TOKYO: One of the most successful comic book characters in history, Spider-man, nearly didn’t get off the ground, 94-year-old creator Stan Lee admitted on Thursday.
Lee told reporters in Tokyo he came up with the idea while watching a fly climb a wall and wanted to create a superhero with the same abilities.
“Somehow calling him ‘flyman’ didn’t sound dramatic enough. What else could he be? Mosquito man? Then I said: Spider-man. And it sounded so dramatic,” said Lee.
Lee decided to make his new creation a teenager and give him “many personal problems.”
“He won’t have enough money, he lives with his aunt who is ill and needs medicine and he has to take care of her. And he’s also got to fight the bad guys,” he said.
He took the idea to his publisher who said: “Stan, that is the worst idea I have ever heard.”
Superheroes have to be adults and cannot have any problems — that’s why they are superheroes, said his boss.
And another thing: “People hate spiders so you can’t call a hero Spiderman!“
Lee was nevertheless allowed to slip a Spiderman story into the last edition of a book and it became an instant hit.
“Just for fun, to get it out of my system, I put Spiderman in that last edition and forgot about it,” he said.
“A month later, after all the sales figures were in, my boss came running into my office and said: ‘Remember that character Spider-man we both liked so much, let’s make him a regular feature’.”
“And that’s how Spidey was born,” said Lee to applause and laughter.
The energetic 94-year-old, who admitted to driving around the streets of Tokyo in a “Super Mario” drag car late the previous evening, was asked how he kept so active.
“Being busy is the best medicine there is. As long as you’re not busy being a villain,” he said.
As for how he came up with the idea of Spider-man, the answer was simple: “I’m very lucky. I’m brilliant.”
Lee was in Japan to promote the second edition of the Tokyo Comic Convention that opens on Friday.
‘Spider-man’ nearly squashed at birth, says creator Stan Lee
‘Spider-man’ nearly squashed at birth, says creator Stan Lee
Fans bid farewell to Japan’s only pandas
TOKYO: Panda lovers in Tokyo said goodbye on Sunday to a hugely popular pair of the bears that are set to return to China, leaving Japan without the beloved animals for the first time in half a century.
Loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” program, the distinctive black-and-white animals have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972.
Some visitors at Ueno Zoological Gardens were left teary-eyed as they watched Japan’s only two pandas Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao munch on bamboo.
The animals are expected to leave for China on Tuesday following a souring of relations between Asia’s two largest economies.
“I feel like seeing pandas can help create a connection with China too, so in that sense I really would like pandas to come back to Japan again,” said Gen Takahashi, 39, a Tokyo resident who visited the zoo with his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
“Kids love pandas as well, so if we could see them with our own eyes in Japan, I’d definitely want to go.”
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month after Japan’s conservative premier Sanae Takaichi hinted Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of any attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery took turns viewing the four-year-old twins at Ueno zoo while others gathered nearby, many sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to celebrate the moment.
Mayuko Sumida traveled several hours from the central Aichi region in the hope of seeing them despite not winning the lottery.
“Even though it’s so big, its movements are really funny-sometimes it even acts kind of like a person,” she said, adding that she was “totally hooked.”
“Japan’s going to be left with zero pandas. It feels kind of sad,” she said.
Their departure might not be politically motivated, but if pandas return to Japan in the future it would symbolize warming relations, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and expert in East Asian international relations.
“In the future...if there are intentions of improving bilateral ties on both sides, it’s possible that (the return of) pandas will be on the table,” he told AFP.
