Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir

Stan Lee's memoir was originally published as a graphic novel, then adapted to an audiobook. The production "feels" like a comic book. It moves at a fast pace with rapid fire scene changes. Stan Lee quickly goes through the history of his life and Marvel. There is no real "dirt" here. He tries to give everybody else the credit they are do, and does not delve into major conflicts. He likes what he does and discusses the good points as he helped launch the comic book industry. You can tell what he is proud of (even if they are not the most successful parts of the business.) You can also tell he loves doing movie cameos.

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

I've thought of Stan Lee as the person always willing to take credit for other people's work. This book doesn't dispel that. However, it does show that the business side really is what matters. They were the ones that have made a killing. There have been many people that have contributed to the various characters in the marvel universe. Very few received anything more than small payments for their work. However, they helped contribute to the overall value of the product. The value would have been less if each character had an individual owner. Also, without the correct moves on the business side, the value would have disappeared. (The many poor moves made by the business nearly did evaporate the value.)
Comic books did experience an early 1990s mania in collection, followed by a popping of the bubble. Marvel helped fan the flames of the bubble by introducing many new titles with multiple variants and crossovers . (This helped provide momentary gain, but also led to buyer fatigue and a glut of product. Value increases based on rarity, making it ludicrous to think a best selling run could be super valuable. My comic book collection dates from the early part of this mania. Looking at the current values, It seems it is mostly the oddballs that have gained in value, while the "sure things" have stagnated.)
During the last few decades, there has been an increased emphasis on "artists", with certain comic book creators drawing name recognition and earning big paydays. Comic book distribution has also focused on specialty shop, with significantly higher price points and print quality. The casual comic book reader is now out of the picture. Comic books are now just an IP factory to be mined for movie characters.

Hulk

The Hulk is a very different movie than some of the modern comic book movies like Dark Knight or Spiderman. Instead, it seeks inspiration from the likes of the old Batman TV show. Instead of a Dark, brooding scores of other movies, we get a light, yet ominous score. Rather than hide from its comic book origin, the Hulk embraces it. From the opening credits, to the scattershots, this one feels like a comic book.

However, is this a good thing?

The "lightness" of the movie makes it more difficult to be engaged. Sure there are some big action scenes, but you feel that these are mere bullies fighting. You don't feel a strong attachment to the outcome.

The relationship between Bruce Banner and the "token love interest" brings back memories of King Kong and the girl. The big green monster cares for the puny girl. But its hard to feel much fear or involvement in their actions.

I did like the style of the movie. However, it didn't quite fit the content. Hulk is a dark, scary figure. The style Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon would have been better suited for this movie. Perhaps that's what the producers were expecting when they picked the director.

Iron Man

Comic book movies are popular today. Perhaps comic books are akin to the serials of days past.
As the first Iron Movie, this one spends time covering the origin of the super hero. Tony Stark is a playboy genius who owns a large arms manufacturer. He is nearly killed, but saved with s special implant. Some terrorists ask him to help build is super-weapon for them. Instead, he builds his iron man suit to destroy them. He gets away and attempts to make his company peace-loving. However, the bigwig in the company who had organized the original hit is still after him. Eventually there is a big Iron Man fight, and everything is good. Tony is supposed to give an alibi at a press conference, but instead admits that he is Iron Man.

The story is ok. There is some love interest thrown in, but it is really about action and technology. While superheros of the past were often portrayed as getting their powers through some fluke. Today, they tend to have more scientific explanations. IronMan, already being fairly scientific, can be even more so today. The science is just plausible enough to make all the action work. Tony Stark is an "ok" character who grows in the story, yet still seems a little shallow.

Spiderman, Hulk and Ironman

In this book, Hulk is always Hulk, though tends to be more "stupid" than mad. Hulk, Ironman and Spiderman are buddies who have a few random adventures. They babysit Cerebrus, they save the world by participating in "intergalatic xgames". Their adventures are geared towards children, and don't have the heaviness and vulgarity of modern comic books. However, they also lack some of the advanced characterization in those books. If only we could get something in between those extremes.

Skrulls vs. Power Pack

This new Power Pack series is aimed at children. This provides stories that seem more like the "classic" comic books than the edgy modern books. Power Pack are framed for a crime and hauled back to another planet to stand trial. On earth, skrull shape-shifters take their place. Eventually, their bowling buddy, Franklin Richards (son of the Fantastic 4) uses their spaceship to help rescue them. They eventually discover that those stolen treasures contain an import message that says that the defenders (and destroyers) of the universe may in fact be them.

The story was very engaging. However, the end was predictable, and not up to the caliber of the remainder of the story. There is also an additional "lite-feature" of the fantastic 4 saving the world from skrull invaders. This is drawn in a more cartoony fashion and good for a few laughs.