-Stan Lee, along with many talented artists,
helped create many of your favorite
Marvel comic book characters, such as Spiderman,
Iron Man, Hulk, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the list
just goes on.
His cameos in live action and even animated Marvel movies
are always a fun thing to look out for.
But what character is he playing exactly-- just
some random, goofy, old man, or is he secretly
a character from the comics themselves?
[MUSIC]
Welcome to "Comic Misconceptions."
I'm Scott, and I can't help it.
I loved Stan Lee.
There-- I said it.
I wish he was my grandpa.
Stan "The Man" Lee has appeared in so many Marvel movies,
shows, and video games that people
have started to speculate that he's not just
playing some random guy, but that he's actually playing
a character from the comics.
The most common theory I've heard around the internet
is that Stan is playing Uatu the Watcher.
A quick refresher for those unfamiliar-- Uatu
is a member of the Watchers, an alien species
with gigantic heads whose main purpose in life
is to simply observe and record the activities of the universe.
Each one is assigned a different part of the universe to watch.
And Uatu is assigned to Earth and the rest
of our solar system.
As Star-Lord's dad points out, Uatu clearly
has the most entertaining job of all of the Watchers,
since Earth is where the craziest, most shocking stuff
in the universe happens.
Although the Watchers are very powerful beings,
they have vowed not to interfere with the natural flow
of events.
But now, Uatu has broken this vow before.
He's even been on trial for his actions,
like alerting heroes of threats, actively trying
to hide the location of Earth from Galactus,
or even simply talking to the Fantastic Four.
All of these things are not the conduct of a Watcher,
yet he did it anyway.
All that to say it's really not too
far-fetched to say that Stan could be Uatu, even though he's
interfered before, like saving lives or motivating heroes--
trying to pick up Thor's hammer, for instance.
The one thing I can't excuse, though,
is Stan's lack of an ability to actually watch anything.
A lot of his roles make him seem super oblivious to things
that the Watchers should be aware of.
-I thought he'd be taller.
-Perhaps Stan Lee is playing another character.
An article from "Movie Pilots" suggests that he could instead
be playing Kang the Conqueror.
And being a time traveler from another reality
with many alternate versions of him popping up into existence,
his history gets pretty complicated.
So all you really need to know for this particular video is
that Kang travels through time and between different realities
to-- as his name implies-- conquer stuff.
This could explain how Stan Lee has
been able to appear across multiple, unconnected universes
of Marvel properties, as well as appearing in the past
and present-- without aging a day.
There are so many alternate versions of himself
from different time streams that there's
an entire council of Kangs.
That could mean that each cameo is actually
an alternate version of the character,
and that's why he can presumably die in Incredible Hulk,
and then be right back in action in the following Marvel movies.
Because that was just one version that died, presumably.
Kang on his own, has no superhuman abilities.
He uses advanced futuristic technology.
But aside from that, he's pretty much a super smart human.
This fits pretty well with the theory since Stan Lee himself
came out and said that his character isn't an alien
and doesn't have superpowers.
He's just a human that's better than most.
But Kang, for the most part, is a villain.
I don't know if I'd classify anything Stan Lee has done
in the movies as villainous.
He seems to be minding his own business most of the time,
not really trying to conquer anything.
It is suggested that he could be watching the heroes-- not
that kind of watching.
We're off that-- rather, studying them
and waiting to make his move.
So that's a pretty good theory.
But I know a few of you guys in the comments
are already typing out a name that you're
sure is the correct answer-- the One-Above-All.
This is simultaneously a very hard one to prove and disprove,
because there's not that much information on the entity known
as the One-Above-All.
The character is apparently the creator
of all things that exist in the Marvel multiverse,
and maybe even beyond it.
It's presumed that Uatu himself references the One-Above-All
as the only being in existence who is truly all-powerful.
Essentially, this is God in the Marvel universe-- not
a god, the-- capital G-- God.
He's appeared in a few different forms.
He's been a vague being in a white robe
when he restored life to Beta Ray Bill, a homeless man
while consoling Peter Parker about the death of Aunt May,
and one of my favorites-- legendary comic book artist,
I should say, Jack Kirby, when he literally
drew the thing back to life.
It's this last appearance that I think is so important.
Because if the One-Above-All appeared as Jack Kirby, then
that kind of rules out that he's really Stan Lee, right?
He even goes as far in the comics
to indicate that Stan Lee is a collaborator of his.
The two in real life famously work together
to create a lot of your favorite Marvel comic book characters
and stories.
The way that I interpret this character
is not that it's any one person, but rather it's one
collective title shared by all of the artists,
writers, and creators that work on Marvel's comics together.
They are all the One-Above-All because they
are the only ones who truly have all power over the characters.
You could say that Stan Lee in all of these movies
is purely the representation of the One-Above-All standing
in for all talented comic book writers and artists who
brought life to our favorite stories and characters.
For me, the personality still is a little off
to consider Stan Lee in these movies as God,
but there's really not a lot of info on the One-Above-All, so
who am I to say that that's not exactly who he's playing?
So some of these explanations seem pretty good
and appear to be supported by at least enough
circumstantial evidence that they could seem plausible.
I, however, have a different theory.
I propose to you that Stan Lee isn't any of these characters.
Heck, I don't even think he's a Marvel character.
I believe Stan Lee is someone far more
elusive and meddlesome.
It is my belief that Stan "The Man"
Lee is actually-- drum roll, please-- Mopee.
For those of you who haven't seen
the real origin of the Flash video,
I covered a story about how Barry Allen really
got his powers.
The lightning bolt that struck him
was created by Mopee, a goofy, magical imp.
At first glance, I think you can definitely
see more similarities between Mopee's appearance
and Lee's than you can with Uatu or Kang.
Plus his goofy, almost oblivious nature
is far more in-line with Stan's cameo appearances.
But hold on, you say-- Mopee is a DC character.
Stan Lee only appears in Marvel movies
and shows-- a fair point, but if we look back at "Ambush Bug"
number three from 1985, we can see
Mopee talking about how he not only played
a part in the Flash's history, but also other DC
characters like Batman and Superman,
as well as plenty of Marvel characters
like Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Hulk, and the X-Men.
What we have here is a character with the ability
to freely visit different realities and universes,
and will.
This could explain how Stan Lee can not just
be in the Marvel cinematic universe,
but also other Marvel movies and TV
universes that aren't connected.
But if he was a DC character, wouldn't we
have at least seen Stan Lee show up in some form or another
in DC movies or shows?
Yes-- and we have.
In an episode of Superman, the animated series,
called "Apocalypse Now, part two,"
we see a scene where a group of people
are mourning the death of a character based off
of Jack Kirby-- that legendary comic book artist
I mentioned earlier.
Who do we see in the crowd at the funeral?
None other than Stan Lee.
This isn't just some person who looks like Stan Lee.
You can see in the storyboard notes
that the character is labeled as "Stan."
However, after that one appearance,
the scene was later altered in the DVD release
to not include Stan Lee at all.
Sound familiar?
After Mopee made his first and only real appearance
in the comics, he was quickly retconned away in Who's Who
in the DC Universe number eight, where it states that Mopee
doesn't actually exist.
Now I'm not saying that Stan Lee is definitely Mopee,
but Stan Lee is definitely Mopee.
Wake up, America.
Yes, again, Stan is still on record
with saying that his character in the movies
does not have any superpowers and isn't extraterrestrial,
but he also originally said that he
wasn't going to have a cameo role in Guardians
of the Galaxy.
So I'm not sure if Stan can be a credible source for any details
about his character.
Wait-- hold on-- I just remembered
that Stan did play a specific and actually named comic book
character in the Fantastic Four movie--
a mailman named Willie Lumpkin.
So I guess that would mean if any of these theories
were true, we would also have to throw in that each of them
has a day job of delivering mail to the Baxter Building, which--
hey, Mopee's good with mail.
What do you guys think?
Is Stan Lee playing a character like the Watcher, Kang,
the One-Above-All, or definitely Mopee?
Do you have a different theory for who he's portraying?
Maybe he's a time lord.
Or is he simply being himself, and we should all
stop trying to find the incontinuity explanations
for everything, and just enjoy his performances?
Let me know in the comments.
So this is kind of a weird way to start off Avengers month
here at NerdSync.
If you missed last week's video-- basically
we're doing nothing but Marvel episodes
for the next month in preparation for Age of Ultron.
We've got plenty more to come out soon
that I'm very excited about.
So make sure you hit that big, sexy "subscribe" button so you
don't miss out on any of it.
Once again, I'm Scott.
You can find me on Twitter and Instagram.
And we'll see you right here on Friday for a tie-in video.
And also, I'm going to be doing some vlogging stuff every day
this month over on my personal channel.
If want to check that out, link is in the description.
You can watch it or not.
Both options are totally fine.
Anyway, like I said, we'll see you on Friday
for more things they thought you knew about comics.
See ya!