Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
It's May of 2013, and I am one of I guess ten or eleven people on this planet who still haven't seen the big screen version of Marvel's Avengers. Actually, Iron Man 3 is about to open, but I'm not seeing that, either. And with this book, which I bought for seven bucks, I won't have to. This is really great stuff. Sure, it's a little dated--the Avengers were formed in no small part with the help of "the Teen Brigade, a group of youthful radio ham [sic] enthusiasts." But I'm willing to bet serious money that the movie didn't have the Hulk hiding out in a circus (!), disguised as a clown (!!), juggling a horse, a seal, and an elephant (!!!), and billed as "Mechano, the most powerful, lifelike robot on Earth" (!?!!??). That's some imagination.
I have a feeling that some of the page reproductions in this volume are not as faithful to the originals as I would like (though I am of two minds on the occasional "yellowed newsprint copies" that you see from time to time). But this is still a lot of fun "in the Mighty Marvel Manner," back when that meant more than digital enhancements and screwing over artists' families.
The first five issues of the Avengers. What can I say? It's big, bold and action-packed!
Unfortunately, it's also very dated.
Stan Lee's storytelling is clunky. The issues are full of 'deus ex machina'-style moments, where heroes are endangered by extremely unlikely events and villains are defeated by abilities we didn't even know our heroes had (and have never used again since!) Women are treated pretty poorly too, with the Wasp relegated to looking pretty, swooning over the men and only having interest in things like shopping and makeup. I guess it's just a sign of the times...
Jack Kirby's art is dynamic, yet feels bizarrely simplistic and blocky. He would produce much better work later in his life. I will say though, issue #4, where Captain America's body is discovered and revived is storyboarded exceptionally well. It really sticks out among the other four issues included in the book.
Fun stuff! The very early Marvel Universe, brought to life with Jack Kirby and Stan Lee! They were still figuring out what was going on with all of these characters, who had existed only for about a year or so, so there are some rough edges. But all done-in-one stories, introducing all sorts of characters and conflicts.