10 Stan Lee Facts For His True Believers
3. He Had A Terrible Memory
When Stan Lee created characters for Marvel, he gave them the same initial for their forename and surname e.g. Peter Parker, Warren Worthington, Matt Murdock, etc. Stan believed that “if I could remember one name, it gave me a clue what the other one was.”
Although this sounds like a good tactic, it didn’t always work. In Amazing Spider-Man #1, Stan called the title character “Peter Palmer” instead of “Peter Parker.” (It didn’t help that Doctor Octopus called him Superman three issues later!)
While writing a Hulk comic, he forgot Bruce Banner’s first name and called him Bob. When readers pointed out this consistency, Stan said that the Hulk’s real name is Robert Bruce Banner but he prefers to go by his middle name.
Although these are famous instances of Stan’s bad memory, there is another example that revolves around the first time the Avengers split up. When the team broke up in Avengers #16, readers assumed the writers did this so Marvel could sell more comics. After all, if readers love superheroes like Iron Man and Thor, surely they will read their solo comics, right?
However, the real reason why the original members left the Avengers was simply because Stan Lee couldn’t maintain the continuity of the characters. For example, Iron Man might be battling a supervillain in China in his solo story but he is stuck in another dimension in the Avengers comic. How does that work? Stan Lee thought it was too exhausting to remember the continuity of each character and so, had the original Avengers replaced with new members like Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch.