Fantastic Four Rides Again!

Spider-man creator Stan Lee (left), who first began his webbed creation in 1962, would have probably never anticipated it would turn into the multi-million dollar franchise. What many don't know is that Lee also created another popular comic creation at a time when he was at odds with his publisher on how to portray comic book characters.

Lee, who apparently was about to call it quits over this difference of style, put together one final book that played up the personalities of his characters, contradicting the simpler, two-syllable prose preferred by his publisher. As it turned out, the book was a smash and spawned not only a wildly popular series, but also another multi-million dollar franchise known as the Fantastic Four.

On June 15, the second movie in the franchise -- Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer -- screens nationwide. Like the original in 2005, the second installment stars Jessica Alba, Ioan Gruffudd, Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans.