REMEMBERING A HERO:

Stan in his 1970s prime. Although not obvious from the cover seen above right, the correct spelling of Spider-Man is with a hyphen. This was intentional, according to Lee, as he didn’t want his hero to be confused with Superman at the time

I can’t really recall exactly when I started reading Marvel comic books, but it was probably around age six, which would have been sometime in 1975. Man, I’m getting old.

Anyway, the positive, heroic and incredibly identifiable superhero characters found in these special books thrilled and enthralled me. I completely related to shy, awkward Peter Parker aka The Amazing Spider-Man. Whenever a bully got out of line, I longed to be able to transform into the super-strong Incredible Hulk. And who didn’t want a stretchable body like Reed Richards of The Fantastic Four? We science fiction/monster fans would never have to pause our favourite creature feature Blu-rays again. We could just stretch our arms into the kitchen and grab a bag of chips.

Seriously, I marvelled (pun intended) at the adventures of these wonderful creations as well as other heroes such as Iron Man, Daredevil, The Avengers, The X-Men, Dr. Strange, The Silver Surfer and The Mighty Thor. What did all these superb characters have in common? Heroism? Positivity? The spirit of adventure? Well, yes, but the real common denominator here is that they all came from the fertile imagination of one man: Stan Lee.

I know that, since Stan’s unfortunate passing in 2018, many people have written articles about this great man’s achievements, so, rather than only rehash Stan’s absolutely amazing (pun intended again) bio, I’d also like to touch upon how classic sci-fi and horror films influenced his work, and then talk about exactly what Stan means to me.

Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber in New York City on December 28, 1922. His family later relocated to the Bronx where Stan lived during his teenage years. A lover of books and movies, the young Lee had dreams of writing the great American novel as well as writing for the cinema. In 1939, he began work as an assistant at the newly formed Timely Comics (later to become Marvel). That same year, he contributed to writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby’s legendary creation, Captain America, by penning a filler text story which appeared in Captain America Comics #3. He used the pseudonym Stan Lee because, in those days, comic books were looked down upon, so he was too embarrassed to use his real name. (In later years, he legally had his name changed to Stan Lee.) In 1941, the still teenage Lee became Timely’s editor.