How to Become Famous

CHAPTER 7

The Irresistible Stan Lee

All over the world, the Marvel Universe is an economic phenomenon. It is almost surreal. No fewer than six Spider-Man movies have hit the $300 million mark.1 Four Avengers movies have done that.2 The same is true of two Black Panther movies, two Thor movies, and three Iron Man movies.3

Astonishingly, every one of these characters sprang, at least in part, from the mind of just one person: Stan Lee. And while Lee was amazing, and so was and is Marvel, there’s a Matthew Effect here, superhero-style.

To understand Lee’s achievement, flash back to the early 1960s, when the world of comic books was dominated by two companies. The first was DC, home of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash. The second was ...