Stan Lee and his daughter J.C. were working on a superhero together before the comic book legend passed away, it has been confirmed. Lee is best known for his work with Marvel Comics and was responsible for the creation or co-creation of an array of timeless characters such as Spider-Man, the Silver Surfer, Iron Man, the X-Men and many, many others. In recent years, Lee garnered further renown as a result of his often-hilarious cameos in Marvel movies. Appearances such as the "Tony Stank" delivery man, the strip club MC and the oblivious high school librarian will no doubt be fondly remembered.
Sadly, Lee passed away on Monday at the age of 95, having been rushed to hospital following a series of health problems. Over the past two days, big names from the comic world, Hollywood and beyond have declared their admiration and respect for Lee and joined fans' outpouring of sadness over his death. While the thought of a Marvel movie without a Lee cameo is certainly a strange one, it has been confirmed that several such scenes had been filmed in advance for both Captain Marvel and Avengers 4 - appearances that will perhaps now be bittersweet for audiences.
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Aside from filming cameos, it appears that Lee had also been continuing to create comic book characters in the period leading up to his passing. Lee's daughter, J.C. Lee, confirmed in an interview with TMZ that she and her father had concocted a superhero named Dirt Man.
The character was the result of J.C.'s long-running attempts to convince her dad to work with her on a superhero and although she developed the initial concept alone, Stan later joined the creative process. J.C. claims that her father was working on the character as recently as his final weekend and vows to go ahead with the project in his absence, hoping to see Dirt Man appear on the big screen at some point in the future.
J.C. Lee didn't offer any details on what Dirt Man's powers or backstory may be but, given the name, it can perhaps be assumed that this is more of a light-hearted, comedy-tinged hero that either has the power to create dirt or to manipulate the muck around him to use against enemies. Alternatively, the character might have an environmental angle and actually possess the power to destroy dirt. Whatever his abilities, Dirt Man certainly sounds like an interesting concept and would offer something a little different from the current Marvel setup.
While any collaboration between Stan Lee and his daughter would have generated buzz among comic fans, the fact that Dirt Man is the Marvel visionary's final character creation will surely mean that even more eyes will be on the project when it finally arrives on comic stands or on the big screen.
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Source: TMZ