Strange Early Prototypes Of Stan Lee's Iconic Characters

Stan Lee is the undisputed mastermind of the comic book world, a man who brought so many iconic Marvel superheroes to life that his smilin' face has come to represent the company.

But his beautiful mind often worked in weird ways, and before many of his iconic characters could really take shape they had to go through a rough sketchy stage.

Complex characters like Magneto and the X-Men started out as simple characters with simple goals- the early Magneto was an alien being called the Metal Master who wanted to rule Earth but got clobbered by the Hulk instead.

The early X-Men were a mutant cult of sorts who lived in Tibet and used mental projection to contact a young mutant named Tad Carter, offering to protect him because "humans fear what they don't understand."

And if you think Tad looks a lot like Peter Parker your spidey sense is tingling true, because both characters were drawn by Steve Ditko, who obviously liked the look of the character so he passed it on to Peter.

Read 6 Bizarre Stan Lee Prototypes Of Famous Marvel Characters here