Pow! And just like a classic punch to the midsection from a Silver Age comic book, a member of comics royalty left us last week. Stan “The Man” Lee passed away at the age of 95 after battling illness over the last couple of years.
When I look to people who influenced me in my life, Stan ranks right up there. I never met the co-creator of such great characters as Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men, but his writing and creativity smacked me like a blow from the Hulk, often knocking me for a figurative loop as I voraciously read through the four-color offerings from Marvel Comics.
Let’s review a bit. Stanley Lieber was a jack of all trades at Timely Comics starting in 1939. He wrote his first story, one featuring Captain America, in 1941, but used the pseudonym Stan Lee. He later said he had planned on writing the great American novel someday, but didn’t want people to know that he had started with those comic books since they weren’t taken very seriously.
The name stuck. He actually had it legally changed years later when he realized that his contributions to comic books were so profound that he would not be embarrassed by his association with them. Timely Comics became Atlas Comics and finally Marvel Comics.
The Marvel Revolution began in 1961. The company Stan worked for was trying to keep up with DC Comics, which had a Justice League comic comprised of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Green Lantern, all the company’s biggest stars. Stan was looking to change careers, sick of the rote format of comics. Encouraged by his wife, with nothing to lose, he created a comic he would want to read, one filled with angst and plotlines that couldn’t be seen coming from a mile away.
And thus was born the Fantastic Four. This group of four adventurers included Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch, and the Thing. It was an immediate hit. Jack Kirby helped create the group and drew the comic in an inimitable style. Kirby was the co-creator of most of Stan’s early works and was dubbed “King” Kirby by his counterpart.
There have been many debates over the years over who was more important in the creative process, Lee or Kirby. I tend to fall into the “I don’t care” camp. They both worked to create these characters and stories, and I love them both for it. Lee tended to be more bombastic and was a shameless salesman of Marvel Comics. He was the face of the company, and that seemed to work well.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (or in the case of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, Steve Ditko) would brainstorm a new character, Stan would make some rough notes on the story, Jack (or Steve) would draw the panels, and Stan would come back and fill in the dialogue. It became known as the Marvel Method of doing comics.
Stan continued to push the boundaries of what was acceptable in comics. He would have characters face grim scenarios involving conflicts like drugs, death, and racism. These had not been seen before, and some adults didn’t like the idea. But Stan continued to rise to the challenge. He created a racially diverse universe by adding characters such as the Falcon and the Black Panther to the pantheon of great Marvel heroes.
Stan Lee slowed down with his writing in the 1970s, but continued on as publisher of Marvel Comics. He retired in the 1990s, but anyone who’s been to a Marvel movie recently has seen a Stan Lee cameo; the producers always find a way to include Stan as a nod to his enduring legacy.
Why is Stan Lee such an influence in my life? If you sit down and read comics from the 1960s, it will take you a solid 15-20 minutes to finish one. Stan packed them full of dialogue and narration. Sometimes the words take up more space than the pictures on a page! Stan was very verbose and used words I had never heard of as a youngster when I would read reprints of those iconic tales.
If you’ve ever read my column and, outside of the Word of the Week, didn’t know what a word meant, there’s a good chance that I encountered it in a comic book at some point. In fact, I’ve sprinkled some throughout this column that I know I’ve seen in those classic tales. I’m a better reader and writer today because of the influence of Stan Lee and his writing prowess.
Stan Lee lived a long, full life and impacted so many people worldwide. His work will endure and likely will entertain generations to come. You can’t fully enjoy Spider-Man unless you read his origin story from Amazing Fantasy #15. You can’t appreciate how far the Avengers have come unless you see how they were brought together in the first issue of their own magazine. You can’t see how Thor mirrors the Norse mythology from which he was drawn without perusing Journey into Mystery #83. All these were written by Stan Lee and all are worth the time to read.
Great comics are like great novels and great art put together. Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were the great artists to lead the way early in the Marvel Age of comics, but Stan Lee was the thread that drew all these creations together. His writing abilities were unparalleled in comics, and the memory of his work will outlive us all. To Stan I say the word he often used to sign off his work: Excelsior!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is excelsior, which means ever upward in Latin, as in, “Stan Lee often wished his readers the chance to strive excelsior and reach their dreams and goals.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!