Stan Lee is dead.
For any other creator, “comics legend” would seem grandiose. For Stan, it feels too small. Calling Stan Lee a comics legend feels like calling the Beatles “a popular music band”. Technically true, but truly a catastrophe of understatement.
Without question, the most famous creator to ever work in the medium, Stan Lee (née Lieber) had the quintessential American origin story. Born to impoverished Romanian Jewish refugees in a tough Manhattan neighbourhood, Lee had aspirations to be a novelist from an early age. As a teenager, he got a job as an office gopher at Timely comics where he’d meet his future collaborator, the legendary Jack Kirby. Stan found some outlet for his literary ambitions writing along with his more mundane duties, writing a Captain America prose story which saw the first use of Cap’s shield as a throwing weapon. After Pearl Harbour, Stan was drafted and set to work making propaganda. Many who only know Stan Lee as the “creator” of various comic book characters automatically assume that he was an artist, but the truth is his only professional artistic work was done during the war years, when he drew a poster of a smiling American G.I. with the logo “VD? NOT ME!”
Stan was almost court-martialed when he was discovered breaking into the post room to mail some scripts back to Timely. However, he was released when it was revealed that he was the writer for Captain America, such was the good captain’s importance to Army morale.
After the war, Stan continued to write for Timely, later Atlas, later still Marvel Comics. The forties and fifties were frustrating times for Stan as he was required to write simple, juvenile fare with one-dimensional characters and simplistic morality. By the early sixties, he was ready to leave the industry and his wife Joan convinced him to write the kind of story he would actually want to read as his swan song. The result was the Fantastic Four, and the Silver Age of comics was born.
In his excellent assessment of the life and legacy of Stan Lee, written a few years ago, Chris Simms described Stan Lee as being simultaneously the most over-rated and under-rated creators of all time. For many years Stan was regarded by the public at large as an auteur, a one man genius who singlehandedly created Spider-Man, Daredevil, the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Thor and on and on and on with little or no credit being given to his collaborators like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. This was flatly not the case but was understandable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, that Stan pioneered the “Marvel Method” of comic book production whereby the artist had considerably more discretion on the story than if they were simply following a script. Secondly, Stan Lee was the kind of instantly telegenic showman that any producer would kill to book whereas Kirby and Ditko were quiet reclusive men who shunned the spotlight. Guess who got the most attention?
Now, did Stan ever try to correct the record and give Ditko and Kirby the credit they were due? Sure. Did he do enough? Well…
This has led to something of a backlash in comic book circles, with die-hard Kirby and Ditko fans claiming that Stan was nothing but a talentless hack exploiting the skills of artists whose brushes he was not fit to wash. This, frankly, is bananas. Stan Lee may not have “created” Spider-Man et al in the way he was often credited with, but in a very real sense he “created” Marvel. Stan Lee created modern comic fandom as we know it. He created a distinct personality for Marvel comics (his own), and pulled back the curtain on the comics process for fans. He engaged with his readership, cracked jokes with them, he respected them and made them feel a part of something wonderful.
Then there was his writing style. Corny? Sure. Overblown at times? Most def. Severely satured in splendiferous superfluous sesquipedalian loquaciousness? Yah. But absolutely bursting with humour and energy and the simple, innocent joy of language. In the great Kirby/Lee/Ditko debate I take no sides and respect all three men. That Lee needed Kirby and Ditko is beyond dispute,. But if you honestly believe that Kirby and Ditko didn’t need Lee, there’s a very simple test.
Read anything that Kirby and Ditko did with Lee, and then read something that they did without him.
Without Lee, Spider-Man would most likely be an angry Randian ranting about how poor people just need a punch in the face to get motivated. And Kirby? Well, he would no question still be one of the all time comic greats thanks to his work for DC, but I’d be lying if I said any of that topped his runs on Fantastic Four or Thor.
If nothing else, there is no way Stan Lee would have let a character called “Glorious Godfrey” ever see the light of day.
Stan never achieved his dream of writing the Great American Novel. Instead, he re-defined the great American Art Form.
His legacy and impact on global culture is nothing short of staggering.
I was going to finish this obituary with an “Excelsior!” but that felt too obvious. So instead…hey, was that Stan Lee?
Yes. That was Stan Lee.
unshavedmouse 
I have waiting for your post since I heard the news.
Sorry for the wait.
In my opinion, it was worth the wait.
Oh the wait wasn’t a problem, I just wanted to hear form you.
Lovely tribute. I certainly wouldn’t have interacted with comics much without Stan Lee’s contributions. The Incredible Hulk TV show was really my first knowledge of Marvel comics, but it got me into a whole slew of different heroes, most of them at least partially invented by Stan Lee.
Love the end…yes, this was Stan Lee creating a cultural milestone for the US and living long enough to see it becoming a Worldwide phenomenon.
That was a lovely tribute. I knew you’d have something poignant to say.
I heard yesterday while doing research for a Term paper on Black Panther. My friend and i spent the rest of the day talking about our favorite Stan Lee cameos.
I guess we all knew it was gonna happen at some point, but it’s still weird to think about. Gotta read some of his and Kirby’s old Fantastic Four this week I think. The first superhero comic I really loved.
Only guy whose cameo appearances have grossed $26 billion. I mean, I guess some of those movies would have been alright without him, but then I guess Thanksgiving would be alright without cranberry sauce.
I became a comic book fan entirely due to Stan Lee. I bought a few as a little kid, but it was the early 90s and…yeah, not the funnest of eras. When Spider-Man came out in 2002 I liked it and wanted the DVD, and ended up getting a copy for my birthday that came packed in with “Stan Lee’s Mutants, Monsters & Marvels”.
He was so charming and entertaining that I wanted to read some of his stuff, and started buying reprints of Silver Age books. Became a big fan of the classics, and luckily by that point comics had started to become a little less grim, so I’ve been reading ever since.
Goodbye Stan, I hope the big comic book shop in the sky has all your favorites on the racks.
Nicely put Mouse, I did a tribute to the Man on my own blog but I think you did a better job on yours.
This generally feels strange, like we all knew he wasn’t going to be around forever. But now that he’s gone. Well, it feels unreal. Like we’re just sitting around waiting for the inevitable retcon where they’ll reveal that no, Stan’s not dead. He was just shuttled off to another dimension and a doppelganger died in his place. But that’s not the case.
So face front true believers, and keep being creative.
Rest in Peace Stan Lee! Legends Never Die. Thank you for your imagination and creativity.
Truly a beautiful tribute, Mouse. The man was such a legend, and I know he will be remembered as such.
(Shot you an email, by the way. Just so you know.)
I found out just after school ended yesterday. Thanks Mouse for a beautiful tribute. RIP Lee.
Great tribute to the man!
Mouse, have you read The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier and Clay? It’s a book by the guy who wrote the novel Hugo was based on and it’s a story that follows the advent of comics basically, borrowing elements of Stan Lee and other’s lives. Really great stuff and I think a very good way to honor Stan Lee’s legacy.
LOVE. THAT. BOOK. It’s much more Siegel and Schuster than Stan but I think he cameos.
My uncle bought it for me for Christmas a few years ago and I absolutely loved it. Really need to re-read it at some point.
Scratch the bit about Hugo, got it mixed up with another book from my childhood that I really liked, Summerland. Summerland and Kavalier and Clay were both written by Michael Chabon.
I knew you wouldn’t leave Stan Lee euology-less on this blog! Beautifully written, without ignoring or blowing out of proportion any controversy.
And yes. Yes, that was Stan Lee.
I never really “grew up” with Stan like most of the readership here (I think I first learned about him from TV Tropes, so first impression is that of a footnote), but having spent the last couple years on a Silver Age Marvel binge, I really have to appreciate the sheer scale of what the man was doing. I have quibbles with calling him a “creator” of any one character or even any one story – I feel it atomizes the famed “Marvel Method” to an unnecessary degree – but there’s no denying that for a long-ass time, perhaps forever, he WAS Marvel. He bridged the talents of Kirby, Ditko, Wood, Trimpe, and more, penning hundreds of cheeky little notes and tie-ins that could really make you believe all these heroes inhabited the same world – the same city, even – and could show up on each other’s doorsteps on an issue’s notice. DC never really managed that sort of coherence (not that, IMO, it should), which is probably why its big Event comics, not to mention its cinematic universe, has floundered so badly.
Now, as a writer – to the degree he did write – Stan was hit-and-miss at best, and I’ve found even some universally lauded classics like the Galactus saga ultimately disappointing. But it behooves us to remember that even during his waning days, he could turn out gems like this:
God bless ya, Stan. Now and forever.
It is always sad to lose an Iconic character, in Real Life and in Fiction – still, we can all comfort ourselves with the thought that in Heaven Mr Lee may FINALLY get that chance to play J. Jonah Jameson he was so clearly hankering after throughout his brushes with cinema!
Great tribute, Mouse. Stan was and always will be The Man.
Reblogged this on Love and Love Alone.