Cody White
Stan Lee passed today at the age of 95 in a hospital in Los Angeles and the world mourns the loss of a man who transcended his chosen career field into an icon. The co-creator of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, the Avengers, Black Panther, and so many more iconic figures joins his wife Joan (passed in July 2017) in the great beyond, and in doing so leaves behind an insurmountable legacy.
In many of these types of articles, you’ll find a chronological history of Lee’s career, perhaps a recap of some of the recent scandals and disputes from the past year or two. Accounts of how a teenaged Stanley Lieber’s uncle Robbie helped him get a job at Martin Goodman’s comics publishing company in 1939 and of how a young Stan proved to be something of a savant, rising to an editorial position at only 19 years old. Stories of how, in the 1960s, following Senate-driven committees on the potential of comics corrupting the youth of America, the industry was in shambles until Lee teamed up with the likes of Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko and the like and brought forth new and excited stories of superheroics with a distinct humanized grounding element. Tales of grandeur abound as we look to the 1970s and 80s, where Lee’s presence in the editorial offices and his leadership helped lead comics to develop into the modern phenomenon that they are today.
These stories are widely documented and disseminated, today even more so.
At the bottom line is this: Stan Lee breathed life into gods. Along with a steady cohort of prominent and talented artists, Lee is responsible for creating a very large portion of the pantheon of the United States mythos, and his deft hand has been with comics for nearly as long as the American Superhero has been. Like some modern-day Homer, Lee’s contribution to not only comics, but popular culture in the United States and around the world, will live far longer than you or I, dear readers. Generations to come will continue to encounter mutants and monsters, things both fantastic and strange, and Stan will be there with them. That is truly awesome power as well as great responsibility. Rest in power, Stanley Martin Lieber. We’ll do our best.
A man who shaped so much of my childhood and beyond. RIP.