Marvel mastermind Stan Lee gets star on Walk of Fame

Comics legend Stan Lee has helped build iconic characters out of stone, sand and the mythical adamantium. Now, at last, the Marvel mastermind has also conquered California concrete.

Lee received a star on the Walk of Fame sidewalk Tuesday in front of the Live Nation Building on Hollywood Boulevard - the 2,428th star so enshrined.

"Wouldja believe I'm on the same block as Paul Newman and Sophia Loren?" Lee, 88, says with his trademark ebullience during an interview.

On hand to help celebrate were Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and POW! Entertainment President Gill Champion, as well as Lee's wife, Joan.

"I really still can't believe it," says Lee, the POW! founder who created or co-created such Marvel characters as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, X-Men and Iron Man. "I think they have me confused with someone else, but I'm not gonna tell them!"

The keepers of Hollywood's palm-treed avenue of fame, of course, knew exactly what they were doing. Seven decades after Stanley Martin Lieber broke into the business as a teenager in New York (changing his name along the way), he is the biggest celebrity in superhero comics. Lee's characters have sold more than 2 million comic books in 75 countries and spawned syndicated features, dozens of animated shows, a Broadway show and several hugely successful feature-film franchises.

"One good thing about it: Maybe now I'll be able to get cameos of more than 30 seconds in length," deadpans Lee, who has amassed dozens of on-screen cameos in recent years. "With my new elevation to legendhood, maybe I'll rate a full minute from now on!"

Over his long and illustrious career, Lee has endured industry battles over rights and royalties and creative credit. So when Lee says he's protective of his new sidewalk star, it rings more than a little metaphoric:

"I'm getting estimates on what it would cost to booby-trap the star," Lee quips, "because I can't bear the thought of people walking all over me!"