LA Comic-Con Hosting Paid Meet-And-Greet With AI Hologram Of Stan Lee: “Faithful In Spirit, Context, And Intent”
For all his faults, Stan Lee never deserved such an indignant ending, as after spending his final years suffering untold amounts of elder abuse, the late Marvel Comics legend will soon find his likeness bastardized via AI at the upcoming LA Comic-Con.
(Talk about ‘man-made horrors beyond your comprehension’.)
For just $20 a ticket – or $15 if bought ahead of time – and a $3.50 service fee, LA Comic-Con attendees can grab a ticket to the expo’s ‘Stan Lee Experience’, which bills itself as “a 1,500 sq. ft. interactive immersive hologram experience celebrating the legacy of the legend who started it all!”
Live Interactive Q&A: A 10–15 minute group conversation and an opportunity for a 3-4 minute solo conversation with Hologram Stan Lee. Photo Op: Take a selfie with Hologram Stan Lee.
Produced by Kartoon Studios’ Stan Lee Universe licensing branch, as headed by former Marvel Studios Executive VP Bob Sabbouni, this man-made horror beyond comprehension will allow attendees to have a “Live Interactive Q&A” – described as “a 10–15 minute group conversation and an opportunity for a 3-4 minute solo conversation” – and take a selfie with an AI-powered hologram of the Spider-Man creator.
The hologram itself will appear on digital ‘box projectors’ as provided courtesy of “holographic communications platform” Proto Inc., whose technology was notably used for a recent string of ‘interactive mirror’ kiosk-style advertisements for The Conjuring mirror.
Regarding what kind of conversations fans will be able to have with the horrifying homunculus, Sabouni told The Hollywood Reporter, “We’ll never put words in his mouth that aren’t in line with things he spoke about in his lifetime.”
“Fortunately, with decades of footage capturing his thoughts on so many subjects, we can build a voice that stays true, not always word for word, but always faithful in spirit, context, and intent.”
As previously reported, following Lee’s passing in November 2018, his likeness fell under control of Stan Lee Universe, who began licensing it out to various companies starting in 2022.
Such licensors include Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, trading card manufacturer Topps, and Disney, the House of Mouse’s contract notably including the rights to feature Stan The Man in their films, tv shows, and theme parks.
Further, the agreement grants Marvel exclusive rights to the use of existing images and archival records of Lee’s person.
“It really ensures that Stan, through digital technology and archival footage and other forms, will live in the most important venue, the Marvel movies, and Disney theme parks,” said Kartoon Studios chairman and CEO Andy Heyward at the time of the Disney deal’s signing. “It’s a broad deal.”
Tellingly, asked if the deal could allow for Lee to be given a Carrie-Fisher-and-Peter-Cushing CGI revival in future MCU films, Heyward indirectly admitted, “The audience revered Stan, and if it’s done with taste and class, and respectful of who he was, [uses of his likeness] will be welcomed.
“He is a beloved personality, and long after you and I are gone, he will remain the essence of Marvel.”
Unfortunately, as history has proven time and time again, things can always be worse – and as such, where once fans feared that the esteemed creative would be recreated as an uncanny valley CGI model, Lee is instead being creepily puppeteered by a technology whose full implications have yet to be understood.
It’s so ‘dystopian sci-fi’ that it sounds like something Lee would have written in his early Fantastic Four days; but nope, that is, bleakly, the real world.
And on that high note, for those interested, it should be noted that the LA Comic-Con is currently set for September 25th-26th.
