Stan Lee on the Incredible Hulk’s Path to ‘Age of Ultron’
Some people seem want to try to argue that it was all Jack on these things.
Those people are crazy. Stan has got ego and he wants credit but he would credit Jack a lot. Eventually it became not enough for Jack, and I can sort of see both sides of it. It was just one of those things – almost all teams fall apart eventually, you know, whether it’s the Beatles or Abbott and Costello or whatever. And when you ask them you find that, of course, in every partnership each side did 90 percent of the work.
You created Ultron with artist John Buscema – what do you make of the movie version?
I’ve only seen the clips from it at this stage. I made Ultron up more as a straight villain but I think this idea of a more urbane and kind of mad robot, that’s sort of a very sensible interpretation. The nice thing to me is that he looks right.
You co-created the Vision, as well, who is also featured in the movie. How did that character come about?
I said, “I want to bring back the old Vision, the 1940s Simon and Kirby character,” and Stan said “No we want a new Avenger, but I want him to an android.” He never said why! And I said, “You don’t care why as long as he’s an android?” So I made up an android and I called him the Vision; he hated the red face but other than that he thought it was fine.
Are you happy with your compensation for co-creating these characters?
Yeah, yeah. A couple of years ago Marvel came to me and a number of the other creators. I guess they got tired of being sued by everybody. I got tired of being deposed all the time, too. And they did what I was always telling them, just give them the money and a little credit on the movie, and they will be your biggest fans. So I not only have certain compensations coming by the formula they worked out but they decided that because they are using those two characters — and because they are using the Yellowjacket concept somewhat in the Antman movie that comes out in a couple of months — they ended up giving me a sizeable bonus as well. And they invited me to the premiere.