PLUME: There was a lot of dissatisfaction when materials started to leak out about X-Men, regarding the changes in costumes and character motivations…

LEE: I’m not sure that the motivations have changed. I haven’t seen the movie, but I don’t know why they would have changed the motivations. The costumes did change. Personally, I think it was a wise decision - just like not having the Hulk talk - because, if you think about it, if you want a movie to not only bring in the fans, but bring in the rest of the world, it seems a little silly to have normal - well, mutant - people living in the real world and running around the streets wearing colorful costumes. How do you justify it? How do you explain it? How do you justify that costume that Wolverine wears in the comic books? Why would he wear that walking down 86th Street or Madison Avenue?

PLUME: Arguably, though, if you’re expecting people to accept super-powered mutants, why not the costumes that people are familiar with? Shouldn’t a good film foster enough suspension of disbelief? In Superman, nobody batted an eye at a guy in red and blue underwear and a cape…

LEE: The beauty of Superman - of that movie, I think - is that it was all done tongue-in-cheek. There was an element of humor running throughout that whole movie, like that little gag they used at the beginning with the phone booth. You remember… he walked in to change, and then he realized it didn’t have a door… He couldn’t change in private. It was all lightly handled. The X-Men is a totally different kind of story - it’s deadly serious.

LEE: Well, let me put it this way… I, personally, would not know how to write that movie with the characters wearing those costumes. I just wouldn’t know how to do it. I wouldn’t know how to justify it.

PLUME: What have you seen of the film so far?

LEE: Just the trailer, like everybody else.

PLUME: And?

LEE: It looks good to me.

PLUME: Knowing the characters like you do, what were your initial thoughts on it?

LEE: Well, I don’t know, because in the trailer you can’t really see much of them, but it surely looked like an exciting movie. I read the screenplay and I feel - having read the screenplay - that the characters’ motivations and their characterizations are very true to the comic books.

PLUME: Of the three properties currently in full development - Hulk, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man - and now with X-Men coming out, what is the property that you most look forward to seeing on the screen?

LEE: Every one of them. I think the X-Men is probably the most difficult one, and I’m glad that the director is Bryan Singer - who is an incredibly intelligent and sensitive director. If you saw The Usual Suspects - a movie that impressed the hell out of me… I feel that the X-Men are in good hands under his direction. So I’m certainly looking forward to that one. God knows, I’m looking forward to Spider-Man as well as The Hulk, Fantastic Four, and I believe Dr. Strange is now in development… and Daredevil and a number of the others are about to be. They’re all going to be in the works pretty soon. And The Silver Surfer, too… I believe that is at Fox - the same producer, Bernd Eichinger, has the Surfer as well as The Fantastic Four.

PLUME: One would almost hope they would do a film with the Fantastic Four and Galactus, and introduce the Silver Surfer there before spinning him off…

LEE: I don’t think that’s the plan, but I don’t know… Anything could happen. I’m not really that involved in the movies. I’m sorry to say that, but I’m not.

PLUME: Speaking of movies, I wanted to talk to you about one of your big on-screen roles - playing yourself in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats. How were you approached to be in the film?

LEE: I forget who approached me… Maybe it was Kevin… I don’t remember. Somebody asked if I’d like to be in the movie, and I never say no to anything - especially something like that. What made me doubly happy, is that I found out later that George Carlin had wanted that role. George Carlin wouldn’t know this, but about 25 years ago, I was the guest on a television talk show - it wasn’t Mike Douglas, but a guy just like that that had a show out of Philadelphia. Maybe it was Mike Douglas. George Carlin was another guest, and Rob Reiner was there along with a few other people, and Carlin never gave me a chance to talk. Every time Mike Douglas - if that’s who it was - would ask me a question, Carlin - who was sitting near me - would butt in with some wisecrack or something. He was very funny, but he totally usurped all my time. I never talked to him about it, but I felt this is my way of getting revenge… I got the role that he wanted - or at least I had heard somebody tell me he had wanted that role.

PLUME: What was your opinion of the Mallrats script when you saw it… Especially regarding the way you were portrayed within it…

LEE: I thought it was great. I was portrayed as the hero… The idol of American comic book fans.

PLUME: I believe Kevin Smith mentioned that he had written the part for you, but didn’t believe he would ever get you, so he contemplated either casting someone to play you or changing it to a fictional comic idol…

LEE: He didn’t know how available I am. My nickname is “Available Lee.” I love being in movies. I had been in one years ago called The Ambulance. I had a little role in that. It was a movie directed by Larry Cohen, and it starred Eric Roberts, Red Buttons, and James Earl Jones. I had been in two or three little things before that. I love to act. In fact, I have a small walk-on in the X-Men movie.

PLUME: What’s the context of it?

LEE: Well, I’m not supposed to tell… They want to make the announcement. It’s more of a stand-on than a walk-on, because I don’t really walk… I’m kind-of standing still. You won’t be able to miss me if you see the movie.

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