Posted by
Jon on Sunday, May 04, 2008 1:01:16 AM
There is no question - zero - in my mind that Stan Lee is the greatest cultural influence on America other than the Beatles, even if he is less recognized as such. The stylized movies of the last few decades, from Edward Scissorhands to Underworld to 300 (and God bless every one of them) have all come out of the visual traditions of comic books, not old movies, and Stan Lee's Spiderman was the first genuinely empathetic and deep character in comic books, opening the door to graphic novels and a retooling of Batman from DC comics in order to compete. They never did. Stan Lee started with X-Men which a few years ago claimed the top 3 best-selling titles, simultaneously, by recreating them, not just as superpowered good guys, but as characters whose powers reflected their very human dilemmas in larger-than-life fashion. After Spiderman, Stan Lee created Daredevil, a character that epitomized the saying, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" and, in the same larger-than-life style, gave hope that from tragedy can come goodness.
The project in between, Spiderman, was his first lead effort and the most important to me. The motif of this project, "With great power comes great responsibility" has been my motto for years. The lesson, for me, has not been about responsibility, it's been about power. Peter Parker's conflict with this saying is that, to accept responsibility, one has to acknowledge one's power, embrace and come to terms with having it. C. S. Lewis said that modesty isn't lying about what you've done, but being as proud of it as if it were done by someone else. I can't stick to walls or lift a semi over my head, but let's just say I made Mensa by pretty comfortable margins. And it's caused me no end of trouble. I grew up with no one to talk to, I was far enough out in the country that there were no gifted programs. There weren't any opportunities out there for my talents to be recognized, but there was no way I could hide what I am enough to be socially accepted in a town of less than 1000 people. Oh, it's a tale of woe, I assure you. But getting into Mensa, shortly after graduating college on a disappointingly normal schedule, was a formative moment for me. I'd never really been on the left, but I realized that, if Progressivism had never made sense to
me, it probably didn't make sense at all. In recent years, I've been reading more, and recently I've begun to write more, and
getting published.
Kyle Smith didn't like Iron Man as much as I did. Like him, I loved the first half of the movie. Blow-the-crap-out-of-Al-Queda is a good first act. Yes, Mr. Stark was then motivated by pulling back from arms dealing. But, he never apologized for selling arms to the United States. The problem wasn't the arms, it was always that his company had been selling to the "bad guys" (and I loved that they used that phrase). When I lived in Chicago, I was in favor of the moratorium on the death penalty, not because the death penalty was a problem, but because the courts were too corrupt to handle the responsibility. And I liked that Iron Man asked for help from Pepper Potts, the adorable female lead; he was being
clever!
It's always been DC that's been more UN-Internationalist-wrath-of-the-self-righteous type; Marvel's heroes have been more about individualism and metaphor. I'd never really known much about Iron Man. Actually, as I was determined to make my own suit like that by the time I grew up, I resented him a little once I discovered that he wasn't a robot. But, as a 27-year-old engineer/businessman comicbook fan, I think you can imagine the appeal of an older engineer/businessman turning superhero. I'm inclined to give anything Stan Lee does the benefit of the doubt and there was plenty of room for it. Conservatives have so much to gripe about when it comes to the movies, but we need to reward the movies that come closer, that are good enough and Iron Man is comfortably where we can see it. My only regret is that I rode my motorcycle to the theatre; I was a little juiced up from the movie; putting on my helmet never felt so good; I can't really swear to the legality or safety of everything I did on the way home; this was a really great movie.
There was one early one-night-stand scene that may warrant more than PG-13, but not quite R. Some almost nudity that I, personally, rather liked but parents may want to know about (although the idea that Vanity Fair does investigative war journalism was a bit of news to me; did I miss something?).