by Kate O’Hare

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) – On Tuesday, May 7, on the heels of the release of the latest Marvel Comics-inspired movie, Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man,” Creative Light Entertainment offers “Stan Lee’s Mutants, Monsters and Marvels,” a VHS/DVD production that features the Marvel mogul in extended conversation with indie filmmaker Kevin Smith (”Clerks,” “Dogma,” “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” ).

“Kevin, he’s wonderful,” says Lee. “I’m a big fan of his.”

“That feels wrong somehow,” says Smith. “It should be vice versa, and it is. Whereas he’s done tons to merit my respect and whatnot, I don’t know what the hell I’ve done to warrant his. You really can’t count ‘Mallrats,’ can you? Stan is a good guy, but he’s a little misled.”

Taped at Hi De Ho Comics in Santa Monica, Calif., segments cover the evolution of Marvel and its characters, including Spider-Man (for which Lee credits himself as co-creator with artist Steve Ditko).

The DVD also features cast and crew bios; a behind-the-scenes featurette; an interview with Stan Lee’s wife, Joan; home movies; details about the never-released “Fantastic Four” movie; Stan Lee reading his original poem “God Woke” ; a tour of Lee’s Hollywood Hills home; and “Easter egg” surprises.

Smith, who had originally interviewed Lee for Rolling Stone, jumped at the chance to have a longer conversation with his idol. “The opportunity to sit there and jaw with him at great length, knowing that it wasn’t going to be cut, that was the appeal, to go back and speak to him again, because he’s a great speaker.”

“I love talking to Kevin, to begin with,” says Lee, “and I certainly love talking about myself, so it was a very enjoyable experience. I had to keep reminding myself that I was doing it for a DVD. I don’t think we left anything out. What was it, two hours or something? I just hope I didn’t repeat myself.”

A teen-age Stanley Lieber joined Marvel predecessor Timely Comics in 1939, when he dubbed himself Stan Lee. In 1963, Spider-Man made his debut and forever changed what a superhero could be. He was a teen-age nebbish who got super powers from a radioactive spider bite, and didn’t exactly start his career with the most noble of intentions.

“I used to feel,” Lee says, “that if I had a super power — which is not to imply that I don’t — but if I had a super power, would I immediately say, ‘This is wonderful. I’m going to go out and save the world.’ I don’t think so. What I’d think of is, ‘How can I make a buck with this?’ Then the second thing I’d think of is, ‘Gee, I wonder if this is going to cause me any trouble or embarrassment.’”

“I didn’t want to write it so people suddenly had a super power and everything coming up roses, because I don’t think it would be that way in the real world.”

“The nice thing about Spider-Man,” says Smith, “you would imagine his big problems were battling Doc Ock and Electro, and instead they were about how to keep Aunt May from finding out that he was Spider-Man, or paying the bills, or worrying about public opinion.”

“Spider-Man was ahead of the curve, because now most folks in the public eye worry about how they’re perceived, particularly on the Internet, and Spidey had that down cold 30 years ago.”

Whether for legal or financial reasons, or because technology had to catch up with the storytelling, Marvel’s flawed, quirky heroes are coming to the screen years after more conventional DC heroes like Superman and Batman.

But with Bryan Singer’s “X-Men” a certified blockbuster, and a sequel already mapped for “Spider-Man,” Marvel is on a roll.

“I can’t count them,” says Lee of the upcoming projects. “There’s the sequel to ‘X-Men’; the sequel to ‘Blade’ is already on the screen. They’re developing ‘Fantastic Four’ and ‘Silver Surfer.’ The next movie to come out after ‘Spider-Man’ is ‘The Hulk,’ then comes ‘Daredevil.’ They’re working on ‘Sub-Mariner’; they’re working on ‘Iron Man’; they’re working on the ‘Ghost Rider.’ There’s no end to it.”

Lee often states that he wishes he’d come to Hollywood to do movies instead of staying in the New York comic world (”If I had gotten here earlier, I would have been Steven Spielberg,” he says with a laugh).

Smith has gone the other way, taking time off from screen duties to pen “Daredevil,” “Spider-Man” and “Black Cat” for Marvel, and “Green Arrow” for DC. “I swing both ways,” he says. “You’ve got to share the love, too many good characters.”

While Smith says that big-budget comic-book movie adaptations “are out of my league, too big,” Lee would love him to tackle something from the Marvel stable.

“The way I feel about Kevin,” Lee says, “he can pick his own. I’d be enthusiastically behind him doing any one of them.”