Modern American popular culture and western popular culture as we know it can be largely attributed to three men: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko. Lee's death yesterday means that none of these legends are here on this planet anymore. An era of comic books has come to a close. We'll never see anyone like Stan, Jack, and Steve ever again. If we're lucky we may see a burgeoning new form of art begin to flourish as we enter our twilight years, but that's a long shot.
Stan Lee's story is more complex than the media will probably report on in the next few days. His story is being a member of a religious group that has been historically persecuted and discriminated against, but managing to survive, thrive, and be ultimately accepted. Stan Lee's story is that of letting fame get the better of you, forgetting the friends that helped you along the way, and ultimately realizing too late in life you made a mistake by abandoning those friends. His story is also that of a man that contributed so much to modern culture that there isn't enough words in our vocabulary to summarize it in one obituary.
Stan Lee was born in 1922, meaning that he was 95 years old at the time of his death. He lived through the Great Depression, served in World War II, witnessed the dawn of the Atomic Age, the McCarthy Hearings, Vietnam, the Apollo Moon Landings, the creation of the internet, and the Cold War beginning and ending. These events that happened earlier in his life undoubtedly influenced Stan Lee's work to some extent or another. He used these events to shape a dying industry into a powerhouse that will influence popular culture for generations to come.
The world of comic books in 1961 was recovering from the Congressional inquiry spearheaded by Dr. Fredric Wertham a decade earlier. Wertham alleged in his book Seduction of the Innocent that comic books caused juvenile delinquency in their young male readers. The comic industry out of self-preservation caved into the demands of an intrusive government and parents that were irate over the fact that their sons were spending their allowance money on comics by creating the Comics Code Authority which was a self-regulatory body of comic book publishers to essentially censor content considered to risqué for the eyes of children. However, the damage was done. Sales plummeted and horror and detective comics died, but superhero comics managed to survive...barely. DC's Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman survived. Marvel's Captain America and Namor did not. However, superhero comics had started to make comeback by the late fifties due to DC launching new and improved versions of the Flash and Green Lantern. DC solidified the comeback of the superhero comic with the creation of the Justice League. Meanwhile, Marvel was hanging on by a thread as they published forgettable sci-fi monster comic after forgettable sci-fi monster comic. This is where Stan Lee found himself languishing with the likes of Jack Kirby at they neared middle age. Stan Lee had been working for Marvel (then known as Atlas) since he was a teenager after he was hired by Martin Goodman who was married to Lee's cousin. Lee by then was the Editor-in-Chief and had grown tired of the industry and was about to hand in his notice until Goodman directed him to create a team of superheroes that could rival DC's Justice League in the sales charts. Figuring that this would be his final work in the industry, Stan Lee decided he was going to write stories that he would enjoy reading and create characters that he could relate to.
The introduction of the Fantastic Four would be the beginning of one of the greatest bursts of creative energy in the history of any entertainment medium. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and other Marvel staff members would create multiple cultural icons a month for rest of the 1960s. These middle aged Jewish men were able to speak to the young people of America at a time when the generation gap was tearing the county apart. The reason why the characters of Marvel spoke to so many young people is that Lee, Kirby, and Ditko may not have understood everything young people were experiencing, but they knew what it was like to be a teenager. They knew what it was like to be publicly humiliated by bullies like Peter Parker was, they knew what it was like to fall in love like Reed and Sue Richards, and they knew what it was like to feel alienated from society like the X-Men. The characters of the Marvel Universe were relatable to people from all walks of life. They were deeply troubled and flawed people underneath their costumes. Peter Parker struggled to pay his rent. Daredevil/Matt Murdock was blind. Even Captain America was given new depth when Lee decided to portray him as a man transported from another era into an America he didn't understand, but was still more than willing to fight for.
Another thing Stan Lee and the creators at Marvel did was to portray having superpowers as a heavy burden to bear. This gave superheroes a kind of depth that had also never been seen in comics. Prior to this having superpowers was portrayed as nothing but pure joy. A character like Iron Man would've been previously portrayed as being the ultimate male fantasy. However, Lee made sure characters like Iron Man/Tony Stark were given vulnerabilities. Tony Stark had to wear a pacemaker at all times or else the shrapnel in his heart would kill him. Stan Lee and Marvel's other creators portrayed having superpowers as a burden not just to add more depth and create more drama, but because they understood that life was complicated and difficult for everybody. They also understood that these struggles made us better people. Another thing Stan Lee perfected (and something creators today can learn from) is that despite the many flaws he gave his his heroes, they were ultimately good people trying to make the best of whatever situation they were in. Unfortunately, many creators today believe that having flaws must mean that the character has to be an anti-hero. There was nothing anti-heroic about any of Stan Lee's characters.
The success of Marvel Comics during the 1960s caused the media spotlight to be focused largely on Lee. Lee was more than willing to bask in it. He quickly became a highly sought after speaker on college campuses and was always up for a magazine interview. Very rarely did Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko get the same level of treatment. Kirby wasn't a good public speaker. He put so much of his personality into the pages he was drawing that he left none for himself. Steve Ditko on the other hand was reclusive and preferred to let his drawings do the talking for him. The issue of money also came up. Lee, Kirby, Ditko, and every creator working in the comic book industry at that time were under "work for hire" agreements, which means that they only got paid for the work they produced for the company. That means they didn't own any of their creations. The comic book companies did. That means none of these creators received royalties for any of the merchandise and other entertainment products that featured their characters. However, Stan Lee was in a unique position by the late 1960s as he began to assume his role as the face of Marvel Comics. He was able to convince Marvel's owners and whoever else owned Marvel after that to keep him on as a spokesman for the company even long after he had retired from writing comics and being Marvel's editor-in-chief. This move would later make Lee a wealthy man in the final two decades of his life. The fact Kirby and Ditko were not given the same publicity and never were treated as important as Lee led to the two men leaving Marvel. Ditko was the first to leave. He worked for a few independent comic book companies, but would fade into obscurity and take whatever freelance drawing jobs came his way. Ditko's later work was reduced to drawing Transformers coloring books for children. He died on June 29, 2018 having never given an interview since the 1960s. Jack Kirby left in the early 1970s to work for DC Comics where he created the now critically lauded New Gods characters. However, Kirby also faded into obscurity near the end of his life. Kirby died in 1994, he would never see his characters conquer the entertainment industry. It was only after the Marvel Cinematic Universe blew up that Jack Kirby's genius began to truly be appreciated.
For some reason Stan Lee never went to bat for Kirby and Ditko and lobbied for them to get the same kind of treatment he did. This period of time in these men's lives are somewhat cloudy, but it's easy to see that the fame went to Stan Lee's head. In later years, Lee was asked about this period of time in interviews and although he never gave a clear answer it was clear to see from the tone in his voice and the look on his face that he regretted how he handled this situation. Some people may lose respect for Stan Lee because of this, but if anything this shows that he was capable of making mistakes. In a way, Stan Lee was just like the characters he helped create. He was a flawed man that accomplished extraordinary things.
The last two decades of Stan Lee's life were truly remarkable. He became just as iconic as the characters he co-created. Lee's cameos in Marvel films became something that fans actually looked forward to seeing. Even though his cameos lasted no longer than a minute, he always brightened up the screen with his presence. The feelings Lee must have had seeing his character come to life on the big screen and dominant all of entertainment must have been so exhilarating. To appear on the big screen with the characters he created must was something Lee never could've never even fathomed as he pecked away at his typewriter during the 1960s.
Stan Lee is gone, but he will never truly die. People from all over the entertainment industry, sciences, sports, and everyday fans paid tribute to him on social media. These people carry a little bit of Stan Lee inside of them and the world is a better place for it. There are little kids right now that have grown up watching Marvel movies and hopefully once day they will create something great of their own. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko created modern pop culture as we know it, but they also taught us values that we should all live by. They taught us eschew prejudice and embrace others regardless of their skin color. They taught us how to overcome tragedy. They also taught us the most important lesson of all. That with great power comes great responsibility. What is Stan Lee's legacy? His legacy doesn't need to be summarized with too many words. One only needs to pick up a copy of any of the hundreds of comics that Stan Lee wrote over the years to understand what his legacy is.
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