True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee

By: Abraham Riesman

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

The definitive, revelatory biography of Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee, a writer and entrepreneur who reshaped global pop culture—at a steep personal cost

HUGO AWARD FINALIST • EISNER AWARD NOMINEE • “True Believer is in every imaginable way the biography that Stan Lee deserves—ambitious, audacious, daring, and unflinchingly clear-eyed about the man’s significance, his shortcomings, his transgressions, his accomplishments, and his astonishing legacy.”—Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road

Stan Lee was one of the most famous and beloved entertainers to emerge from the twentieth century. He served as head editor of Marvel Comics for three decades and, in that time, became known as the creator of more pieces of internationally recognizable intellectual property than nearly anyone: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, Black Panther, the Incredible Hulk . . . the list goes on. His carnival-barker marketing prowess helped save the comic-book industry and superhero fiction. His cameos in Marvel movies have charmed billions. When he died in 2018, grief poured in from around the world, further cementing his legacy.

But what if Stan Lee wasn’t who he said he was? To craft the definitive biography of Lee, Abraham Riesman conducted more than 150 interviews and investigated thousands of pages of private documents, turning up never-before-published revelations about Lee’s life and work. True Believer tackles tough questions: Did Lee actually create the characters he gained fame for creating? Was he complicit in millions of dollars’ worth of fraud in his post-Marvel life? Which members of the cavalcade of grifters who surrounded him were most responsible for the misery of his final days?

And, above all, what drove this man to achieve so much yet always boast of more?

It’s a hard one...

It is a very one sided story and how and old business man was always a business man ...

Engrossing

Such an insightful and deeply heartbreaking look into a very complicated man’s very complicated life

Over dramatic performance

Not exactly balanced, but very informative and well researched.
Performance contains too many flourishes. distracting.

Fantastic. A real roller coaster.

Loved it overall. You will NOT believe the directions this story takes.

Very good narrator, especially when he's Quoting Stan and becomes especially animated!

A heartbreak tale of comic’s mighty marvel

While I’d been acquainted with the less than marvelous aspects of Stan Lee’s life, this warts and all look at the man behind our current pop culture juggernauts was a fascinating listen. The author is by no means trashing Lee, nor does he present any axe to grind, rather he gives us a bare and occasional sympathetic look at the man behind the image. While some may come away shocked, it’s always a great reminder that any hero, as long as they’re flesh and blood, is not above the fray of human failings. It is a must listen for any comic fan/historian.