WHEN Stan Lee first dreamt up the character of Peter Parker – aka Spider-Man – his sceptical boss wasn’t convinced that it would work. In fact, he told Lee to forget it and focus on something else. Fortunately, he ignored him and went ahead with his story anyway.

Now, some 45 years later, Spider-Man is one of the best loved comic book heroes of all time and the Spider-Man films – the third will be released in May 2007 – are brilliantly crafted, critically acclaimed examples of an increasingly sophisticated genre. Quite simply, without the remarkable Stan Lee none of this would have been possible.

It was back in 1962 when Lee first came up with the idea of a teenager who gains super-powers after he is bitten by a radioactive spider. “I took the idea to my publisher and he hated it,” he recalls.

“I told him I wanted Spider-Man to be a teenager. I wanted to call the character Spider-Man and I wanted him to have a lot of personal problems. So my publisher said to me ‘Stan, first of all, you can’t call him Spider-Man because people hate spiders. That can’t be a hero’s name.’

“And he said: “He can’t be a teenager because teenagers can only be sidekicks. A teenager can’t be the hero. And finally you want him to have personal problems! Don’t you know what a superhero is?” So he definitely hated the character and didn’t want me to do the story.”

Quietly, with the help of artist Steve Ditko, Stan went ahead with his idea and managed to get it published in a doomed Marvel Comics magazine, Amazing Fantasy.

“We had a magazine that we were about to kill because it wasn’t selling too well,” he explains. “When you are about to discontinue publishing a magazine nobody cares what you put in the last issue, because that’s the end of it. The magazine is dying anyway. So I featured Spider-Man in the last issue of this magazine and since I knew nobody would care whether Spider-Man was in there or not, I even put him on the cover.

“A short time later we got our sales figures on Amazing Fantasy – this magazine that we had wanted to kill – and we found it had been the best selling book of the month with Spider-Man on the cover.

“I still remember my publisher walking into my room when he got the sales figures and saying: “Hey, Stan, remember that Spider-Man character of yours that we both liked so much? Why don’t you make it into a series…’”

That was the birth of Marvel Comics’ best loved character and there were many others to come. Lee himself was responsible for creating a whole pantheon of superheroes including the Fantastic Four, X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil and Iron Man. He is rightly regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of comic books.

Despite the opposition, Spider-Man was exactly the type of character that Lee wanted to see in the comics and he had a hunch that readers would relate to him too.

“I always had one test for any idea I came up with and the test was ‘is this something that I would like to read about?’ And I always feel that I’m really not that extraordinary.

“I’m not that exceptional. If there are things that I would like there must be lots of other people who would have the same taste as I do. That was the only guideline I’ve ever used with anything I’ve ever done.”

Back at the beginning, Lee never imagined that his creation would live on to be the star of blockbuster films. At that time, the technology did not exist to translate the action sequences in the comic book to the big screen.

“When I started writing this character I never ever thought that he would be featured in any movies at all,” he says. “I never dreamed that they would be able to show Spider-Man doing the things he does or show the villains doing the things that they do.

“In the early days we could do things in comics that you could never put on the screen and that’s the reason why it took so long before Spider-Man was made into a movie.”

Judging from his own words, Lee’s dream has been surpassed. He marvels at the efforts of the creative team, led by director Sam Raimi, who brought Spider-Man to movie theatres around the world.

“The films couldn’t be in more capable hands than those of Sam Raimi. And the way it works is that I don’t butt in at all. These fellows do what they do and I think they are geniuses. Marvel is just so lucky that we have such competent people doing these movies for us.

“Sam approaches the films so intelligently. He does on the screen what I always tried to do in print and he treats Peter Parker as a very real empathetic character – somebody you can understand, somebody you can feel sorry for because he has a number of personal problems.

“And you care about him and then you enjoy when he becomes Spider-Man and does what he does. My feeling has always been that these movies and these stories should be interesting enough starring the character in his normal role. Even if he weren’t a superhero you would want to see the movie and you would want to read the stories.

“The fact that he is also a superhero and you get all that additional excitement and colour and fantasy, that just makes the story that much better.”

As he has done in past films based on Marvel Comics characters, Lee makes a cameo appearance in Spider-Man 3. However, he is a bit secretive of the scenario.

“I don’t want to give the whole surprise away, but I’ll tell you this much, I actually speak to Peter Parker. He and I share the screen together for a few seconds while I say something very apt and meaningful to him.

“I just love doing the cameos. I really do. In fact I’m waiting for the Motion Picture Academy to decide that they want to give a new award for the best cameo of the year. I’m hoping I’ll be in line for that,” he laughs.

Lee lavishes praise on Tobey Maguire for his performance as Peter Parker and Spider-Man. When the young actor was first cast in 2001, he admits that he wasn’t familiar with his work.

“I wouldn’t have thought of casting him because I didn’t know him that well. But when I learned that Sam had chosen him and I studied who he was I thought Sam had made a very wise choice.

“One reason is that he is an exceptionally fine actor and the second reason is that he really looks like just any normal young man. He’s not too glamorous, he’s not too nerdy, he looks like the average guy who would live next door to you.

“The average kid who would be going to school with your own son. He looks so perfect because that’s what Peter Parker was supposed to be, just an average guy.”

Lee is also looking forward to seeing two of his favourite villains being brought to cinematic life; the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and Venom (Topher Grace).

“Without a great villain you have only got half a story,” he says. “The villains are what make these things. And Sandman was my creation so naturally I’m very partial to him.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t create Venom because he’s a very interesting character; somebody who comes from somewhere not of Earth and he’s able to take over Spider-Man so to speak and make him a different person.

“So between Venom and Sandman I think we have two of the most unusual villains anyone has ever seen in a movie.”

At 84-years-old, Lee is as busy as ever. He remains a figurehead for Marvel and he also runs his own entertainment company. He’s founder, chairman and chief creative officer of POW! Entertainment and oversees various projects including live action films, television programs and animated DVDs.

• Delicious
• Digg
• Reddit
• Facebook
• Stumbleupon