If there’s anyone we owe a great deal of pop culture to, which we do, we owe it all to Stan Lee. “The Man”, a legendary creator, writer, editor, publisher, revolutionized the comic book industry in the 1960s. Since then, it seemed as if The Man just never stopped expanding the universes he has created. His creations of extraordinary yet flawed characters have made him the superhero himself. With the news of his passing at age 95, we can only do so much to remember “The Man” behind Marvel.
Every Flip Of A Page
Having grown up in an age dominated by TV and movies, comic books were a little too fascinating for me. Finding out that my first ever superheroes came from pages of colorful illustrations felt like I was exploring an entirely new universe. It’s a whole different world in there, I thought. In 2002, I watched my very first Marvel movie—Spider-Man starring Tobey Maguire. I could still remember Stan’s cameo in that movie—a quick second of him grabbing a little girl away from Green Goblin’s attack. No mortal would ever do that but Stan Lee did. Seeing him in every Marvel movie made me theorize that he’s immortal. Only today did I realize I was right—the man is immortal.
He’s in every Marvel comic book page we read, every Marvel movie we see. While we may be seeing his final cameo on the 4th Avengers movie, there’s still so much Stan Lee scattered on the following MCU movies, series, and comics we’ll see. Iron Man whose movie marked the beginning of MCU, Black Panther who broke box office records and revolutionized racial treatments on the big screen, and the X-Men and all other superheroes and mutants on TV and movies trace back to one man. All these creations are what made Stan Lee the real superhero to fans.
Legacy Of The Man
Brainstorming sessions one after another bore fruit to characters such as Spider-Man, Thor, The Hulk, Fantastic Four, and The X-Men. These characters wouldn’t have come to life if his uncle didn’t help him land a job at Timely Comics. He began small aiding artists by refilling their inkwells and erasing pencil lines from every page. Not to mention, he’s been a runner fetching innumerable coffee and lunches here and there. As he expressed his desire to create stories of his own, he was given the chance to do a filler prose on May 1941 within the pages of CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #3. Stanley Stanley Martin Lieber wrote “Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge” under the pen name Stan Lee.
His tenure and roles have grown and evolved with Timely Comics. Stan led the company to its new name Atlas Comics. This would later become the legend synonymous to The Man himself: Marvel Comics. From being its Editor-in-Chief, Stan stepped up to becoming its Publisher. His works, collaborations, and more have all become the icons we look up to now. Through and through, we will only see a bit of Stan Lee on each of the characters he created. Stan Lee has been immortalized through the legacy he’s left us with. Today and on the days that will follow, let’s remember Stan Lee. Excelsior!
Photos courtesy of Marvel Entertainment.
