With Great Power: The Marvelous Stan Lee

by Annie Hunter Eriksen, Lee Gatlin (Illustrator)

Overview

Every superhero has their origin story: a radioactive spider bite turns ordinary teen Peter Parker into Spider-Man, wealthy Tony Stark escapes captivity by building his Iron Man suit, scientist Bruce Banner survives gamma rays only to transform into the Hulk.

For Stan Lee, it was books of adventure, monsters, and magic that helped him transform from an ordinary boy to a superstar superhero creator. At first, reading these stories was a pathway to a world bigger than his family’s tiny apartment in New York City, but it wasn’t long until Stan was crafting his own stories, creating comics professionally when he was still just a teenager! Still, writing wasn’t exciting when the heroes were always the same: strong, perfect, and boring. Stan had a revolutionary idea. What if anyone—even an ordinary kid—could be a superhero?

Discover more about the life of the Cameo King, known to many for his appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and how he revolutionized comics with this vibrant introduction bustling with action, humor, and references for fans new and old. ‘Nuff said!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781645672852
Publisher:	Page Street Publishing
Publication date:	10/19/2021
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	674,228
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Annie Hunter Eriksen grew up with a love of superheroes, and remains a huge Marvel nerd to this day. Her favorite comic book series is Ms. Marvel. She works as a freelance writer and lives in Ohio with her husband, cat named Cosmo, and hedgehog named Pineapple.

Lee Gatlin learned to draw by looking at cartoons, kids’ books, and comics. He is the illustrator of the Monster School by Kate Coombs (Chronicle). In addition to drawing and making things, he enjoys making a racket on the piano or banjo. An illustrator and cartoonist, he lives with wife and three children in Georgia.

Editorial Reviews

"[With Great Power] is a carefully crafted and positive ­tribute [...] An engaging and glowing primer on the life and contributions of Stan Lee." — School Library Journal

"This high-speed origin story, appropriately enough, is larger than life[...]" — Kirkus Reviews

"This picture-book biography [...] covers [Stan Lee's] dedication to his readers [...] and his work to promote real-world heroism. The accompanying mixed-media illustrations have suitable comic-book flair [...]" —Horn Book

From the Publisher

12/01/2021

Gr 1–4—If "Every hero needs an origin story," Eriksen pens one here for superhero creator Stan Lee. This unauthorized picture book biography explores the early life and later successes of the comics writer, born Stanley Lieber. Many students will recognize the subject and his characters, and the inspiring story will appeal to kids, even though it may seem more legend than real life. The text and illustrations include graphic novel elements, such as speech bubbles and illustrated onomatopoeia, to capture the comic book effect. Gatlin implements a muted palette for the small 1930s New York City apartment of Lieber's immigrant family. As famous comics characters are introduced in the biography, bright reds, greens, and oranges are a contrast to the grays and browns of his days as an errand boy and early career as a writer with the pseudonym Stan Lee. This is a carefully crafted and positive tribute: "You don't need a pair of web shooters or impenetrable skin to stand up for your fellow man…anyone can be a hero, as long as they stand for what's right!" VERDICT This is an engaging and glowing primer on the life and contributions of Stan Lee.—Jamie Jensen, Wayne Cox Elem. Sch., Roanoke, TX

School Library Journal

2021-06-29
If anyone deserves the superhero treatment, it’s Stan Lee.

Lee takes on more than one identity in this picture-book biography. As a teen, he’s Errand Boy, with the ability to deliver lunch to every employee at Timely Comics at astounding speed. Later in the book, Eriksen compares him to the Human Torch, as he creates one classic Marvel Comics character after another. She goes for the obvious pun: “Stan was on fire!” Sometimes she rushes through the timeline almost haphazardly. The artist Jack Kirby quits Timely Comics and then, a few pages later, is working with Lee again, with little explanation. One picture shows Lee on the red carpet, apparently at a movie premiere in the 2000s, but the next page jumps back decades, to columns he wrote asking: “What makes a hero?” The sections about Kirby may be controversial. Fans of the artist have argued for years that Lee gave him (and other artists, including Steve Ditko) too little credit for coming up with the ideas behind Marvel characters. But this book mainly credits Lee for those ideas. Kirby and Ditko were superheroes, too. Nearly all of the sources in the bibliography are interviews with Lee or books and articles he wrote. Still, the frenetic pace is often genuinely thrilling, and the illustrations are enormously appealing, stretching and squashing anatomy as though Gatlin had taken Silly Putty to the funny pages. The comic-book creators are, as they were in life, generally White and Jewish, but the pictures show comics fans of many races, cultures, and body types.

This high-speed origin story, appropriately enough, is larger than life and almost impossible to believe. (historical note) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews