One of the most loved superheroes of all time is Spider-Man, but this character won't ever be seen in the comic books and big screen if it wasn't for Stan Lee.
During a recent interview with BBC 4 Radio, the legendary writer revealed what his publisher thought about the web-slinging superhero when he first presented it.
"My publisher said, in his ultimate wisdom, 'Stan, that is the worst idea I have ever heard,'" Lee explained as reported by Time. "He said, 'First of all people hate spiders, so you can't call a book Spider-Man. Secondly, he can't be a teenager. Teenagers can only be sidekicks and third, he can't have personal problems if he's supposed to be a superhero. Don't you know who a superhero is?'"
Instead of giving up his idea, the Stan Lee asked an artist to draw Spider-Man and insert the character in the last issue of the "Amazing Fantasy." The episode of the comic book series became a huge hit and that's how Peter Parker was born.
"A month later when the sales figures came in, my publisher came running into my office and said, 'Stan! 'Amazing Fantasy' was our best seller this month. Do you remember that Spider-Man character that we both liked so much? How about doing a series of him?" The 92-year-old publisher said as reported by ABC News.
Even if Stan Lee was the one who created Spider-Man, the former Marvel Comics chairman revealed that he didn't receive any royalties for the popular superhero because he was just a hired writer at that time.
"That's okay, we're friendly, everything is fine," he said.
"Marvel now has the best writers available, they have the finest artists ... they just can't do a bad comic book, and they certainly cannot do a bad movie," the media producer added.
Despite not getting paid for the character that he created, Stan Lee remains supportive to all Spider-Man projects including the upcoming reboot which stars Tom Holland.
"He [Holland] is good to me! I can't see anything wrong with him," he told ETOnline. "I don't know him intimately. In fact, I've never seen him [onscreen], but if [Marvel] picked him, I'm sure he's good!"
