Stan Lee was one of the chief architects of the Marvel universe. He was sometimes called as Mickey Mouse of the Marvel universe. Some people call him the “God of Marvel comics”. He is the creator of popular Marvel superhero comics like Hulk, Thor, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, X-Men etc. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, it was revealed that he is “The Watchers’” informant in every MCU movie till now.
In an interview with SyfyWire.com, he talked about the life and times in the comic-book industry. But out of nowhere, he insisted on giving Silver surfer movie a second chance on a big screen. He felt in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, the character Norrin Radd was sidelined. He said:
“He’s the one I want to see more. He’s the most philosophical of all the characters I’ve ever worked on. And I have an idea for my cameo in that one!”
Silver Surfer is part of the Fantastic Four stable of characters whose rights are not owned by Marvel, but by 20th Century Fox. The Fantastic Four movie did’nt have a cameo of Stan Lee and as of now, there is no reboot in sight. There are rumors that the next F-4 movie will be about the children of Reed Richards and Sue Storm and unlikely to include Silver Surfer. Moreover, the 20th Century Fox is very unlikely to work with Marvel the way Sony worked in the new Spiderman franchise.
He is one of the most powerful characters of the Marvel universe. The humanoid in the form of metal first appeared in The Fantastic Four #48 in 1966. From animated series to the comic books, the character was well received by the comic book fans just after his inception.
Like several other superheroes, Silver Surfer was brought all the way through a tragic story to make it big in the comic book world. His mother, Elmar Radd, was not comfortable living her life on Zenn-La, the family’s home planet. His father, Jartan, was a thief and he committed suicide in one of the crimes.
Unlike Captain America’s shield and Thor’s hammer, the Silver Surfer’s board is made up from the same material he is made of. That means the board is indestructible and possesses powers like him. Apart from the board, he has incredible powers like Power Cosmic that enable him to manipulate the universe’s energies, and possess superhuman strength, endurance, and senses. His power of telepathy has proven effective as he can read the minds of people around him.
Lee loved to be in front of a camera. He featured in many MCU cameos before and expectations for his future appearances is pretty high. According to people connected with Thor: Ragnarok, his cameo is the funniest yet.
In a video montage, actor Chris Hemsworth and director Taika Waititi extended good wishes to Stan Lee and spoke highly about his cameo in the movie. Chris Hemsworth said to Stan “You did a cameo today, which is your best one yet, I think.” Taika Waititi said “I met you the other day. You came in and your cameo is one of the funniest things in the film.”
In an interview, Stan reminisced about his favorite and least favorite cameos, his all-time favorite will always be Avengers: Age of Ultron. He said:
“Oh yeah, my favorite is when I’m drinking with Thor in the second Avengers movie. When I was with him at the bar and he was drinking a strong drink from Asgard. And I told him, ‘Hey, let me have a sip. And he says, ‘No, it’s too strong for you.’ I’m like, ‘C’mon!’ So I take a sip, and the next scene, they’re carrying me out. The reason that one is my favorite of the ones I’ve done is that it’s the one cameo I’ve done that has two scenes. I figure that’s making me more of an actor. Pretty soon I’ll have three scenes then I’ll have four, and before you know it, I’ll be starring in a movie.”
The fan-fights among Marvel and DC cheerleaders is always vitriolic and passionate as both sides want to beat each other. There is always a debate among comic-book enthusiasts as to which camp is doing better – Marvel or DC. If we analyze the performance of both studios in terms of TRP’s on TV, clearly DC shows like Arrow, Flash etc. has a solid lead over Marvel (Daredevil, Agents of S.H.I.EL.D).
But on the big screen, DC is not even in the 10-mile radius of Marvel studios in terms of global box-office collections from its film projects (Wonder Woman is a saving grace for DC).
An interview with Stan Lee, the God of Marvel comics, with THR in 1977 went viral where he admitted to trolling DC comics about Marvel wins back in the day. He described DC’s lineup as “miserable” and admitted to doing everything to mess up DC’s publications. He said:
“They’ve been trying to catch up. They’re doing the best they can, bless their innocent little hearts. We used to have a lot of fun with them when we started outselling them. They studied our books, and they’d say, ‘You know, I noticed they use a lot of red on their covers. Maybe that’s it. And they would start putting a lot of red on their covers. The minute we would learn of that, we would take all the red off our covers. And our books still sold better, and that would drive them crazy.”
He added:
“It never occurred to them that we take the work a little more seriously and maybe we have a little bit more of a sense of humor. And maybe people don’t like things that are a little bit stuffy. They like things that are whimsical or humorous.”
Well, before Marvel fans rejoice, let me remind them that Marvel comics filed for bankruptcy in 1996 and DC is still standing. CHEERS!
