Remembering Stan Lee

Hi, heroes. This is Stan Lee coming at you. Want

you to know, Marvel has always been and always

will be a reflection of the world right outside

our window. That world may change and evolve,

but the one thing that will never change is the

way we tell our stories of heroism. Those stories

have room for everyone, regardless of their race,

gender, religion, or color of their skin. The

only things we don't have room for are hatred,

intolerance, and bigotry. That man next to you,

he's your brother. That woman over there, she's

your sister. And that kid walking by, hey, who

knows? He may have the proportionate strength

of a spider. We're all part of one big family,

the human family, and we all come together in

the body of Marvel. And you, you're part of that

family. You're part of the Marvel universe that

moves ever upward and onward to greater glory.

In other words... Hello and welcome to GeekCast

Radio. This is episode 190. I'm of course TF2

and Mike, and ladies and gentlemen, it is a sad

day for almost everyone in this entire world

because Stan Lee, comics legend, some might say

the godfather of all comics, at least Marvel

anyway, has passed away. I'm joined by TV's Mr.

Neil. Hello, sir. Excelsior. And JT from Saskatoon,

hello. Excelsior, Ghost Nappa. Okay then. Yeah,

this news just came out as we're recording this.

It came out about five or six hours before we

recorded this, and wow. woke up from a nap to

this news folks this is really really sad I woke

up this morning to this you know you wake up

you roll over you grab the phone account just

gonna you know scroll through Facebook as the

the engine warms up and then well I don't want

to get out of bed at all today exactly I don't

want to make any comparisons between Kirby and

Ditko and Lee at all like we're not even gonna

do that. We're not gonna Do whose legacy was

better who had the more legacy kind of card at

all? That's just it was all it's all of them.

That's all the greats exactly There was a Mount

Rushmore of comic books three of them would I

Maybe not three. I would argue at least two of

them would be Lee and Kirby Yeah. I put Ditko

up there. I put Ditko up there, too. He did do

a lot as well. And Dan DiCarlo. Thank God you

didn't say Dan the Dio. No, God, no. I would

have crawled through the internet and slapped

you. No, Dan DiCarlo is the Archie Comics guy.

Yeah. Oh, OK. Yeah, but I mean, it's such a sad...

I mean, and again, like I mentioned off air,

We're coming up in the anniversary of my own

father passing some years ago and I think it's

telling you guys until the listeners here I'd

seen one of the many many tributes on social

media today A friend of mine. It was just this

look of stanley, you know with that that shit

eating grin Doing the thwip with his hands and

said stanley Was it 1922 2018 and the other half

of the picture is a screen cap from Black Panther

work to tell T 'Challa's in the dream Was it

the ancestral plane? Talking to his dad's I was

not ready to be without you and I was just like

oh god and that's when the water work started

for me because You know, I've said it many times

before and not always with certainty There are

very few sacred cows in my life And Stan Lee

was one of them. And I've heard a lot of friends,

fellow podcasters, fellow comic book fans...

That shall not be named here. ...who have talked

a lot of shit about Stan Lee. And I don't think

it comes from any negative space that what they've

said. It's just... You got to take stuff with

a grain of salt. The man was not a saint. He

was saintly, but he was not a saint. yeah Neil

do you remember the first Stanley created comic

character that you read or did you you remember

the first Stan book you read because I honestly

don't think I've ever read any of Stan's actual

stuff I've seen obviously his media not just

the movies but obviously for me where it started

was the 94 spider -man cartoon as much as everyone

hates the the bleeding of red in that series.

Oh, there's more wrong with that than just that.

You know that. Stop it. The very first comic

book character I ever latched onto was Spider

-Man. I had a Spider -Man big wheel when I was

a kid. Oh, wow. I mean, yeah. Nice. Yeah. So

I always loved Spider -Man. He was just this

cool character. He was more down to earth, certainly

a lot more down to earth than like Superman.

And, you know, and his powers that he's like

a spider. I mean, how cool is that? Like a three

year old is going to latch onto something like

that. So I loved him. So it was much later and

you know down the line that I learned more about

the creator and like all the stuff that he had

done like creating the Fantastic Four and other

things. Stan had his hands in a lot of stuff.

I just went to look up like all that he'd created.

It was just like this monster list. I'm like,

oh God, I can't even run through this. But I

think he's most associated with like Spider -Man

and the Fantastic Four. I think those are the

big two. As well as the X -Men, I would say.

I remember him doing a lot of stuff talking about,

you know, the X -Men and things like that. Like

the first couple of dozen titles that Marvel

brought out in the 60s, you know? Yeah, the funny

thing is, is... quote -unquote bad as neil says

spider -man the animated series is i don't care

i still loved it back then and i still love it

now because that was my definition of spider

-man at the time i had not read any comics before

that the spider -man animated series is what

got me to go into walden books in ninety five

and pick up a couple of i think it was either

couple issues of amazing where they were doing

something with tombs and uh... vulture and uh...

Scorpion and a bunch of the other people it wasn't

the Sinister Six stuff, but it was a bunch of

other things and you know that's my Defining

for for spider -man, and I've liked other things

that you know spider -man has done and x -men

as well I was never I like Fantastic Four, but

I've never really gotten into them all that much

well, they're more of a dynasty. They go back

way farther than even Spider -Man. It's like

by the time we came along, they were kind of

passe, but you know, still kind of cool. Yeah,

because I mean, the Fantastic Four literally

started not only the Marvel Silver Age of comics,

but like the Silver Age, like the Fantastic Four

number one came out in like 1961. Another, like

I think four or five years before Spider -man

one came out like amazing fantasy 15 then amazing

spider -man I mean for me growing up like Neil

said my first taste of Stan Lee's like anything

was the 67 spider -man cartoon which is top five

all -time best theme songs ever and the old Marvel

superheroes Incredible Hulk story were Whole

like you'd have to have like one complete story

was in three different parts As far as his writing

I think the first time I ever read anything was

this little mini comic of amazing Spider -man

number one that I got with uh I forget if I got

as a stocking stuffer with an action figure or

something, but it was like, you know Four inches

by three and it was just this micro like mini

version of Amazing Spider -Man 1 where you know

He breaks into the Baxter building. He was like,

hey you guys got money, right? I'd like a job

and Reed, you know tells him to take off and

it's just like that Even though there's these

fantastic characters He made them seem so ordinary

like Peter Parker's this ordinary guy. Yeah,

he's a little bit smarter and everything but

He has to pay bills. He's got to take a look

after Aunt May. He's got to get through school

You know, the stuff I really loved reading grew

up were was it like spider -man classics that

came out in the Early to mid 90s were just basically

reprints of the original, you know, Lee and Ditko

run amazing spider -man and It's just like this

guy this guy gets me like as a kid like this

guy gets what I like about comics You know this

it spoke all that classic Marvel Silver Age stuff

that always spoke to me. Yeah Absolutely It's

just one of those things and like you were saying

JT about certain people whoever they are posting

on facebook whether it's means or whether it's

images or whatever i saw him i saw a meme image

that basically said some of the effect of you

know everyone's gonna cry when the next marvel

movie comes out and there is no stanley cameo

and all as it says is in loving memory he'll

be in the the next avengers movie and they're

they're done shooting that i'm sure that i'm

sure i am not your prep most likely right i'm

just saying whatever the next one is that he

isn't in people. You're going to have a lot of

watery theaters is what I'm saying. A lot of

tears stained cheeks. Yeah. I definitely know

he's got a cameo in Captain Marvel and then Avengers

Annihilation, which I think is pretty much what

they're going to call that at this point. It

hasn't been confirmed, confirmed. But yeah. And

I mean, Stanley is not just known for writing

Marvel comics. It's, you know, it's a lot of

these articles have said he's an ambassador for

the medium. Yeah, oh absolutely, he was. Like,

I mean, whether it's, you know, his cameo in

Mallrats, whether it's, you know, all the philanthropy

work he did, he's essentially the real -life

Iron Man of the comics. I mean, that's just the

way it is, that's the way it was, that's the

way it always will be. You know, speaking of

mall rats, I just realized something. The beginning

of the next Hollywood Babylon, you can expect

like a 45 -minute soliloquy from Kevin Smith.

He's just going to be like, this man, I loved

him, and he's just going to go on and on and

on. Dr. Ralph Garman may as well just not show

up. Yeah, I mean, Ralph might as well just take

the Batmobile back to the Batcave. I want to

hear his imitation of Stan Lee. Or have Ralph

Garmin have Stanley and Adam West have a conversation.

Please stop. As Stan gets to the pearly gates

and there's Batman ready to welcome him into

the afterlife, like come on. I mean, you hear

the way Ralph went on about Adam West dying.

That's how Kevin is going to be this Sunday.

Yeah, absolutely. I saw one of these Google news

articles from whatever website it was. I forget

which website it was. uh... where they're showing

the tweet like thousands of people tweet about

the passing of stan lee or whatever one of the

post was from instagram or wherever where it's

kevin's photo of stan on the throne with kevin

on the left and jay on the right and it's this

like entire book that kevin wrote for an instagram

post so i have no doubt that uh... that episode

of hollywood Babylon is going to be extremely

Not only long, but like you said, you know, 45

minutes, just Kevin talking about Stan and the

impact that he made on him. And why shouldn't

he? You know, I mean, I'm not the biggest fan

of Kevin Smith anymore, at least for a lot of

the stuff he's been doing lately, but still,

like, clerks, mall rats, yada yada yada, all

the early stuff he's done, I still love that

stuff. What's really sad is that... We Joe not

we but Stan lost his wife a year ago. They died

a year apart. I don't know. I don't think it

was around the same time or this like it wasn't

like to the day or anything like that. I'd have

to look up Jones death but they were married

for 69 years. Wow. Yeah. If there's one thing

Stan loved more than you know talking to fans

it was his wife. Oh absolutely. you know and

then like you said before like you hear her voice

in the last episode of the 90s fox spider -man

cartoon and it's just you can hear just in his

voice like he's and i've said this in a couple

of posts on facebook like he's the rascally great

uncle we all wanted in our family you know this

guy who was like sure he was getting on in years

but he is still He's a kid on the inside. Yep,

absolutely Absolutely, and I mean the man would

almost do anything for anyone. I mean You know

Say what you will about the hand like we're not

gonna bring up the whole Handler situation or

whatever that story was earlier this year about

his people supposedly Misappropriating stuff

or whatever. Yeah, but like whatever, you know

his fees were or whatever it was as long as you

were at a convention you could afford to you

know whether it's taking a picture with the guy

getting something autographed you did because

it's very rare any of us would meet a legend

and i know several people who have met him uh...

my buddy dog able from talking about my generation

has a couple other people i know have and whatever

and just you know what look at uh... look at

the writers now you know again say what you will

about comic book writers of today, but you know

you look at Dan Slott and you look at Christos

Gage and you look at anyone anybody else between

the time Stan stopped writing spider -man and

now His stuff all affected them. Yes. They're

gonna do their own thing and whatever else but

you know without Without without Stan Lee we

wouldn't have had ten years of Dan Slott on spider

-man Yeah, and those little stories that he wrote

for that book And and here's the thing like a

lot of people not just a certain co -host from

a comic -con cast that I'm on Has I'm just saying

like I've got the knife Yeah Anyway, where was

it? Oh, yes, so I've tried to get him to like

talk about you know comment on stuff like fan

fiction he's like well i don't read fan fiction

because it's just bad writing i was like dude

if not for the work of stan lee and you know

guys like denny o 'neill and bill finger and

all these other greats that have we've loved

and lost over the years at this point all you're

writing in comic books is fan fiction to some

degree or another and a lot of these fan fiction

writers a lot of writers creators in Any number

of mediums are there because they were inspired

in some small part by Stan the man Lee You know,

I mean this is a guy started in like the early

days of the comics medium in World War two timely

comics before it morphed into atlas and then

Into Marvel over the years. I mean Comic books

as a medium were circling the drain when he started

writing stuff in the 60s again, like after World

War two you know, when Tales was a Tales of suspense,

when it was like him and Kirby doing all like,

you know, Xenu, the Space Hulk or the original

Fin Fang Foom storyline, stuff like that, you

know, if he didn't create that bridge, we wouldn't

have anything that we've had now. And Cuz like

I said before he's an ambassador. No, you guys

might may or may not know this some of the listeners

may or might know this Stanley is at least partially

responsible for Power Rangers and I'll explain

why in You may are you aware of the tokusatsu?

Spiderman from the 1970s. Well Toei and Marvel

cuz Stan was you know getting trying to branch

Marvel properties out beyond comic books, you

know, we had the Incredible Hulk show and those

critical darling Doctor Strange and Captain America

TV movies from the 70s. I mean, how dare the

Marvel movies succeed now, because they're just

riding on the backs. Okay, I can't those movies

sucked. But Stanley They sold the rights of Spider

-Man to Toei, who's responsible for stuff like

Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, which we knew over

here as Kamen Rider and Power Rangers. Also Dragon

Ball Z, a Sailor Moon, and Transformers. Yeah.

But what Neil said folks I won't I won't call

the year and there's only been one adaptation

of common writer in America It was common writer

Dragon Knight And if anyone tells you that there

was any show from that in the mid 90s involving

an ugly furry monkey duck, baby I'll call you

a liar Anyway, so Stanley you got suit Japanese

spider -man and they were gonna bring over the

series. I believe it was Battle Fever J which

was one of the original Super Sentai. See, before

this they had Super Sentai, but it was just this

multicolored team of heroes. They didn't have

giant robots from the beginning. The first tokusatsu

series with a transforming giant robot was the

Japanese Spiderman show, Supitaman, with Leo

Pardon. He would fly up to this thing in a flying

Formula One race car, because it's Japan, and

go with it. And later on, there was, I think

it was Sun Vulcan, which is a number of years

after this that Stanley was also a part of because

they were actively trying to bring that over

at least in a dubbed form, not in the matter

that Power Rangers is adapted now. So if there's

one thing I am eternally grateful for Stanley

for it's, you know, he tried, he looked out what

was out there and tried to bring this stuff over

to America. I mean, The efforts of Supaida Man

and Battlefever Jade, that gave us like that

awesomely cheesy Godzilla King of Monsters comic

that Marvel published in the 70s where Dum Dum

Dugan and a S .H .I .E .L .D. team tried to capture

the King of All Monsters. You know, it gave us

Red Ronin, which is this giant red, silver and

gold mecha that's been in any number of stories

in the Marvel Universe over the years. And all

this stuff is because Stan Lee Went out there

and tried to bring Marvel to the world and bring

a little bit of the world back Exactly, he's

had several projects over the years that I've

kind of scratched my head at Neil knows one of

them We'll talk about that in a minute. Okay,

and it's just There are certain things you you

would expect and there are certain unexpected

things that Stan has done over the years like

You know when spider -man hit What is it 16 years

ago now? You know that was like okay sure it's

a spider. It's the it's the first spider -man

film Whatever you you'd think that the creator

co -creator whatever you want to call Stan Would

be in it somewhere, but you know You don't expect

where it's gonna be and that was one of the greatest

things about the Marvel movies is finding out

where and how non -attention base it is where

his cameos show up like you know the mailman

at the Baxter building or you know one of the

generals or Hugh Hefner or whatever it is and

then there's things like Stripperella and you

wouldn't have you know expect to have Stan's

name on that that's a great cartoon and he did

a cameo in that Yes, he did a recurring cameo

he was like the one of the queue like gadget

guys in That gave stripper Ella all her gear

I don't know about you one of my favorite cameos

that he's done in a Marvel movie was the strip

club DJ in Deadpool Yeah, and that's not one

of those. Oh, he needed a check. That's just

him having fun Yeah, I mean, I think my favorite

aside from Willy Lumpkin, which is this you know

a character that was in Fantastic Four and over

the years like that's yeah no that's Stan right

there like they even drew him in the comics to

kind of look like Stan with his nose and glasses

and ears but I think my favorite Stan cameo in

a Marvel movie was from Age of Ultron Like where

Thor's given everyone like to hit like two drops

of Asgardian meat out of his little Eye dropper

bottle. He's like come on blondie. Give me a

hit and then there's the two guys carting away

X is sealer And he's just like bombed out of

his head Yeah, it's I know what was your guys

favorite Stan cameo in the movies Neil I Don't

know I guess I got a Because I don't have a vivid

memory of any of them. It's been a while since

I've seen any of the Marvel movies I'm gonna

have just have to default the stripper Ella one

where he had the cordless phone that he just

invented That was that was pretty funny Yeah,

I'd have to say I have two One is in daredevil

when Matt Murdock basically saves his life Uh,

and the other is, I'm looking for Tony Stank.

I love that. This is Tony Stank right here. Right

here. At Go, by the way. Yep. And just the smile

on Don Cheadle's face. No, either that's because

he's got that line or, you know, he's having

a cameo with Stan Lee. I'm going to say six of

one, half dozen of the other. I also like the

subtle Stan cameos in the Netflix series. Yeah.

Where he's... It's not him on camera, but he's

doing the Sergeant Stan Lee of the NYPD and all

those posters, doing the Uncle Sam, I want you

pose, and a lot of stuff. What they did with

him, or for him, or whatever, in the PS4 Spider

-Man game, I was not expecting that, and I thought

that was really, really cool. He's at the diner.

Yeah, but did they call him Stan or did he have

another? No, I don't think they actually, but

it's him. It doesn't matter. And here's the truth,

you guys may not have noticed this. Did you know

he's technically got a double cameo in the 2008

Incredible Hulk movie? He drinks the juice and

then he does something else. Well, no, he's the,

yeah, he has, he drinks like the Hulk tainted...

That's the second one, though. That's the one

that's the official canon. Yeah. You're talking

about the Ang Lee one, right? No, the Ed Norton

one. Okay. Yeah. Like, yeah, I mean, yeah, the

Ang Lee one, he cameos on screen with the Incredible

Hulk, you know, the immortal Lou Ferrigno, who,

dear God, that man's still a beast. And, but

no, in 2008, like, yeah, he plays the guy, drinks

like the tainted soda, and then the name of the

pizza place that Banner crashes at while he's

stalking Betty in the film. It's Stan Lee's.

Ah, very cool. Very cool, very cool. He's somebody

that, you know, I believe we joked, not we as

in the three of us, but myself and a few other

people joked about this about four or five years

ago. When Stan goes, you know... the whole world

is gonna come crashing down, at least the whole

entertainment world, and no, it's probably not,

but he was a guy that not only did he do so much

for the fans himself in just real life as himself,

but as a writer, as someone who created these,

like, without him, comic book movies wouldn't

be where they are. At least the Marvel stuff

wouldn't. I don't know what the hell the dildo

and DC are gonna do, but... You know, it's one

of those things where without Stan Lee, you don't

have the last 80 plus years of comics. Well,

yeah, I mean, a huge chunk of it. And it's not

just, yeah, and not just American comics. Like,

there's a couple of, among this, Kara Curry,

Doji Ultimo is this, I don't think he did a lot

of writing on. I think he kind of came up with

a lot of the concepts. And, you know, he edited

stuff there, here and there in that manga, but

he didn't write it on the whole. There's the

hero man. I've seen the anime of this manga.

And he wrote a lot on that series, but this kid

that gets like this busted toy that turns into

this giant, it's kind of like a Baymax -esque

sort of protector, more gigantic than Baymax,

that sort of thing. I mean, outside of Marvel.

And there's also the I have this entire series

in single issue form and in the trades. Do you

just imagine? Stanley creating series from DC

Comics in the Early aughts like have you ever

read that? No, it's basically he came up with

Concepts like Batman is Wayne Williams. He's

this black kid who was framed for a crime. He

didn't commit You know goes to prison gets out

and you know the guy that actually killed his

mom is looking for him so he becomes like this

masked wrestler batman with like this giant bat

mask and fake wings and eventually becomes a

vigilante the green lantern is this guy who's

powered his power is like the power of Yggdrasil

like the power of the earth so it's this weird

kind of captain planet knockoff and I mean, if

you can find it to read, I highly recommend it.

It's just some all like one shots with Stanley

like here. He just it's the idea of what they

did with the Green Lantern and Flash in the 60s

when they came back in the Showcase presents

comic. He took the name and just ran with it.

And I mean, if you want to see some good, like

if you just want some joy in your life reading

a comic book, read this stuff, folks, it's what

all I'm saying. Absolutely. I still haven't forgiven

Stan Lee for Ravage 2099 because that was just

bad. I gotta be honest. I think at this point

you can. Come on now. Again, unlike other people,

I'm not gonna hold a grudge into perpetuity.

Yes, I'm gonna keep beating that dead horse.

Yes, yes, yes. Well, we should dig a grave for

that dead horse. Anyway... Any final thoughts,

Neil, on Stan before we get the heck out of here?

Well, there's one moment that I had kind of in

the back of my head. It's not really a Stan Lee

moment. It's more of a Spider -Man moment. It's

the most random sort of cameo that ever, well,

not that ever happened, but it's one of my favorites.

It's an episode of GI Joe, where I forget what

the setup was, but they ran into a Zartan, and

they're like, Zartan! And he's like, were you

expecting Spider -Man? that was just that sort

of like little internal reference there because

it was it was a marvel production at the time

so i thought we thought that was kind of funny

and cool and i i think i think uh spider -man

would show up a few times that somebody would

be watching spider -man on tv or something yeah

i one last thing like again like we mentioned

this off air and there is again mount a certain

amount of a hucksterism to Stanley, you know,

he didn't always share the, I, it's not like

Bob Kane and Bill Finger, like he didn't outright

steal credit. with a lot of things, but I also

like how his friends weren't afraid to take shots

at him. Like, when Jack Kirby left for DC Comics

in, like, the early 70s and created, you know,

the fourth world, like Mr. Miracle and the New

Gods and all that, he had this character show

up in the Mr. Miracle comic called Funky Flashman,

who is this very boisterous, ostentatious, is

like, I'm gonna make you a star, baby, and...

If you could read that and not come away, Neil

knows what I'm talking about, if you could read

that comic and you had come away not even thinking

that wasn't supposed to be Stan Lee, like come

on, that was Stan Lee. Like my favorite image

of Stan Lee is one of the first images I have,

like physical pictures ever saw of him was, it

was just this headshot of him from like the late

80s, early 90s, you know, the hair is starting

to thin back a bit. He's got those really dark

aviators on, but it's just that smile on his

face. Like this man is loving life. And that's

how I'm always going to remember him. Good and

bad. He is. It's smiling Stan Lee. Like, how

can you hate this guy? Absolutely. Uh, I think

it was on Netflix. They had his biopic or documentary

on, on his life at the time. And this is. where

I had seen him and Joan and everything else and

all that. If it's still on Netflix, folks, go

check it out. I think it's with great power comes

great responsibility, obviously. That's what

it would be called. But it's basically The Life

and Times of Stan Lee. It came out a couple years

ago. Go check that out. I wish I could have met

the man, but, you know, it is what it is. His

influence will... Go on forever. I mean there's

there's nothing That he didn't do that people

will not look at and say wow I mean he was everywhere

and He will be missed so I think that's gonna

do it for us here on geek cast radio JT where

can the people find you online? Well, they can

find me every so often on the comic connoisseurs

podcast with the Ben, the host, Carver, and Red

Ink. And you can also find me on Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, at JT from Saskatoon. Neil, how about

you? Decian .com, my own superhero comic series

about Decian. You can go over there and read

all about her and her Decian and her amazing

friends. I am at TF2 and Mike on Twitter. Go

to GeekCastReo .com. Check out all the other

episodes we do as well. I think, like I said

before, I'm going to close this out with the

end of the 94's Spider -Man The Animated Series

with Stan and Joan Lee. Catch you next time,

folks. I suppose I could wait for the Fantastic

Four to drop by and give me a lift. That Stan

Lee, he's quite a guy. I think he's truly special.

Well, Madame Webb, where to now? Face front,

true believer!