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Lee: illusion and reality [Editor's note: This is a short post, but covers a lot of topics: Lee's claim to be the writer of the FF, his claim that Marvel was growing from strength to strength, and his later desire to be thought of as editor and art director even though he didn't read the comics. The passing reference to going over Goodman's head is important as well: Goodman had been very good to Lee since employing Lee (his relative via marriage) when Lee was a teenager. But Goodman wanted his son, Chip, to inherit his job as publisher (as discussed in another thread).] Patrick Ford 25 September 2016 Stan Lee's dialogue and captions for FF #100 indicated that the rogues gallery fighting the FF were all robots. The story ends when the "robot Hulk" goes out of control and attacks the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master. That sequence makes a lot more sense if the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master failed in their attempt to control the Hulk due to the Hulk being uncontrollable. I wonder if Kirby was thinking of Lee's edit when he later was ordered to bring the Eternals into the Marvel Universe and did so by writing in a robot Hulk. Mark Evanier: On F.F. #100, Jack did not intend the robot aspect of the storyline. When he started on that story, it was planned to be for that year's annual, but then Marvel decided the budgets would not allow the inclusion of new material in their annuals so the story was redirected to #100. I'm not sure at what point the change was made but yes, Jack wound up shoehorning a story intended for a longer length into a shorter one. Chris Tolworthy: "Marvel decided the budgets would not allow the inclusion of new material in their annuals" this while Stan was saying that Marvel was growing, selling more, being ever more successful, etc. Though to give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe belt tightening was due to paper costs and not being able to raise cover prices or something. Did DC have reprint annuals at this time? [Edit: sales of individual titles began to decline from 1968. "Comics had always been a cyclical business, and almost everybody in 1971 thought that super heroes must inevitably be on their way out again. That's why there was such a gold rush on to find the next big genre--sword-and-sorcery looked like it might be a contender, and there were a lot of new mystery (watered-down horror comics without much horror), war and western comics being churned out in this period. But the classic Marvel, Stan's Marvel, was still seen as something of a fad (even by Stan himself), and the common wisdom was that everybody was going to be doing something else very soon (possibly in another field entirely." - Tom Brevoort ] [All this time, Lee was proclaiming that he was writing the Fantastic Four and other titles, and that Marvel was growing from strength to strength. Neither claim was true.] Patrick Ford: The major trouble for fans of Lee is the truth requires such a leap of faith. It's easy enough to see Lee as not what he claims. Almost all of Lee's fans are comfortable with the idea that Lee is a con man. At the same time they are eager to cling to the idea that Lee's behavior is as endearing as a puppy chewing up a favorite pair of shoes. He's Stan. He's adorable. He can't help himself. To admit the truth is much harder. The truth is Lee is a really bad man. He's no a funny man. He's not cute. He's not suffering from a poor memory. He's a very manipulative and calculating sort of person. Even people as close to him as Roy Thomas have commented on this (TCJ #61).

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