‘Stan Lee’ Review: For the Cameo King, a Struggle to Hold the Spotlight

Onscreen, Stan Lee — the general public face of Marvel Comics and the topic, principally, of David Gelb’s chipper documentary of the identical title — had cameos as an astronaut, a common, a strip membership M.C., a magnificence pageant choose, a letter provider, an intergalactic barber, a psych ward resident, a scorching canine vendor and lots of hapless pedestrians. He was by no means the superhero. But Lee believed that his success was as a result of his superheroes’ neuroses, flaws and ego journeys made each a bit of bit like him.

Lee, in fact, lived a life in contrast to most mortals. He appeared to get youthful the older he obtained (with assist from sun shades and a toupee). From his gateway job because the workplace boy at Timely Publications in 1939 up till his loss of life in 2018, Lee’s a long time within the comics trade ticked by at a tempo that appears to bend the time-space continuum. According to his personal archival audio that narrates the movie, he didn’t respect his profession till 1961, probably nonetheless holding out hope that he’d reclaim his actual title — Stanley Martin Lieber — when he wrote the nice American novel.

It’s disappointing, but inevitable that the creation story of Lee provides method to the characters he helped create. The doc awkwardly alludes to the possession squabbles between Lee and his star illustrators Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, whose heirs have waged a copyright battle in opposition to the corporate. (Marvel additionally produced this movie.) That’s about as darkish as Gelb is keen, or ready, to get — though followers taking sides within the cultural cock combat between DC and Marvel will gentle up just like the Human Torch at a clip of the previous DC editor Julius Schwartz insisting his readers “don’t wanna be educated,” whereas Lee visibly snickers.

Stan Lee
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. Watch on Disney+.