Ahead of Secret Invasion premiering on Disney Plus this Wednesday, the streamer just unveiled another Marvel Studios production over the past week. The simply titled documentary film Stan Lee offered a tribute to the beloved Marvel Comics creator, who would’ve turned 100 in 2022. However, the film is proving to be controversial for failing to address a long-held intellectual property issue, leading to the family of another comic book legend hitting back at the documentary.
As Marvel fans will know, Lee’s creative partner in developing many of his most popular characters was Jack Kirby. As well as creating Captain America with Joe Simon in 1940, Kirby is credited as co-creator of the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, and countless others. However, Lee infamously downplayed Kirby’s role in the creative process for decades. With Stan Lee hardly giving this issue a mention, Neal Kirby — Jack’s son — has released a statement in response.
Released via his daughter, and Jack’s granddaughter, Jillian’s Twitter account, Neal Kirby penned a letter, accusing the documentary of furthering Lee’s own “ego” and standing as “Stan Lee’s greatest tribute to himself.”
“Are we to assume Lee had a hand in creating every Marvel character?” Neal Kirby wrote. “Are we to assume that it was never the other co-creator who walked into Lee’s office and said, ‘Stan, I have a great idea for a character!’ According to Lee, it was always his idea.”
To support his argument, Kirby pointed out that it’s “generally accepted” that Lee had “a limited knowledge of history, mythology, or science” while his father’s was “extensive.” Meanwhile, Kirby notes how “most comics historians” recognize that Invisible Woman and The Thing were named after Kirby’s daughter Susan and his father Benjamin. Kirby also reminisced on watching his father work from home as a child, saying he would “witness the Marvel universe being created.”
“I am by no means a comics historian,” Kirby added, “but there are few, if any, that have personally seen or experienced what I have, and know the truth with first-hand knowledge.”
Stan Lee is streaming now on Disney Plus.