Spinner of Tales and Weaver of Webs

Stanley Martin Lieber was a nonconformist who dreamed of writing the Great American Novel but settled for comic books that paid the rent and were signed “Stan Lee.” Although many of his peers simplified their language and themes for young readers, Lee, a voracious reader of H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Shakespeare and the Bible, turned his comic book stories into modern-day equivalents of English morality plays, Greek tragedies and simple melodramas.

With epic simplicity and an innate sense of justice, Lee maintained the conventions of the superhero genre--bad guys receiving their comeuppance in a mere 22 pages, heroes wearing gym shorts over their pants--but Lee’s world was a little more complex. Victories were pyrrhic, characters died and the next tragedy was always on its way.

With Spider-Man, arguably the most inspired comic creation since Superman, Lee turned the concept of the superhero inside out. Spider-Man was neurotic, skeptical and constantly struggling with his own insecurities (whether he enjoyed his powers too much, whether he really was the menace described in newspaper editorials). He lost more battles than he won and occasionally, tragically, failed to save the lives of those closest to him.

It was a formula--Spidey trading insults and punches with such middle-aged super villains as the Vulture, Dr. Octopus, the Green Goblin and Electro--that was phenomenally successful and its history is colorfully laid out in Lee and George Mair’s “Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee,” “Excelsior!” being his column’s trademark signoff. Mixing anecdote with description, the authors tells us how Lee helped introduce Marvel Comic’s most enduring properties. They shares stories of Lee’s early days at the comic book giant; his stint in the military during World War II; the death of his infant daughter, Jan; and his battles with censors. It is a life as full of grit, determination and triumph as the adventures of his most illustrious creation, which hits the big screen this week.

Superman and Batman have had their day, and now it’s Spider-Man’s turn. With the promotional push well underway--soundtrack music included in videos on MTV, commercials airing regularly, the web-covered character’s face on boxes for breakfast cereals--longtime fans and filmgoers will finally have a chance to see director Sam Raimi’s extraordinary computer-generated graphic footage of the web-slinging, high-marketed hero.

From the beginning, Spider-Man had proved to be Marvel’s most film-friendly property. Shortly after opening its doors in 1939, Marvel Comics began a quick roller coaster ride in the capricious world of comic book publishing. After enjoying quick success with heroes like Captain America and Human Torch and with stories tied to World War II, the company found itself on the brink in the 1950s, when interest in superheroes waned and a congressional subcommittee sought to censor the sensationalized multi-paneled comic book world. The company survived by publishing everything from westerns to romance and sci-fi monster comics. Sales were modest and Marvel survived by publishing reprints of old material, in titles distributed by chief rival DC Comics.

Such a hardscrabble life was not entirely alien to Lee. Particularly moving, however, are his descriptions in “Excelsior!” of his parents’ attempts to keep the family afloat during the Great Depression. “They must have loved each other when they were married, but my earliest recollections were of the two of them arguing, quarreling incessantly,” Lee writes. “Almost always it was over money, or the lack of it. I realized at an early age how the specter of poverty, the never-ending worry about not having enough money to buy groceries or to pay the rent, could cast a cloud over a marriage. I’ll always regret the fact that, by the time I was earning enough money to make things easier for them, it was too late.”

In 1961, however, Marvel publisher Martin Goodman asked his cousin-in-law, Marvel editor Lee, to create a knockoff of DC’s best-selling Justice League of America, a consortium that united DC’s top-selling characters. Lee and Marvel artist Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four and began a historic collaboration that resulted in the creation of what Lee called “the Marvel Universe.” By 1966, Hollywood came calling.

During the 1970s, Lee brokered film and television deals and, by 1978, CBS television aired a live-action series based on Spider-Man and pilots for series about Dr. Strange and Captain America. During the 1980s, ABC aired the Spider-Woman cartoon and NBC offered yet another Fantastic Four animated series. The 1990s saw Marvel option more of its 4,700 characters to film and television producers and, in 1991, new owner Ronald Perelman (who purchased the company from New World) take Marvel public. Under Perelman, Marvel comics expanded into animation (Marvel Studios’ critically acclaimed incarnations of Spider-Man and the X-Men), licensing (best-selling video games), toys (through Toy Biz, which ultimately came to control the company), comic book publishing and the Marvel.com Web site, which offers “Dotcomics” for download.

“Excelsior!” also describes how the plain-spoken charismatic writer--in tandem with the late artist Kirby--created the world’s most recognizable heroes, including the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk and the Silver Surfer, and moved superheroes into film, television and the corporate boardroom. Lee doesn’t describe his legendary battles with Kirby, nor does he offer more than passing references to Marvel’s most recent descent into bankruptcy.

For this story, turn to Dan Raviv’s “Comic Wars: How Two Tycoons Battled Over the Marvel Comics Empire--and Both Lost.” Raviv, a CBS correspondent and author of “Every Spy a Prince,” recounts how Perelman led the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy (laying off hundreds in the process) during the 1990s, then battled Carl Icahn in court until businessmen Ike Perlmutter and Avi Arad of Toy Biz took control. Raviv’s descriptions of expletive-scattered boardroom tirades, the obligatory Perelman divorce drama, interviews with insiders and all the courtroom documents might make for a movie of its own, but they unfortunately add up to a long-winded retread of “Barbarians at the Gate.”

Raviv offers top-notch reporting and skillful and engaging writing, but they are not enough to relieve the venom and vitriol that take us far from the otherworldliness of the comic books that may have provided an ironic backdrop for these corporate skirmishes. Where is Spider-Man when we need him most?

All the more reason to enjoy the triumph of “Excelsior!” as Lee takes readers back to the time when Marvel Comics were half as expensive, their audience was twice as large, every month brought up to five incredible Stan Lee stories in various comic series and the world was a better place for it.