Stan Lee’s life in the business of superheroes mirrors the humble origins, unexpected triumphs, and brutal defeats of his greatest creations. The Marvel legend, who died at 95 at three weeks ago, masterminded comic books, films, TV shows, video games, and a few tons of merchandise that became a multi-billion dollar franchise. He also dealt with bankruptcy, alleged stock fraud, embezzlement at the hands of some of his former business partners, and frayed relationships with some of his closest collaborators.

Lee, the son of Romanian immigrants who struggled to find work in the Depression and moved around tenements in New York City, entered the world of comic books following a series of odd jobs that included office gofer, theater usher, and sandwich delivery boy. Thanks to family connections, he got a job at the publishing company Timely. Hustling around the workplace filling inkwells and watching illustrator and future collaborator Jack Kirby work, he graduated to an editor job before he was 20 years old.

Like many success stories, Lee’s dissatisfaction with his job and ambition led to his innovation. Feeling that comics were a lower artform than the literature he hoped to pursue, Lee altered his name from “Stan Lieber” in an early Captain America issue, so nobody would associate him with the genre when he released a novel someday.

Unhappy with the work, along with the declining audience of comic readers, Lee planned to quit. “I was getting sick of doing these one-character-punches-another and says, ‘Take that, you rat,’” he told NPR in 2015. “So my wife said to me, ‘You want to quit. Before you do, why don’t you get one story out of your system? Do one the way you want to do it.”

So in 1961, with Kirby’s help, he created the Fantastic Four, with heroes and villains relatable because of their flaws, complexities, and wisecracks. Now known as Marvel, the company had a hit, and Lee earned nearly free reign over the creative department. Within the next few years, he—along with help from Kirby, his brother Larry Lieber, and artist Steve Ditko—would mine the Cold War, teen angst, civil and racial unrest, and many other anxieties of the day to create the Hulk, Spider-Man, the X-Men, Thor, Black Panther, Ant-Man, and the Avengers.

Part of Lee’s genius was how he, as now the de facto head of Marvel, ran the creative side. Managing an ever-growing staff, plus new animated and later live-action series, not to mention merchandising, his role as hands-on writer diminished. He’d tell his artists his idea for the stories, have them illustrate it, then go back and write the book.

A Complex Web of Business Dealings

Unfortunately, this strategy also led to bitterness with his colleagues. As any diehard Marvel fan will tell you, Kirby and Ditko—who most notably designed Spider-Man—are often overlooked.

Lee and Ditko wound up not speaking for decades. Lee and Kirby had a falling out, with the latter leaving for DC Comics—then returning to Marvel before leaving again over his lack of credit for helping create so many enduring characters. He claimed he was the one who came up with Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk, among others, and sued Marvel for the rights to them. Marvel won the suit because Kirby’s contract, for a freelance artist, said any of his creations were its property.

Kirby died in 1994, though his family continued pursuing lawsuits against Marvel, and later Disney, for years. Lee, outside of a now-memorable cameo in the cult hit Kevin Smith film Mallrats in ‘95, found himself in the news mainly for the financial misdeeds of companies operating under his name.

During the late ‘90s, Stan Lee Media attempted to capitalize on the dot-com boom with online live and animated series, including a show starring the Backstreet Boys. The publicly traded company went bankrupt in 2000, thanks in part to stock fraud by company co-founder Peter Paul who fled the country after double-crossing his partner in the scheme, costing stockholders $25 million. The good guys eventually got Paul from Brazil and he went to jail for 10 years in 2009.

Lee’s luck started to improve around 2000 when the Marvel genre was rejuvenated by the blockbuster success of the initial Spider-Man and X-Men movies. He subsequently had cameos in all the Marvel films that followed—before and after Disney acquired the company for $4 billion in 2009. It’s not clear how much Lee made off that deal, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe netting billions more since then.

His estimated net worth is $50 to 70 million, though pending lawsuits will probably mar that, too. After the complicated issues with Stan Lee Media, he co-founded the production company POW! Entertainment in 2001. He later alleged that two of his business partners, Shane Duffy and Gill Champion, were conspiring to use name and likeness in deals with Chinese companies, using a signature obtained or forged while he going almost completely blind, and sued them for $1 billion.

Meanwhile, another former associate, Keya Morgan, accused Lee’s 68-year-old daughter Joan Celia of elder abuse and called the police. Both father and daughter denied the claims, and Morgan was later arrested for making false reports of an armed robbery at Lee’s house. In the most bizarre twist, Lee sued his ex-manager, Jerardo Olivare, for stealing his blood, which would be used to autograph Black Panther comics.

That late-in-life period is tragic, as are the financial disputes and situations Lee experienced throughout his career. And his professional character will be debated among diehard comic-book fans for eons. Love him or like him, Stan Lee’s intuition about what would resonate with everyday people (not to mention listening to his wife) and willingness to push boundaries in what was a lowly regarded art form created one of the greatest literary careers people would dream to have.

斯坦·李开创了超级英雄事业，贡献伟大创作的过程中也反映了他卑微的出身、出乎意料的成功，还有残酷的失败。三周前，漫威传奇斯坦·李去世，享年95岁，他曾策划漫画、电影、电视节目、电子游戏和无数周边商品，打造出价值数十亿美元的特许经营权。他还经历过破产，涉嫌股票欺诈，一些前商业伙伴贪污，跟一些亲密合作者之间也不无摩擦。

斯坦·李的父辈是罗马尼亚移民，大萧条期间拼命找工作，经常搬家，住过纽约市的各种旧房子，进入漫画世界之前他做过很多奇怪的工作，包括办公室打杂、剧院迎宾，还有三明治送货员。由于家庭关系，他在及时漫画公司（Timely Comics）找到一份工作。天天在办公室忙着给墨水瓶里加墨水，一边看着插画家，也是他的未来合作伙伴杰克·柯比工作，没到20岁就当上了编辑。

像许多成功故事一样，李对工作并不满意又满怀抱负，所以不断创新。在他看来，漫画这种艺术形式比梦想中追求的文学事业低级，开始创作《美国队长》漫画时他将名字从“斯坦·利伯”改为“斯坦·李”，想着以后发表小说时自己的名字别跟漫画联系在一起。

李对工作不满意，漫画读者也不断流失，所以打算辞职不干。“我厌倦了画这些故事，总是超级英雄打败一切对手，还总来一句：‘鼠辈，接招吧。’”2015年他告诉美国国家公共电台。“所以妻子对我说：‘你想辞职就辞。但是走之前为什么不试试自己写个故事？写个自己喜欢的。’”

所以在1961年，李在柯比的帮助下创造了神奇四侠，主角各有缺点，性格复杂而且爱开玩笑，英雄与反派经常会转化。公司受到重创，李几乎自由指挥创意部，后来公司改名为漫威。接下来几年，他在柯比、兄弟拉里·利伯和艺术家史蒂夫·迪特科的帮助下，结合冷战、青少年焦虑、社会动荡和种族骚乱和当时的许多社会焦虑，创作出绿巨人、蜘蛛侠、X战警、雷神、黑豹、蚁人和复仇者联盟等故事。

李最重要的本事之一就是，作为漫威实际领袖直接管理创意部门。随着员工人数不断增长，加上新的动画和后来的真人版系列，后来还有周边销售业务，他没机会亲自画故事。他会告诉艺术家故事构思，让艺术家自行发挥然后回去写故事。

复杂的商业交易

不幸的是，这种创作策略也引导致同事们承受痛苦。漫威的死忠粉丝都知道，柯比和迪特科虽然曾设计出蜘蛛侠，却经常被忽视。

几十年里李和迪特科再没说过话。李跟柯比也大吵一架，后来柯比离开去DC 漫画，又回到漫威，然后因为创造诸多经久不衰的角色却得不到署名再次离开。他声称自己创作了钢铁侠、雷神和绿巨人等角色，还起诉漫威争夺所有权。漫威赢了官司，因为柯比签的自由艺术家合同上已经声明作品所有权属于公司。

1994年柯比去世，多年来他的家人一直坚持起诉漫威和后来的迪士尼。1995年李在凯文·史密斯小众电影《耍酷一族》里客串令人印象深刻，之后再上新闻主要是因为以名下的公司财务违规。

20世纪90年代末期，斯坦·李传媒工作室想用在线直播和动画系列蹭互联网热潮，当红流行音乐组合后街男孩还曾主演节目。2000年该上市公司破产，主要因为联合创始人彼得·保罗的股票欺诈行为，保罗在出卖合伙人之后潜逃国外，导致股东损失2500万美元。最后正义一方在巴西抓获保罗，2009年被判10年监禁。

2000年左右，李的运气开始转好，刚开始是蜘蛛侠和X战警系列电影大片成功，带动漫威类型片重新焕发活力。随后，2009年迪士尼斥资40亿美元收购漫威，之前和之后的每部电影里他都有客串。收购交易中李赚了多少并不清楚，只知道此后的漫威电影宇宙净赚了数十亿美元。

李的净资产估计为5000万至7000万美元，不过可能会受到有些未决诉讼的影响。与斯坦·李传媒工作室出现复杂的问题后，2001年他联合创立了制片公司POW! Entertainment。后来李声称两个商业伙伴萨尼·达夫和吉尔·钱皮恩在与中国公司交易时合谋使用他的姓名和肖像，趁着他几乎失明骗取或伪造签名，还起诉索赔10亿美元。

与此同时，另一位前同事凯亚·摩根指控斯坦·李68岁的女儿琼·西莉亚虐待老人，还打电话报警。父女两人都表示否认，后来摩根因谎报李家发生持械抢劫案而被捕。还有更怪异的事，李曾起诉前任经理杰拉多·奥利维耶盗取他的血液，做成签字笔墨水在《黑豹》漫画上签名。

斯坦·李的晚年比较悲惨，其实整个职业生涯中经历的财务纠纷和境况也一直不佳。漫画死忠粉对他的专业素质一直争论不休。不管对斯坦·李本人喜欢还是讨厌，他对于哪些故事容易引起人们共鸣就是非常敏锐（还很听老婆的话），而且在人们普遍认为比较低级的艺术形式里突破界限，开创了众人梦寐以求的伟大的文学事业。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林