Stan Lee’s Superhero Trip to Planet Capitalism
The Spider-Man creator lived through one of the weirder market bubbles back in the ’90s, and missed out on the real Marvel boom in later years.
Stan Lee got $10 million for his "movie points." Marvel's movies have grossed $17 billion. That's showbiz.
Photographer: Archive Photos/MoviepixStan Lee helped create some of the most iconic characters in Western popular culture. Superheroes like Spider-Man, the Avengers, and the X-Men had more than just garish costumes or bonkers superpowers. They had relatable, flawed personalities too. But Lee’s journey from dime-store comic creator to the public face of a $4 billion entertainment juggernaut (the price paid by the Walt Disney Co. for Marvel Comics in 2009) is also an instructive trip through one of the stranger market bubbles. Like tulip bulbs, but with spandex.
As he rose through the ranks of comic publisher Marvel in the 1960s with titles such as The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk, Lee became as recognizable as Alfred Hitchcock, proving one could be a successful auteur within the confines of the comic publishing industry. He also avoided the fate of the unsung corporate hero who fails to get financial recompense for their work. Think of the original creators of Superman, who sold the rights for $130.