Nerd Processor
Stan Lee’s Other Legacy
The comic book legend’s work didn’t just shape pop culture. It changed lives, too.
When Stan Lee passed away Monday, the world lost a pop culture titan — a man who revolutionized his medium, but whose personal life turned to tragedy even as the comics and characters he created turned into billion-dollar franchises. There are plenty of wonderful pieces this week covering Lee’s entire life and career, and how, for a few years in the 1960s, he was a creative genius — a man arguably as ground-breaking and brilliant and important to comics as the Beatles were to music. But his importance stretches far beyond that. For countless people over the last half-century — myself included — Lee’s legacy is personal.
To truly understand Lee’s influence, you have to understand his work, and in output alone, it’s astonishing. I mean, my god. From 1960 through 1969, he created (with luminary artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko): Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Black Panther, the Avengers, The X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy’s Groot, The Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, S.H.I.E.L.D., The Inhumans, and many, many more, including these characters’ equally varied, often-just-as-popular villains, and their rich supporting casts. This is…
