Little is certain in the film business these days, thanks to piracy and the recession. But here is a fairly safe prediction. Next year one of the ten bestselling films at the American box office will be based on a comic-book superhero created by Stan Lee. There will be another one, perhaps two, the following year. Another prediction: not one of them will win, or even be nominated for, an Academy Award for best film.rnMr Lee largely created the modern cartoon superhero, and, by extension, the modern blockbuster film. During a three-decade spell as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics he worked with artists such as Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby to invent a pantheon of heroic characters. One especially creative burst, in the early 1960s, produced Spider Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Thor and Iron Man. Mr Lee and his collaborators departed from previous comic-book convention by endowing their heroes with human flaws and setting the stories in real places.
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