The legendary Stan Lee has introduced the world to characters like Spider-Man, Thor, and the Fantastic Four, and many of his works of art have gone on to build an evolving cinematic universe that dominates at the box office. As it turns out, Stan Lee has accumulated quite the roster of superheroes that have never seen the light of day in the public eye, as he claimed in a recent interview with Variety.
Lee says he has roughly 50 characters that have never been used in any of his formal work, and he teased there will be a day when those characters are introduced.
“I have about 50 [characters] that I’ve already developed that I haven’t shown to anybody. And someday I will. But, there’s no need for me, really, to do anymore now … One of them [the characters] has a superpower that you’ve never seen before. They all have new superpowers, but I can’t tell you. I’m sorry!”
Well, that just has me begging for more. Odds are if none of those characters have managed to be brought to life at this point, they may not have the impact that Lee’s top hits have had over the years, but wouldn’t you like to catch a glimpse of these secret heroes? But for now, we will all be left wondering when Lee will decide to show off his archived collection of characters.
Lee has been working in the comic industry for decades, and it should be expected he has drafted different ideas and characters over the years that have never quite fit the stories he was illustrating. But every good artist keeps a collection of ideas stored away for the right opportunity. With Lee being at this as long as he has been, a small collection of never-used characters would be likely to grow over time. He may have enough in the archives to launch an entirely new comic universe, both in print and on screen.
Last week, Disney honored Lee and longtime co-worker Jack Kirby as a recipient of Disney’s Legend award (along with Carrie Fisher) for their work over the years bringing fictional characters like Spider-Man and Thor to life. Disney purchased Marvel years ago and has mapped out the Marvel Cinematic Universe in multiple phases in a way that has never been done on screen before. Lee’s influence on the project has not been taken for granted, and he continues to pop up for a brief cameo and comic relief in every film involving a Marvel brand, whether produced by Disney or Sony or FOX, including most recently in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
[Variety]
