Creator of Marvel Comics Stan Lee *AP Photo Reed Saxon
By: Anton Massopust III
As everyone has heard, one of the greats has passed away. Just like Walt Disney, Jim Henson, and Fred Rogers, another has joined their ranks: Stan Lee. For those of you who don’t know his name, he is the ambassador to comic books: a writer and the creator of Marvel Comics.
Born in New York City, Stan spent his life with his mother and father and his kid brother and love to read. He was inspired by many of the greats as a young man and he went to join the Army during World War II. He was a member of the signal Corps. Two big things happened to him after that: he met his wife and then he got involved with Timely or Atlas Comics. The company eventually became Marvel.
Like a lot of other writers, he worked in comic books. He was frustrated by just repeating the same stories and mostly during this era, popular culture was reserved for children. Stan Lee wanted to write something a little different, giving superheroes as though they appeared in the modern world. He was about to quit, but his wife said to him, “Why don’t you write to your story your way?” With that, his editor wanted a group of superheroes that were inspired after the Justice League. He came up with his own brand of superheroes called The Fantastic Four: Sue, Reed, Johnny, and Ben who were a group of explorers who wanted to beat the Russians to the Moon. They came back with Cosmic powers, so they decided to dedicate their lives fighting wrongs and helping people with their fantastic powers. The difference between these Heroes and what happened at the time was that the Fantastic Four didn’t always get along. Reed, Sue, and Johnny could walk around and have a normal life without having to use their powers. Ben was stuck in a rocky form. What does one do when one is stuck like that? That is what Stan Lee wanted to explore.
After that success, he helped create Iron Man a modern medieval knight who uses gadgetry to fight against the weapons that he had created. The Mighty Thor, the Wasp and Ant-Man, a revamped Captain America and bringing them together in a group called The Avengers. And of course, his magnum opus: “The Amazing Spider-Man,” a character that nobody wanted. The editor told him he was crazy and said people are afraid of spiders and you don’t know anything about teenagers. They’re sidekicks. Heroes are perfect. But once again, his loving wife told him, “Well, put it on the shelf. So, there was a book they were about to cancel called, “The Amazing Fantasy,” a twilight zone or O’Henry like book that would have a twist ending. The great Jack Kirby drew the cover and Steve Ditko supplied the art inside. Then the legend was born. Spider-Man changed everything – not just comic books but for everything else. Marvel Heroes made their way from comic books to cartoons to television, even teaching kids to read with the public television show, “The Electric Company.”
As most superhero fans know, Stan Lee has appeared in every Marvel movie since its beginnings. I love the scene with him and Tobey Maguire as he says to Spider-Man: “One man can make a difference.” Enough said.
We are his children because he touched every single one of us whoever either read a comic book or seen one of Marvel’s movies or cartoons.
So, all I have to say is: Excelsior Forever!
