52 Years Later, Stan Lee’s Biggest Marvel Regret Is Not Creating This $2.7 Billion Dollar Hero

Published Oct 10, 2026, 10:05 AM EDT Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor. "Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention." That's how the second verse of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" starts. It's safe to assume Stan Lee loved that song. Not just because everybody loves that song, but because Stan really did do it his way, from start to finish. So, he would have found Sinatra's crooning highly relatable. He "lived a life that's full," certainly, yet even after decades of success, he still had a few regrets. The biggest one? Not being the creator of record for a certain Marvel mutant. Stan Lee co-created most of Marvel's major players: The Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the Mighty Thor, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Spider-Man, the X-Men. When Spider-Man: Brand New Day became the third highest grossing movie of all time this year, it did so by pitting two Stan Lee creations against one another. Yet there's another $2.7 billion dollar Marvel icon he didn't create, and it bugged him. Wolverine was created by Len Wein and John Romita Sr., at the directive of Marvel's head editor at the time, Roy Thomas. He faced off against a Stan Lee creation, the Incredible Hulk, whose ongoing series was being written by Wein at the time. That was in 1974. In '75, Wolverine joined the X-Men; Stan Lee's original version of the mutants had gone defunct a few years earlier, and when Marvel revived the franchise, Len Wein got writing duties. He decided to make Wolverine a mutant and added him to the mix. Wolverine Is The Greatest Marvel Character Stan Lee Didn't Create & Stan Knew It So, what was Stan Lee doing at the time of Wolverine's creation? He was running Marvel Comics. Lee stepped away from day-to-day production of comics in 1972, and we can only speculate, but this might have been Stan's actual biggest regret. In several interviews before he passed away in 2018, Stan said he regretted not being Wolverine's creator, but that was Stan Lee, the character. Stan Lee, the persona. Stan, the man, might have just looked back and wished he'd been involved in the process. The truth is, Wolverine wouldn't exist if Stan Lee's protégé and successor as Marvel editor-in-chief, Roy Thomas, hadn't commissioned Incredible Hulk writer Len Wein and artist John Romita Sr. to create a Canadian superhero with that name. When Stan Lee said he regretted not creating the character, he was also giving Wolverine's creators the highest praise. Saying he couldn't have done it any better himself. And it's worth considering the "What If?" story where Stan stuck around as EIC for a few more years, because it might lead to a "Days of Future Past" scenario where Wolverine isn't the most famous mutant hero in the world. Wolverine's Creation Story Opens The Door To "What Ifs" About Stan Lee's Career What if Stan Lee had been Marvel's editor-in-chief in 1974 and didn't sign off on Wolverine's signature yellow costume? What if he didn't like the metal claws? What if, in 1975, he'd nixed Wolverine's inclusion in Giant-Size X-Men? There are all kinds of comic book history counterfactuals that are worth exploring from this pivotal period in Marvel's timeline. Stan Lee liked to think Wolverine would have been just as massive of a success if he'd been involved in creating the character, but there's no guarantee that's true. Realistically, if Stan Lee were still writing for Marvel in 1975, he probably writes Giant-Size X-Men himself. Maybe it is a huge hit just like Len Wein and Dave Cockrum's Giant-Size, but maybe not. All this is to illustrate a point: Stan Lee looked at the first few years after he moved up Marvel's corporate ladder as a thrilling creative period, and wished he'd been involved. Instead, he became an executive, and a public figure, a celebrity. Celebrated for doing what he loved most, telling stories and making up characters, but not doing it anymore. Created By Roy Thomas, Len Wein, John Romita Sr. Cast Hugh Jackman First Appearance The Incredible Hulk (2023) Alias James "Logan" Howlett Alliance X-Men, Avengers, Canadian Army, OSS/CIA, Avengers Unity Squad, Alpha Flight, New Avengers, New Fantastic Four, Savage Avengers, Weapon X, X-Force Race Human-Mutant