REVIEWS! | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Feb20

The Sad, Confused Legacy of STAN LEE

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Feb 20, 2021

REVIEW: Abraham Riesman’s excellent, well-researched book True Believer illuminates a tarnished legend… 13th Dimension columnist Fred Van Lente is a comics writer, historian, and playwright, who has chronicled the relationship between Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the play King Kirby, written with his wife Crystal Skillman. While he’s a Kirby admirer, he’s more interested in historical truth than opinion – making him a prime choice to review Abraham Riesman’s newly published True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee. — Dan — By FRED VAN LENTE I grew up on the words of Stan Lee. As a kid in the 1970s, I devoured the Pocket Books reprints of the original runs of Fantastic Four, Hulk, Doctor Strange and Amazing Spider-Man. Lying beside my laptop as I type this is my childhood copy of his Origins of Marvel Comics, still covered in my toddler marker scrawlings. The 1974 cover of that book pretty much sums up the myth of Lee, as brought to life in my mind: Lee’s fingers hammer at a typewriter, from which spring all your favorites: Thor! The Thing! Human Torch! Sub-Mariner! They all came from him! And only him! After all, “Stan Lee” is the only name of the cover! Between the covers, Lee tells us in his trademark bombast how he came up with a bunch of high-concept superheroes — Monster Superhero! Teen Superhero! God Superhero! Blind Superhero!, etc. — that were then brought to visual life by his trusty sidekicks, artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Being in his authorial presence was so much fun I didn’t really question that he was the one and only “Man.” But as Abraham Riesman entertainingly explains in his new biography True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, the truth is that the greatest solo creation of the man born Stanley Lieber was “Stan Lee,” the omnipresent avuncular editorial voice of Marvel Comics, believed by the brass to be such an essential part of the company’s success that even after he left they slapped “Stan Lee Presents” at the beginning of every one of their titles, even ones, like Star Wars and GI Joe, that never had a thing to do with him. I pulled out Origins of Marvel Comics as a refresher to write this review and realized for the first time...

Feb12

The Surprising, Sentimental Allure of the New MEGO’s DC SUPERHERO Line

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Feb 12, 2021

The Surprising, Sentimental Allure of the New MEGO’s DC SUPERHERO Line

A birthday tribute to the toys that have helped define my comic-book life… Megos have been a part of my life since almost the very beginning. My very beginning, that is – I was born 54 years ago today and no birthday or gift-giving holiday passes without me at least thinking about the greatest toy line in history, let alone feverishly unwrapping something from that wonderful plastic-and-cloth universe. In 1971, it was Action Jackson – whom I redubbed “Bob Greenfield” – and in 1972, it was the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes. Eight-inch-tall stars all. It was — and I say this without hyperbole — love at first sight and the figures and vehicles played a major part of my life growing up in the 1970s. (I’ve written about this quite a bit over the years, as you may be aware.) Then Mego went away in the ’80s for a few decades and some years back Figures Toy Company picked up the 8-inch baton and began re-releasing the former company’s beloved DC line of characters – and substantially expanded on the selection and styles. Then a reconstituted Mego popped up a few years ago — along with company godfather Marty Abrams — and began churning out terrific versions of TV, movie and pop-culture favorites, including remakes and new releases of Mego Star Trek figures. (Planet of the Apes returned to the fold just recently.) This was all very exciting but to me Mego wouldn’t really be back until they started producing 8-inch superheroes. (The company’s 14-inch hero line is fun but it’s a whole other animal.) Now given the vagaries of licensing, Mego can’t reproduce its own DC designs from nearly 50 years ago and they don’t have a Marvel license at all (fingers crossed that somehow changes). But last year they finally, finally, began a line of DC 8-inch heroes, starting with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, each with modernized designs. I held off getting them for awhile. Somehow, they just seemed off to me. Sure, they said Mego on the package and while they recalled the spirit of the originals, they were just too different for my liking – especially my favorite character, Batman. But under the din of collecting other comics items, the three figures kept whispering to me and I found myself increasingly compelled to seek them...

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