POW! Entertainment Inc. (fka POWN)

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THERE are writers who create books and characters people enjoy and then there are writers who change the face of pop culture.

In his more than 70-year career, Stan Lee has created more than 340 characters, including Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Hulk, and changed the way we think of, and talk about, superheroes.

Back in 1941, when an 18-year-old Lee wrote his first comic, Captain America #3, superheroes were perfect beings living perfect lives, existing only to battle the bad guys and get the girl.

But in the late 1950s, Lee reimagined superheroes as people with a flawed humanity and so he created the Fantastic Four.

He says it was then he learned the secret of what makes an engaging superhero.

"It has to be a character who's interesting to the reader, or the viewer if it's a movie," Lee says. "And it has to be a character who's colourful or unique.

"There has to be some element of his personality, or his or her ability that you don't find anywhere else, so you want to keep reading about this one character."

Looking back on his creations, he is happy.

"Every time I come across one of these characters, I say, 'How was I ever smart enough and talented enough to create this character?' " he says, laughing.

"I'm only kidding, but actually I love them all. I feel as though they're all my children. You've got to love your children."

Although Lee obviously has the secret of creativity, he says it's impossible to hand it on to others. However, for those who want to follow in his footsteps he has one tip: "Try to please yourself. Don't try to please other people."

On the eve of his first trip to Australia, Lee finds himself wishing he could call on his characters to help him out.

"I hate long plane rides, so that shows you how eager I am to go to Australia," he says. "Wouldn't it be great if Thor could fly me there?

"You wouldn't have to worry about storms delaying the journey. Thor doesn't care about the weather. He has his own weather."

Marvel, the comics giant Lee used to script, art-direct and edit for, has recently had a boom, releasing a string of successful movies, including The Avengers, the third highest all-time box office earner worldwide.

Movie-goers have come to expect Lee will make a cameo appearance in Marvel movies.

Although it seems to have been happening forever, Lee didn't make his first movie appearance until 2000: "It wasn't my idea. I was asked to be in The X-Men movie, but after I'd been in a few of them, I enjoyed it.

So then I started saying every time they made one, 'Don't forget my cameo!' Now I even do cameos in other things, like television shows."

Of his dozens of cameos, Lee's favourites are the time he wasn't allowed into Reed Richards and Sue Storm's wedding and one we have yet to see.

"I think the one in the new Spider-Man movie is my favourite. I get a kick out of that because it's a little bit different," he says. Sadly, he couldn't reveal his role in The Amazing Spider-Man, but Lee hinted: "There's no speaking. It's all pantomime.

"So you get to see what an amazingly wonderful actor I am. For about 10 seconds."

Although Lee turns 90 in December, he has no plans to slow down.

"What I do doesn't seem like work to me. It's like playing. You know how some men like to get together and play golf? They're with their friends, doing what they want to do.

"Well, every day I'm with my friends, writers and artists, actors and producers, directors. And I'm doing what I want to do. So every day I can't wait to get out there and play."

Lee's workload sounds heavy for a man in his 20s, let alone a someone who was 29 when Queen Elizabeth took the throne.

His company, Purveyors of Wonder, is working on several movies with various Chinese, Indian, Latin American and North American superheroes.

"After I go to Australia I'll probably want to do one with an Australian superhero," Lee says, joking. "We're working on a few television series, some cartoons and a big live-action show that we'll open up in Macau, in Asia.

"That's going to be very big. It's going to be called Yin and Yang: The Power of Tao. We keep pretty busy."

Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber in 1922. He used the name Stan Lee when he wrote his first comic so he could save his proper name for when he wrote "the great American novel".

Eventually, however, he became so well known as Stan Lee he changed his name legally.

Many of his characters have great loves that last decades, but Lee's love story has been far more enduring - he and wife Joan celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary this year. According to Joan, when Lee first saw her he told his friend: "I've drawn her face a thousand times, I'm going to marry her."

The fact Joan was already married didn't trouble Lee and, six weeks later, they wed in Reno, Nevada.

Lee gained his start at New York's Timely comics (which would later become Marvel Comics) with the help of his uncle Robbie Solomon in 1939 when he was 16.

At the start he filled inkwells, fetched lunches and did all kinds of menial tasks. His chance came two years later, when he was given the opportunity to write Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge in Captain America #3 in which he introduced the trademark ricocheting shield-toss.

Lee only left his native New York in the 1980s when Marvel movies and TV shows began to take off, but he has property on both coasts.

Creative people who build a legacy as big as Lee's often think about how they want to be remembered, but not Lee.

"Believe it or not, that's something I don't think about. Because once I'm not here it won't matter to me what I'm remembered for," he says. "While I am here I'd like to be remembered because I love going to these comic conventions and talking to the fans and meeting them.

So as long as people remember me while I'm around, that's good enough for me."

Stan Lee will appear at Oz Comic Con in Melbourne on Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and information, visit ozcomiccon.com

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/stan-lees-a-true-marvel/story-fnd2zcc1-1226406417245