Meeting My Hero Stan Lee Saved My Life
- Christopher Annino
- Jun 7, 2016
- 4 min read
When I was a young man I really didnt have a great childhood. Being deemed useless and worthless at a young age I suffered severe depression. I had a few friends but many of them would use me for any extra food I had at lunch. I was chosen last for everything and was the butt of all jokes. I was slow at reading and I was limited in math. I didnt feel I belonged in mainstream society and at nine years old I was thinking about suicide. I grew up catholic we would go to church every Sunday for a grueling hour plus catechism. I never understood it and still dont they would tell me to tell the priest your deepest secretes and feelings of coarse I would always get the standard 10 our fathers and 20 hail Mary's after confession. Being lost and having virtually no friends and being picked on I would stay in for the most part. One day a cartoon came on I was staying at my grandparents house it was on FOX 61 in big letters it said X-MEN. It was the first episode of the first installment of a series that lasted five amazing seasons. It took me to a world where people who were born different and exiled from society a battle that I had fought alone for many years prior. Finally someone who understood how I felt. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby being the visionaries behind this wonderful idea showing what people are really like toward those who are different. This is part of the reason why i never connected with DC Hero's. It was because it is a social fear to hate something that is different and its due to ignorance. The series to read the comic book and from there my reading got better my writing improved. While reading the comics it showed the imperfections of the super hero and that they took what they didn't have and capitalize on it. I wasn't very fast as a kid but was bigger than most so I hit the weights and by doing so it earned me an athletic scholarship and later I competed professionally. The leader of the X-Men Charles Xavier was not your typical leader being confined in a wheelchair it didn't set him back from being arguably being one of the most powerful entities in the Marvel Universe. In 2005 as I attended Mitchell College myself and a non profit organisation The Lighthouse Vocational Education Center produced a TV show about people with disabilities and the people who over come them called "Type Casting." Joan Jett and the Blackheart's allowed us to use their song "Don't Surrender" for a theme song.
Since the show was about people with disabilities and how they over came them co producer Kathy Greene reached out to Stan Lee to see if he would like to be on the show to discuss the comic book character Dare Devil. Not only did we get a yes we got a "come on over to my office in LA I would love to meet you." After I met with great man I learned three things 1. not to sell myself short anything is possible, 2. let your dreams guide you to where you want to be, and to always be humble and thankful for everything.
This was the interview we conducted with Mr. Lee the Remastered video will be shown on the next Episode of the "Rock N Horror Variety Show." Also at this years Rhode Island Comic Con Stan Lee will be making an appearance for more details go to our websites homepage and click on the link.
Q: What inspired you to create such unique superheroes as the X-Men, especially in an age of segregation?
LEE: “Well I thought that it was a good way to show the evils of race hatred, and the evil of hating people just because they are different. Although I must admit that wasn’t the main objective -- that came a little bit later. I was just looking for an exciting team of superheroes, but once I had the team, and their powers. I thought since they are different from everybody else it might be interesting if most humans hate them, fear them and despise the fact that they are so different, and because of that I thought it would be interesting if I injected a moral into that.”
Q: In a way did you use the mutants and super heroes in your comics as a metaphor for people who are different?
LEE: “Yes in fact it’s a strange thing I am sort of known as the person who created hero’s who all have had some sort of handicaps in a way. Well Spiderman’s handicap was that he was shy, he didn’t have enough self confidence as Peter Parker, he wasn’t good with girls or dates. He was just like any typical insecure teenager. Iron man had a week heart, Dare Devil was blind, The Hulk had all sorts of problems {laughs} and on and on.”
Q: During the process of creating a super hero with a disabilities how did people react to your characters?
LEE: “Well I can give you an example with Dare Devil. I was a little reluctant to do a blind super hero. Because I was afraid when blind people learned of this character they would feel. Who is he kidding we can’t do things like that is he mocking us, making fun of us? After the book was published and work got around about Dare Devil. I received, and I am happy to say more congratulatory letters and phone calls from charities for blind people. All saying that the people in the institutions or just regular people who were blind felt what a wonderful thing it was to have a hero that was blind.”
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