Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read for All Comic Fans
Review: I could not put this book down. I was a fan of Marvel Comics growing up and have passed on to my son quite a collection of comics. I had read many of Stan's other works regarding comics (Origins of Marvel Comics, Sons of Origins, Bring On the Bad Guys). Each of those books were excellent. However, those books dealt with nothing prior to The Fantastic Four.In this book we learn that Stan had a long career (about 20 years) in the comic book field, Marvel wasn't called Marvel until the 1960's, Stan used to churn out close to 80 titles a month in the 1950's, Stan actually wrote a few books in the 1950's that sold well, and Stan was actually going to quit the trade on the day he was told to create a superhero group (later called the Fantastic Four) for Atlas comics. And those are just of few of tidbits that are contained in this wonderfully written bio/auto bio.
Rating: 
Summary: Comic Book Man
Review: I've always been a fan of comic books. These pulp collections of modern mythology helped me through a sometimes extraordinarily mundane childhood with my sanity intact. In fact, my closet has several large boxes filled with several thousand of them. Even at 32 year of age, I refuse to give them up. Stan Lee is Marvel Comics. From the Second World War to today, he has given us a slate of unparalled heroes to adorn with wonder. He saw Marvel grow from a little pubisher called Timely in the 40s, survive attacks from parent groups in the 50s, the rebirth of the superhero in the 60s, and the emergence of a unique artform in 80s, 90s and today. The book is so-so. Stan Lee has led an interesting life, to be certain, but there are no sex scandals, drug addiction, alcoholism, embezzlement or any of those other things that tend to make biographies best sellers today. In some ways, he is a goody-goody and he writes the book like one of his comic stories without the juicy material it needs to make it truly thrilling. I don't want to turn anyone off, but if you are looking for things like Joan Collins rape at age 17 or Elizabeth Taylor's multiple stormy marriages,this isn't for you. Rather this provides a unique and invaluable historical record of the a part of history that is ignored by traditional outlets. Comic books are firmly entrenched in history, but are just starting to be realized as a legitimate art and literary form. Marvel has a colorful history, staring out as a private publishing company, being sold from company to company, going public after being taken over by buyout king Ron Perelmen in 1989. Financial mismanagement nearly destroyed the company in the mid-90s and it is just starting to recover. This is where the biography's true value lies. Stan Lee always felt that Marvel had the potential to become the next Disney. With the success of Spider-Man in the movies, which has broken $800 million worldwide, as of this writing, that prediction may yet come true.
Rating: 
Summary: The King of Comics
Review: Like the Hulk and Spider-man
Read about their creator Stan!
If you are a comic fan,reading this should be your plan!
Buy it as quickly as ypi can-
you'll agree that Stan's the Man!
Rating: 
Summary: Stan Loves himself with help from a ghostwriter
Review: Stan Lee could be portrayed by Mel Brooks on caffeine; likeable for short periods of "hey, true believers," but here, across 243 pages that reeek of a boring dinner party in which your drunken father-in-law to be endlessly winds down a memory lane that you don't give a damn about, Stan blows chunks... and the thing isn't even all his, but the editing of George Mair, a guy who probably is drinking heavily after this project. The entire book feels like it needed a better editor; written, or probably transcribed in chunks, Stan's tale is way to stretched with emphasis on his Rag-tag American dream veneer. I'm a 50 year old fanboy. I had those books, and still have many of them today. I disagree with a lot of Stan's claims to greatness: continuity that stretched for 8 issues was tough in those days for a kid with twelve cents and not a comic store in sight. I often didn't get all of the issues to complete a run. sorry, Stan, but as the books got more expnensive and the stories ran endlessly nowhere, your universe turned hack. Today, stan says that they were one thing, but to a kid on a budget, they were a way to [pull] extra coin out of my pockets; that's why I stopped reading them, and why people stop reading never got into this book. Lots of yak, but only one line about hoe Joe Quesada is bringing the line back to life. Huh? How about why Joe LEFT Marvel to begin with and how he rebuilt the company! Now, that's one killer story! Nowhere is there a mention of today's rockin' talent pool headed by Quesada; if Stan was the creator of the old Marvel Universe, Quesada is the new Lord of the Fantastic: incredible pairings of talent and wildly new directions with a tip of the Hatlo hat to the dawn of the electronic publishing age: Quesada's books look better and certainly are a lot more fun than ever in Marvel's history, even when they cost twenty times more than in Stan's days. The hacking is wiped clean; creatives now run the roost.
Almost forgot: Don't look for illustrations; the only one is on the cover by John Romita and Stan is full center and larger than his characters.
Skip 100 pages and go right into the Marvel mythology: whatever Stan says is preceeded by his real-life shoving of artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko away from the credit and certainly out of the gravy train. While we all respect the body of work that Marvel created, one book won't wash away the decades of efforts of a great team; that's something that still needs telling about. I was fortunate enough to not only ink (freelance for a Marvel inker) a Captain America graphic novel, but to have my family get "our story" told in MARVELS, that ground-breaking four issue series by Alex Ross. That's me, Phil, and the kids are my own daughters, now 20 and 15; true-believers, there are better stories about comics over a few beers with working hacks. In my very brief journey into comics, the trip wasn't what I'd expected: egos, bad editors, and back-stabbing artists. By the time that fateful call from an editor at Marvel came, I was back working full-time; it would take several years for me to even buy a comic again; those old Marvel books of the 1960s were long, long gone and Stan was nowhere except in front of media taking kudos. EXCELSIOR! is worth a look,if only to prove me wrong, but nowhere in this tome will you see a forward by old staffers, one of whom told me years ago that Stan's hairplugs reflected his vanity. So, go ahead and throw stones, true believers. This old no-prize winner and member of the MMMS has a a few stories, too, but it won't cost you [price] to hear them. -Mark Braun is a former Art Director, comic book illustrator, magazine production manager, Publisher of FANBOY! Magazine and currently Associate Publisher of FOOD INDUSTRY NEWS.
Rating:
Summary: The Amazing Life of Stan Lee
Review: Stan Lee is the biggest name in comic books. The founder of Marvel Comics, he created some of the world's best-known heroes and most infamous villains, writing stories that brought wit and subtlety to a field previously locked into stark portrayals of good vs. evil. With superheroes who did not always act nobly and bad guys with "dysfunctional" backgrounds, as Time magazine recently noted, "Lee put the human in superhuman." Lee tells the story of his life with the same off-beat spirit, moving from his childhood in the Bronx to his early days publishing comic books during World War II, through the rise of the Marvel empire to his recent foray into cyberspace with the creation of the first Internet superheroes. George Mair supplements the tale, providing insights into Lee's role as a cultural icon. The year 2002 marks Lee's sixty-second year in the business, celebrated with the release the long-awaited Spider Man film, based on the world's top selling comic, starring Tobey Maquire and directed by Sam Raimi. The millions of fans who attend comic book fairs in search of Stan Lee's much-prized comic books now have an irresistible opportunity to add this gem of an autobiography to their collections.
Rating:
Summary: A frequently hilarious look at the life of a creative titan.
Review: Stan Lee, the world's most well-known comic book writer, is truly one of the most inventive minds of the 20th century (and shows every sign of being so in the 21st!). And now, at last, we get a look into what shaped that inventive mind into the force it is today. "Excelsior!" is peppered with Stan's trademark wit as he relates humorous stories and anecdotes from his life, such as the way he single-handedly won World War II. Sandwiched inbetween are factual paragraphs by George Mair, professional biographer. Mair is quick and to the point, knowing that what readers really want is more of Stan (it's almost impossible to refer to him by his last name), so he gets the facts out there and then he gets out of the way as fast as he can. Very professional. This is a must-read for any comic book fan, anyone who wants to see how a "bio-autography" (as Stan calls them) should be written, or for anyone who's just looking for an amusing tale of a creative genius's life. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: He Talks with pride about the Marvel Method.
Review: There many references in the book to the Marvel Method, the job of doing the stories that Stan came up with, and helped launched Marvel to the number one spot in the comics industry. Basically Stan would come up with a story outline and then give it to the various artists he was working with (Jack Kirby, John Romita, John Busema, and Steve Didko), they would fully draw the story, give it back to Stan, and then he would write in the dialoge and speech captions. Stan very rarely wrote a full script. Sometimes he would do a story outline and either his brother Larry Liber or Roy Thomas would commit to a script and then it would be drawn. If you think of screenwriters and how they sometimes collaberate on screenplays. One would do the story outline and then someone else would commit it to a screenplay, well the Marvel Method was very similar to that, and it worked. It was a great exchange of ideas. That was the key to Marvel's early success, and it worked.
Rating:
Summary: See how he thought up Spider-Man, Iron Man, others
Review: This book provides the story behind Stan's ideas for many of comics most famous characters, such as Spider-Man, The Hulk, and others. It also provides a good look into his personal and private life. Very good reading for anyone that is a fan of Marvel Comics...
Rating: 
Summary: A Big Let Down, well not really.
Review: This is hardly a revealing book. It's very slow and certain aspects of Stan's life have already been written in earlier more informative books. On the other hand, the way Stan talks to the reader in this book is warm and welcoming. You feel like you entered his world and get to meet all the people in Stan's life that he met and worked with on his way from Comic book writer to Hollywood where Marvel is now a successful motion picture company. For that, it's worth your time to read it,
Rating:
Summary: A Big Let Down
Review: This is hardly a revealing book. It's very slow and certain aspects of Lee's life have already been written in earlier more informative books.
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