Jack Kirby's son blasts Disney+'s Stan Lee documentary

Jack Kirby's son released a blistering statement about the newest Disney+ documentary about the life and legacy of Marvel legend Stan Lee.

In the memo shared by his daughter Jillian on social media, Neal Kirby challenges the notion that Lee "had a hand in creating every Marvel character," arguing that his father, the late Jack Kirby, the co-creator of many Marvel hits including Fantastic Four, Hulk, and Thor, and Lee's frequent collaborator, has for too long been overshadowed by Lee.

"It's not any big secret that there has always been controversy over the parts that were played in the creation and success of Marvel's characters," Kirby began, acknowledging that he understands that the documentary is about, well, Lee. "Stan Lee had the fortunate circumstance to have access to the corporate megaphone and media, and he used these to create his own mythos as to the creation of the Marvel character pantheon. He made himself the voice of Marvel."

"It should also be noted and is generally accepted that Stan Lee had a limited knowledge of history, mythology, or science," Kirby wrote. "On the other hand, my father's knowledge of these subjects, to which I and many others can personally attest, was extensive. Einstein summed it up better: 'More the knowledge, lesser the ego. Lesser the knowledge, more the ego.'"

He continued, "Are we to assume Lee had a hand in creating every Marvel character? Are we to assume that it was never the other co-creator that walked into Lee's office and said, 'Stan I have a great idea for a character!' According to Lee, it was always his idea."

"My father retired from comic books in the early 1980s and of course passed away in 1994," Kirby added. "Lee had over 35 years of uncontested publicity, much naturally, with the backing and blessing of Marvel as he boosted the Marvel brand as a side effect of boosting himself." Citing Lee's many cameos in Marvel films, "thus cementing his status as the creator of all things Marvel," Kirby added, "My father's first screen credit didn't appear until the closing crawl at the end of the film adaptation of Iron Man in 2008, after Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Larry Lieber."

Susan Skaar/Kirby Museum Jack Kirby

"The battle for creator's rights has been around since the first inscribed Babylonian tablet," Kirby concluded. "It's way past time to at least get this one chapter of literary/art history right."

In Stan Lee (out now on Disney+), director David Gelb traces Lee's upbringing as Stanley Leiber to his rise to influence in the world of comic books and pop culture in Lee's own words, via personal archive material. Lee died in 2018 from heart failure at age 95. Kirby, who similarly died of heart failure in 1994 at age 76, was also an influential comic book writer and artist behind iconic superheroes Black Panther, Captain America, the Celestials, and the X-Men, among others.

EW has reached out to Lee's estate and Disney+ for comment on Kirby's statement.

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