Stan Lee
December 28, 1922-November 12, 2018
Stan Lee, the face of Marvel Comics for the past 60 plus years, passed away this morning, November 12, 2018 at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. While I’ve never been a big comic book reader, the influence that Mr. Lee had on the comic book industry is unrivaled. Starting his business in 1939, Stan Lee would go on to co-create and write for characters such as Black Panther, Thor, Spider-Man, X-Men and many others with long-time partner Jack Kirby. He even contributed to some of the comics within DC Comics. The man has done so much for the comic book industry, he even indirectly had a hand in revamping the Comics Code, which was established in 1954 to provide a guideline for what was appropriate in comics at the time. He wrote a Spider-Man story in 1971 that dealt with the dangers of drugs and addiction. That was at the behest of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, but it forced a change in the code to adapt for the times. Stan Lee used his comic books and characters as a form of social commentary on our world, which included racism, bigotry, drugs and other issues that our kids were confronted with. His legacy goes well beyond the comics that he helped create, however.
In 2010, the Stan Lee Foundation was founded as a non-profit organization to provide access to literacy, education, and the arts in the United States. The foundation also provides resources to high-quality education programs to help children not just to read and write, but also to help them create a better future for themselves and for everyone around them. Comic books are a much easier way to reach and help educate the disadvantaged. Obviously, Stan Lee has also had a hand in the film-making and television industries by co-producing films like X-Men, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and The Avengers. He’s also known to be cast in most of Marvel’s films in a small but noticeable cameo appearance, which tended to be nods to Stan Lee’s fans. To me, Stan Lee was an exceptional human being that not only cared deeply about the industry that he had such a huge part of, but also his fans that supported him every step of the way. While some of his comics and writing weren’t the best, his passion for the subjects that he wrote about is undeniable. He was a true humanitarian and he will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him not only personally, but by the stories that he wrote. Stan Lee is survived by his daughter J.C. and is preceded in death by his wife of 69 years, Joan. Thank you, Stan, for not only providing decades of entertainment through comics and movies, but also for being a genuinely great human being.