I watched the first Fantastic Four movie on satellite TV the other day and while the movie wasn’t one of the best in the Marvel series, it was still fun seeing the FF4 on film. Stan Lee, who virtually created every super hero in the Marvel Group, made his usual quick cameo appearance in the film.
Sometimes he’s easy to spot, and other times he only appears on the screen for a few seconds. He played the part of the mailman and actually had a small speaking part.
After the movie was over, I was thinking about Mr. Lee and how happy he must be to see all of his comic book characters coming to life. Stan Lee has also had his various super-heroes turned into video games: Spiderman, Fantastic Four, The Hulk and X-Men come to mind. But Stan’s super-hero ideas have also been translated to television too. Years ago, a very cheesy TV show was based upon Spiderman.
I’m not sure how long this show lasted, or how popular it was, but old reruns of the show seem pretty bad to me. Just recently, Stan Lee launched a reality show where people compete against each other to get a shot at having their own comic book and the opportunity to star in a special Sci-fi channel movie based upon their super-hero character.
From watching his show, I estimated that he was probably in his 60’s, from how he looked. I Googled him and found, to my astonishment, that he was born in 1922, making him 85 years old! But the way he carried himself-his demeanor, inquisitiveness, and obvious enjoyment of what he was doing, gave me the impression that he was much younger.
But after thinking this all over, it all sort of makes sense. He’s been in the comic book industry for well over 40 years, and to be this creative for such a long time either burns you out or keeps you young and sharp. In Stan Lee’s case, it was the latter. He’s literally entertained generations of kids growing up, including yours truly, and we all owe a great debt of gratitude to this 85 year old kid.
For me, his ability to remain young at heart is a great example. May all of us gamers be able to tap into this fountain of youth that Stan has discovered. And what fountain is that you ask?
Well, from observing Stan Lee, it seems to be from the fountain of being creative and having fun.
