Ever since the Marvel superheroes made the jump from the comic book page to the silver
screen, there’s been one thing that ties them together more than anything else: the
cameo appearances by Stan Lee.
But while comic fans have been spotting the co-creator of the Marvel Universe show up
on screen for decades, not every cameo has been as good as the others.
Here’s every Marvel movie cameo by Stan the Man, ranked from worst to best.
Excelsior, True Believers!
And rest in peace, Stan Lee.
We'll miss seeing you on the big screen.
Man-Thing
While audiences always look forward to seeing Stan show up in Marvel movies, you can’t
really blame him for skipping out on this Sci-Fi Channel original film that was shot
on the cheap in Australia.
That’s an awfully long flight for Captain America, let alone Man-Thing.
Instead, Stan only shows up as a photo as a missing person, and even then he’s nearly
impossible to spot.
That said, it’s pretty hilarious to imagine Stan having to fight off a swamp monster,
even if we don’t get to see it.
X-Men: The Last Stand
While you might think Stan's cameos are a mandatory part of anything that hits theaters
with a Marvel logo attached to it, that's not exactly the case.
He never appeared in the Blade trilogy, and only showed up in about half of the movies
in the X-Men franchise.
It’s bad luck, then, that he missed out on great mutant-themed movies like Logan and
X-Men: First Class instead of skipping out on this one.
The cameo itself, in which he marvels at a garden hose defying gravity, is pretty basic,
and it's nice that Stan can be spotted alongside legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont, who
spent 17 years as the primary writer of those comics.
Unfortunately, they're both surrounded by a film that could charitably be called "disappointing."
Turns out that garden hose was actually more interesting than anything else going on in
that movie.
X-Men
The very first Stan Lee cameo of the modern era of Marvel movies is mostly interesting
for showing us how far they’ve come.
These days, Stan’s cameos are an event unto themselves, but in 2000?
The co-creator of the X-Men was a hot dog vendor with no dialogue, in the background
of a crowd scene whose brief appearance was pretty easy to miss.
Avengers
The Avengers was a movie tasked making every piece of the MCU up to that point work together,
so it's pretty understandable that most of its runtime was focused on trying to do that.
It's not until after the climax, when the Avengers have come together as a team to save
the world from an invading army of Chitauri, that Lee finally makes his appearance in a
news broadcast.
"Superheroes in NY?
Gimme a break."
It's an easy joke, but it works thanks entirely to Lee’s effortless charm.
Iron Man 3
One of the recurring gags about Stan's cameos in the MCU movies is that he's often portrayed
as a dirty old man.
In the otherwise underrated Iron Man 3, that lasciviousness hits critical mass when we
see him judging a beauty pageant and getting pretty worked up over the contestants.
In the end, not even Stan was happy with how his cameo turned out.
"My cameo had a couple of scenes in it, that were funny has hell!"
Unfortunately, Stan's cameo was cut for time, leaving everyone unhappy.
Congratulations anyhow, Miss Elk Ridge!
"It's not my fault really I had nothing to do with it!
That's it!"
Hulk
Stan's first speaking cameo in a Marvel film came in Ang Lee's much-maligned Hulk movie,
in which he showed up alongside former Hulk actor Lou Ferrigno as a security guard.
That raises a lot of questions.
Why would you hire an 81 year-old man to be a security guard?
Shouldn't he have retired?
Does the Stan Lee of this movie's universe need money so badly that he's willing to take
a potentially dangerous job?
Look, we're not saying Stan shouldn't be in the movie, but maybe if that lab had hired
someone else to work security, there wouldn't be so many gamma-ray monsters running around.
Amazing Spider-Man 2
Stan's appearance in this movie was built entirely around the gag of having Stan Lee
show up and say that he knows Spider-Man.
It’s almost clever, but doesn't quite work.
On one hand, Stan Lee should know Spider-Man he co-created the character and wrote over
a hundred issues of his comic book.
On the other hand, if he's just talking about Peter Parker within the world of the movie,
he should still know who he is he was the librarian at his high school in the previous
movie.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy features one of the only Stan Lee appearances where the other
characters actually talk about him.
In this case, he's a victim of Rocket's running commentary on how much he hates the humanoid
population of the planet Xandar, identifying him as…
"A class-A pre-vert."
Pretty harsh, but maybe Rocket saw Iron Man 3.
Venom
In a movie that otherwise embraces Spider-Man's most goopy foe in all his glory, Stan's cameo
right before the credits roll in Venom is pretty disappointing.
Viewers spent the entire runtime waiting to see if their favorite mustachioed nonagenarian
makes an appearance, only to encounter a scene so unnecessary that it could've been cut without
anyone ever noticing.
Sure, it's fun that this random dude on the street knows that Eddie Brock has a slimy
alien space cannibal living under his skin, but after seeing the same idea done better
elsewhere, it's a letdown.
Is it too much to ask to see Stan the Man with giant knives for fingers?
Spider-Man
With the first Spider-Man movie, director Sam Raimi gave us a scene where Stan actually
got to be a hero himself, saving a kid from danger when the Green Goblin attacks.
Not a bad tribute to the guy who wrote the first hundred issues of Spidey's comic, but
also nowhere near the fun that Raimi’s long-time collaborator Bruce Campbell got to have in
his far-more-compelling Spider-Man cameos.
Spider-Man 2
Stan's cameo in the second Spider-Man film is almost exactly the same as it was the last
time around: a heroic passer-by who pulls someone out of danger during Spidey's battle
with a supervillain.
The only thing that distinguishes it from the first one — and puts it above it in
our rankings — is what's going on around it: Spider-Man's first big battle against
Doctor Octopus, which starts in a bank and winds up scaling high-rise walls in the middle
of Manhattan.
It’s a great scene, even if Stan’s appearance feels like a re-run.
Daredevil
2003's Daredevil movie was memorable for all the wrong reasons, but Stan Lee's appearance
was one of its few nice touches.
In a nod to Daredevil's comic book origin, a young Matt Murdock keeps a distracted Lee
from stepping out in front of a truck, despite his blindness.
Of course, that doesn't explain why they changed Daredevil's origin to take out the part where
he's blinded because he's saving someone, but hey, at least Stan fares better than one
of the movie's other creator cameos.
Legendary Daredevil writer/artist Frank Miller showed up and got stabbed in the head with
a pen.
Thor: The Dark World
The second Thor movie goes with another easy gag, having Lee pop up as a patient in a mental
institution for a quick laugh.
"Can I have my shoe back?"
As for how he got in there, we’ve got a theory.
Maybe this version of Stan is the one who remembers all the other movies he's made cameos
in that weren't part of the MCU.
It's easy to imagine him being dragged off while ranting about the X-Men and the Fantastic
Four, or wondering why nobody in this universe seems to cuss as much as they did when he
was hanging out with Deadpool.
Seeing three different Spider-Men in less than a decade is enough to send anybody to
therapy.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Homecoming’s scenes of Spider-Man patrolling Manhattan and helping out average New Yorkers
are some of the film’s finest moments.
It shows two important parts of Spidey's personality: he's willing to help everyone with everything,
and he's not immune to screwing up on a pretty regular basis.
It's that second part that leads to Lee's appearance, as an entire neighborhood gets
together to yell at our wall-crawling hero for making too much noise in the middle of
the day… and also bouncing some poor guy's head off his own car just for locking his
own keys inside.
"Don’t make me come down there, you punk!”
It’s pretty appropriate to have Stan scolding Spidey, too.
When you think about it, he really is kind of Spider-Man's dad.
Which, it turns out, is nowhere near as dangerous as being his uncle.
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Stan Lee's best cameos work with the pretty simple idea of dropping the comics' lovable
grandpa into weird situations, and Ant-Man and the Wasp is no different.
"The '60s were fun, but now I'm paying for it."
An older fellow in the famous Haight-Ashbury district would probably have had a very specific
kind of fun back then.
In our world, however, we know exactly what Lee was doing in the '60s: inventing weird,
increasingly improbable situations involving superheroes who could shrink to the size of
ants.
Trippy enough, even without the hippie help.
Captain America: The First Avenger
If you were going to show someone exactly one Stan Lee cameo to explain what he actually
does in these movies, this would be the one.
It’s the kind of joke that could’ve been done by anyone, but Lee being there elevates
it, and makes it a little more than just an exercise in spotting Lee in a costume.
"I thought he’d be taller!”
Deadpool
As we saw in Guardians of the Galaxy, there seem to be few things that superhero filmmakers
enjoy more than casting Stan Lee as a dirty old man — and he seems to get a kick out
of it too.
The R-rated Deadpool, unsurprisingly takes that to a whole new level with Stan taking
the stage as a DJ.
Trial of the Incredible Hulk
While it wasn't on the big screen, Stan's earliest Marvel movie cameo came in 1989's
Trial of the Incredible Hulk.
A TV movie that aired on NBC, it was not only a sequel to the Incredible Hulk series, it
was also a backdoor pilot for a Daredevil show that never happened.
Stan's appearance this time is as a jury foreman present when Banner Hulks out in the middle
of a trial.
His main role here is to just look surprised, but he winds up coming off a lot better than
some of the other jurors — a guy sitting behind him in this scene decides that it's
a good idea to throw his chair at the Hulk.
Dude.
What are you doing?
Thor
If his cameo in The First Avenger is the archetype, Stan's appearance in Thor refines it into
something even better.
The idea of a bunch of people gathering around a crater to drink beer and have a cookout
while they all try to pick up a magic hammer is great all on its own..
Stan showing up as the guy who tears his own pickup truck apart trying to drag it that
hammer out?
That's great, and even goes to show that the Odinpower is even stronger than a Chevy Silverado.
"Did it work?"
Spider-Man 3
After the simplicity of Stan's cameos in the first two Spider-Man movies, his appearance
in the third seems weirdly drawn out.
While it was nice to have him in a speaking role for the first time in the franchise,
the long pause in his line feels strange."
"You know, I guess one person can make a difference... Nuff said.”
There is one little twist, though.
Since it's easy to believe that Stan's playing the same character in all three Spider-Man
movies, that also means this is a guy who previously saved two people's lives during
a supervillain attack.
Could that "one person” who made the difference be…
Stan Lee himself?
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Sure, Age of Ultron may be kind of a mess, but the party scene where we get to see the
Avengers just hanging out and having fun is probably the highlight of the movie—especially
since we also get to see Stan show up and get trashed on thousand year-old Asgardian
ale.
"Eggshellcior!"
Iron Man
Forget about Thanos and the Infinity Stones.
The biggest payoff in the entire MCU comes from Stan Lee's interactions with Tony Stark.
In their first encounter, Tony mistakes him for Playboy publisher and smoking jacket enthusiast
Hugh Hefner, and takes the first step towards a pretty amazing payoff.
Iron Man 2
The second time that Stan meets Tony Stark, he's mistaken for Larry King.
And look, no disrespect, but that's actually pretty insulting to Stan Lee, who has managed
to stay spry and wiry well into his 90s.
Ant-Man
Lee's cameo in Ant-Man comes as part of a genuinely great scene that gets some great
comedy out of Luis and his winding, fast-paced storytelling.
As great as this bit is, though, it stings that we're robbed of hearing Stan Lee actually
say his line here…
"Yeah, CRAZY stupid fine!”
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
If there's one word that describes Lee's character in these movies, it's "hapless."
There's a sort of instant sympathy you have for this guy after seeing him tear up his
pickup truck or get clowned on by Tony Stark, but in Winter Soldier, you really start to
feel bad for him.
This poor guy!
C'mon, Cap!
You couldn't just leave a note to help out the security guards?
Doctor Strange
In what might be his most high-brow cameo to date, Lee appears as a bus passenger getting
a kick out of a book, completely oblivious to the mind-bending, reality-altering battle
going on around him.
The joke?
Lee's book is a copy of The Doors of Perception, a memoir detailing Aldous Huxley’s experience
of experimenting with the hallucinogenic chemical mescaline.
It's a strange bit of commentary on the trippy visuals of the film, but let's be real here:
if Huxley had seen New York folding in on itself and an angular man in a Cloak of Levitation
casting magic spells while he was tripping on peyote , he probably wouldn't have been
surprised.
Thor: Ragnarok
In Thor: Ragnarok, Stan makes an appearance as the barber who cuts Thor's hair to get
him ready for his fight with the Hulk.
"Now don't you move, my hands aren't as steady as they used to be."
Not only does he provide a great straight-man for Chris Hemsworth's hilarious blubbering
about his precious golden locks, it also makes perfect sense for someone looking for game-changing
heroes and villains to be part of the Grandmaster’s gladiatorial games — and it gives Stan his
best costume ever.
The Incredible Hulk
The Incredible Hulk is usually the least-loved entry in the MCU, but its use of Lee is one
of the best.
The film’s first major point involves Bruce Banner's gamma-irradiated blood accidentally
getting into a soda while he's working at a bottling plant, temporarily turning anyone
who drinks it into a Hulk.
And naturally, the one poor hulked-out consumer that we see is Stan Lee.
So basically, this movie gave us the idea of Stan Lee with Incredible Hulk Powers.
The only downside is that we never actually saw it, which might actually be the biggest
oversight in the entire franchise.
Avengers: Infinity War
Stan’s cameo as Peter Parker's school bus driver in Infinity War isn’t just good,
it’s smart.
"What's the matter with you kids?
You’ve never seen a spaceship before?"
Getting it out of the way early in the film ensures that audiences would be paying attention
to the epic interplanetary battle against Thanos, rather than keeping an eye out for
everyone’s favorite comic book grandpa.
Not a bad idea, considering how much there is to keep track of when every major hero
in the MCU is slugging it out onscreen at once.
Uh, no offense, Ant-Man and Hawkeye.
"Ant man?"
"Yeah, you haven't heard of me?"
As for what makes it good, it’s absolutely Stan’s grumpy, way-too-calm evaluation of
the Black Order’s invasion of Earth.
If anyone’s seen enough spaceships that it’s not even a big deal anymore, it’s
Stan.
He’s been dealing with aliens invading New York since 1961.
X-Men: Apocalypse
In a sharp contrast to the blurry hot dog vendor 16 years earlier, X-Men: Apocalypse
gave viewers a tight close-up on Stan, using the reflection of his signature sunglasses
to show missiles streaking through the sky.
It's a cool look, and it actually uses Stan's physical presence in an interesting visual
way, which is more than you can say for most of his appearances.
Behind the scenes, though, this is one of the most memorable Lee cameos for a much more
bittersweet reason.
It marks the only time that Stan appeared in a film alongside Joan, his wife of nearly
60 years.
Sadly, she'd pass away just over a year later.
Fantastic Four
Stan’s cameo in 2005's Fantastic Four marks a huge departure from his usual roles.
For the first time, Stan was playing a Marvel character that he actually co-created: Willie
Lumpkin, the Fantastic Four's mailman.
That might not seem like a big deal, but believe it or not, Willie has been around for some
of the FF's most pivotal moments, and even dated Aunt May.
As a cheerful regular guy with a connection to the entire Marvel Universe, it's the perfect
role for Stan.
Big Hero 6
It's almost easy to forget that Big Hero 6 is a Marvel movie — at least until Stan
Lee shows up at the end.
It's a weird cameo, though, since Lee has virtually no connection to these characters.
Big Hero 6 was created in 1998, when Stan was actually briefly out of his Marvel contract.
At the same time, in a movie where the characters struggle with older brothers and various other
surrogate father figures, it's nice to know that at least one of them has a father that
we already like.
Captain America: Civil War
And here’s the big Iron man payoff.
After getting snubbed twice by a man who keeps mistaking him for others, Stan rolls up to
the Avengers compound and delivers his own tiny vengeance on Tony Stark.
"Are you Tony Stank?"
Since Tony Stark is unquestionably the most famous person in the entire world, there's
no way stan wouldn't be able to recognize him.
"Tony Stank" is revenge, served cold by a man who's tired of being mistaken for Hugh
Hefner and Larry King.
Black Panther
Black Panther boasts one of the most memorable cameos Stan has ever done.
It happens in the secret casino in South Korea, an incredibly tense moment where T’Challa
is at way-past-Bond levels of cool, and three different groups are getting ready to collide
in a massive fight scene.
And then... here comes Stan, casually pocketing the Panther’s casino winnings.
Not like he needs ‘em, right?
"You know what…
I think I'll just take these, and bring them over here.
And hold on for safe-keeping."
Amazing Spider-Man
Having a wacky action going on in the background while characters are blissfully unaware of
it is a well-worn gag, but when Stan shows up as an oblivious librarian during one of
Amazing Spider-Man’s biggest fights, it's done perfectly.
What makes it even better is that after a dozen years of cameos, this one puts Stan
front and center for moviegoers.
Teen Titans Go!
To the Movies
Stan's appearance in Teen Titans Go!
To the Movies might be the single wildest cameo he's ever made.
This is, after all, a movie about superhero movies, and Stan's appearance is based on
the idea that the audience is familiar enough with the tropes of big-screen capes and cowls
to catch all the rapid-fire references.
It's funny enough when Stan shows up as a janitor in the Warner Bros. back lot.
It's downright hilarious when he charges the camera under a neon sign claiming that it's
time for another one of his "subtle cameos."
The punchline of his horrorstruck face when he realizes he's accidentally showing up in
a DC movie is just the icing on the cake.
Except that it's not really the punchline.
That comes later, when he crashes back into the movie and assures us all that he doesn't
care what movie he's in.
"I'm back!
I don’t care if it’s a DC movie.
I love Cameos!
Not now Stan Lee!
"Excelsior!"
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
For a movie that isn't remembered all that fondly, 2007's Fantastic Four sequel managed
to include one of the best Stan Lee cameos.
It happens during the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm.
"Invitation sir."
"I should be on that list."
"Name?"
"Stan Lee."
"Yeah, Nice try buddy."
No NO!
Really"
Not only is this the one Marvel movie in which Stan smashes through the fourth wall by actually
identifying himself, it's a callback to a similar scene one of his greatest comics of
all time, Fantastic Four Annual #3… where he's rejected from attending Reed Richards
and Sue Storm's wedding.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Throughout the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there's been a question about whether
this was a world that just happened to be populated by a bunch of people who look exactly
like Stan Lee, or if his cameos meant something… more.
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, we finally found out, and it was everything that a fan-theorist
could've wanted.
While Rocket, Groot, Yondu, and Kraglin are careening through the galaxy on a series of
warps, we find Stan, in the depths of space, having a conversation with three of the Watchers,
the mysterious beings tasked with chronicling the history of a universe without ever interfering
themselves.
"Anyway… before I was so rudely interrupted That time I was a Federal Express man."
It becomes clear that all of these cameos really are supposed to be the same guy.
In the MCU, Stan Lee might not be a Watcher himself, but he is their most reliable informant.
Which explains why he's always around for the universe's most important events.