漫威宇宙之父Stan Lee在去年11月離開人世，但他的精神藉著筆下的超級英雄繼續陪伴著人們。
在過去的一篇訪談中他說，英雄故事之所以能感動人，是因為看似完美無瑕的英雄身上，仍有與我們一樣的人性弱點。而正是這種有血有肉的共鳴，緊密連結了現實與科幻的兩個世界。
Before you start
Stan Lee
史丹・李
1922年12月28日 －2018年11月12日
WHO
Stan Lee 是漫威（Marvel）超級英雄電影原著漫畫的作者，他自17歲就進入漫威的前身Timely Comics出版社當助理。後來雖因二戰從軍暫離漫畫，但也隨著戰爭結束而回歸。39歲時與夥伴的第一部超級英雄系列《驚奇4超人》（Fantastic Four） 問世隨即走紅，爾後又與不同夥伴陸續創作，開啟了漫威超級英雄宇宙。
WHAT
從二戰時期鼓勵美國對抗納粹的《美國隊長》，到後來提倡黑人平權的《黑豹》，Stan Lee 不斷用筆下的超級英雄，捍衛它所堅信自由與平等的價值。藉由漫畫的通俗與後來電影的興盛，除了讓這些超級英雄的形象深植美國人心中，也不斷隨著時代的變遷帶領人們反思現下議題。
HIGHLIGHTS
1960年代美國的漫畫界蓬勃發展，被稱為「白銀時代」，不過當時所重塑的英雄形象雖受到廣大歡迎，卻因為太過理想化，創作很快就乾涸。此時Stan Lee所主導的漫威開啟大膽的風格，引進更多嚴肅的社會議題，卻不減對於青少年的吸引力；更重要的是為角色設定了與常人一般的缺陷與困擾，讓英雄故事更貼近人性。
英雄故事中的猶太情節？
「在美國社會中被邊緣化的猶太人，只有在戴上面具時，才能進行拯救世界的行動。」一個美國的猶太媒體這樣解讀隱含在漫威超級英雄故事中的意義。 Stan Lee出生在猶太裔家庭，並且參與過二戰，在他正值青年的時代，美國的猶太人面對著大屠殺後，在異地重新尋求認同的掙扎與焦慮。而在他的作品中，超級英雄在社會中總是得隱藏具有超能力的身份，甚至必須面對人類的排斥與敵視，這點與該時代猶太人的處境有異曲同工之妙。
創造有缺陷的英雄
When I used to read comics when I was young, I used to feel that the characters weren’t believable. They weren’t realistic because they never have any problems. Their only problem was “How can I catch the bad guy?” “How can I beat the villain?” But I used to think to myself “what about their personal life?” “What kind of people are they?” “What did they do when they’re not chasing the villain?” “How did they make their money?” “Are they successful with members of the other sex?” and “What about their families?” “Where do the live?” …and so forth.
在我年輕的時候，我看漫畫時都覺得漫畫中的角色並不太可信。他們太不真實了，因為他們似乎都沒有任何的困擾，唯一的煩惱只有「我該怎麼抓到壞蛋？」或是「我要如何打敗反派？」。然而那時我心裡就有些疑惑「那這些英雄私底下都過著怎麼樣的生活？」「他們是怎麼樣的人呢？」「當他們不是在抓壞人時，他們都在幹麻？」「他們靠什麼賺錢吃飯？」「他們和異性關係經營的好嗎？」還有「他們的家庭如何？」「他們住在哪？」…等等。
So I made up my mind if I do any superhero characters or indeed, any characters, I would like to make them 3-dementional so that the reader can see what kind of lives do they live, can see what kind of people they really are and also, can see what problems they have because we all have problems. Whether we worry about allergy attacks or an ingrown toenail or pimples or anything. Everybody has things that concern him or her that they worry about. So I wanted to give these people, even though they were heroes, I wanted to give them little personal problems to make them more believable, to make them more like me, because I’ve got plenty of problems.
於是我決定，如果我有天創造出了一個英雄角色，或任何形式的角色，我會希望他們的角色性格是立體的，這樣讀者就得以一窺他們的日常生活、看看他們是怎麼樣的人、還有他們都有什麼困擾，因為我們的生活中也是充滿困擾啊。無論你是受過敏、指甲倒插、長痘痘、或是任何事情困擾。每個人都會有煩惱的事，所以儘管他們是超級英雄，我也要給他們一些小小的個人煩惱，這樣他們就會比較可信，比較像我，因為我也是全身上下一堆問題的人啊。
動作場景的必要性
The people who read the adventure stories want action, not only in comic books. If you went to a movie and you saw a Robin Hood and he was doing nothing but talking to his Merry Men all during the movie, you’d walk out. You wanna see him fighting with those bows and arrows. If you went to see King Kong and if King Kong was just sitting and eating bananas, you wouldn’t… I mean any adventure story has to have action. It has to have the good guy fighting the bad guy. It has to always look as if the good guy doesn’t have the chance. The villain always must seem to have the advantage, must seem to have the edge for some reasons because that makes the reader or the viewer or the audience if it’s a movie… it makes them want to watch and see what’s gonna happen, how is he gonna get out of this, how is he gonna beat the villain who seems to be unbeatable. If you make a hero looks stronger than the villain, it’s not exciting.
喜歡看冒險故事的人都會期待動作場面，不只是漫畫。如果你去看電影，結果發現羅賓漢什麼都不做，只是在那邊跟他的夥伴們聊天，你應該會直接閃人吧。你想看的不就是他拿著弓箭到處征戰嗎？如果你去看《金剛》，然後那隻猩猩只是坐在那邊吃香蕉，你應該也… 我的意思是每個冒險故事都要有些動作場景，要有好人對抗壞人，壞人也總是佔上風，強到讓人覺得好人感覺沒什麼勝算，這樣觀眾就會想繼續看下去，看好人到底要怎麼擺脫困境，怎麼打敗看起來無懈可擊的壞人。如果你讓好人一開始就比壞人強的話就一點也不刺激了。
為何要邊打架邊講話？
The characters usually would be talking while they’re fighting. In real life that doesn’t always happen, but I hated to waste all those panels without giving the reader more insights into their personality and their character. And the only way you can do that with a person, the only way you get to know a person is by talking to that person and hearing what that person says. So we had so many scenes with people running around and fighting. I just didn’t want to let those scenes go to waste and it didn’t really seem to bother any reader. I think they enjoy it for the most part.
漫畫裡的角色常常在打鬥的場面時邊打邊講話，但在現實生活中這種事不太常發生。但我不希望這些畫格因為沒能讓讀者了解角色人格，而白白被浪費了。要瞭解一個人，唯一的方式就是他對話，然後仔細聽他說了些什麼。所以我才會讓角色們在這麼多兵荒馬亂的場面裡面，還一直說著話，我就是不想讓這些畫面浪費了。然而讀者們看來也沒有被這個作法干擾，我想他們大致上都還蠻喜歡的。
本文收錄於英語島English Island 2019年1月號
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