What is Stan Lee's cameo in 'Civil War?'

Since the very beginning of this age of superhero cinema legendary comic book writer Stan Lee has been making cameos in movies based on characters he created.  If you forget about Blade (as many often do) you can credit X-Men with kicking things off back in 2000 and Stan Lee was right there on the beach selling hot dogs.  Ever since, his gloriously mustachioed face has been in almost every Marvel movie and TV show, even animated ones.  He appeared in the after-credits scene of the "even more for children than usual" superhero movie Big Hero Six.  Thus far he hasn't shown up in person in Netflix's gritty "probably not for children at all" Daredevil and Jessica Jones series but his picture can be seen hanging on the wall of Hell's Kitchen's local police station.  The Stan Lee cameos are so revered a tradition for Marvel that the Russo Brothers made it one of the first scenes they shot for the newly in theaters Captain America: Civil War.  If you're anything like me, exposing the nature of the Stan Lee cameo is a spoiler of the highest order and should be punished to the full extent of the law.  However, that won't stop me from making a few semi-serious guesses.

A Janitor

The most common kind of Stan Lee cameo is the "guy just doing his job."  Take the beach hot dog vendor in X-Men for instance, or the oblivious librarian in The Amazing Spider-Man.  More often than not these men are dressed in a sharp uniform.  Lee played a security guard in Hulk and Captain America: Winter Soldier.  He was a mailman in Fantastic Four and an U.S. General in Captain America: The First Avenger.  Captain America is a soldier by his very nature, so it makes since for Stan to be in military garb but that's been done.  Civil War is a battle between heroes and it promises destruction.  Someone has to be picking up the debris left by these super battles, maybe Civil War is the perfect time to reveal the working class stiff who's been sweeping up after the Avengers for all these years.  Although, that's also been done but only in the cartoon Ultimate Spider-Man.  

Phil Sheldon

Speaking of working stiffs, the idea of a genuine every-man living in a world of superheroes was explored to perfection in the 1994 graphic novel Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross.  It follows the life of photographer Phil Sheldon from the late 30's to the mid 70's as he witnesses firsthand the major events of the Marvel Universe.  One memorable scene puts Phil in the middle of a battle between Namor the Submariner and The Human Torch (an android of no relation to The Fantastic Four).  Through Phil's eyes the reader witnesses a true battle of titans and an early example of heroes fighting each other.  Over time, as Phil loses his hair and grows a mustache, he begins to look not unlike Stan Lee.  The tribulations of Phil Sheldon as played by Stan Lee could make an excellent sub-sub-plot in Civil War.

J. Jonah Jameson

If Stan Lee is going to play a comic book character it might as well be one of the countless horde that he created, like he did in 2005 as Willie Lumpkin, the mailman to the Fantastic Four.  Better yet, he could play one that he based on himself and has specifically expressed a desire to portray.  That character is J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of the newspaper The Daily Bugle, frequent employer of Peter Parker and extremely outspoken critic of Parker's alter-ego Spider-Man.  As you probably know, the newest incarnation of the wall-crawler is debuting in Civil War.  Conveniently, Marvel has something of a J. Jonah Jameson casting dilemma.  Not only would any actor be playing a beloved character, but one that was already played exquisitely by J.K. Simmons in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.  Simmons as Jameson didn't just steal every scene he was in, he acted as if he owned the whole movie all along and it's hard to disagree with him.  He remains one of the most fondly remembered parts of an incredibly beloved and acclaimed film series.  Rumor has it that JJJ didn't appear in the The Amazing Spider-Man because of the difficulty of replacing Simmons.  Perhaps Stan Lee is the only person who can pull it off, with his hammy charm and the novelty of it all.  He is generally much more cheerful than the irascible JJJ but he definitely has the 'stache for it.

An Actual Pimp

Another common type of Stan Lee cameo is the "man surrounded by young, attractive women," a way to capitalize on his slightly-creepy-but-equally-sweet-flirty-old-guy vibe.  In Guardians of the Galaxy he is seen hitting on a Xandarian woman, prompting Rocket Raccoon to call him "a class A pervert."  In Iron Man Tony Stark mistakes him for Hugh Hefner and in Iron Man 3 he plays a zealous beauty pageant judge.  The most extreme case is in Deadpool, where Lee plays a strip club DJ.  The next logical step is for him to play an actual pimp.  It seems a little out of place for a superhero movie, but Captain America is the most political Avenger and that means pushing the envelope.

Bernie Sanders

Or, slightly more likely, a Bernie Sanders look-a-like.  Iron Man and Iron Man 2 both see Tony Stark mistaking Lee for other white-haired old men, Hugh Hefner and Larry King respectively.  Iron Man 3 went in a different direction, I assume to avoid wearing out the joke and because there are only so many men who fit the profile.  Enough time has passed now that another mistaken identity cameo wouldn't feel so familiar.  Coincidentally, another silver fox has recently entered the zeitgeist, the sweetheart of the Presidential election, Bernie Sanders.  Unfortunately, Stan shot his cameo almost a year ago and Bernie didn't enter the race until about a month later.  However, that's just going by Wikipedia and several news sources.  I actually lived it and I'm fairly certain this election cycle has been going on for seven years and three months.  That's plenty of time for Bernie to have won the hearts and minds of not enough people to beat Hillary but enough to make an impact worthy of a brief reference in Civil War, which promises to be very political.  Although, there are a few other options in the "mistaken identity" category; Regis Philbin and Alex Trebek  come to mind.

Three Ways to Make Me Even More Excited for 'Captain America: Civil War'

The release of the third Captain America movie, subtitled Civil War, is now less than a week away.  At risk of appearing unprofessional, or worse, jinxing it, I have to say it looks incredible.  I was a fan of Captain Steve "America" Rogers when he was boy scouting through the 1940's in a Joe Johnston period piece but there's no denying the Russo Brothers took it up a notch with the 2014 sequel Winter Soldier.  Chris Evans as Cap ended 2011's The First Avenger by falling into a cryogenic slumber, waking up just in time to team up with Iron Man and his mighty friends to fight aliens in The Avengers.  Winter Soldier brought him back down to Earth, forcing him to face his feelings about his time displacement while struggling with a new socio-politico-cultural landscape; put simply, Cap learns about libertarianism and Star Wars.  Now the team is back at it and splitting up.  Civil War sees Cap take up arms against his best frenemy Iron Man, effectively splitting the Avengers roster down the middle.  Did I mention this movie looks incredible (knock on wood)?  With only a week left until its release there are just a few things that could make me more excited for it than I already am.

Dustin Hoffman Could Be In It

If you removed all the superhero aspects of Winter Soldier you would still be left with one of the best political thrillers in decades.  It was very clearly influenced by movies of the same kind from the 1970's like Three Days of the Condor, Marathon Man, and All the President's Men.  That's what makes the casting of Robert Redford as the villain particularly inspired.  Not only is he ridiculously talented and capable of conveying a chilling authoritativeness, but he played the protagonists of two of the three movies I just mentioned, Three Days of the Condor and All the President's Men.  In the former, he was joined by Dustin Hoffman, who also starred in Marathon Man.

All The President's Men is more exciting than it seems.

I consider those two living legends as representative for the genre of political thriller as John Wayne is for Westerns or Chadwick Boseman is for biopics.  I absolutely love Redford's role in Winter Soldier and I would be delighted if Hoffman made an appearance in Civil War or the inevitable fourth in the series.

The Promotional Material Could Stop Asking Me to Choose A Side

One way Winter Soldier stands out from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is its political subtext, namely the topics of privacy and drone warfare.  That kind of thing isn't exactly new to the MCU (the first Iron Man movie is a hop, skip, and jump away from being directed by Kathryn Bigelow) but that aspect fell between the cracks for a while.  The topicality of Winter Soldier is another of the many reasons I love it even if I'm far from a savvy Washington insider.  Although, I'm not exactly ignorant either.  I'll put it like this: I know enough about the current election to be very anxious about it and I have been for months.  Again, I'm not really an expert but if you're looking for an endorsement, I'll tell you that in the primaries I wrote in "So, that's a definite 'no' on Joe Biden running?" even though there wasn't a write-in option.  Now Marvel's two most political characters are going head to head and the marketing team really wants people to choose a side.

The time is now — let the world know who you stand with. You never know who’s listening… https://t.co/ZOvwuL2Obk

— Captain America (@CaptainAmerica) April 11, 2016

I usually try to avoid movie promotion so I can go into the theater knowing as little as possible but this time I'm also putting off any decision making until both candidates characters can make their case.  Regardless, I spend a lot of time on the internet reading about movie news so I already know more about this film than I would like.  As far as I can tell, Captain America is pretty libertarian like I said before and Iron Man is pro-government.  It's like choosing between Paradoxically Rich Bernie Sanders and Benjamin Button Ron Paul.  (If I meant Young Ron Paul I would have said Rand Paul.  I mean someone who is technically very old but looks young and has a slight Brad Pitt vibe.)  So, there's no chance of getting Joe Biden in one of those metal suits?

Captain America Could Be Wrong

I watched Captain America: The First Avenger last night just in case I missed something the first five times.  I've seen it more than any other MCU movie because, frankly, I'm a sucker for the boy-scouty borderline sanctimonious type characters.  I like Punisher and Deadpool as much as the next guy but my favorites have always been the most righteous, Cap, Superman, Spider-Man, Nightcrawler from the X-Men.  Nite Owl is my favorite character from Watchmen.  That's freaking insane!  Like, Rorschach from Watchmen level crazy.  I just prefer superheroes who are unabashedly heroic.  That's why I am deeply troubled when creators try to reinvent these characters by making them raging jagweeds.  On the other hand, every time I've watched The First Avenger something has stood out to me.  Doctor Abraham Erskine tells Cap that the serum he created, the serum that turns whimpy Steve into the Vitruvian wet dream and turns Nazi scientist Johann Schmidt into the face of literally everyone's nightmares, "amplifies everything that is inside, good becomes great, bad becomes worse."

He started off with an orange face.

He isn't just talking about the physical.  The whole point of the conversation is that Steve was chosen for the experiment because of his moral fiber but even I have to admit it would be boring if he were perfect.  That means he has to have faults and those faults would be as magnified as his moxie and his chiseled jawline.  The last thing I want is for Cap to go full villain, just for his imperfections to be highlighted a bit more.  For all I know, that could be exactly what happens in Civil War.  I'm confident that a movie pitting two heroes against each other will contain at least a bit of moral relativity but that's a difficult thing to exhibit in any number of trailers.  I predict that his fatal flaw will be his conviction that the ends justify the means.  He is introduced in First Avenger as he is committing fraud to trick the United States Military into accepting someone wholly unqualified, albeit for noble reasons.  In Winter Soldier he admits to Nick Fury during an argument that after he entered the war he and his brothers in arms crossed the line at times, just not to the extent and for the reasons that Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. were planning with Project Insight.  I would be thoroughly impressed to see that trait lead Steve astray without destroying the heart of the character.  If anyone can pull it off its the team that made Winter Soldier.




Side note: I would also like to point out that Anthony Mackie appeared in a decent remake of what I consider the greatest political thriller of all time, The Manchurian Candidate.