As you may have heard, Stan Lee — the comic book legend responsible for co-creating multiple Marvel icons, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man and the Hulk — now has a much-deserved star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, with a ceremonial unveiling held just yesterday.
Though I live in Los Angeles, I don’t make my way out to that part of the town very often (y’know, I have so many fake Oscar novelty awards already) but ventured into the thick of Touristville to make an obligatory pilgrimage to see Smilin’ Stan’s scintillating star. (Alliteration in tribute to “The Man,” of course.)
And hey, here it is!
Yeah, his star has the “movie camera” symbol on it. There’s no comic book one. I would say there should be, but it’d probably be something like a sound effect bubble saying “POW!” so maybe we should just be happy with this.
You may not be able to tell, but the difference between a relatively clean, brand-new star, like Stan’s, and the ones that have been trampled by millions of passers-by for years is pretty striking. Take this nearby blank one, apparently claimed by Brittany Somethingorother:
You ask yourself, does Stan have fellow geek titans as his neighbors? After all, right across the street, Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless have their stars right next to each other, so they do have some geographic thematic tie-ins. Here’s his closest neighbor:
Somewhat disappointing — though, honestly, can we truly rule out the possibility that Ernani Bernardi, big-band musician turned politician who passed away in 2006 at the age of 94, wasn’t a big Ravage 2099 fan?
Things get a little better as you head east on Hollywood:
Stan’s star is located outside of the Live Nation building. The first floor is evidently vacant, so it’s not exactly a huge hot spot for foot traffic.
Next door to that is the glamorous Hollywood Armed Forces recruiting offices. Where the stars enlist!
Given the amount of costumed superheroes found around Hollywood Boulevard, you’d expect them to be congregating near Stan’s star on just its second day on display, right? Well, Spider-Man, arguably Lee’s most famous co-creation, was spotted a full block down the street, posing for pictures and keeping vigilant in case the Vulture showed up at the Fresh & Easy.
Come on, Hollywood Boulevard superheroes! Time to make Stan Lee’s star your new base of operations. (Lakers Elmo can stay where he is.).
January 6th, 2011 at 9:56 am
This post’s title made me laugh for really real. Good job, bro.
January 6th, 2011 at 11:50 am
I was in Hollywood a few months ago and had a bit more time to walk the Walk of Fame than on my previous visit. Its interesting, and covers a lot more ground than one would expect. Sadly, however, the stars themselves are not kept up very well.
January 17th, 2011 at 2:09 pm
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