Father of Marvel Comics begins new film about Chinese superhero

World Today

Stan LeeStan Lee creator of Spider-Man and a multitude of Marvel characters in the 1960s and 1970s. (Reed Saxon/Associated Press)

Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men, and many other superhero characters are a part of the laundry list of all the superheroes from the imagination of Stan Lee, the grandfather of comic books. Now, his newest venture is to target Asian fanboys with The Annihilator.

Just like all those superheroes, 92-year old Stan Lee himself is a living legend. His early days reading all kinds of comic books had cast deep influence on him.

“I always loved stories and comics about people and things that were bigger than life. People who had superpowers, people who could do things that other people couldn’t do,” said Lee.

For decades, audiences found comfort, even hope, in superheroes. Lee said he has always made his different, developing their personal lives with problems that ordinary people experience so readers would feel like they might exist.

Stan Lee

Stan Lee, the co-creator of Spider-Man®, The Incredible Hulk®, X-Men®, and many other iconic Marvel comic book heroes.

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“We tried to say, this person has a superpower but besides that, he or she is a real person. Let’s get to know the character,” he said.

Lee said his latest, The Annihilator, is about a young Chinese man who is typical of the average teenager anywhere. But because of streaks of bad luck, he had to leave the country. He went to America and became The Annihilator. Lee refused to say more as to not give the story away.

“When I heard how popular our comic book heroes were in China, I was really thrilled. I wasn’t aware that they were that aware of them or that they cared that much for our characters in China,” Lee said. “So I said, why don’t we create a Chinese superhero? Not just something that will play in China, something for the whole world?”

Lee said he wanted his film not just entertain his audience. He hopes there will be something more.

“It is such a great feeling to feel that while entertaining people, while presenting movies that hopefully people enjoy seeing, we’re also doing something to make people in different nations feel friendlier toward each other,” Lee said. “And by trying to get those ideas across in our movies, I sometimes feel and it’s a good feeling we’re doing more than just entertaining people but maybe in some slight way, we’re trying to make the world a better place.”

Since the movie “Iron Man” first opened in 2008, Marvel’s box office trajectory has only gone one way: up. Box office performance of Marvel superhero themed movies and television have made over $15 billion worldwide

In the burgeoning new millennium, superheroes have taken over popular culture with feature films, television shows and video games complementing a new generation of web-based comics that bring superhero adventures to every corner of the world.

Report complied with information by CCTV