Yesterday, the comics industry lost a towering and incredibly important figure in Stan Lee. As co-creator of many beloved characters, one of the architects of the Silver Age, and the 50+ year face of Marvel Comics, Lee’s impact on the comics industry can barely be debated.
For us, folks who write about comics every week, Lee was an almost inescapable presence in our daily lives. Whether it was his lingo (excelsior!), his co-creations (the Spidey Funko on our desk), or his ever-present grin, never far from a comic store, site, or collection, Lee was a seemingly eternal figure in comics. Until yesterday, when he suddenly wasn’t.
We asked our staff to share their reflections of the man: the complicated, talented, frustrating, important man born Stanley Lieber.
Like so many of us, my life was influenced by Stan Lee through the works he created. I remember watching the “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” cartoons on TV when I was a child, and the first time I picked up a comic book. So many of my nerdy passions exist because of Stan and the comics he created. I had the pleasure of meeting him once, at a comic convention about five years ago, brief though it was. Just being able to thank him for everything he did was so very important to me, brief though it was. It’s hard to believe he’s gone, but his name will live on through the characters he created and the many more he helped inspire. May his memory be a blessing.
– Robbie Pleasant
Being a Marvel fan meant being part of a bigger universe, to steal a phrase, and Stan’s Soapbox Bullpen Bulletins connected you to it. Then “Origins of Marvel Comics” came on the scene. A book full of origin stories! Those stories were hard to find in 1974. “Dynamite” magazine only gave you one page for each hero, and some of them were from Brand Echh! Convincing my Mom to help me mail in $5.95 (plus shipping!) against future allowance money was hard, but I prevailed. Stan’s writing about each hero was as much fun and as engaging as it was in the soapboxes. He brought the characters to life and taught me a lesson I never forgot: it’s okay if you never grow up. In fact, you’re better off if you don’t.
–Eric Goebelbecker
I got really sick in 2015, and from my hospital bed I contemplated my mortality and Sean Howe’s “Marvel: The Untold Story.” In it he paints a picture of Lee as a troubled prankster, whose creativity drove the industry even while his annoying (and at times abusive) behavior drove his colleagues crazy. Playing a flute in the office while people were working was just the beginning of Stan Lee’s torment of the Marvel Bullpen. He didn’t give them a moment of peace for his multi-decade reign.
I think about all the sides of Stan Lee — creative genius, abusive boss, merry prankster, slick salesmen — and I can’t help but think about one clip I’ve seen of Mr. Lee. It’s in the 2011 documentary Comic Con: Episode IV – A Fans Hope. A five-year-old asks Mr. Lee for his autograph. Smilin’ Stan has been signing things for hours, days. “Who’s your favorite Marvel hero?” the octogenarian asks the little kid. “Silver Surfer,” the kid stammers. “Mine too!” Lee crows, and gives the kid his autograph. The kid looks like he’s just seen Jesus. Was Stan being honest? Is Silver Surfer really his favorite character? Who cares, he just needed a kid to believe him to make him happy for a few minutes. I think that’s the memory that’s going to stick with me. Mr. Lee may have been a flawed man, but with his smile, his enthusiasm, and his love for kids, Stan Lee was Santa Claus.
–Jake Hill
Stan Lee made sure the human condition was front and center of all his storylines. It wasn’t always just about the monsters, it was about the people fighting the monsters. Whether he was tackling larger social issues of racism through the X-Men, or even the simpler troubles of Peter Parker trying to get a date for Saturday night, he put the “human” in “superhuman.” It’s that probing of what makes all of us human that makes characters like Captain America, Black Panther, and so many others things that can be shared from generation to generation. Excelsior and Godspeed. ‘Nuff said.
Continued below–Kate Kosturski
Stan Lee did not create the Marvel Universe.
Stan Lee is an incredibly important figure in the comics and pop culture landscape, either through his direct actions or his influence, or things done in reaction to his actions or influence.
Stan Lee did not create the Marvel Universe.
Stan Lee’s work as a writer was solid and occasionally transcendent. Stan Lee’s work as an editor was essential in shaping Marvel’s comics output into a consistent and engaging product for its readership. Stan Lee’s salesmanship was revolutionary in building the Marvel brand and the brand loyalty associated with it that carried Marvel and mainstream comics to where they are today.
Stan Lee did not create the Marvel Universe.
Stan Lee repeatedly failed, either directly or through omission, to give Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and his other artistic collaborators their due creative credit in creating their shared works under his “Marvel Method.” Stan Lee knew exactly how much more than just drawing his ideas these men had done and should have set the record straight with the throngs of admirers hanging on his every word for decades. He did not.
Stan Lee did more than anyone else to steer and guide and sell the Marvel Universe. Stan Lee should be celebrated for his many accomplishments and his long life and his contributions to the popular culture of the 20th century that few, if any, could match.
But . . . .
Stan Lee did not create the Marvel Universe.
–Greg Matiasevich
I wasn’t expecting to be as deeply affected by the passing of Stan Lee as I have been. There will undoubtedly be people that will be quick to remind you about the negative aspects of the man’s rise through the industry, about his contribution to the poor treatment of those around him like Jack Kirby. And they’d be valid points. There’s also something painful about the fact that, in contrast, one of Stan’s greatest strengths was to build himself up as the face of Marvel comics in such a way that his legacy will forever be entwined with the company.
But don’t let any of that color that fact that Stan Lee changed comics forever, not only directly but through his influence, his attitude and his undeniable charisma. You’ll hear the word “legend” be passed around a lot too, and rarely does that word feel as appropriate as it does here. The man was a titan, who co-created some of the most beloved characters and franchises in fictional history and reinvented a genre, a medium and an entire industry in such fundamental, irrefutable ways that we may never be able to fully grasp. Time will tell how history will look back on the legacy of Stan Lee, but for this moment in time, I just feel sad that we’ve lost another industry legend. Excelsior, Stan. Thank you.
–Matt Lune
In the last few years, I feel it’s become easy to take one of two sides in The Great Stan Lee Debate: either he’s good for having co-created characters and run Marvel during its most formative years, or he’s bad for stealing credit from the artists he worked with. I want to get away from all that and focus on what Lee truly excelled at: personal branding. Call it good or call it bad, Stan “The Man” Lee knew the power he could instill in a name. To most, Stan Lee isn’t a person. Stan Lee is a figure, a concept, a supreme ideal. Rightfully or not, his name has become synonymous with Marvel comics. No matter the studio, no matter the character, the one thing that almost every movie about a Marvel character shares is a Stan Lee cameo. Every showing at every theater will have that one kid, or a kid at heart, enthusiastically whispering to the person next to them, “That’s Stan Lee!!” Do they know what he is responsible for, good or bad? For the most part, no. But if there’s one thing they know, it’s that he’s Stan Lee. And that’s something special.
–Nicholas Palmieri
My first thought when I got the news was: “Whoa, the Golden Era is gone.” Just that, kind of cold reaction.
It didn’t hit me hard, because I believed Lee was not a big part of what I read and love, although he definitely is the idol of my idols, I told myself that I was not his fan.
Oh, boy was I wrong. You see, I have been thinking about him all day, because I was missing something I already said. Even when the first or the most meaningful comics I read all my life weren’t written by him, he was there, even when reading “Batman” or “Hellboy” or “Strangers in Paradise,” he was present.
He didn’t invent comics, but he did revolutionize them. Without superheroes inspiring every single comic book pro, without Marvel comics proving that superheroes were profitable, my fucking dreams, my literature degree, all of who I am, would not exist.
Because I fell in love with comics inspired by him, characters created by him, his legacy is what has me here, writing in Multiversity Comics, pursuing my dream of being involved in literature-related things, my dream of being an editor, and even getting published.
When I first read “with great power comes great responsabilty,” I took that as a rule of life. He inspired me and I didn’t even realize.
Thank you Stan.
–Ramon Piña
Stan Lee, the character, was an icon and a salesman. I know very little about Stan Lee, the man, or about his editorial skills or his writing skills, having read very few of the stories actually penned by him, so I can only talk about Stan as I experienced his story. Beyond his involvement in the creation of the Marvel Method and the stories and characters formed from the collaborations with his long time partners, Stan Lee crafted a persona so as to sell his comics, yes, but to also humanize the creation process and to bridge the gap between reader and creator. He crafted a firm editorial voice that helped to unify the books and create a rapport that made the stories come alive, turning them from stories on paper to folk tales being performed right before your eyes. Until the end, his showmanship never dwindled and his contribution to the medium cannot be understated. The character was the face of Marvel so that Marvel could have a face and a story; the man can be left to the biographers.
–Elias Rosner
Growing up as a young nerd (the term geek had not been coined yet) in Brazil in the ’80s, there were few venues to channel that inner curiosity about the fantastic. Remember, those were the years prior to large comic cons, the Internet, and other massive forums where one could interact with large group of like-minded individuals. And then . . . I met the X-Men. And Spider-Man. The Avengers. These were fantastic heroes, fighting against impossible odds, and showcasing value, honor, and principles. Reading (more like devouring it) through letter pages, this young Marvel fan started to learn the vast world that lied therein, all presented by Stan Lee. The lessons on commitment, solidarity, and compassion are still with me, all those years later. There are no words to say thank you.
–Gustavo Sarraff Lodi
Stanley Lieber was, supposedly, a prick.
Between his taking credit for the grass being green, his reluctance to share proper credit, and his supposedly lecherous tendencies, it seems like Lieber was a fairly miserable person to be around.
Stan Lee was, unquestionably, a legend.
Without Lee’s hucksterism, absolute tenacity, and gadfly-like media presence, comics would not be where they are today. As a public figure, Lee was an absolute ambassador for comics, and allowed folks like my parents to put a face to the entire industry of comics creators. Lee’s actions constantly put comics – and, by default, himself – in the spotlight, and allowed an entire generation to grow up with ‘Grandpa Stan,’ the bespectacled old man doing silly shit in Marvel movies.
Continued belowAnd, regardless of the man he was, the elder abuse he suffered in his final years is terrible. ‘Nuff said.
I refuse to be an ‘ends justify the means’ person, but with Lee, that almost seems like the simplest position to take. If you love comics, part of that is likely due to Stan Lee, whether directly or indirectly. His existence raised the sea level for all comics, and for that he must be celebrated.
Fuck Lieber. Long live Lee.
–Brian Salvatore
