Bob Batchelor's biography reveals the visionary behind Marvel, Stan Lee, and his extraordinary journey in shaping pop culture with legendary superheroes.

This is an awesome look into the life of the famous comic book creator Stan Lee. Fans of comics, especially Marvel comics, would love to have a book like this in their collection!

Stan Lee changed comic books as we knew it, in his Cinderella story of a life we saw a man who almost gave up on writing comics decide to write the comics that he wanted to write and basically became the face of comic books. As a fan of Marvel comics and the work of Stan Lee it was lovely to see his life being written about in such a way that one could celebrate the excitement of his life.

I think that this review was been done. But well, whatr can I say! This book is great if you're a currently fan of Lee, especially if you haven't read any bio of him

Biographies are a great way to learn more about your personal superheroes. And one of the greatest superheroes is Stan Lee. Reading his remarkable story, and that of his parents, helps put in perspective the efforts he undertook to become the creative who brought us so many amazing characters. Finishing this book is timely because of the story of elder abuse of Stan Lee now that he's in his 90s. I appreciated reading his story and hoping to push my own career forward and succeed in my own creative endeavors.

An interesting biopic about the comic genius Stan Lee in comic-form! Very interesting and entertaining to read about what made Stan the Man and how he created the heroes we known and love today.

This is a decent look at the life of Stan Lee, but nothing about it particularly stood out to me as noteworthy.

I just started reading superhero comics in the last couple of years. I find the history of comics fascinating! They were always considered a lower type of book, but now they can be high literature.

This book wasn’t as much about Stan Lee, but about Marvel and the comic book industry at the time. There were still great stories about Stan’s innovations in comics. I loved the story in the prologue where his wife convinced him to try and write what he wanted for a change, since he had nothing to lose. The result of that was the Fantastic Four.

I loved the stories about how Stan Lee developed some of today’s most beloved superheroes. His boss didn’t approve of Spider-Man but he published it anyways, and the rest is history. I also love his special touch on comics, where he places himself in the stories. He still does it today when he makes cameos in all the Marvel movies.

I really enjoyed this book! It’s a great history of Stan Lee’s career and influence on Marvel comics.

The Amazing Spider-Man. The Incredible Hulk. The Invincible Iron Man. These are just a few of the iconic superheroes to emerge from the mind of Stan Lee. From the mean streets of Depression-era New York City to recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Lee’s life has been almost as remarkable as the thrilling adventures he spun for decades. From millions of comic books fans of the 1960s through billions of moviegoers around the globe, Stan Lee has touched more people than almost any person in the history of popular culture.

In Stan Lee: The Man behind Marvel, Bob Batchelor offers an eye-opening look at this iconic visionary, a man who created (with talented artists) many of history’s most legendary characters. In this energetic and entertaining biography, Batchelor explores how Lee capitalized on natural talent and hard work to become the editor of Marvel Comics as a teenager. After toiling in the industry for decades, Lee threw caution to the wind and went for broke, co-creating the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, and others in a creative flurry that revolutionized comic books for generations of readers. Marvel superheroes became a central part of pop culture, from collecting comics to innovative merchandising, from superhero action figures to the ever-present Spider-Man lunchbox.

Batchelor examines many of Lee’s most beloved works, including the 1960s comics that transformed Marvel from a second-rate company to a legendary publisher. This book reveals the risks Lee took to bring the characters to life and Lee’s tireless efforts to make comic books and superheroes part of mainstream culture for more than fifty years.

Stan Lee: The Man behind Marvel not only reveals why Lee developed into such a central figure in American entertainment history, but brings to life the cultural significance of comic books and how the superhero genre reflects ideas central to the American experience. Candid, authoritative, and utterly absorbing, this is a biography of a man who dreamed of one day writing the Great American Novel, but ended up doing so much more—changing American culture by creating new worlds and heroes that have entertained generations of readers.




Bob Batchelor is a cultural historian who has written or edited more than two dozen books on popular culture and American literature, including books about John Updike, The Great Gatsby, and Mad Men. Batchelor lives in Oxford, Ohio and teaches at Miami University.

I come to this book less as a Marvel fan and more as someone interested in the history of pop culture. Given the recent explosion of superhero films, Stan Lee has come to rank as one of the most important figures in pop culture history. Yet, I realized I knew remarkably little about him. I've enjoyed some of the Marvel movies, but had never read any of Stan Lee's comics. 

Bob Batchelor's new biography is a good start for the uninitiated. He provides a comprehensive overview of Stan Lee's life and work. It's a largely sympathetic - but not uncritical - biography of a man who brimmed with creative energy and occasionally made bad financial deals. 
As somebody who'd never read Marvel comics, Batchelor's explanation for why Marvel became so popular during the 1960s helped me better understand their appeal. Part of the problem was that I lacked context. Batchelor explains what the comics industry was like before Stan Lee (generally dry and stuck chasing the latest fads). Starting with the Fantastic Four, Lee brought three innovations to Marvel. First, he wrote characters who acted like real people with real problems, not godlike superheroes. Second, he wrote lighthearted dialogue interspersed with witty banter. Third, and perhaps most important, Lee cultivated the Marvel fanbase by telling fans about the Marvel team, giving speeches on college campuses, and responding to fan mail. 

Of course, this "Marvel Method" took the world by storm and catapulted Spiderman and other Marvel characters into pop culture icons. However, Batchelor also chronicles some of Lee's less successful ventures. Lee had a notoriously difficult relationship with artist Jack Kirby, who deserves at least some of the credit for creating Marvel's icons. Batchelor doesn't exactly take Lee's side, but he's much more sympathetic to Lee's position than Kirby's. Lee also struggled to develop intellectual properties and business ventures outside Marvel. 

One thing that's oddly missing from this book is a look at Stan Lee the man. This biography focuses almost exclusively on Stan Lee's professional life. Batchelor mentions Stan's personal life almost in passing, and we learn almost nothing about Joan, his wife around 70 years. The book doesn't contain many amusing or surprising anecdotes about Stan from friends or former colleagues. I don't know if people weren't willing to talk - after all, Lee is still alive - or if Batchelor simply didn't have access to those sources. One almost gets the sense that Batchelor's biography is of the showman persona that Lee carefully crafted rather than of the man himself.

If you're interested in the roots of the 21st century's biggest pop culture phenomenon, Batchelor's biography of Stan Lee is a great place to start. It's accessible to readers who've never read a comic book, but I'm sure Marvel fans will enjoy learning more about the man behind the legend.

[Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review]

This is an incredibly comprehensive biography of Stan Lee! Batchelor weaves rich history (but isn't too dense!) with Lee’s life to create memorable biography. Stan Lee is recognized as one of the most important people in comic book history and his personality definetly shines through.

Stan Lee, the man, the myth, the legend... Well maybe not the middle one. Anyway, this book dives into Stan Lee's life and how he went from poor immigrant to the face of Marvel Comics, even to this day. Before this book, I didn't know too much about him, I've knew him from his cameos first, then slowly I noticed he was a big deal, mainly because his personality has shined through a lot of Marvel material (as the main creator, duh). This book did a great job of telling his story, plain and simple. My only gripe is that the story isn't done yet! As of my writing this review, Stan Lee is 94 years old, and still kicking! So yes, if you want to know more about Stan "The Man" Lee, pick this up!

There’s a compelling argument to be made – and many have made it – that comic books serve as the mythology of contemporary American culture. These brightly-colored, spandex-clad archetypes of good and evil have become ubiquitous, a pop culture pantheon that serves as a common reference point spanning generations.

None have contributed as mightily to that mythology as Stan Lee. As the driving force behind Marvel Comics, the characters that he brought to the fore - the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk and, perhaps most impactful of all, Spider-Man – have become utterly interwoven with the American cultural experience. While DC characters such as Superman and Batman – with the advantage of a few decades – might have a bit more reach, there’s no disputing that Lee’s creations taken together take the cake with regards to cultural cachet.

Cultural historian Bob Batchelor offers up a longer, lingering look at Lee’s life with “Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel.” He follows Lee from his youth as Stanley Lieber growing up in Depression-era New York City through his midcentury comic book successes all the way to his current place as a sort of elder statesman of superheroes.

Born in 1922, Lee grew up as a child of the Depression, watching as his father Jack – a dress cutter – struggled to find work. Seeing the strain that lack of employment placed on the relationship between his parents imparted to Lee a tireless work ethic that would help turn him into a creative dynamo who would continue working well into his 90s.

Lee was just a teenager when he wound up working as an assistant at publisher Martin Goodman’s new Timely Comics. A nepotistic hire – Lee’s cousin was married to Goodman – he started out doing low-level stuff, filling inkwells and whatnot. But he soon found himself thrust into the world of comic book writing, penning his first story – some filler for a Captain America issue – in 1941. Not long after, when editor Joe Simon took his leave, a 19-year-old Lee found himself in the editor’s chair.

He spent some time in the Army during World War II, working on comics the whole time. Comics weren’t all about superheroes back then – he did westerns, romances, horror books … really, whatever Goodman thought might help him make a buck.

It wasn’t until the early 1960s when Lee, working alongside comic art legend Jack Kirby, would enter into perhaps the most impactful creative stretch in the last century of popular culture. In rapid succession, Lee would create (for the company now known as Marvel Comics) iconic characters like the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, the X-Men, Doctor Strange … and a lonely teenaged bookworm named Peter Parker who was bitten by a radioactive spider and turned into your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

(The ongoing debate regarding credit for the creation of these characters and how it should be distributed between Lee and Kirby is touched on here; Lee’s version has proven malleable over the years and Kirby is no longer with us to offer his side. Suffice it to say, both men had a hand and Lee’s contribution, while maybe not all-encompassing, is undeniably significant.)

From there, we follow the rising and falling of Lee and the Marvel empire. We watch as Lee becomes the face of Marvel, a real and tangible connection between the company and the fans that contributes mightily to the publisher’s popularity. Even as the company struggled through the collector boom-and-bust of the early 90s and the bankruptcy of a few years later, Lee remained part of the picture, a sort of elder statesman.

And of course, in his twilight years, Lee has become an icon in his own right, a living piece of comics history whose omnipresence in the films featuring his creations has introduced the man to whole new generations of fans.

“Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel” gives fans a glimpse at the nuts and bolts of Lee’s rise to the top of his industry. It’s an opportunity to understand just what it took to bring this roster of heroes to life – the risks necessary to capture the reward. His efforts to bring comics into the mainstream span over half a century; it’s safe to say that without him, our pop cultural landscape today is a very different place.

Batchelor looks at Lee’s relationships with his colleagues and his characters; he also explores the nature of America’s connection with comic books and how superheroes have become an integral part of the American mythos.

“Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel” is a bright, easy read. It’s engaging, candid and informative; Batchelor does a good job of avoiding any dip into hagiography. Instead, we get a vivid and readable portrait of a man whose decades-ago vision continues to shape mainstream culture in ways he never could have anticipated.

I enjoyed this book. The writer paints a picture that I feel was excellent and look forward to telling my friends and family about this book. Im a comic book lover and loved to learn the story of the greatest man in comics. Excelsior!!

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I enjoyed it very much!

OK, who doesn't love Stan Lee? If you have even seen one interview with him, you know that he is a fun guy who love to make people laugh, which of course has made him quite popular, along with his work in the comics field, along with TV and movie projects. He also loves to encourage people to reach their dreams, like he did. This book is a great tribute to him, very warm and kind. It is put together very well. I think the research the author did is top notch. I think that this book will help to show how popular and important comics and graphic novels are in our society. They have grown in popularity over the decades. Stan Lee is one of the foremost persons in the industry. It is a good biography and well worth reading.

Like many baby-boomers, I grew up reading comics and thinking of Stan Lee as that crazy but lovable uncle who knows how to talk to kids. Plus, he worked in comics - how cool is that?!

While I was big into comics for much of the 1970's I didn't really stay with it, but I did hear rumors of frustrations between different members of the artistic staff (writers and artists) and Marvel - and by extension, Lee. Bob Batchelor's biography addresses some of this, which I found interesting, and typically seemed to relieve Lee of any wrong-doing (though it does mention that the memories of those days may not be the most clear in anyone's memory).

I enjoyed getting the scoop on Lee's early days, particularly his war years, which was something I had never known about. First - I didn't even know there was such as a thing as 'playwright' as an official Army designation.

Even as a teen reader of comics, and despite my appreciation for all things Lee and Marvel, I was never a fan of Lee's actual stories. He seemed, to my teen mind, too obvious and gregarious. But reading through this biography I have a new appreciation for the quickness by which he wrote, practically keeping Marvel running single-handedly during some of its earliest days.

It takes a great deal of hubris to be able to run a company the way Lee managed to do, especially in the early days, and we see that hubris later on as Lee lends his name to new companies - including one that appeared to be nothing more than a ponzi scheme to capitalize on his name. While his cameo appearances in the Marvel movies are a truly fun nod to the early Marvel days and lead a new crop of Marvel fans to meet that crazy, fun uncle, there is a certain amount of excessive pride going on there as well.

The book is easy to read and Batchelor moves through the different periods of Lee's work life quite smoothly.

What we don't get, however, is almost as interesting.

We don't get much of Lee's early life, other than how it seemed to inevitably lead to his taking a job with a publisher. We don't get much of his personal life other than that he married. In this sense, the book isn't so much a biography of Stan Lee the man, but Stan Lee the driving force behind Marvel and a comic renaissance. Maybe there is no difference?

All in all, a good read, though I can't imagine it will be the last or most definitive look at the comic/pop icon.

Looking for a good book? Bob Batchelor's biography <em>Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel</em> is a nicely written and well-researched look at the man who, in his mid-nineties is a living pop icon.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

One of the more prolific people in comics, Stan Lee has created a smorgasbord of iconic heroes in the Marvel Universe.

Born Stanley Lieber in 1922, he was the first child to immigrant parents, Jack and Celia Lieber. Stan was born during a time of a Great War that would spiral into the Great Depression sending the entire American economy into chaos. During this time, his father worked sporadically and his parents fought constantly over money.

While growing up, Stan Lee enjoyed writing and hoped to one day write that one great novel. He found inspiration in books and movies, particular ones with Errol Flynn, where he always played the hero. During his teenage years, he took up part-time jobs writing obituaries for a news service, press releases for National Tuberculosis Center, sandwich runs for the Jack May pharmacy to offices in Rockefeller Center, ushering for Rivoli Theater on Broadway.

When he turned 16 in 1939, he graduated high school early and joined WPA Federal Theatre Project. It is during this year that his Uncle Robbie helped him get a job with Timely Comics. Most of his work at this time were simply replenishing the ink wells, picking up lunch, proofreading, erasing pencil markings from the finished pages. He would graduate from this to actually becoming part of the team. His first superhero was Destroyer in Mystic Comics #6. After the departure of Simon and his creative partner Jack Kirby after a disagreement with Goodman, Stan was installed as interim editor. He would later become editor-in-chief.

In 1942, Lee signed up to join the Army and served in the Signal Corps where he repaired telegraph poles and communication equipment. He would later be transferred to Training Film Division where he would work on manuals, films, etc.

When the war ended, Lee returned to the one place he loved - comics books. It was at this time he would come to create the most loved characters in Marvel history such as the Hulk, X-Men, Avengers, etc.

This was a fascinating look at Stan Lee's life. This was a person who had come from a home where his parents fought constantly but he continued to hold onto his dream. It may not have been exactly the dream of writing that "great novel" but it was the next best thing - characters that people could either relate to or simply enjoy reading around the world. His comics pulled us in to the point where we felt we were these characters.

Batcherlor put together a wondeful biography filled with information that not everyone. He also provided information on how comic books became a staple during a time when the world was descending into strife and chaos. Even now comic books remain a stable during good and bad times.

If you are looking for a book that will pull you in and take into a larger than life character named Stan Lee.

Thisu us a must read for Stan Lee fans, an indepth look at the man and his creations . Stans story is one of perservearence and vision. There is a lot of humor in this book and creative inspiration.