The Son Of Jack Kirby Torched A New Stan Lee Documentary For Shortchanging His Dad’s Work

Stan Lee spent his final years as the purported father of Marvel. The comics legend died in 2018 at age 85, and he lived long enough to see many of the characters he co-created dominate the multiplex, and he filed cameos in many of those films. Jack Kirby, one of his collaborators, died in 1994, well before the brand he helped pioneer got a good shot in the arm. There’s a new documentary about Stan Lee on Disney+, and according to Kirby’s son, it paints a distorted view of what his dad and Lee created.

As per Deadline, Jillian Kirby, the comic legend’s granddaughter, posted a lengthy message from her father Neal, in which he takes umbrage with how the doc, entitled simply Stan Lee, shortchanges his father’s contributions to Marvel. Neal acknowledges that a doc about Stan Lee, which uses his voice on the narration track, is going to offer a skewed perspective on history. Still, Neal feels, it goes too far.

“It’s not any big secret that there has always been controversy over the parts that were played in the creation and success of Marvel’s characters,” Neal wrote. “Stan Lee had the fortunate circumstance to have access to the corporate megaphone and media, and he uses these to create his own mythos as to the creation of the Marvel character pantheon. He made himself the voice of Marvel.”

Neal argues that Lee simply couldn’t have been the sole inventor of some of the richest characters, which didn’t spring out of nowhere.

“It should be noted and is generally accepted that Stan Lee had a limited knowledge of history, mythology, or science,” Neal wrote. “On the other hand, my father’s knowledge of these subjects, to which I and many others can personally attest, was extensive. Einstein summed it up better; ‘More the knowledge, lesser the ego. Lesser the knowledge, more the ego.’”

He continues:

“Are we to assume Lee had a hand in creating every Marvel character? Are we to assume that it was never the other cocreator that walked into Lee’s office and said, ‘Stan I have a great idea for a character!’ According to Lee, it was always his idea. Lee spends a fair amount of time talking about how and why he created the Fantastic Four, with only one fleeting reference to my father.”

You can read Neal Kirby’s full statement in the embedded tweet above.

(Via Deadline)