Got a Question for Stan Lee?

[Mantenna]

There's going to be a conference call with Stan Lee tomorrow, and anything is up for grabs*. Anyone have a specific question for him? Post here and I'll do my best to slip it in.

*Anything about the show, assumedly.

[Google]

 

[Krom]

Wow.

I have a million.

But I assume it has to do with the show, not his comic book work, so... that cuts the questions down by about 999,995.

Lets try...

--Stan, how marketable do you really think some of the ideas these contestants bring to the show are for comic books? While obviously almost any idea can generate a single issue, do you feel any of them have staying power as a permanent concept?

--Stan, how much fun do you have doing the show? Are there parts surrounding the production which you find particularly trying (for example, repeatedly reshooting things, having to work without seeing special effects which will filled in later, etc.)?

--Stan, was it an essential part of the concept that you not actually meet the "heroes" in person until the finale, or was that shoehorned in later [note: its apparent this has to do with his age and health concerns, but I'd let HIM answer with that rather than pushing that button directly]?

--Stan, its obvious that certain portions of the show are scripted. But to an observant viewer it really seems like those moments are only the "in-between" bits--the "setup" moments basically. Is that basically an accurate statement? Do the contestants naturally come out with a lot of the hero-ey talk themselves?

--Stan, last year you seemed genuinely surprised and upset when Monkey Woman was revealed to be an actress looking for a break and some extra fame. Has your point of view changed on this? It seems like most reality show contestants are simply looking for fame--wouldn't it be a natural conclusion that the majority of your own contestants would be looking for the same? [a follow-up question might be about how much exposure he'd had to reality shows before this, and which of them, if any, he watches]

One token question from straight comicdom (maybe this would be a good one to end the interview with)...

--Stan... we have to ask... Rumor says that Marvel is about to "undo" Spider-man's marriage to Mary-Jane. Come on... give a bit. We won't ask you if its true or not. For the sake of this question, lets pretend its true, even if its not. If YOU were still writing Spider-man in comic book form [Stan does still occasionally write the daily newspaper strip along with his brother Larry Lieber, I believe], how would you undo the marriage?

[Krom]

Wow. Doesn't ANYONE else have anything?

Here's a few more.

-Stan... is it possible for a hero with an obvious over-the-top humorous image and personality, like Mr. Mitzvah , to be a big success? And would it really be a mitzvah [which means "an act of human kindness"--although Stan himself certainly knows that] to the Jews of the world to put this guy into a comic book?

-Stan, who is your favorite DC comics hero [they were his competition]?

-Stan, your show is very different from most other reality shows in that it champions and tries to reward genuine virtue, instead of mere cleverness or the ability to manipulate. Where did that part of the concept come from? Also: How hard is it to think up "challenges" which test those virtues and yet are still hard enough to figure out that they aren't obvious to manipulative contestants?

[Mantenna]

Hey Krom, thanks for your question suggestions! I did end up using one, but Stan, of course, is wildly popular and I couldn't get any more in with the huge queue. Now that it's up, you can play the "pick my question out of the 14-page interview transcript" game.

[Krom]

Cool.

Yeah. A lot of what I suggested got asked by other people in some form or other anyway...

The Monkey Woman question is the only one I'm actually disappointed didn't get in.

[Florimel]

Originally Posted by Krom

-Stan... is it possible for a hero with an obvious over-the-top humorous image and personality, like Mr. Mitzvah , to be a big success? And would it really be a mitzvah [which means "an act of human kindness"--although Stan himself certainly knows that] to the Jews of the world to put this guy into a comic book?

Krom, although mitzvah has evolved to mean, as you say, "an act of human kindness," in Hebrew it actually means, "commandment." There are six hundred and something mitzvot that are the rules of Jewish law.

I sure don't know many of them, but for example, one is that if you perform an act of charity without expectation of reward, you are performing a mitzvah. I'd guess that's why we now think of a miztvah as an act of human kindness.

As for Mr. Mitzvah, I think he's a wanna be Jackie Mason, but isn't pulling it off very well.

[Krom]

Originally Posted by Florimel

Krom, although mitzvah has evolved to mean, as you say, "an act of human kindness," in Hebrew it actually means, "commandment." There are six hundred and something mitzvot that are the rules of Jewish law.

I sure don't know many of them, but for example, one is that if you perform an act of charity without expectation of reward, you are performing a mitzvah. I'd guess that's why we now think of a miztvah as an act of human kindness.

As for Mr. Mitzvah, I think he's a wanna be Jackie Mason, but isn't pulling it off very well.

Let's just say that this guy's use of the word is aimed towards the more informal definition. His whole shtick (bolstered by Stan's tweaking) was based around him being a philanthropist, not an especially observant Jew.

Really, he was such an over-the-top bozo with his act I'm glad he's gone. And actually, while I've seen him compared to Jackie Mason, Mel Brooks and many others, the person he struck ME as looking/acting like was actually John Lovitz, not that Lovitz really focuses all that much on being Jewish. Its just the mannerisms.

[Florimel]

I agree that it was well time for him to go. He just did not have the talent or personality to make it work.

But I'm grateful to him for making me think of past Jewish comedians. I went looking and found there are now DVD's for Myron Cohen, arguablly the best of them. You're probably too young to know who he was, but I'm definitely planning to rent and/or buy those DVD's. If you are at all interested, I'll tell you more.