Legendary American comic book writer Stan Lee, responsible for creating some of the most iconic household superhero names such as Spider-man, Iron Man, Thor, and Black Panther, died on November 12, at the age of 95.
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The Legacy of Stan Lee
The Legacy of Stan Lee
Reflecting on a lifetime of comics and entertainment.
By: Aiden Barry
Volume 1, Issue 2: November/December 2018
On November 12, 2018, Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee died at the age of 95. As one of the most recognized names in American culture, he had quite a prominent role in the world of comic books and entertainment. He wrote hit series like The Avengers, Spider-man, The X-Men, and The Fantastic Four. Lee was also the one responsible for turning Marvel Comics into Marvel Entertainment, creating movies, books, TV shows, video games, and merchandise based off of the classic comic book series. He was well known for cameos in many of the Marvel movies, memorable amongst fans.
Stan Lee was born in New York City in 1922, on the 22nd of December. His parents, Celia Lieber and Jack Lieber, were born in Romania and raised Lee in a Jewish household. Lee changed his name from Stanley Martin Lieber to Stan Lee as soon as he started writing comic books, and eventually legally changed it because no one knew him as Stanley Lieber anymore. Lee made large leaps in the comic industry, with major contributions, like forcing the Comics Code Authority to change some of its policies, and making Marvel Comics a large multimedia association. Lee often named his comic book characters in alliterations, like Peter Parker or Bruce Banner, so that they were easier to remember.
He was named a Disney Legend in 2017, which is a program that recognizes individuals who make a large contribution to The Walt Disney Company, and won the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing in 2008. Joan Lee, his wife, also made many cameos in the X-Men movies, and also did some acting. She died in 2017, on July 6. Stan Lee was also very flexible when it came to working with him. It started out where he was writing all of the scripts, and then he got one of his frequent illustrators, such as John Romita, to illustrate the books before he finished writing, telling them the beginning, middle, and end, and then filling in the dialogue and words afterword. Lee said that one of the reasons that his comics took off so quickly was because he had such great writers.
He said that he couldn’t necessarily pay the most money, and that he ended up paying less than normal a lot of times, but the illustrators that he liked would draw a lot of his comics, and work up their money in small doses, getting their money in tiny amounts. After that stage, however, his business had taken off, and he would hire full-time illustrators, and co-writers, and, eventually, producers, screenwriters, and animators to fuel the other parts of his multimedia corporation. Some of his most notable animated series were Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, The X-Men, and The Fantastic Four. Stan Lee will continue to make appearances in his movies, in the form of references, photos, or CGI cameos, and he will live on forever in his movies. Stan Lee was one of the greats of the entertainment industry that will forever be recognized and remembered.
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