Stan Lee

Stan Lee (2023) is the documentary you can watch online on iFILM, and it hands the microphone to its subject: director David Gelb builds nearly the whole film out of Lee's own voice and decades of archival tape.

Told first-person, it traces Stanley Lieber from a cramped New York apartment, through years of grind at Timely Comics, to the early 1960s burst when he and artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko tore up the rulebook. Out of that stretch came Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers and Iron Man — heroes with money troubles, doubts and the messy lives of regular people. The film doesn't fully dodge the friction either; the authorship dispute with Kirby gets aired, if gently.

Released for what would have been his hundredth birthday, it plays as a fond self-portrait rather than a hard-nosed investigation — more charm than scrutiny. It lands best with Marvel fans and anyone curious about where pop-culture legends actually come from. Stream Stan Lee (2023) online on iFILM.