Lee could write dialog, he could write comic scripts when he wanted to, or had to. He could dialog 8 books a month. His years of experience brought him those skills.
I think what is being debated is was Lee the prime reason those Marvel books were so good. Were any of his claims of creating the ideas for the characters or key stories true. Did he steer everything with a master's hand while people like Ditko or Kirby helped out with the art. Did they just really bring Lee's vision to life, or was Lee the one who was onboard working with what others were generating?
This is a very binary way to look at it, I know. And it diminishes Stan's contribution too much. But all the same, when he is still lauded as The creator of the Marvel Universe. When he even gets recognition in Wikipedia for things he did not do, maybe pointing out his career before the FF and after 1972 did not indicate a man of great ideas is a worthy consideration.

We’re constantly being told that Stan never wrote anything so what I’m interested in is whether there are examples of Stan being a competent writer. I don’t think there’s much evidence that Stan was building to something like the FF, as I don’t believe Stan had much control over the types of books Atlas published. However, there’s more to the FF than space rockets and monsters. I’m curious as to whether Stan’s experience writing humor, romance and teen books played any role his scripting of the FF. That said, I realize that Jack was the one plotting and drawing the scenes for Stan to script over. However, we know Stan had a tendency to drastically change Jack’s dialogue suggestions for better or worse. Often for the worst in terms of how Jack intended the story to be told. 

I never said Stan didn't write anything. So I don't know what people mean when they say that. I don't think they literally mean that "Stan never wrote anything." I think they mean Stan took credit for a lot of stuff that somebody else did. Maybe they are considering "writing" to be separate from "dialogue," which can be confusing. Maybe they are taking about Stan's alleged ghost writers.

I certainly do wish that everyone in the discussion could be a little more precise with terms like that.

Anyway, I am linking to full stories from the 1940s and 1950s that are attributed to Stan Lee. So I am providing examples of Stan's work from the Golden Age and pre-Kirby Silver Age.

Stan wrote comic books.

I think what's more telling of Stan's talent is what he did after he left Marvel. Stuff like Stripperella (which I'm surprised doesn't get talked about more), his "Just Imagine" line for DC, and his Boom! Comics titles (Soldier Zero, The Traveler, and Starborn). Most of these have been forgotten to time and that's probably for the best, but all the general public likes to recall is the "Marvel" years of 61-72

Stan wrote less than 10% of that material. In 20 years he did... maybe 20 six page Superhero stories? 8 issues of Menace and maybe 20 or so other horror stories? His Western work was generic genre work that never used a NAME character. It was always a repeated theme. His blatant ripoffs, if you read them, lack any understanding of why those characters work in the original. (As an example, his Dextor the Demon is just MEAN. There's no wholesome innocence to the kid, or even a deniability to the mayhem caused like Dennis the Menace has.)

His most consistent work is in the 'dumb blonde' books, like Millie and Patsy where he has Dan DeCarlo and Al Hartley do the stories and then he just inserts his smarty pants dialogue and sign his name to pin-ups and paper doll pages. 

As an example of how little Stan actually wrote during his Atlas years, I did breakdown of what he signed in 1950 as his work. He wrote 130 pages of comics to the 5976 pages that were done. That's 2.1% of the pages. 130 pages is less than 6 comics for the whole year (about 4.5 books in 1950 when they were doing 36 pages - downsizing from 52). They produced around 200 books in 1950. THAT is how little he did as a writer. 

117 of those 130 pages are for Millie the Model and My Friend Irma. 

Realistically, over 20 years, Stan didn't actually write much and most of the ideas he had, crashed and burned pretty quickly (Black Night, Dextor the Demon, Showgirls, Cartoon Kids, etc.

This is another example of a 'fan belief' that fans would carry for years that Stan never denied, and as more information and research tools became available to us, it's blantantly easy to see the truth. 

Stan did some of his worst work with John Buscema as evidenced by how lame the FF was after Kirby left and Romita couldn't continue to draw it. That's nothing against Buscema whose ART is amazing... but without a WRITER to assist him, Stan's work is... well it's pretty bad.

Here's Daniel Greenberg from Facebook who's done some great analysis of some that work from the Silver Surfer series and here he breaks down an average page:


EVERY character in this story is a (Dunce) for the plot to happen.
John Buscema tells us he had only a "very sketchy plot outline to work from," for Silver Surfer #4. He did a strong job, yet Lee tore him apart for his story. But that still did not motivate Lee to actually write scripts. Let's examine Lee's many OBJECTIVELY BAD writing errors:
1. "Unlike the humans-- who call you beast-- there is no violence in your heart."
Stan Lee does not know how lions work.
2. "no violence... Not a hint of avarice-- no smoldering hate. Yet man... is a stranger to peace-- a prisoner, caught in the web of his own nameless fears!"
A few pages later, Captain Judgemental is not only lashing out violently, full of smoldering hate, he is even full of avarice, since he is attacking to regain his lost love. Lee's hypocrisy on parade makes the Surfer a (Dunce).
3. "No harm can come in combat when both hearts be truly pure."
Laughs in recent reports of Indians tricked into fighting Ukrainians by Russia. Wise Odin is a complete (Dunce) when written by Stan Lee.
4. "I sense that I have been misled! --Betrayed by the one who brought me here! But right or wrong-- one fact remains-- no one calls me coward!"
Even though he's aware Loki has misled him, he's overreacting to being called a "coward" with pure VIOLENCE in his heart and a not-so "nameless fear." It's called wounded vanity, Silver Surfer. You are an (Dunce) and you are everything you complain about.
5. Thor "must have suspected-- from the beginning-- that I was merely duped."
Yet Thor (as a Dunce) never bothered to mention it before or during all the fighting. Not even during that time that he agreed to "lend ear to thy complaint." Why was Thor an (Dunce)?
So Lee's "plot" could happen.
Writing errors on EVERY PAGE below. Sort by All Comments to see each page in order.