Stan Lee once revealed that he found Superman uninteresting. Lee is known for being one of Marvel Comics’ most prolific writers, creating some of the most iconic characters in comic book history. He led Marvel Comics down an extremely successful path that continues to this day. Even with Lee gone, Marvel continues to honor his legacy by expanding on his creations in new and creative ways, just like he did as Marvel’s primary creative leader for decades.
Stan Lee was always more than open to talk about his and Marvel’s competitor, DC Comics. In fact, he ended up writing a run of comics for the rival publisher in the early 2000s, titled Just Imagine… The series set out to re-imagine many of DC’s most iconic heroes from the eyes of the Marvel Comics legend. Lee re-purposed the Justice League with stories focusing on new iterations of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern and Flash. With Lee’s past experience creating endless amounts of now-iconic characters and having his unique perspective, he came at those characters in a completely different direction than their original creators.
In a video interview with Web of Stories, Lee talked about how people always asked him which DC characters he would have liked to write. His answer was that it didn’t matter to him, as he liked writing all characters, no matter who they are. During the interview, Lee goes on to discuss his thoughts about Superman and Batman. He admits that he isn’t a big fan of Superman and that he would have done him very differently. He finds Superman’s invulnerability and excess of power to be way too much, meaning that it’s hard to find ways to get villains to be a real threat against the Man of Steel.
Lee stated that “I think the idea of being able to do anything makes you a little uninteresting.” Superman has often, throughout the years, been criticized for being overpowered. Over time, Superman became more and more powerful as creators tried to find ways of keeping him interesting to readers. When the character was first introduced, Superman wasn’t able to fly and could only leap over buildings. The Man of Steel’s initial appearance was more in relation to real things like birds or planes. Now, although an iconic slogan, it’s hard to imagine anyone thinking that Superman is a bird or a plane.
Ultimately, Lee’s point was that he thought de-powering Superman could lead to better stories. And by making the character more grounded, DC could entice skeptical readers who found Superman to be too much of a god-like character. It’s interesting that when Lee created his version of Superman in Just Imagine… he dulled down his powers and made him more vulnerable, just like he said he would. It’s clear that Lee preferred DC Comics’ grittier characters like Batman. Therefore, he tried to transform Superman into a more humanistic and less god-like character in Just Imagine… Lee even went as far as to kill his Superman’s version of Lois Lane. Even though some think his Superman was one of the weakest titles in his DC Comics series, it does not prove that Stan Lee was wrong about Superman.
