For comic book fans there’s no better documentary than With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story – in fact, some might say it’s marvelous. Co-directed by Terry Dougas, Nikkie Frakes and Will Hess, With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story is a loving documentary tribute to the late, great legend responsible for revolutionizing the comic book medium and co-creating classic superheroes like Spider-Man, the Hulk and Iron Man alongside complex villains like Loki or Magneto.
Made just as the Marvel Cinematic Universe was starting to take off, With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story befittingly premiered at Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival in 2010 – a good few years before the comic book giant’s death in 2018 at the grand age of 95. Consequently, the documentary features not only a veritable feast of talking heads – from colleagues including Joe Simon and Avi Arad to actors like Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy – but commentary from Stan Lee himself too.
The documentary is a bright and breezy exploration of Stan Lee’s place in comic book history, full of interesting facts about iconic Marvel characters and how their creation was informed by the cultural and political backdrop of America. With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story details, for example, how the Comics Code Authority – the de facto censorship body of the industry – stifled creativity but inadvertently led to the creation of the Fantastic Four. There are similarly interesting nuggets about the Hulk too, who according to Lee was a product of the Atomic Age and partly inspired by literary horror characters like Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
As any Marvel fan worth their salt will know, the documentary’s title is a nod to the phrase “With great power comes great responsibility.” (AKA the Peter Parker principle) that was popularized in the Spider-Man comics. The saying rings true throughout the documentary, as Stan Lee’s efforts in championing diversity are detailed via his introduction of characters like Black Panther and Falcon to address the lack of black superheroes in comics and his long-running Stan’s Soapbox column which he often used as a platform to discuss social and political issues.
Towards the end of With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story, there’s a brief foray into how Lee began translating Marvel Comics for the big and small screen that touches on the highs - like the early X-Men movies or Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy - and the lows like Howard The Duck or the David Hasselhoff-fronted Nick Fury: Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV movie. Lee also offers an amusing explanation as to why he’s had a cameo in practically every Marvel adaptation ever made – apparently, he’d always wanted to be an actor.
The documentary concludes on a bittersweet, prescient note with Stan Lee reflecting on how he’s achieved his ambitions but wants to do so much more, stating “The only problem is time, and I just wish there were more time.” Of course, Lee died just eight years later, but in that time he saw the Marvel movie brand grow exponentially. Sad as his death might be, today – a decade after the release of With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story – the comic book legend’s marvelous legacy lives on with Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe right around the corner and several new Marvel shows in development.