Stan Lee

Those of us who love Marvel comics know exactly who we have to thank for the universe and characters that allow us to escape. Jack Kirby and Stan Lee built a world that we love, and though some say Stan Lee gets too much of the credit for creating this world of characters I think that severely shortchanges all of the other contributions Stan Lee made to the company and its expansion.

Stan Lee was born on December 28th 1922 and he started his career as an assistant. In 1939 he was getting coffee for the creatives at Timely Comics which, by the 1960s would evolve into what we know as Marvel Comics. Stan made his comic debut writing text filler in Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge, in the 3rd issue of Captain America in May of 1941. Stan was the first to introduce the character's signature, all powerful shield toss.

His first original co-creation was the Destroyer who made his first appearance in Mystic Comics #6, in August of 1941. Stan had several other Golden Age creations including; Jack Frost who made his first appearance in U.S.A Comics #1 in August of 1941, and Father Time who appeared in Captain America #6. By the time Stan Lee had hit the ripe old age of 18 he had become the interim editor of Timely Comics, and by the time Timely evolved into Marvel Comics he officially took the mantle of publisher in 1972. In that time Stan also acted editor in chief as well as art director.

The first superheroes born out of the iconic team up of Lee and Kirby were the Fantastic Four. They were charged to create something new and after the success and popularity of Marvel’s first family the two went on to create Hulk, Thor, Iron-Man, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Spiderman, and the X-Men together all within a very short period of time. Stan Lee pioneered several comic book related movements but for me the most important was how he wrote his characters. Just before the creation of the Fantastic Four Lee’s wife told him to write what he was interested in. See up to this point most of the comic book characters that existed were Gods, they were without flaws and could do no wrong. What Stan did was so much more than just create lasting characters. His characters lasted because they were human, or at least possessed humanity. They were flawed, they had doubts, worries, and weaknesses. Stan’s characters were Super, they had powers we could only dream about, yet they were relatable. Stan made it easier for us to see ourselves in these Superheroes. Stan also spearheaded the act of giving credit where it was not only to the creators. It was Stan Lee that started the practice of including a credit panel in each comic book naming not only the writer and penciller, but the inker and letterer as well.

Though Lee and Kirby created an incredible and overwhelming amount of work together, the three part Galactus trilogy that began in Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966) is often referred to as their finest achievement. As it was one of the first major story lines that took place on a much larger scale.

Lee and Kirby’s final collaboration was on the Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience which was published in 1978. In Stan’s later years he worked in other mediums helping bring his comic book creations to life, making cameos in any live action movies involving his characters, he also in many ways became the face of the company. Appearing at ComicCon and other conventions, continuing to inspire people to pursue their own creative endeavours. He sadly passed on November 12th in 2018, leaving the nerd world grieving his brilliance. He lives on in the current Marvel Universe and in all the characters we love.