TeAM YYePG

RADAR MARVEL GAMES
SIMPLY MARVEL-OUS
Five questions for Stan Lee, the man behind the marvels
STAN LEE IS A LIVING LEGEND, A COMIC-BOOK
genius who helped create some of the most wellknown
comic-book franchises to date: The
Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The
Fantastic Four, and The Uncanny X-Men. So,
what exactly happens when you stick him in a
room with a bunch of slobbering comic nerds and
game editors? Glad you asked….
QUESTION 1: Do you keep an active interest
or any control over the different mediums that
feature your creations, like films and games?
Lee: Do I want control? No, I don’t want control
at all. Let me tell you how cagey I am. If the
movie is good, or the game or the TV show or
the cartoon, I somehow get a lot of credit for it.
[Laughter] If it’s bad, hey, I had nothing to do
with it!
QUESTION 2: What, in general, do you think of
games being made out of comic-book characters?
How would you compare the two?
Lee: Videogames are an art form and a form of
entertainment. But compared to a comic book, a
videogame is really much more exciting, and it
makes the person who would be the comic-book
reader, it makes him or her a participant, and in a
way it’s more exciting and more fun. When you
read a comic book, you’re reading the story, and
it’s taking place [in the book]. When you’re playing
a videogame, you’re part of the story, so to
me that really has the edge.
Now, I have not questioned everybody who
reads comic books, but I would just guess if
you’re a comic-book reader, you would love to
play the videogames because you’re familiar with
the characters. You care about the characters or
else you wouldn’t be a reader of the comics. And
18 > COMPUTER GAMING WORLD
here you have a chance to move them and control
them and guide them and have fights [with
them] and so forth. It just seems to me to be a
natural that the readers would be very enthusiastic
about the games.
QUESTION 3: Is this a way to attract new people
who haven’t bought comic books before?
Lee: Would it attract new people who hadn’t
bought the comic book? It certainly can’t hurt. I
mean, somebody might buy the game who hadn’t
read the comics and say, “Hey, I gotta see more
about Spider-Man; I gotta learn more about him. I
love this guy.” Sure. Everything helps everything
else. I’m sure the comic books help the games,
the games help the comic books, the movies help
the games and the comic books, the comic
books help the movies and the games…and if
you don’t interrupt me, I’ll keep going.
As a matter of fact, since videogames have
been in existence, comic-book sales have risen.
QUESTION 4: Comic books were once blamed
for basically turning children into monsters. Now
it’s videogames’ turn. Thoughts?
Lee: There’s always going to be somebody
who feels that all the ills of the world are blamed
on the movies we see, the games we play, the
books we read. The comic industry survived Dr.
Frederic Wertham [an outspoken anti-comics
activist during the 1950s]. I used to actually
debate with him. I knew him. And he’d say things
like, “I did a study and I found that 95 percent of
the young people in reform schools read comics.”
> ”There’s
And I would say, “Well, 100 percent of them drink
milk.” I mean, the man was just unscientific, and
he just—I don’t know what his motive was, but
these videogames, kids love ’em. I don’t want to
comment on the ones that may seem to be too
violent, or…I don’t know what is too violent and
what isn’t. I just know that kids [have] a lot of
their own natural energy. [Playing videogames is]
a way to expend it. It’s a way to have a lot of fun.
It excites them; they enjoy it. And to me, these
games are great.
QUESTION 5: Which Marvel superhero would
you most like to see in a videogame next?
Lee: That’s a good question. Which would I like
to see in a videogame next? Gee, there are so
many of them. I think Iron Man would be good. I
think the Silver Surfer would be great. And for
something really different…maybe Dr. Strange,
because he goes into different dimensions and so
forth. You know, the funny thing is, I think you
could make a good videogame out of almost anything,
as long as you have an interesting good
guy and a powerful bad guy and you could just
find a way to get the great visuals and all the
action. I can’t think of any Marvel character, really,
that I don’t think would make for a good one.
Certainly Ghost Rider would be good. The longer
I sit here, the more of them I’ll mention. /
Want to know more about Stan Lee and other comic
greats? Check out the documentary Countdown to
Wednesday at: www.countdowntowednesday.com.
always going to be somebody
who feels all the ills of the world can
be blamed on the games we play...”
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