall" is Marvel's second film to be released since the release of the 1944 version of Captain America. But Marvel's bad luck hasn't come to an end yet.
In 1989, Marvel Comics was acquired by American billionaire Ron Pereman, and with the operation of the financing mechanism, Marvel's economic status has slowed down. But the ill-fated Marvel Comics Company encountered huge problems in its operations, with the break of the capital chain, the withdrawal of investors, Marvel's proud performance bubble was finally punctured by the ruthless business model, Marvel Comics filed for bankruptcy protection in 1996.
But who knows, a new life was born in crisis. Warner ended up with "Batman and Robin" and DC friends. With Warner leaving, Marvel established its own portal in 1996 and established Marvel Studios to enter Hollywood. With the determination to become his boss, he released his first superhero movie "Blade Warrior" in 1998, which was a big victory. Since then, "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" have opened the golden age of comic book movies, and Marvel, which has been abused by DC for half a century, has finally raised its eyebrows.
But Marvel, which relies on IP licensing, is not as happy as imagined. Hollywood, which emphasizes "depreprecated" adaptations of comic book games, leaves little room for funding for such subcultures. Marvel's work has become unrecognizable in the Hollywood adaptation, the worldview of X-Men and Spider-Man has deviated farther and farther from its own imagination, and Marvel has decided to strike back.
In 2008, Marvel mortgaged its four comic book characters and bet on "Iron Man" on the screen. At the end of the year, Disney acquired Marvel, and subsequently established the Marvel Cinematic Studios, and the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" program was officially launched. In the decade that followed, Marvel became the "new century money machine," establishing the Hollywood commercial film paradigm.
As a stage climax of the ten-year layout of the "Marvel Cinematic Universe", "Avengers: Infinity War" temporarily ranked fourth in film history with a global box office of more than 2 billion US dollars, and continuously broke the film and television box office records of many countries. Marvel has produced 19 movies in a decade, grossing a total of more than $15 billion at the box office and is still growing steadily.
Although Stan Lee is not the manipulator of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), MCU movies have been a great success precisely because they inherit his "imperfect" character creation qualities. Marvel's early 10-cent comics were already hyped up for $350,000, which shows the enthusiasm for the early comics created by Stan Lee.
Marvel began to shoot movies, and Stan Lee did not want to be idle, began to make crazy cameos, and became a veritable Hollywood dragon suit king. Not only did he make a cameo appearance, he also came with his wife to play ticket show love: "I have to say, the actress on the set is really not as good looking as my wife!" ”
As of this year, he is the highest-grossing actor in all-character history in the United States. He participated in 39 films in his lifetime, creating a total box office of about 51 billion yuan. The audience's finding of Stan Lee's shadow in various movies has become a big Easter egg. "Why should audiences come to see Marvel movies? Just to see me!" Stan Lee said with a smile.
<h2>Fifth, there are Easter eggs here</h2>
Stan Lee's cosmic system makes "The Avengers" summarize all the characters of Thor, Iron Man, and Hulk that can be independently made into a series, and then diverge and weave into a big net. Compared to the indie world of The Lord of the Rings, this is a big brain hole.
Warner and dc with the same resources failed to achieve such success, and Fox, although also using the X-Men and Wolverine to play the same calculation, was far less effective than Marvel. But this kind of film serialization or dramatization may change the strategy of the whole Hollywood.
Robert McKee, the godfather of Hollywood screenwriting, once predicted that with the decline of the big screen, the future of cinema lies in the dramatization, during which the characters have more growth and allow the audience to "empathize". And Marvel is striding forward in the direction of "ultra-long standby TV movies".
Marvel Studios has played the introduction form of "end-of-credit Easter eggs" to the fullest, giving the audience more expectations at the end of each new work. I hope that through the series of plots and characters between the films, a whole will be formed, so as to prompt fans to watch it without landing.
Stan Lee is gone with us forever. But we still have hope to look for his "Easter eggs" in a few future movies.
Recently, Disneyland announced that it will expand new Marvel Superhero-themed attractions in three parks in California, Paris and Hong Kong. All superhero attractions are scheduled to officially open to visitors in 2020.
Stan Lee, the "American Jin Yong", in a distant world, embracing his lover who has been in love for 70 years, will be very pleased to see the IP he created bring joy to people and see people travel freely in the hero's universe.
In contrast, I don't know what Jin Yong's grandfather will expect from his IP development?
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