Marvel’s Stan Lee is known as one of the most important comic book creatives in the world, having created over a dozen Marvel heroes. Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther and many more are all creations of Stan Lee. As a man who’s heyday was from the 60s to the 80s, Stan Lee particularly loathed the cliche’s of the 90s – the so-called Dark Age of Comics. A rare video from over 25 years ago shows him sharply criticizing Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld – right to their faces.
McFarlane in the 90s seemingly had no equal. He once worked for Marvel, but left the company to help create Image Comics; the company was meant to act as a haven for creators who were frustrated with the excessive meddling from both Marvel and DC. His most popular creation remains Spawn, a 90s anti-hero with demonic powers. For his part, Rob Liefeld essentially defined what a 90s anti-hero should look like, with large shoulder pads, copious amounts of belts and pouches, chains, an excessively-muscular build and a devil-may-care attitude. He is the creator of Deadpool and Cable, and the short-lived but quite popular Youngblood team of superheroes from Image.
In an episode of The Comic Book Greats, Stan Lee (the host of the show) prompts McFarlane and Liefeld to create a superhero based only on the name “Overkill”. McFarlane and Liefeld immediately get to work sketching what appears to be a generic, 90s action hero with massive shoulder pads and a cornucopia of tactical gear. Over the course of 20 minutes, the viewer sees Stan Lee not in the capacity of an editor or writer, but as a teacher – and he doesn’t exactly hide his distaste for 90s superheroes in the slightest. “Gee, he looks grim, doesn’t he?” quips Lee (not for the last time).
As McFarlane and Liefeld champion 90s cliches, Lee points out everything wrong with the style: he wonders how Overkill can move with his ridiculous amor, how he dons and doffs his shoulder pads, and who Liefeld has insisted on an asymmetrical design. Lee’s request for a nuanced backstory is rebuffed, as is a secret identity (“Who else could he be besides Overkill?” replies Liefeld). As the two finish up the sketch, Lee even requests that Liefeld “…tighten those feet!” (Liefeld has a long history with either hiding his characters’ feet out of panel or simply drawing them as points).
It’s important to note that the finished character of Overkill actually appeared as a Spawn villain in McFarlane’s work. However, due to legal issues with ownership of the character, the hero was renamed Overtkill with minor cosmetic adjustments. Even so, the character was hardly the most popular; even at the beginning of the 90s, Stan Lee knew the many tropes that readers found interesting would be a passing fad at best, and the “simple” costumes of the golden and silver age continue to be remembered to this day.
