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R.I P. Stan Lee
Nov. 13th, 2018 12:33 amStan Lee died today at the age of 95. He leaves behind a pop culture landscape completely dominated by the characters he helped create.
For those out there who really aren't into comic books, Lee co-created: the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, the X-Men, Thor, Daredevil, the Black Panther, and all the subsidiary characters and supervillains associated with those characters. As opposed to the shining becaons of uprightness and morality over at DC comics, Lee's superheroes were flawed, contentious characters, filled with self-doubt, self-hatred and anguish. They dealt with paying the rent, complicated interpersonal relationships, and real-life issues that Superman and Batman wouldn't touch.
And long before there was a Marvel Cinematic Universe, Lee's characters lived in a fully interconnective world, where Daredevil could drop in on the Fantastic Four during a battle with Doctor Doom, and Dr. Strange and Spidey could hop off to an alternate dimension.
What's more important, Lee sold the hell out of Marvel Comics, pitching his new generation of superheroes to the youth of the sixties, bringing fans into the Marvel bullpen via letter columns and clubs (like the Merry Marvel Marching Society!), connecting reader and creator like never before.
How many writers and directors have been inspired by Lee's Marvel Comics? Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, James Cameron, Michael Chabon--to name just a few. He is the father of modern pulp adventure, the source of the popular mythology of our age.
Or, should I say, one of the sources.
Despite all the accolades that will be heaped on Stan Lee over the next few days, there will always be a question hanging over his legacy: how much of Marvel's renaissance in the 1960s was Lee's ideas? Stan would always claim that the characters at the center of the Marvel Universe were his creation, and he worked with legendary artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko to flesh out his concepts.
But both Kirby and Ditko always claimed that they created these characters and Stan was little more than a glorified copy boy, adding dialogue to their fully-plotted layouts.
We may never know the complete truth. All three are gone now. But even if everything Kirby and Ditko said is true, Lee's revolutionary brand of salesmanship and his idiosyncratic, vernacular dialogue--his particular voice--will always be worthy of his reputation.
R.I.P. Stanley Martin Lieber.
Smiling Stan Lee.
(Funky Flashman.*)
Stan the Man.
* If you need to know, I'll explain it for you....
For those out there who really aren't into comic books, Lee co-created: the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, the X-Men, Thor, Daredevil, the Black Panther, and all the subsidiary characters and supervillains associated with those characters. As opposed to the shining becaons of uprightness and morality over at DC comics, Lee's superheroes were flawed, contentious characters, filled with self-doubt, self-hatred and anguish. They dealt with paying the rent, complicated interpersonal relationships, and real-life issues that Superman and Batman wouldn't touch.
And long before there was a Marvel Cinematic Universe, Lee's characters lived in a fully interconnective world, where Daredevil could drop in on the Fantastic Four during a battle with Doctor Doom, and Dr. Strange and Spidey could hop off to an alternate dimension.
What's more important, Lee sold the hell out of Marvel Comics, pitching his new generation of superheroes to the youth of the sixties, bringing fans into the Marvel bullpen via letter columns and clubs (like the Merry Marvel Marching Society!), connecting reader and creator like never before.
How many writers and directors have been inspired by Lee's Marvel Comics? Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, James Cameron, Michael Chabon--to name just a few. He is the father of modern pulp adventure, the source of the popular mythology of our age.
Or, should I say, one of the sources.
Despite all the accolades that will be heaped on Stan Lee over the next few days, there will always be a question hanging over his legacy: how much of Marvel's renaissance in the 1960s was Lee's ideas? Stan would always claim that the characters at the center of the Marvel Universe were his creation, and he worked with legendary artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko to flesh out his concepts.
But both Kirby and Ditko always claimed that they created these characters and Stan was little more than a glorified copy boy, adding dialogue to their fully-plotted layouts.
We may never know the complete truth. All three are gone now. But even if everything Kirby and Ditko said is true, Lee's revolutionary brand of salesmanship and his idiosyncratic, vernacular dialogue--his particular voice--will always be worthy of his reputation.
R.I.P. Stanley Martin Lieber.
Smiling Stan Lee.
(Funky Flashman.*)
Stan the Man.
* If you need to know, I'll explain it for you....
