RICHARD: Yeah.

JORDAN: He's just so darn friendly. Exuberant, quick-witted, funny flattering -- all of the above. I'm not sure if all of that makes him "special," but it's certainly what makes him so charming. It's kind of hard to articulate in words; the "Stan Lee" effect is something that needs to be experienced.

INCREDIBLE HULK HARDCOVER - SIGNED BY STAN LEE

TOM: I think it's hard to divorce him from the comics, too, and the experience of reading them, and how he made kids feel better about the hobby. He gets the Mr. Rogers free pass from a lot of people.

RICHARD: I got a bit of that ten years ago when I interviewed him for a university newspaper in Newcastle. Turns out his wife was from just down the road, gave him even more of a connection. It seems hard to believe he could ever have fired anyone, let alone build and edit a line of comics, then do hard deals in Hollywood. How much of what he projects is Machiavellian do you feel? And how self-aware is he of people's perceptions? And how much is an act?

JORDAN: I don't think he's necessarily Machiavellian. There aren't many accounts of him overtly screwing over his artists or colleagues. And like I said before, the majority of people who have worked with him really, really like him.

TOM: You mentioned Stan firing people, and I think one thing that was pretty clear looking at his life is how miserable stuff like that made him feel. He was absolutely destroyed when it happened in the pre-Marvel superheroes days; he felt like he let people down.

So I think in general that even on those matters where people really criticize Stan and his actions, he probably feels like he was doing the right thing or that his hands were tied.

There is, however, a kind of steely side that seems to come out when he thinks that people aren't being loyal, or that he's being wronged.

JORDAN: As for his self-awareness, it's a bit difficult to tell. He's certainly aware of his own persona and how it's received in certain circles, but I'm not sure if he's 100% versed in the nuances of the Stan Lee-Jack Kirby and Stan Lee-Steve Ditko debates that have been raging lo these last two decades. To be honest, he's probably too busy to care.

TOM: With more and more mainstream journalists having a more sophisticated view of comic-book history, Stan occasionally has to answer questions more complicated than "What was it like when you created Spider-Man?" and that's probably helped him become more self-aware.

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