Ranking Every Stan Lee Marvel Movie Cameo From Worst To Best

3. 'Stan Lee' - The Avengers

If things had gone to plan then The Avengers could have quite possibly topped this list. One of the biggest subplots cut from Joss Whedon's genre-changing team-up was Steve Roger's adjustment to the modern world. In the finished film it's done in a quick scene, but originally there was an entire sequence with Steve struggling with the loss of his friends and the strangeness of this new world. It culminated in a visit to a café where he's oblivious to a flirtatious waitress, prompting an annoyed Stan Lee to frustratedly say "ask for her number, you moron!" The sequence and cameo were lost to keep the running time down, but we were still left with something pretty damn good. After the chitauri have been stopped a pan of S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors of the impact of the Battle of New York sees an chess-playing man express sheer disbelief at the concept of superheroes, made brilliant because the guy saying it created the majority of them. As in Iron Man he's credited as Stan Lee, although him actually being the comic maestro has little bearing on the joke being funny. Unlike the next one...

2. Stan Lee (Rejected Wedding Guest) - Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer

Rise Of The Silver Surfer is quite possibly the worst movie to come with a Marvel logo, but that didn't stop it having a perfectly timed cameo. Playing himself (definitely this time), Lee tries to get into Sue and Reed's wedding on his name alone, without an invitation. The usher doesn't buy it, not believing he's actually Stan Lee; he may pass for Hugh Hefner and Larry King, but clearly he just can't pull of a convincing Stan Lee. The moment when Lee says his name could have gone one of two ways, but the it's treated light enough it doesn't elicit any major cringes. Just ignore the lack of logic to the mastermind behind the Fantastic Four existing in the same universe as his creations and its great. Although it may appear to be a rather on-the-nose appearance, this scene is actually steeped in comic book lore; in Fantastic Four Annual #3 both Lee and artist Jack Kirby found themselves in an identical situation. If the filmmakers knew things that intricate, how on Earth could they mess Galactus up so massively.