The Death of Marvel Legend Stan Lee

On November 12, 2018, the world woke up to this: Stan Lee, the Marvel Comics legend and creator of superheroes such as the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, and Spiderman, passed away at the age of 95. Along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Stan Lee was one of the lead writers and artists at Marvel Comics. He was the one who was able to turn Marvel Comics into a popular company to compete with DC Comics, which had dominated the comic industry for years, with superheroes such as Batman and Superman (fact check as marvel and dc were both prominent for several decades).

In the 1961, Lee and Kirby came up with a new idea to revitalize Marvel Comics: the Fantastic Four. This proved incredibly popular and brought success to Marvel. In the following years, Lee began to develop more characters, finally creating Marvel’s most popular character, Spider-Man. What Stan Lee did with these characters was something that had never been done before: he made his characters human, and wrote about their personal conflicts from an intimate level. Before this, most superheroes were viewed on another level from regular people. Stan Lee’s heroes had real problems that people could relate to.

Perhaps Stan Lee’s greatest accomplishment was not just creating these characters, but popularizing comics as a medium. Comics used to be viewed as childish and simple. He made people respect comics. Of course, this is not to say that comics before this were bad, but they were generally not taken seriously. Stan Lee popularized the comics industry, paving the way for many other writers and artists.

As a Marvel fan (though I haven’t read too many of the comics), I was deeply saddened by the death of Stan Lee. I always enjoyed his cameos in Marvel movies and I always thought it was amazing, everything he created, and how it came to life on the big screen. Now, watching future Marvel movies would not feel the same without his presence onscreen. While it makes me sad that he is gone, I choose to remember him not by his death, but his accomplishments in the world of comics.

Other students have also expressed their feelings on the death of Stan Lee. Belinda T, a junior, said that her “first thought was that it was fake news designed to be clickbait”. She believed that Stan Lee looked “healthy and mentally sound” over the past few years. According to Belinda, his death came as a shock. Not only has Marvel lost one of their creative legends, but also a vibrant personality. Stan Lee will forever be in our hearts and may he Rest In Peace. It was just as he said:  “keep moving forward, and if its time to go, its time.”