As I’m sure you are probably aware by now, Stan Lee has sadly passed away, and I wanted to do a little tribute to him, to remember and thank him.
Stan Lee’s full name is Stanley Martin Lieber, and he was born on 28th December 1922.
In 1939, his uncle helped him get a job as an assistant at Timely Comics. (Timely Comics would end up changing to Marvel Comics in the 1960s). At first, he ran errands and did simple tasks like getting people lunch. Eventually he became a text filler - his debut was in May 1941 with Captain America Comics #3. Two issues later, he was upgraded to writing actual comics. Due to certain circumstances, Stan Lee ended up becoming the interim editor at just 19 years of age! He continued as the editor and art director until 1972.
In the 1950s DC Comics revived superhero comics and it turned out to be quite successful. Stan Lee was asked to create their own superhero team. At this moment in time Stan Lee was unsure if this was the path he wanted to continue to follow because he wasn’t enjoying writing what he was told to write. His wife suggested that he should write stories that interested him, so he decided to act upon this advice since he had nothing to lose. As a result of this, his superheroes went against the typical stereotypes, and introduced characters with bad tempers, worried about paying bills and trying to impress girlfriends. The first superheroes that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby co-created were the Fantastic Four. After the huge success of this superhero team up, the two went on to create the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and the X Men. He also created Daredevil with Bill Everett and Doctor Strange and Spider-Man with Steve Ditko. Lee and Kirby then took their characters and assembled them to form the Avengers.
Now, there is a load more information about Stan Lee and other characters that he has created, but I won’t go into detail here. I’ll include some links down below for you to do some further reading if you so wish. I’ll admit I am a late-comer to the Marvel Universe, but boy am I glad I found it. This whole universe, the characters, the stories, the films are so meaningful to me, and I am forever grateful for Stan Lee’s part in creating this world for me. He’s lived an amazing life and his work is just incredible. I can only just hope he knows how much he means to everyone and how much he will be missed.
RIP Stan
Excelsior!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec5-JfOZRVI
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Lee https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Characters_created_by_Stan_Lee