10 Weirdest Controversies Surrounding Comics

Despite co-creating some of the world's most beloved superheroes together, Stan "The Man" Lee and Jack "King" Kirby became sworn enemies later in life. In a notorious interview with the Comics Journal in 1990, Kirby repeatedly called Lee "a pest" who "never created anything new." Kirby was openly bitter that, as the face of Marvel, Lee received almost all of the credit for everything Kirby created... but more on that later!

When Kirby left Marvel and jumped ship to DC, he decided to get his revenge by doing the one thing he claimed Lee never could: creating a new character. Enter Funky Flashman.

Funky had no superpowers or ambitions of world domination. Although he eventually joined Darkseid's Secret Society of Super Villains, he was never seen as a legitimate threat. He was simply the most revolting thing Kirby could come up with: a selfish, charismatic businessman who took credit for other people's work. Sound familiar?

Stan Lee's image is not the only part of his personhood he's had stolen away from him. In 2018, a for-profit charity called Hands of Respect used forged medical documents to order Lee's nurse to drain several vials of his blood. Mixing this with ink, they used it to stamp his signature onto some Thor and Black Panther comics, which they then sold for a tidy profit. While we can all get behind Jack Kirby poking fun at his old business partner, forging an elderly man's signature with his stolen blood is most definitely not funky.