The comic book legend died on Monday at the age of 95.
Comic books have always loved alternate histories, so consider a world in which Stan Lee never existed: One where he never created a single comic or character, never inspired a movie or a TV show, never signed an autograph for a fan dressed as Spider-Man at a comic convention.
It’s a weird place, isn’t it? Not as strange as the time Marvel did a series by Neil Gaiman in which Captain America and his super friends lived in the Elizabethan Court of 1602, but definitely weirder than that time Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four.
Our world is definitely better for having had him here. Because Stan Lee, who died Monday at 95, as much as anyone, and more than most, changed the popular culture we love and live today.
Just look at this list of characters Lee co-created during his heyday at Marvel: Spider-Man. The Hulk. Black Panther. Thor. Iron Man. The X-Men. All iconic figures to this day, thanks in part to the movies and TV series that have spun out of Marvel’s orbit in the past decade or so.
He didn’t create Captain America, Kirby and Joe Simon get that credit, but the man who plays Cap in the Marvel movies tweeted his appreciation for Lee, a co-star in many of those films thanks to the humorous cameos Lee almost always did .
“There will never be another Stan Lee,” wrote actor Chris Evans, who plays Captain America. “For decades he provided both young and old with adventure, escape, comfort, confidence, inspiration, strength, friendship and joy. He exuded love and kindness and will leave an indelible mark on so, so many lives. Excelsior!!”
And set aside for now the fact that Lee almost certainly got, and sometimes claimed, more credit for their creation than he deserved. Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Larry Lieber all had huge roles in the birth of the characters listed above, and some would say they did the bulk of that work.
Lee, though, was the face of Marvel, and to some degree, the face of the comic book industry as it boomed, so consider him the figurehead of the transformation of that world from a niche industry looked down on by other parts of the culture to the behemoth that dominates box offices, ratings, and other measures of pop culture today.
Before Lee modernized Marvel in the 1960s, most comic book heroes wouldn’t have been much fun at a cocktail party: Their dialogue was as wooden as the pulp they were printed on, and their personalities ran all the way from A, a crime has been committed, to B, we must catch this ne’er-do-well before he strikes again.
But in the pages of Marvel, heroes had flair, humor, angst. They were real in ways that comic characters had never before been. Spider-Man was a teenager. Black Panther was a super-smart and powerful black hero. Women such as Jean Grey of the X-Men or the Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Four had incredible strength and power.
“You gave us characters that continue to stand the test of time and evolve with our consciousness,” tweeted actor Winston Duke, who play M’Baku in the “Black Panther” movie. “You taught us that there are no limits to our future as long as we have access to our imagination.”
Under Lee, Marvel also capitalized on the universes its characters lived in, finding ways to link them together for crossover potential in ways that the Marvel movies and TV series continue to exploit today. Ask a fan what the MCU is and she won’t need Google to tell her it’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, the umbrella that connects the Avengers to the Guardians of the Galaxies, Iron Man to Ant-Man, Captain America to Captain Marvel.
“Sad, sad day,” tweeted actor Mark Ruffalo, who plays the Hulk in the Marvel movies. “Rest In Power, Uncle Stan. You have made the world a better place through the power of modern mythology and your love of this messy business of being human…”
All of this helped to make and keep comics cool as readers grew up. What used to target pre-teen readers eventually held onto those fans as they entered adolescence and came out the other side as adults with money of their own to spend.
The rise of San Diego Comic-Con almost 50 years ago and all the conventions that followed might also not have happened had Lee not made Marvel and the world of comics into what it became. What started as a small gathering of fans has turned into the Super Bowl of pop culture, with millions of dollars spent there by the Hollywood studios that hope to make billions more on the latest comic book adaptation be it from Marvel, DC, or any of the smaller publishers out there.
You could see yourself in Lee’s Marvel books, even if you weren’t built like Thor, which, let’s face it, most of us who attend Comic-Con are not.
“Thank you, Stan Lee, for making people who feel different realize they’re special,” tweeted actor Seth Rogen, expressing a sentiment that any comic book nerd might echo.
As for how Lee saw his place in the culture, it’s well-known that in his younger days he dreamed of success in business or science or the so-called fine arts, not expecting his life would revolve around the then-lowbrow world of comics. But a quote posted on the Marvel homepage on Monday shows how he came to feel about his legacy and his life.
“I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers,” Lee said at some point in the past. “And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people’s lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you’re able to entertain, you’re doing a good thing.”
