Stan Lee, an icon of the comic books world, died in 2018.
But tell that to ElevenLabs, the AI voice synthesizing firm. On Wednesday, the company announced that it signed a new deal with the famed Marvel writer’s social media brand, Stan Lee Universe, allowing it to replicate his appearance and voice using AI — meaning that Lee will still be giving cameos beyond the grave, only this time without his say so.
“You know what they never tell you about legends? They outlive the page,” an AI Stan Lee said in a video released by ElevenLabs, per Variety.
“With great power comes great responsibility,” mimed the AI Lee in another video. “Excelsior!”
According to the announcement, users can pick Lee’s AI clone on the ElevenLabs “Iconic Marketplace” to narrate audiobooks and, in further mockery of his legacy, create AI generated comic panels that star him in it.
ElevenLabs will also launch a new “Stan Lee Book Club of the Month” series, in which the AI Lee will read a different book every month.
AI resurrections of dead public figures are always controversial and ethically fraught. But it feels especially egregious in Lee’s case, as he was allegedly the victim of horrific elder abuse in his final years, before dying at the age of 95. A lawsuit accused his handlers of trotting out the ailing writer to make money off his frequent public appearances, forcing him to write his signature for fans even when he appeared to forget where he was and how to spell his name. AI, arguably, is now further robbing him of his autonomy and dignity.
Stan Lee Universe doesn’t see it that way, with its board member and lawyer Chaz Rainey seeming to argue that this is all in keeping with Lee’s spirit.
“Stan always believed in meeting his fans where they were: in the pages of a comic, at a convention, or in a quick on-screen cameo,” Rainey said in a statement to Variety. “This partnership is a way of continuing that. Fans have always told us that when they read his comics, they hear the words in Stan’s voice, and now, thanks to ElevenLabs, we can make that a reality.”
AI necromancy has taken a foothold, complaints of its unsavoriness notwithstanding. It was used in a major blockbuster film, “Alien: Romulus,” in 2024 to bring back British actor Ian Holm, who portrayed the android Ash in the original film. Darth Vader voice actor James Earl Jones signed a deal before his death allowing his voice to be cloned by an AI firm, and an AI-voiced Darth Vader appeared in Fortnite years later. And an AI resurrection of the actor Val Kilmer is being used in “As Deep as the Grave,” a film Kilmer agreed to star in but couldn’t because he succumbed to his battle with throat cancer.
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