Stan Lee, The Generalissimo of Marvel who taught us to say “EXCELSIOR!” and “‘Nuff Said!”
Sometimes one tribute just isn’t enough, True Believers! Geekville Radio is back with a second tribute to the late great Stan “The Man” Lee. This time, Crazy Train joins to share his thoughts on meeting Stan in the 1970s.
In addition, Seth and Train talk about the creation of the Comics Code in the 1950s, and how that shaped the image of comic books for several years. Then, with the resurgence of superheroes, how Stan was able to both abide by and challenge the Code with some of his stories. Including an anti-drug story that still couldn’t be printed under the Comics Code due to it depicting drug use.
Train also talks the VHS Video series from the early 90s where Stan Lee talked to some of the all time greats, as well as then newcomers like Todd McFarlane.
Seth gives a musical analogy, placing Stan on the level of a Chuck Berry or Carl Perkins, where people practicing guitar today may be playing their riffs without even realizing it. Similar to how a lot of tropes in comic books that are taken for granted now were established by Stan in the first place. The flawed hero, the “shared universe”, and the social commentary are all things Stan brought to the table.
Train also shares a story of seeing Roy play with BJ Thomas and Sylvia in the 1970s, which gives a unique appreciation for Roy’s amazing ability to entertain on the spot.
The importance of Stan Lee to the history of comic books and superheroes cannot be overstated. Lee was so influential, writers to this day may be borrowing from his storytelling style without even knowing it.
Some of the topics discussed include how, instead of the mega-hero like Superman, Stan Lee gave the world the “flawed hero”. He also was able to provide social commentary on the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s through The X-Men comics. And, of course, Stan popularized the “shared universe” where what happens in one title might affect characters in another title. All of these things are so commonplace in comics and movies today that people may not even realize that the very basis of The Marvel Cinematic Universe was brought to us by Stan Lee in the Silver Age of Marvel.
Here is the image of Stan from the 1970s that is discussed in the show
This is a day that will weigh heavily on the hearts of many comic book and superhero fans. Stan Lee, a creative pioneer who developed countless characters and stories for Marvel Comics, passed away today at the age of 95.
Born Stanley Lieber in New York City, Lee began his lifelong association with the comic book industry as a teenager when he started working at Timely Comics in 1939. There he quickly found himself as an editor, where he would soon become a creative force for decades to come. This also got Lee acquainted with other future creative legends, such as Captain America creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. In fact, many of the characters who debuted under the Timely banner would go on to prominence years later as Marvel Comics properties.
After a stint in the Army during World War II, Lee returned to comic books and writing for Timely. By the 1950s, Timely had been rebranded into Atlas Comics. During this time, Stan continued to work as a writer and editor. As a whole, Atlas did not publish superhero stories. The focus was put on grittier, more human oriented stories such as Westerns or straight science fiction stories.
It wasn’t until rival publisher DC Comics re-introduced the genre in the late 1950s that superheroes found a renewed audience. Soon after, Lee and Kirby were creating new characters like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four from scratch, presenting them alongside updated versions of Timely characters such as Captain America. By this time, Atlas had again rebranded into the company that would become a household name for generations: Marvel Comics.
Characters created during the 1960s by Lee, Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, and others would soon become fixtures in the superhero market. Names like The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, The X-Men, Thor, and more captured the minds of readers nationwide. On top of all this, Lee went the extra mile in creativity, and used the concept of a “shared universe”. If something monumental happened in an issue of The Fantastic Four, it might have ramifications on Iron Man in his title.
Lee also preferred using the archetype of the “flawed hero”. Spider-Man had superhuman strength and agility, but had trouble paying his rent on time. Tony Stark was a brilliant inventor, but was an alcoholic. Ben Grimm gained enormous strength as The Thing, but his rocky skin made life difficult, and romance nearly impossible. These types of characteristics were the staples of a Stan Lee superhero. Not only that, Stan would regularly utilize issues such as civil rights or drug use as elements in his storytelling. This lead to occasional clashes with the Comics Code of the time.
Lee served as Editor In Chief for Marvel Comics until 1972, when he moved on to the role of Publisher. There he remained for decades, and became somewhat the face of the company. Terms like “Excelsior!”, “True Believers”, and “‘Nuff Said!” were commonplace when recapping adventures. And of course, Stan would spend much of his available time appearing at comic conventions where he met thousands of fans across the country.
Perhaps his most widely recognized contributions to modern fans were his trademark onscreen cameos in Marvel properties. In nearly every movie or TV show involving a Marvel property, Stan Lee had a cameo in some capacity. This began in 1989 with the TV Movie “Trial Of The Incredible Hulk”, where Stan appeared as a member of a jury. These cameos would continue throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Paramount and Disney, as well as the titles licensed to Fox and Sony such as Spider-Man and X-Men.
It may sound cliched to say it, but there will never be another Stan Lee. Multitudes of readers and writers had their world affected in some way by Stan Lee since the 1930s. We here at Geekville Radio extend our deepest condolences, thoughts, and prayers to the family and friends of Stan Lee.
This episode of Geekville Radio is dedicated to the memory of Gary Kurtz. Who, with the exception of George Lucas himself, may be the man most responsible for Star Wars getting made.
RIP Gary Kurtz
He will obviously best known for Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, but he did have other titles to his credit. He also produced George’s first big hit, 1973’s American Graffiti, along with 1989’s Slipstream starring Mark Hamill and the late great Bill Paxton.
RIP Scott Wilson
Scott Wilson is probably best known to the current generation as Hershel in The Walking Dead. He was a regular series cast member in the first couple seasons. He also voiced Hershel for video game releases, and Robot Chicken. Hs career dates back to the mid 1960’s, and his first credited role according to IMDB is the original In The Heat Of The Night
Both Iron Fist and Luke Cage have been canceled by Netlfix
While it may not be surprising just for Iron Fist, fans were a little shocked at the cancellation of both Iron Fist and Luke Cage by Netflix. Both shows were well received, with Iron Fist almost universally praised as being a huge improvement over the first season. Especially when it comes to Finn Jones and fight choreography.
The big question is “Why both shows?”. Seth and Train can really only speculate, but there are a few possible reasons. Could this mean a Heroes For Hire show? Or even a Daughters Of The Dragon? And if so would it be for Netflix or Disney? Is it in either Netflix’s or Disney’s best interests to keep shows on Netflix, and not move them to Disney’s streaming service? And if they are Disney bound, than theoretically they could cross over with Agents Of SHIELD, another show that is rumored to move to Disney either next year or the year after.
On a side note, Seth and Train point out how Luke Cage can be considered the ‘White Meat Babyface” of the Netflix Marvel programming.
Kathleen Kennedy’s contract with LucasFilm has been renewed
The only Star Wars movie currently in production is Episode IX. It will be the final “Episode”, and it will be marketed as such. There will be the aforementioned films by Game Of Thrones creators. Plus the Rian Johnson trilogy is still in development. So there will be no shortage of Star Wars on the big screen, despite the reported dialing back on films
One title that is absent from this list is the rumored Obi-Wan Kenobi film. We had reported a few months back that the film was set to begin filming in Ireland after Episode IX had wrapped. Just because that movie wasn’t mentioned, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is dead in the water.
When you look at the past films under her watch, several films did have some bumps along the way.
Rogue One went through a direction change, with Tony Gilroy taking over to adjust what Gareth Edwards had done. However Edwards maintained Director credit.
Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were outright fired from Solo and Ron Howard was hired to almost completely re-shoot the film. When you factor that in, it’s amazing it still made its release deadline.
Colin Trevorrow left Episode IX and got replaced by JJ
It seems the only movies that DIDN’T have troubles were with Abrams and Johnson.
Jon Favreau’s Series
In other Star Wars news, Jon Favreau’s series The Mandalorianhas begun filming. It of course will be one of the flagship shows on Disney’s upcoming streaming service, now called Disney Play.
While no cast or characters have been announced, the premise will be a few years after Return of The Jedi, but well before The Force Awakens. There will be no First Order as of yet.
On the subject of Disney, Hollywood Reporter has also stated Kevin Feige will be overseeing future X-Men movies with the Disney purchase of Fox. Disney’s Bob Iger gave some key answers to questions about Fox-owned properties in the MCU
I think it only makes sense,” Iger said. “I want to be careful here because of what’s been communicated to the Fox folks, but I think they know. It only makes sense for Marvel to be supervised by one entity. There shouldn’t be two Marvels.
When asked about talent
Very good question. We’re going to take the best people from both companies and that’s who’s gonna basically be on the playing field for us. Meaning, talent will prevail. Fox Searchlight is a great example. You look at FX, NatGeo. Yeah, you’re buying libraries and brands, but you’re also buying the people. I’m not gonna talk about specific people right now except to say that I’ve met with virtually the entire senior management team at Fox and I’m not only fully engaged with them on what the possibilities for them might be but I’m excited about the prospects.
It would stand to reason that many of the characters may get re-cast. As much as fans may want it, they probably shouldn’t hold their breath for an onscreen meeting between Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool.
The Next Spider-Man villain will be Mysterio
Jake Gyllenhaall was officially announced in the cast for Spider-Man Far From Home. He will be portraying Quentin Black, aka Mysterio. This will be the live-action film debut for the longtime Spider-Man villain. It’s also confirmed that Michael Keaton will be reprising the role of Adrian Toombs/Vulture. A leaked set photo shows Gyllenhaal in costume. Sadly, no “Fish Bowl Look”. At least not yet.
WB Crossover will be Elseworlds.
The annual CW “Flarrowverse” crossover will be titled Elseworlds. Entertainment Weekly reports that it will be a three part crossover, not the previous four part.
The Flash will kick it off on Sunday, which will be followed up by Arrow on Monday, and wrapped up with Supergirl on Tuesday. This breaks the previous pattern of Supergirl having the first part in the last two years.
While there will be no regular involvement with the Legends Of Tomorrow cast, it has been revealed that Superman will join in, and Lois Lane will make her debut.
In an unexpected turn, an official internet poster showed Stephen Amell in the Flash costume, and Grant Gustin in the Green Arrow threads.
Also notable is the name Nora Fries in the cast of characters. Nora is of course the ill-fated wife of Victor Fries, aka Mr. Freeze. When you factor that this will also serve as the introduction to Batwoman, it may be an indicator to the premise of the Batwoman series.
Supergirl made a regular habit of taking lesser known villains from Superman lore, and adapting classic Superman stories to fit The Girl Of Steel. Could this mean we’ll see some Batman villains on the small screen for Batwoman? Time will tell.
Finally, Train talks the major news surrounding the release of the long anticipated Read Dead Redemption 2. IGN gave the game a perfect 10 score. An act that is incredibly rare.
Are you in the Halloween spirit yet? If you need anything to scratch your Halloween itch, check out the latest episode of Examining The Dead. Train reviews the movie Train To Busan, and talk the outcome of the Friday The 13th lawsuit. And of course, Dan Wilson talks his new horror themed production company One Good Scare.
There’s a new man Without Fear in town! At long last, Netflix has released a full trailer for the much anticipated third season of Daredevil.
When we last saw Matt Murdock, he was believed to have died with Elektra in the climactic finish of The Defenders. However, he was shown to be very much alive and in hiding in the final scene.
This season sees the main antagonist role return to Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin, played by Vincent D’Onofrio. Matt again dons the homemade black costume, and continues his vigilante ways. Why he has not reached out to his friends Foggy and Karen will probably have to wait until the season drops on October 19th.
As to who this imposter Daredevil is, Netflix may have spilled the beans. Actor Wilson Bethel has been confirmed to play Benjamin Poindexter, aka Bullseye. Smart money would seem to point to Bullseye making his Netflix debut impersonating The Man Without Fear. Colin Farrell had previously played Bullseye in the 2003 feature film that starred current Batman Ben Affleck in the title role.
What did you think of the trailer? Are you excited to see another take on Daredevil vs. Bullseye?
A few photos have leaked from the set of the yet to be titled fourth Avengers film. The movie will of course be released in 2019 as a direct follow up to Avengers: Infinity War. If you’ve seen that film (and if you haven’t, why are you reading this?) you know that half the universe’s population is willed out of existence by Thanos.
Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and many of the other major players made the survive list, while Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Nick Fury weren’t so fortunate.
Now, with the leaking of this photo on the next page, we can that as some point during the film, Steve Rogers…
… SHAVES! Yes fans, that is a clean shaven Cap below!
Hopefully that got you to laugh or smile. Only eight more months until the fourth Avengers film hits theaters, and we can finally see the fate of the Marvel Cinematic Universe!.
In the latest chapter in the ongoing controversy for Guardians Of The Galaxy 3, the movie is reported to be on hold after Disney made the decision to not reinstate director James Gunn. Dave Bautista has stated that he isn’t sure he wants to return.
“They’re putting the movie off. It’s on hold indefinitely. To be honest with you, I don’t know if I want to work for Disney.”
2. Also part of the DC Movie Universe will be an as of yet untitled Joker/Harley movie that would further explore the relationship between Joker and Harley Quinn. Leto and Robbie would likely return for that film that has been described as “When Harry Met Sally On Benzedrine”.
Also on the docket, a possible Birds Of Prey movie. Margot Robbie has reportedly expressed desire to portray Harley in her own standalone film. Birds Of Prey has been a title for DC that involved an all-female cast in various incarnations over the years. Harley has been part of the group in the comics since her turn as a more anti-hero type character. Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs) is set to direct off a Christina Hodson (Bumblebee) story. It is yet to be announced whether the film will feature Leto as Joker.
One of the biggest stories in all of geekery finished another chapter. The merger of Disney with 20th Century Fox properties has been approved by stockholders. This brings us another step closer to Disney having control of Fox material. This has obvious effects on two major properties
Marvel
How would this affect the MCU?
Could we get Hugh Jackman back?
What could be airing on the upcoming Disney streaming service?
Star Wars
Will we get a Disney produced box set?
What about the 3D releases?
Will we finally get the original Unaltered Trilogy?
In other Star Wars news, Lucasfilm has officially announced that Carrie Fisher will be appearing in Episode IX via unused footage from The Force Awakens. Plus, two more names have been announced in Richard E Grant and Naomi Acke.
And of course, Episode IX looks to be the final Star Wars movie in the Skywalker saga. Does this mean the end of the “Episode Format”?
The second half of the show is devoted to panels from San Diego Comic-Con. Mainly the Arrowverse shows, but there’s a little bit of Wonder Woman and Shazam talk. The panels are linked below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpAaaZx4Ycw
Shazam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SCphPyHpL4
Aquaman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqiJ0TKF1vc
Wonder Woman
Arrow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkDZ_kgUih4
The Flash
Supergirl
Legends of Tomorrow
Are there any panels that interested you at San Diego Comic-Con? Sound off below!
First off, BREAKING NEWS that Disney has revived Star Wars The Clone Wars for new episodes. The teaser was unveiled at San Diego Comic Con, check it out here.
Seth starts the show solo to express his delight at the show getting a proper revival. Could this be a lead in to Revenge Of The Sith?
In Marvel MCU news, the Black Widow movie has taken a major step towards getting made with the news that Australian filmmaker Cate Shoreland will be directing the film. Could this be an origin story? Or something current?
In the last segment of the show, Seth and Train pay tribute to the late great Steve Ditko, who passed away last week at the age of 90. Ditko had a hand in creating one of the greatest rogue’s galleries of any superhero.
As an added bonus, Crazy Train made this Spotify Playlist with the theme of US Geography. Probably one of the only playlists you’ll find with Broadway Musical songs, Country Music, and Hip-Hop Rap.
Since her first appearance for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Iron Man 2, Black Widow has been rumored to get her own movie. Well, nearly 10 years later, that movie now has a major component added to becoming a reality.
The Hollywood Reporter has published that Australia’s Cate Shoreland has nabbed the coveted directing duties for the film. The yet unnamed spin-off will take place before the events of previous MCU movies, and will presumably tell the story of Natasha Romanov’s journey from Russian spy to Avenger.
No release date is announced yet, and no other actors have been revealed other than Scarlett Johansson.
