February 02, 2005 - Meeting Stan Lee is a lot like being reunited with a grandparent you haven't seen since childhood. His voice evokes memories of sitting in front of a television, ten years old, completely fascinated by an animated web-slinger ridding Manhattan of its eclectic villains. Stan is indeed the man, there's no doubting that. A comic book pioneer, Stan Lee, along with partner Jack Kirby, revitalized the comics industry in the early '60s. Though his ties with Marvel have been damaged due to a recently settled lawsuit, which awarded Lee in excess of $10 million, Lee remains an icon, a living legend.

Though it may not have been immediately clear why Stan Lee had been asked to speak at the D.I.C.E. Summit for game developers, everyone came to listen. The majority of the 500 registered guests packed the conference hall at the Green Valley Ranch to hear Lee talk about character creation. Lee was lively, gregarious, self-deprecating, and thoroughly entertaining.

"A few years ago [I was asked] to go to Pixar," Lee said as he began his half-hour lecture. "I went over there and poured my heart out to them about everything I knew about creating characters and so forth. Now, after that speech, they did a movie called Toy Story, they did Finding Nemo, they did The Incredibles – so do the math." Lee later noted his favorite part of the movie was "the girl whose arms could stretch. I thought that was the cleverest idea." Not to worry, Stan isn't going to be suing Pixar anytime soon, that's just a taste of the acerbic wit he displays on stage.

Having created some of the greatest comic book characters of all time, including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and the X-Men, Lee was the perfect person to speak on creating better characters for video games. So what makes a great superhero? According to Stan Lee, it's pretty simple. "I guess you've got to come up with a superhero that people care about and want to read about. When you create any character, you've got to make the character interesting. You have to care about him, you have to know his personality. And mainly, you have to know what his hang-ups are and his problems and his worries, his personal life. Otherwise he's just a cipher up there."

	-Sony

Though Lee's lessons seem like common sense, given the epidemic of weak characterization in video games, it's a lesson most developers haven't learned. Lee went on to note that creating unique action is almost as vital as a good character. The man who made Marvel stressed the need to provide action no one has ever seen before. "The main ingredient for being a good designer of action in video games is you have to be a very violent psychopath."

Having been to numerous conferences such as D.I.C.E. before, I'm used to speakers who put even the walls to sleep. Stan Lee had everyone captivated, more because of his anecdotes and that familiar voice than necessarily for the information he imparted. He had as many zingers as Spidey and fired them off at the end of every thought. "I wish I were taking notes," Lee said to himself halfway through a sentence, "I'm saying some real good stuff here."

After talking in detail about creating characters the audience cares about, Lee offered advice on writing a memorable story. "Surprise," Lee said before pausing to let the word hang in silence for a moment. "[It's] one of the most important things in any story. You shouldn't be able to anticipate what comes next. There always ought to be that element of surprise. And as you're writing, if you can say to yourself, 'Well, the logical next development is this,' fine. But what's the illogical next thing?" Lee wasn't suggesting writers throw logic out the window, but search for ways to make the improbable believable to a reader.

Lee also noted the value of balancing drama with comedy. "Humor always helps. No matter how dramatic something is, no matter how intense it is, if you can put in a touch of humor, something light to just change the mood for a second, it just seems to stimulate and revitalize [the audience's] interest."

Following Stan Lee's lecture and a long ovation from the crowd, the comic book vet took questions from developers. In the Q&A;, Lee was asked which of the many characters he'd created were his favorites. "Whichever makes the most money," Lee offered for a laugh. After the room fell silent, Lee revealed his true favorites were the Silver Surfer, the Thing, and Doctor Doom. When asked why he found Doom to be his best villain, Lee replied whimsically, "There [are] very few villains with diplomatic immunity."

It hasn't all been success for Lee, who acknowledged that he's made characters he felt were not worth gracing the pages of Marvel Comics. His biggest failure appeared in Fantastic Four #30. "I [came] up with what I thought was a great villain's name, Diablo. No sooner did I finish telling the name to Jack [Kirby] and he'd already drawn the character. A mysterious-looking, Satanic-looking guy. It was wonderful. So we had our name, we had our character. I didn't have the slightest idea what to do with him. To this day, I don't remember what I wrote, but I think it was a horrible story."

Of course, Stan Lee's had far more successes than failures. Without a doubt, his most popular creation is Spider-Man. According to Lee, the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler almost didn't make it to print. "The only one who thought [Spider-Man] wouldn't work was the publisher," Lee said. "That taught me a lesson early on about really paying attention and listening to experts. If you think you have something good and some idiot says it's no good, go to another idiot."

Stan Lee appeared to enjoy the audience as much as they appreciated him. "You know, you're a good practice audience for me. When I have to talk to anybody important I'll know what not to say."

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