Gr 1--4--If "Every hero needs an origin story," Eriksen pens one here for superhero creator Stan Lee. This unauthorized picture book biography explores the early life and later successes of the comics writer, born Stanley Lieber. Many students will recognize the subject and his characters, and the inspiring story will appeal to kids, even though it may seem more legend than real life. The text and illustrations include graphic novel elements, such as speech bubbles and illustrated onomatopoeia, to capture the comic book effect. Gatlin implements a muted palette for the small 1930s New York City apartment of Lieber's immigrant family. As famous comics characters are introduced in the biography, bright reds, greens, and oranges are a contrast to the grays and browns of his days as an errand boy and early career as a writer with the pseudonym Stan Lee. This is a carefully crafted and positive tribute: "You don't need a pair of web shooters or impenetrable skin to stand up for your fellow man…anyone can be a hero, as long as they stand for what's right!" VERDICT This is an engaging and glowing primer on the life and contributions of Stan Lee.--Jamie Jensen, Wayne Cox Elem. Sch., Roanoke, TX

In her admittedly "unauthorized biography," Eriksen goes for the whizbang as she traces Lee's career from bookish childhood and first gig as errand boy at Timely Comics through his invention of the "flawed but 'Fantastic Four!'" and a host of other "perfectly imperfect superheroes" that appeared in Marvel Comics and, later, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Skipping his troubled final years and not-always-smooth working relationships with Jack Kirby and other comics artists, she inks him in as an irrepressibly creative role model who took his "With great power comes great responsibility" meme seriously and preached moral behavior in his long-running "Stan's Soapbox" column, complete with aspirational tagline "Excelsior!" Gatlin brightens this sunny picture further with exuberant cartoon scenes of the skinny, square-browed impresario amid a burgeoning crowd of MCU superheroes and a thoroughly diverse crowd of costumed fans. Few, if any, readers will have trouble naming all the characters from their garb, and Lee himself, who died in 2018, is already a historical figure to younger members of his audience. 'Nuff said.

If anyone deserves the superhero treatment, it's Stan Lee. Lee takes on more than one identity in this picture-book biography. As a teen, he's Errand Boy, with the ability to deliver lunch to every employee at Timely Comics at astounding speed. Later in the book, Eriksen compares him to the Human Torch, as he creates one classic Marvel Comics character after another. She goes for the obvious pun: "Stan was on fire!" Sometimes she rushes through the timeline almost haphazardly. The artist Jack Kirby quits Timely Comics and then, a few pages later, is working with Lee again, with little explanation. One picture shows Lee on the red carpet, apparently at a movie premiere in the 2000s, but the next page jumps back decades, to columns he wrote asking: "What makes a hero?" The sections about Kirby may be controversial. Fans of the artist have argued for years that Lee gave him (and other artists, including Steve Ditko) too little credit for coming up with the ideas behind Marvel characters. But this book mainly credits Lee for those ideas. Kirby and Ditko were superheroes, too. Nearly all of the sources in the bibliography are interviews with Lee or books and articles he wrote. Still, the frenetic pace is often genuinely thrilling, and the illustrations are enormously appealing, stretching and squashing anatomy as though Gatlin had taken Silly Putty to the funny pages. The comic-book creators are, as they were in life, generally White and Jewish, but the pictures show comics fans of many races, cultures, and body types. This high-speed origin story, appropriately enough, is larger than life and almost impossible to believe. (historical note) (Picture book/biography. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

"Stan Lee didn't have hulking strength...His superpower was creating heroes who did." This picture-book biography of the man born Stanley Lieber traces his story from growing up in poverty in the Bronx, to running errands at Timely Comics, to creating Spider-Man and many other "perfectly imperfect superheroes" at Marvel Comics. It also covers his dedication to his readers through his monthly "Stan's Soapbox" column and his work to promote real-world heroism. The accompanying mixed-media illustrations have suitable comic-book flair, depicting Lee's life in sepia tones and the characters he created in vibrant colors. A bibliography is appended. (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.