With Great Power: The Marvelous Stan Lee

Book title: With Great Power: The Marvelous Stan Lee. An Unauthorized Biography
ISBN: 978-1-64567-285-2
Author: Annie Hunter Erickson
Illustrated by: Lee Gatlin
Page Street Publishing Company/ Page Street for Kids
32 pages
Published in: 2021
32 pages. About 1100 words and biography
Cost: $ 18.99 US
Reviewed by: Allen Klingelhoets

Publisher page note: This biography of Stan Lee was created without the involvement and endorsement of Mr. Lee or the companies with which he was associated.

Allen review;

This book kept things simple. The author Annie Hunter Erickson did quite a bit of research which was shown on bibliography page. I really did not find much new information about Stan Lee. I think though for child which book is geared towards would really enjoy biography.

The book tells how Stanley Lieber grew up in a tiny apartment in The Bronx. No matter how small the apartment was Stanley felt the world of his stories was ginormous. When Stanley read many books like Frankenstein and Shakespeare’s stories when not enough imagination Stanley invented his own tales.

Stanley’s parents and brother* Larry counted on Stanley to earn money. So, at sixteen and – a- half Stanley went out to search for a job.

Stanley got a job at Timely Comics. He did not start off writing comic book stories. He was Stanley Lieber: Errand Boy.

The biography tells how when Timely Comics needed someoneto write a filler story for Captain America who was around to save the day? None other than the Errand Boy. At that time according to Annie Hunter Erickson superheroes were a dime a dozen and sometimes mocked as “long underwear characters.” Who would want to put their name on something like that?

So, Stanley Lieber signed his first story as Stan Lee. No one would ever suspect that he was Stanley Lieber, the next great American writer, once wrote comic books. It was the perfect disguise. The biography tells how Stan Lee wrote comic book stories in a flurry. He worked with Jack “The King” Kirby and Joe Simon. This was in the 1940’s. Then Jack and Joe quit. Stan Lee as teenager was asked to be the editor of Timely Comics.

The biography tells how in next ten to fifteen years Stan Lee became disgruntled with turning out same story plots over and over. Timely Comics became Atlas Comics… Stan Lee had enough of writing same sort of stories. He wanted to quit comics. His wife, Joanie gave him different advice. Why not sneak in a story he always wanted to tell?

Jack Kirby had returned to Marvel. Stan and Jack teamed and worked hard together to create group called “The Fantastic Four.” The main characters were called: Mr. Fantastic, The Human Torch, The Invisible Girl and The Thing. The characters had flawed personalities. They were different from the usual perfect superhero formula. A pinch of superpowers and heaped in with a healthy bit of humanity, mixed together for an explosion of personality chemistry. Readers could not get enough of The Fantastic Four.

What would be next? Stan thought about times growing up in The Bronx when a hero could be anyone even a lonely gawky kid. A kid that did not have two pennies to rub together.

Science whiz certified geek, orphan. Tall, lanky, a professional wall flower. This hero would feel lonely and shunned, but strove to protect even those who bullied him.

Stan Lee wrote while artist Steve Ditko drew the perfect design, until they created Peter Parker. The amazing Spider-Man.

I know I liked what I saw now reading first seven volumes of Masterworks “The Amazing Spider-Man.”

The biography tells how publishers at Marvel did not like the idea of hero getting powers from a spider. The readers though did see what publishers could not see. They loved Spider- Man because of flaws.

Biography is just a glimpse into life of Stan Lee.

The publisher asked if Stan had any more story ideas. This opened door to X-Men, Daredevil, The Black Panther, Thor, Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Iron Man, Ant-Man and The Wasp and many other characters heroes and even villains and many others. I would need to use The Marvel Encyclopedia to mention every character Stan Lee created for Marvel Comics.

I also appreciated how mentioned that Stan Lee took time each month to talk directly to his readers in letter column section called “Stan’s Soapbox.”



Allen Klingelhoets