Jay J. Armes reflects on friendship with Stan Lee

Stan Lee created Marvel’s most iconic characters.

They were fictional heroes. But about a decade ago, Lee had his sights on a real-life hero — Jay J. Armes.

“Nobody will ever forget what he’s done,” Armes said.

Armes is a world-famous private investigator from El Paso perhaps best known for helping rescue Marlon Brando’s son after he had been kidnapped.

Armes said Lee approached him about a decade ago in hopes that they could collaborate on something. Lee wanted to write comics and a movie about Armes’ life.

“He was inspired, he said he had never met anybody with the charisma and the talent that he saw in Jay Armes,” Armes said.

Armes is also well known for his prosthetic hooks. He lost both his hands in an explosion when he was a young boy. Armes said Lee was interested in him because many of Lee’s characters had overcome traumatic incidents when they were young.

“He said he was really inspired and working on a Jay Armes project in his mind,” Armes said.

The project never came to fruition because Armes said he was under contract with Warner Brothers at the time.

“I wish the Lord had given him more time so that maybe we could have developed something with Stan,” Armes said.