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\"The definitive biography of the beloved-often controversial-co-creator of many legendary superheroes, A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee presents the origin of \"Stan the Man,\" who spun a storytelling web of comic book heroic adventures into a pop culture phenomenon: the Marvel Universe. Stan Lee was the most famous American comic book creator who ever lived. Thanks, especially, to his many cameos in Marvel movies and TV shows, Lee was-and even after his 2018 death, still is-the voice and face of comics and popular culture in general, and Marvel Comics in particular. How he got to that place is a story that has never been fully told-until now. With creative partners including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko-with whom he had tempestuous relationships that rivaled any superhero battle-Lee created world-famous characters including Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, and the Hulk! But Lee's career was haunted by conflict and controversy. Was he the most innovative creator to ever do comics? Was he a lucky no-talent whose only skill was taking credit for others' work? Or was he something else altogether? Danny Fingeroth's A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee attempts to answer some of those questions. It is the first comprehensive biography of this powerhouse of ideas who, with his invention of Marvel Comics, changed the world's ideas of what a hero is and how a story should be told. With exclusive interviews with Lee himself, as well as with colleagues, relatives, friends-and detractors-Fingeroth makes a doubly remarkable case for Lee's achievements, while not ignoring the controversies that dogged him his entire life-and even past his death. With unique access to Lee's personal archives at the University of Wyoming, Fingeroth explores never-before-examined aspects of Lee's life and career, and digs under the surface of what people thought they knew about him. Fingeroth, himself a longtime writer and editor at Marvel Comics, and now a lauded pop culture critic and historian, knew and worked with Stan Lee for over four decades. With his unique insights as a comics world insider, Fingeroth is able to put Lee's life and work in a unique context that makes events and actions come to life as no other writer could. Despite F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous warning that \"There are no second acts in American lives,\" Stan Lee created a second act for himself that changed everything for him, his family, his industry, and ultimately for all of popular culture. How he did it-and what it cost him-is a larger-than-life tale of a man who helped create the modern superhero mythology that has become a part of all our lives\"-- Provided by publisher.

When I was editorial director of Marvel Comics' Spider-Man line, we used to refer to Spidey as \"the regular-guy superhero.\" He really could be any one of us. To be Superman, you had to come from another planet. To be Wonder Woman you had to be born a mythological Amazon princess. But to be Spider-Man, you just had to be bitten by a radioactive spider. (Hey, it could happen.) Because no matter how bad things became for [Peter Parker]/Spidey, he always approached his responsibilities the way we all do - ambivalent and complaining all the way. Sure, he felt a responsibility to use his powers for good. He was brought up right. But he wanted to have fun - because, really, how could swinging through the canyons of New York not be fun? Sometimes he loved being Spider-Man; sometimes he hated it. Sometimes he turned his back on it for a while. But his sense of responsibility always brought him back. And that's what we'd all like to think we'd do in his place. To paraphrase Walt Kelly's Pogo: We have met the Spider-Man and he is us.

Stephen Weiner is the director of the Maynard Public Library in Maynard, Massachusetts, and a comics historian and critic who has been a pioneering advocate for graphic novels in public libraries and education and has published numerous articles and reviews about comic art. He is the author of 100 Graphic Novels for Public Libraries, The 101 Best Graphic Novels, and Faster than a Speeding Bullet: The Rise of the Graphic Novel. He is coauthor of Hellboy: The Companion, Using Graphic Novels with Children and Teens: A Guide for Teachers and Librarians, and The Will Eisner Companion. He is a recipient of the Comic Creator's Guild Award. He lives in Maynard, Massachusetts. Daniel J. Fingeroth is a former writer and editor at Marvel Comics and has written stories for comics anthologies including Studs Terkel's Working. He is the author of Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero; and Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society; The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels. He is a creative consultant to Will Eisner Studios and Wizard World Comics Conventions.