By Janelis Duran
Stanley Martin Lieber, better known as, Stan Lee passed away on November 12, 2018 at the late age of 95. For the people who are unaware of who he was, Lee was an American comic book writer, editor, and publisher for Marvel comics.
A misconception about Stan Lee is that he started marvel comics, when in fact it was founded by Martin Goodman, its original name it was Timely Comics it was later which to Marvel in 1961. Lee started off as in assistant at Timely Comics in 1940 at the age of 17. He later got promoted to being an editor and even worked under Goodman as his predecessor. After Goodman passed away in 1992 Stan Lee continued Marvel comics.
When Lee first join they were on the third issue of Captain America he worked on it until he was able to have his official debut in November 1961, when Fantastic Four came out. This was his first piece of work that he solely wrote accompanied with artist Jack Kirby. Lee along with Kirby went on to create popular characters like Spider-man, The X-Men and many of the Avengers. The first time we saw one of Stan Lee’s creation on screen was in 1974 on PBS called “Spidey Super Stories.” But the first time we see any of Marvel based heroes on the big screen was in 1944 a live-action movie on the origin of Captain America.
It wasn’t until 2008 when Marvel made its own studio with the release of Iron-Man, before this Marvel made movies with third-parties. The opening of Marvel Studio gave Stan Lee cameos in the movies and he’s been in every Marvel movie since, whether animated or live action. His very first cameo was in an video game called, “Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2” in 2009.
But with every beginning there comes an end: Stan Lee’s last cameo has already been filmed. Although considered the godfather of comic book heroes, Lee’s legacy is sometimes mixed with misconceptions. One of the biggest was that he was the first to create a black superhero that being Black Panther. This is not true, yes Black Panther was the first black superhero in 1966. It wasn’t Stan Lee who created him–it was his partner Jack Kirby who originally conceived him as a character named Cool Tiger. Many people also believe Stan Lee created the first female hero, Susan Storm, which is false. The first ever female hero was created by Fletcher Hank in 1940 her name was Fantomah (Jungle Comics).
But besides the misconceptions, Stan Lee still made a huge impact on the comic book world and will continue to do so long after his death. We must not forget the hero who created the heroes.
Excelsior! old friend.
